Hi everyone!
Once again, I come to you all for advice. Currently, my fleet consists of my trusty acoustic bike, my Class 3 electric bike, and my own two feet. Couple this with my transit card and I've eliminated a lot of unnecessary automobile trips. Roughly, my trips fall into:
- trips within town that I can run them with my acoustic bike, or the ebike if I'm short on time. Usually sub 8 km (5 mi)
- trips to the outlying suburbs by hourly bus, getting me within 2 km of my actual destination, so I just walk
- trips into the metro core by bus + LRT, within 4 km of my destination, so I might walk or might wait 30 minutes for the bus. The ebike won't fit on the bus, and even with the acoustic bike, this bus line often fills the front bike rack.
That latter one is what I want to optimize, since I missed that bus by 1 minute and then proceeded to walk in 38 C (100 F) heat to the LRT station. That was brutal.
So I wish to consider adding an e-scooter, as a faster-than-walking solution for short distances. This would be more compact than bringing either bike, and easily brought onto the bus or train. If I were going any farther than 2-4 km, or bringing more than I could carry, then the bike is needed.
That said, I know enough people that have eaten dirt on an e-scooter, so I would easily accept a scooter that is limited to some 15 kph (9 mph) -- still faster than walking -- so long as it can climb 3-5% grades. I would also like the largest diameter wheels I can get; 10-inch would be great. Suspension would be nice, but I'll take what I can find.
I've searched locally on Craigslist for options, and predominantly see used GoTrax and Niu e-scooters, but these have 6-inch wheels and no suspension, as well as clones of the Xiaomi M365, like Maxshot. These are cheap, but still don't meet most of my criteria, and it seems these clones have a habit of failing due to poor quality construction.
As extra background, I've never ridden a skateboard, so an electric skateboard is not being considered. Nor rollerblades. I would consider a really small folding bike or ebike, but this is only marginally better than what my current fleet can offer. Hence why I'm looking to e-scooters.
EDIT 1: forgot to mention that I'm in California/USA
EDIT 2: thanks to @Showroom7561@lemmy.ca , I honed in on the Segway Ninebot Max family, and settled on a refurbished G30lp for $315+tax.
I'm partial to the Ninebot Max (the OG dark grey one). You can still find them for sale, and while they aren't the most advanced, they offer some wonderful benefits.
Mine reliably goes 45km and cruises up to 30km/h.
It uses a front drum brake and electronic rear brake. This combo is reliable, and maintenance free. No worrying about brake pads, bent or contaminated rotors.
The scooter has performed well in rain, heat, winters (not in snow!), and has been reliable throughout thousands of km without a flat.
It's not super heavy and can be stored just about anywhere.
It doesn't have suspension, but is still comfortable to ride, and not having suspension means less to worry about.
Basically, it's reliable, extremely maintenance-free, and has great range.
Oh, it also uses just a standard "desktop computer cable" for charging, so no need to bring around a charging brick.
As an afficionado of the IEC 60320 electric power couplers, this adds an outsized plus-modifier to your recommendation. I will look into this some more. Thanks!
LOL. It looks like a IEC 60320 C5 connector.
As a bonus, it CAN still take a powerbrick charger, and high speed chargers are available in that case. Really depends on your use case, but if you're only riding <10km at a time, you won't need a fast charger.
After staring at the Ninebot Max lineup for long enough, and reading some reviews about the long-term reliability of the internal charger on the G30p, I found that the G30lp eschews the internal charger, meets my specifications, costs a bit less, and perhaps most relevant right now, it's available refurbished through Walmart for $315+tax with a 90-day return period.
So while I won't get to experience the joy of onboard charging, I get a bit of time to try out this e-scooter and see if it's for me or not. Plus, I can always build my own adapter to allow the brick charger to connect to EV charging stations haha.
The LP model should suit your needs. I believe it's get a slightly smaller deck, so if you've got big shoes, you might feel a bit cramped. But at that price, it's hard to beat!
At last, small shoe size comes in clutch!