The Sub-Optimal E-Scooter

Many years ago, I couldn’t drive for a month, so I saw this as a brilliant opportunity to take a break from driving. To replace the car I used a foot scooter, a bus, and one or two trains. In the process I had a tremendous amount of fun. In contrast, more recently I tried an e-scooter and I’d be tempted to say that the experience sucks.

The key reason that it sucks, for me, as a cyclist, and as a runner, is that it’s stuck at 20 kilometres per hour. If I run I’m slower, but I’m doing sports, and if I’m cycling then I’m twice as fast when riding down to Nyon. Heading home I am also faster, within reason.

On paper a motorised e-scooter makes sense. It’s light, practical, and easy to transport. Having said this, e-scooters are heavy, and clumsy to carry and turn around in tight spaces. They’re also heavy.

The law requires that they are ridden on the road, but a 20km/h scooter on a 50-80km/h road is not fun. Add to this that it has no indicators, so if you want to indicate your intention to turn, you can’t unless you let go with one hand, but that doesn’t feel safe. It doesn’t feel stable enough for that.

In contrast, a muscle scooter is much easier to carry and move around with, and because it has no battery it is light. It is also much more fun, and tiring, to move around. On a downhill slope it is great and it goes as fast as you dare, but on an uphill it is often easier just to walk rather than attempt propulsion.

In one case I went up a very steep climb with the e-scooter and it killed the battery within a few seconds. E-scooters are better on flat gradients. As soon as there is a climb they struggle, and this is despite me having the weight of a cyclist.

Yesterday when I was going to use the e-scooter I plugged in the charger before plugging it into the e-scooter and I heard a very loud pop, and could smell smoke. The charger short circuited and made a very loud pop. The charger short circuited. The fuse became overloaded and tripped. No fire, just a smell of failed electronics.

In my eyes, bikes are far more interesting, whether they have a motor or not. With a bike you control the speed. With a bike you make an effort. With a bike I feel less exposed on the road. At the same time I derived great pleasure from using a manual foot scooter. With a foot scooter, the more you use it, the more economical you become. It’s a great way of getting around, and it is very simple to transport.

My key grudge with the muscle scooter is that it has small wheels. Big wheels are better for going over curbs and other obstacles. I believe that small wheels are dangerous. Having said this, I never had an accident with the small scooter, or at least nothing serious.

I prefer cycling, and foot scooters to e-scooters, especially given that for a while the battery seemed to low to ride, and then recently it seemed fine, until the charger fried. Now I’m stuck with the “Do I buy a new charger’ or sell it?. I’m tempted to sell to someone who finds it more useful.