Wait, is this the brother of the ingenious Sam Zeloof [1], the guy who makes semiconductors in his garage? Looks like it runs in the family!
Electric Scooter Revival (2019)
11–20 of 32 posts
Re: Electric Scooter Revival (2019)
#12Crikey, 250W motor... they are handy and certainly better than everyone driving a car everywhere, but somehow the combination of power and low barrier to entry invites a particular type of road (and pavement) assholery I could really do without. At least in my locale.
250W continuous is not that much, and very much necessary (and possibly not sufficient) to handle even middling hills.
For reference, 1HP = 735.5W. The worst 50cc you'll find are around 3HP, or above 2100W. Child-class go-karts generally start around 5hp, and the most common engines are the 6.5HP GX200 (or harbor freight's copy).
Re: Electric Scooter Revival (2019)
#13Crikey, 250W motor... they are handy and certainly better than everyone driving a car everywhere, but somehow the combination of power and low barrier to entry invites a particular type of road (and pavement) assholery I could really do without. At least in my locale.
My Tesla has 270,000 watts including both motors. 250 watts is less than half of 1 horsepower. My lawnmower is more powerful than that.
Were you thinking 250kW maybe?
Re: Electric Scooter Revival (2019)
#14Here in bangalore after fuel prices shot up everyone is buying electric scooters and bikes left and right. I used to only occasionally finding electric vehicles but these days I see a lot of them and none of them are cars. E-bikes, e-scooters, E-trikes, E-buses, E-minivans but no electric cars
Cars are difficult to electrify without the cost of the battery being very high. They have to meet all the expectations set by gas cars. The brilliance of Tesla is taking that gamble and making it work for a lot of people who would otherwise buy gas cars, mostly at the high end of the car market.
But that makes a lot less sense in sense Asian cities in warm climates that have a lot of road congestion. A scooter costs a small fraction of a car, gas or electric, and gets you there faster. I suspect that as EVs become pervasive, most of them will be scooters and ebikes.
Plus, gas scooters are very dirty. The Chinese wouldn't allow gas scooters to proliferate in cities.
Re: Electric Scooter Revival (2019)
#15Crikey, 250W motor... they are handy and certainly better than everyone driving a car everywhere, but somehow the combination of power and low barrier to entry invites a particular type of road (and pavement) assholery I could really do without. At least in my locale.
My Tesla has 270,000 watts including both motors. 250 watts is less than half of 1 horsepower. My lawnmower is more powerful than that. Were you thinking 250kW maybe?
A tour de france stage winning cyclist might only average 219 watts over a 5-hour stage [1] although with bursts where they use more power - 20 minutes at 330w, 15 seconds at 1025 watts.
250w is quite a bit of power for something on the sidewalk or bike lane :)
(Of course, who knows how trustworthy these numbers are? I suspect scooter manufacturers know bigger numbers mean bigger sales, and choose their testing methods accordingly)
[1] https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/tour-de-france/rig...
Re: Electric Scooter Revival (2019)
#16Are electric scooters still a west coast thing in the US?
You see them here and there in the eastern US. But many cities don't allow the rentals. Even in those that do, it seems they were a fad for a while and now they're pretty occasional. Once the novelty wore off, there isn't great infrastructure for them in a lot of places and the cases where they're genuinely useful as a transportation option is pretty limited. When they first came out, they were scattered all over the place in Raleigh for example but last time I was there, they were few and far between.
Re: Electric Scooter Revival (2019)
#17Here in bangalore after fuel prices shot up everyone is buying electric scooters and bikes left and right. I used to only occasionally finding electric vehicles but these days I see a lot of them and none of them are cars. E-bikes, e-scooters, E-trikes, E-buses, E-minivans but no electric cars
Can u share some (final, retail) prices of e-bikes or e-scooter.
In my (mediterranean) country, prices have been creeping UP over the last 3 years, mostly due to lack of competition and importers somehow cornering the market ;/
Prices are now more expensive than when i bought my first ebike 5 years ago.
Re: Electric Scooter Revival (2019)
#18Are electric scooters still a west coast thing in the US?
Here in LA the fad seems to have ended around the start of covid in 2020. I used to see dozens of people a day riding them and now I rarely see any, and if I do it's usually a personal scooter not rented from Bird, Lime, etc. I still see scooters from those companies clogging up the sidewalk, I just never see anyone actually ridings them.
Re: Electric Scooter Revival (2019)
#19Are electric scooters still a west coast thing in the US?
Here in LA the fad seems to have ended around the start of covid in 2020. I used to see dozens of people a day riding them and now I rarely see any, and if I do it's usually a personal scooter not rented from Bird, Lime, etc. I still see scooters from those companies clogging up the sidewalk, I just never see anyone actually ridings them.
You definitely see fads with things that aren't terribly utilitarian for getting from point A to point B. Inline skating/Rollerblading was very popular at one point and now it's rare to see anyone doing it.
ADDED: Though apparently it's made something of a comeback the past couple of years. https://www.wsj.com/articles/rollerblading-for-grown-ups-is-... (Of course, like many pandemic hobbies who is to say that it will last.)
Re: Electric Scooter Revival (2019)
#20With me working remote these past two years my wife and I have found that we don’t necessarily need to be a two car household. I bought a reasonably nice ($1200) scooter last year and have been doing all my errands on our city’s great bike trails. I have maybe 3-500 miles on it now and while it’s not as nice or as fast as driving it is a wonderful experience every time I take it out.