4LivesPerGallon
1 kW
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2015
- Messages
- 305
I used to see lots before.
What happened?
What happened?
Sadly, much fewer electric scooters in Vancouver -- why?
- Thread starter 4LivesPerGallon
- Start date
beast775
100 kW
They all moved to Victoria 
...
...mistercrash
10 kW
Riding at 32 km/h is frikkin boring. I'm thinking most people who bought scooters got some fun at first, then started getting bored of the low speed and low torque, then a lot got sick of it once the SLAs died. Bring in something that falls into the Canadian LSM category (Low Speed Motorcycles limited to a max speed of 70 km/h) with tons of torque and a range of 100 km, tell people that it will be cheap to license and insure and it takes a cheap LSM license, tell people that it will cost between 10 and 20 dollars worth of electricity to run per year, sell it for less than $5000 and I'm thinking many will notice, I would.
4LivesPerGallon
1 kW
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2015
- Messages
- 305
mistercrash said:
Imo, from experience, and talking to scooterists, the major causes of the Fall of Electric Scooters in Vancouver are as follows:
- Unreliable scooter and poor/costly service from the retailers (Motorino is excluded in this category. Motorino has invested in substantial test equipment and has parts and has knowledgeable, experienced techies. Nice, ethical people, too.)
- Unsuitable design and components, e.g. non-tubeless tires
- Much, much higher cost-per-mile than similar gasoline vehicles, once depreciation and battery-replacement costs are factored in. Try reselling a used scooter on Craigslist -- you don't get much.
- Theft. Statistically, one out of every four bikes are stolen, annually. And, statistically, one out of five owners will not buy another one.
- Accidents and injuries, some from bad design, like side mirrors that don't extend far enough to work.
- LSM's that are too tall, too slow, and have a Center of Gravity that is too high.
- Gas scooters have had a major sales decline in North America. Saw an annual sales chart recently. Peak was in 2008.
- Range. Declining range with age. Then, battery chargers that go "off specification" with time and destroy the battery pack. Or, battery chargers that don't adjust the charge rate downwards as the battery capacity diminishes, killing the pack prematurely. (It's complicated.)
- Weather woes for those who don't wear full-face helmets and bike poncho's. (Wearing a scooter poncho gets ridicule and laughs from high school girls.)
- Uncomfortable ride, unless you make some changes to the scooter, or your riding pants.
mistercrash
10 kW
4LivesPerGallon said:
Looks like you already knew the answers to your original question.
Electric Broomstick
1 µW
Interesting. I'm in Toronto and I notice a lot more e-scooters now. I went to a small grocery the other day and there were three of them parked outside. Here, there are additional obstacles to owning a scooter:
- drivers, cyclists and the public hate us. The local papers write negative articles about ebikers. If an ebiker gets hit by a driver, the press always blames the ebiker. People yell obscenities, call us drunks or lazy, and vandalize our vehicles. They spend hours on Twitter making fun of us.
Funny story: one of my friends came out of a shop to find two post-its on his dashboard. One was laced with the usual obscenities. The second? "And get rid of that F'n alarm!!" Methinks someone dropped a load in his pants when he set off the alarm with his first note.
- cops harass us. We get pulled over for "helmet violations" (perfectly legal helmets) or because some petty cop doesn't know the laws about e-scooters
- our city is run by a powerful cycling lobby group; they have several members on city council (conflict of interest anyone?) and they make all the decisions when it comes to infrastructure and who can/can't use it. Nobody else gets a say. So we get excluded from most of the bike infrastructure
- lousy roads. Roads are smooth as glass for drivers, pathetic closer to the curb, with huge cracks and Grand Canyon potholes.
On the plus side, our transit system here is a global disgrace. Gridlock is really bad. I think that's why more people here are buying scooters. They're just fed up with lousy transit service, traffic jams, and taking three times as much time as it should to get anywhere. When people ask me about my scooter, they usually say something negative about the TTC!
I get a LOT of people coming up to me and telling me right off, "I've been thinking of getting one of those for a while!" Of course they ask "how much" and are pleasantly surprised when I tell them! And I have a Motorino, not the cheapest. So despite all the negatives, more people are interested in e-scooters here in Toronto.
- drivers, cyclists and the public hate us. The local papers write negative articles about ebikers. If an ebiker gets hit by a driver, the press always blames the ebiker. People yell obscenities, call us drunks or lazy, and vandalize our vehicles. They spend hours on Twitter making fun of us.
Funny story: one of my friends came out of a shop to find two post-its on his dashboard. One was laced with the usual obscenities. The second? "And get rid of that F'n alarm!!" Methinks someone dropped a load in his pants when he set off the alarm with his first note.
- cops harass us. We get pulled over for "helmet violations" (perfectly legal helmets) or because some petty cop doesn't know the laws about e-scooters
- our city is run by a powerful cycling lobby group; they have several members on city council (conflict of interest anyone?) and they make all the decisions when it comes to infrastructure and who can/can't use it. Nobody else gets a say. So we get excluded from most of the bike infrastructure
- lousy roads. Roads are smooth as glass for drivers, pathetic closer to the curb, with huge cracks and Grand Canyon potholes.
On the plus side, our transit system here is a global disgrace. Gridlock is really bad. I think that's why more people here are buying scooters. They're just fed up with lousy transit service, traffic jams, and taking three times as much time as it should to get anywhere. When people ask me about my scooter, they usually say something negative about the TTC!
I get a LOT of people coming up to me and telling me right off, "I've been thinking of getting one of those for a while!" Of course they ask "how much" and are pleasantly surprised when I tell them! And I have a Motorino, not the cheapest. So despite all the negatives, more people are interested in e-scooters here in Toronto.
granolaboy
100 W
mistercrash said:
That's what I did when my Motorino got ripped off. Got lucky actually and caught ecodrive when they went out of business and got a Lithium EVT 168 for a real deal. I can't imagine going back to scooters with pedals. 130A is way more fun than 40A.
4LivesPerGallon
1 kW
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2015
- Messages
- 305
Sorry to hear that your scooter got stolen, too.
Here's the 2012 Motorino alarm system, "earth-shaking":
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=71420
Here's the 2012 Motorino alarm system, "earth-shaking":
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=71420
Electric Broomstick
1 µW
Robert90 said:
Could you provide the make and model please? I hate video because they always force you to install a bunch of crap and then sit through ads just to see it.
granolaboy
100 W
There was a thread on these scooters a few weeks ago:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=71391
One of their scooters looks like a Motorino Gtx to me.
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=71391
One of their scooters looks like a Motorino Gtx to me.
skeelo
10 mW
As for not that many escooters in Vancouver I got a few ideals/points.
I believe price is a factor, it's kinda costly to purchase a good escooter in the first place, when you can get a gas scooter 50cc for same price and in most cases cheaper, and/or a solid bicycle for a few hundred bucks.
Secondly there isn't much repair shops around Vancouver just the motorino one on west 2nd, and they typically are busy just with their motorino's only, and not other brands is what they told me when I wanted to get my complicated rear tire changed for my davinci, they said when they are not busy to ask again.
Compare that to bicycle repair shops which are like Starbucks in Vancouver, everywhere.
The best places for repairs are in Surrey and you need a trailer/truck to haul your scooter out there.
And as others said power/speed, to get the high powered 'legal' ones it's gonna cost, I paid handsomely for mine it's at the top speed for 32 km/h rides with 3 gears so level roads or slight inclines I can get about 55km/h sometimes 60km/h, I've seen one or two electric scooters that can go faster than mine, but for the most part I see slower ones with older out of shape people lol, kinda takes the "coolness" factor away ahaha.
Another is distance for the battery, it's great to use if you are work/live in the same city, but if you are traveling from Richmond to vancouver or something like that, it's a risk to get one as the battery can die on you and your f**ked.
Which is why all the latest escooters should be lithium imho, lighter load with better benefits overall for the escooter rider, can recharge faster too iirc.
The sealed lead acid battery for me takes a couple hours to recharge.
So to sum up, high price for escooter, hard to repair or find local repair shops and find parts, worrying about battery dying and slow speed (for some cheaper models).
Anyways I'm sticking with mine finally patched my rear tire which popped with a nail, it's awesome in the rain, hardly any bicycles during the fall/winter months.
Luckily my job/place are not that far so I don't worry about my battery.
I'm still gonna "pimp my ride" though eventually, repaint it, get new vinyl stickers, LED headlight and lights for below it, and definately gonna save up for a lithium battery!
I believe price is a factor, it's kinda costly to purchase a good escooter in the first place, when you can get a gas scooter 50cc for same price and in most cases cheaper, and/or a solid bicycle for a few hundred bucks.
Secondly there isn't much repair shops around Vancouver just the motorino one on west 2nd, and they typically are busy just with their motorino's only, and not other brands is what they told me when I wanted to get my complicated rear tire changed for my davinci, they said when they are not busy to ask again.
Compare that to bicycle repair shops which are like Starbucks in Vancouver, everywhere.
The best places for repairs are in Surrey and you need a trailer/truck to haul your scooter out there.
And as others said power/speed, to get the high powered 'legal' ones it's gonna cost, I paid handsomely for mine it's at the top speed for 32 km/h rides with 3 gears so level roads or slight inclines I can get about 55km/h sometimes 60km/h, I've seen one or two electric scooters that can go faster than mine, but for the most part I see slower ones with older out of shape people lol, kinda takes the "coolness" factor away ahaha.
Another is distance for the battery, it's great to use if you are work/live in the same city, but if you are traveling from Richmond to vancouver or something like that, it's a risk to get one as the battery can die on you and your f**ked.
Which is why all the latest escooters should be lithium imho, lighter load with better benefits overall for the escooter rider, can recharge faster too iirc.
The sealed lead acid battery for me takes a couple hours to recharge.
So to sum up, high price for escooter, hard to repair or find local repair shops and find parts, worrying about battery dying and slow speed (for some cheaper models).
Anyways I'm sticking with mine finally patched my rear tire which popped with a nail, it's awesome in the rain, hardly any bicycles during the fall/winter months.
Luckily my job/place are not that far so I don't worry about my battery.
I'm still gonna "pimp my ride" though eventually, repaint it, get new vinyl stickers, LED headlight and lights for below it, and definately gonna save up for a lithium battery!
skeelo
10 mW
Good to see lately in central vancouver, east van to cambie area, a lot more motorino's e-scooters been riding about!
4LivesPerGallon
1 kW
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2015
- Messages
- 305
skeelo said:
Motorino now sells a "fat bike" with 4.5" tires.
Dauntless
100 TW
Just curious on the weather situation: How much of the year could you depend on the scooter? Is there much summer rain?
SoCal you have maybe 20 days a year you couldn't ride under power in the rain, but without power there can be some hot days you wouldn't survive on your bike.
SoCal you have maybe 20 days a year you couldn't ride under power in the rain, but without power there can be some hot days you wouldn't survive on your bike.
4LivesPerGallon
1 kW
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2015
- Messages
- 305
Dauntless said:
Vancouver is rain-couver, except for June to October. The grit in the rain eats up bicycle rims and brake pads unless you have disc brakes. Bike chains last 1500 kms if ridden all year.
Dauntless
100 TW
So maybe that explains the vanishing scooters. The grit destroys them quickly and people give up. I can imagine how quickly a hub motor might be endangered. I'd hate to even think of taking Shenta's lovely Grom there.
Ah, who has solutions to such problems?
Ah, who has solutions to such problems?
4LivesPerGallon
1 kW
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2015
- Messages
- 305
Dauntless said:
The Velomobile should be a good solution, if it has a motion-alarm-pager, and has hub-motors that are rain-proof, imo. Someone should try parking a velo on a sidewalk.
Parking downtown Vancouver at $8/hour is ridiculous.
See some kick scooters (Razor et al) and electric kick scooters used by people on way to work downtown.
Costco sells a kick scooter with front and rear shocks for only C$119.
1JohnFoster
100 W
This guy used to park on Hastings all the time. Didn't see any lock, but maybe he had a cable underneath, or U lock thru a wheel. But pretty conspicuous if someone did steal it! Even just to drag it down the street would take more balls than stealing a bicycle.4LivesPerGallon said:
Shocks sure are a lot nicer just than hard rubber wheels. Pneumatic tires are really nice, but I started getting so many flats with those I gave up. They are tricky to pump up.
Most kick scooters don't have good enough fenders, you want to add a flap on the back or your legs get soaked.
Similar threads
