Best electric scooter up to 500 euro

kapisko1PL

Hey guys,

I'll be looking to buy an electric scooter to commute to college as the accomodation is getting pretty expensive I was forced to move out further out of the campus.

I'm looking to buy one around 400/500 euro and would be looking at doing around 10km daily on it.

Because I am completely inexperienced in this area would you be able to recommend anything? So far I looked at this and it looks pretty good. What do ye think?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01HPN6ZVW/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500376171&sr=8-1-spons&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=electric+scooter&psc=1

homer911

Yes, put the 500 aside for tax, insurance and a crash helmet, then save for something safer.

Any "vehicle" that does not require manual input to get it going or sustain speed is technically a motor vehicle and requires all of the above to be street legal (plus appropriate lights!)

Seriously! 10k a day is nothing, buy an old bike on Done Deal or adverts..

goz83

I would look for something a bit more robust. Look on done deal.

Heres one

kapisko1PL

Homer, didn't ask about tax and insurance. I asked about electric scooter ��

grogi

kapisko1PL wrote: »

Homer, didn't ask about tax and insurance. I asked about electric scooter ��

Don't forget about sick children!

I'd go with xiaomi: http://www.gearbest.com/skateboard/pp_596618.html

But that's solely based on my brand loyality, not anything else.

listermint

kapisko1PL wrote: »

Hey guys,

I'll be looking to buy an electric scooter to commute to college as the accomodation is getting pretty expensive I was forced to move out further out of the campus.

I'm looking to buy one around 400/500 euro and would be looking at doing around 10km daily on it.

Because I am completely inexperienced in this area would you be able to recommend anything? So far I looked at this and it looks pretty good. What do ye think?

Get a bike horse. Need to keep active during college. Waste of money those yolks

It's easy to convert a bicycle to electric, though you do have to research and learn how to do it safely.

I had 20 HP peak running through my mountain bike, unreal acceleration ! the fun was really amazing.

RustyNut

Deleted User wrote: »

It's easy to convert a bicycle to electric, though you do have to research and learn how to do it safely.

I had 20 HP peak running through my mountain bike, unreal acceleration ! the fun was really amazing.

What is that in watts? I'm thinking of converting a mountain bike I have and going for a bafang 1000. I don't relish peddling up the hills but the down bit makes up for it.

That's about 15 Kw, that was peak power, average was about 5kw. It was insane with the weight of a mountain bike.

Yes the Bafang motors have a good rep and are fantastic at hill climbing, the downside is that you loose the 3 chainrings for 1. But you can get a larger sprocket for the rear to compensate somewhat or install a 3 speed bub gear which works nicely with electric motors.

My motor setup was a hub in the rear wheel, hubs are good but due to their fixed gearing they can heat up fast on steep hills and you usually have to get a motor wound for torque or speed.

The MAC hub motos are also excellent. 1500-2 kw is plenty and still safe and you can again, get a 10T or 12T motor for the big hills and a low top speed to keep it safe but with hub motors it's absolutely essential to have torque arms which stop the axle spinning in the rear dropouts which can destroy them and the cable to the motor.

An excellent site for research.

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/

And site for Mac Hub kits, the Man who owns the site ( Paul) from the U.K but lives in China has a great reputation there on Endless Sphere for sourcing quality motors and kits and works closely with the Chinese factory and I purchased one of his kits and can testify to the quality.

He's also a good source for bafang kits.

https://em3ev.com/

Choose your set up carefully, and also the battery , don't stress it, pay more for a better battery and faster charger if available.

I sold all my kit and bought a Haibike EQ trekking from Germany, superbly built and the Bosch pedelec system is fantastic, it hasn't got nearly the power I was used to but with the gearing It pulled me right to the rte Mast on Mount Leinster which is some of the steepest road you'll find.

The hub kits are less tidy due to having the controller externally mounted and all the extra cabling , the chain drive set ups are neater due to the controller being enclosed in the motor housing.

endacl

5k each way would be a nice walk...

unkel

Deleted User wrote: »

It pulled me right to the rte Mast on Mount Leinster which is some of the steepest road you'll find.

Jaysus, I just looked that up and there are several sections that average up to about 18% gradient!

RustyNut

Great info thanks.

unkel

unkel wrote: »

Jaysus, I just looked that up and there are several sections that average up to about 18% gradient!

Actually I think the steepest bit is 22-23%. It's a lot worse going back down lets put it that way lol.

Yeah I was impressed with that Bosch set up with only 750 watts max, but I had to work quiet hard , it meant the difference between getting up or not.

Very few hub motors will take this abuse because of their fixed gearing they will slow down too much and motors need to spin fast to be efficient and when efficiency drops they start to heat up and they can heat very quickly and burn if pushed too far. Some motors now come with temp sensors that will limit or cut power long before that point.

perhaps a 12 t Mac at 1-2 KW would do this but the temp would need to be monitored and putting your hand to the case won't do because it's internally geared unlike a direct drive hub and thy heat up faster usually because they're smaller in size and have less mass to absorb the heat and the fixed speed of any hub doesn't help.

With hubs you kind of have to pick your motor to suit the environment where the chain drive kits use the bikes gearing and are much more efficient when climbing hills and use far less power.

Ideally a higher torque motor is better and then use higher voltage to get the desired speed.

Here's a great tool to find out the power v torque v speed of some different motors.

You can see how different things effect peed, torque and efficiency. It's a great tool and has way more motors to try than when I last used it.

http://www.ebikes.ca/tools/simulator.html

For very steep hills a small diameter wheel is best but not always practical on a bicycle, especially if you like to pedal like I do. So you have to compromise with a hub , speed V torque or a nice balance between the two, a chain drive will do everything but will have a lot more maintenance, especially if it's a high power setup.

Obviously , more power means more expense, beefier components battery etc. Your battery must be up to the job or it will have a short life.

I miss e-biking as I don't have much time these days but it's a lot of addictive fun !

prinzeugen

kapisko1PL wrote: »

Homer, didn't ask about tax and insurance. I asked about electric scooter ��

But you need it by law.

Anything that uses a single power source for propulsion at any point with the exception of mobility vehicles or electric assisted cycles must be road registered, taxed and insured.

What you is want to buy falls into the MPV category so needs license, tax etc.

Garda will take it off you if you buy one and use it on any public highway/land.

Lets forget about the legalities and just talk about the hobby , that's what it is really and it's fun.

You can off road no issues..........

zilog_jones

Electric assisted bicycles are fine legally, as long as the electric assistance works only up to 25 km/h (which IMO is too low a speed for modern bikes).

The problem is if these bikes or scooters can be propelled by electric power alone, then it's a "mechanically propelled vehicle" and shouldn't be used in public places as they're supposed to be licensed, insured, etc. (which I'm sure will be impossible as they're not type approved and all that). But do the guards actually care?

I saw an electric skateboard on the road here recently - I saw loads in San Francisco a few years ago but this is the first I've seen in Ireland.

grogi

zilog_jones wrote: »

Electric assisted bicycles are fine legally, as long as the electric assistance works only up to 25 km/h (which IMO is too low a speed for modern bikes).

The problem is if these bikes or scooters can be propelled by electric power alone, then it's a "mechanically propelled vehicle" and /.../

Devils advocate here (again).

If even on a very moderate slope, any assisted bicycle/scooter (or even one without any assist) could progress on its own. Where is the line?

Don't worry about it, once you're aware that other motorists and pedestrians won't know you're going faster than bicycle speeds you'll be fine and keep the speed for out on the open road.

50 Kph is a fine speed for a motorised Bicycle and I never had any issue because I new the ground hurts so didn't act the idiot and in Town rode as a normal bike with some electric boost now and again.

I used a thumb throttle.

I had 3 different motors, Magic Pie II direct drive hub and 60 amp controller connected to 60 volts, MAC 8T motor with 52 volts and 50 amps, and my first kit a cheap Chinese direct drive hub.

The commuting potential for these bikes is tremendous.

Once you're on the road at high speed you'll quickly realise the dangers and having no indicators, my Brakes were well up to the job, hydraulic and 8 inch rotors.

Most of the time I carried around a very small battery because I mostly wanted it for boost on hills but it was large enough to have some fun.

zilog_jones

grogi wrote: »

If even on a very moderate slope, any assisted bicycle/scooter (or even one without any assist) could progress on its own. Where is the line?

You mean on a descent? On a (legal) assisted bike you have to be pedalling to get any electric assistance. I believe "mechanically propelled" means there needs to be another power source (e.g. electric motor, ICE, etc.) - momentum doesn't count. Motorbikes started off with people sticking ICEs on pushbikes, which is what was the start of all this legislation and defining what is a "mechanically propelled vehicle" - it's just history repeating itself

kapisko1PL

Speaking of insurance, what companies do it?

You won't find any insurance company to insure anything unless it's a fully road worthy bike with indicators, power limit, speed limit, indicators etc.

kapisko1PL

Assuming it is fully road legal (there are some available on the market)........ What companies do insurance on electric scooter?

grogi

kapisko1PL wrote: »

Assuming it is fully road legal (there are some available on the market)........ What companies do insurance on electric scooter?

If it has registration plates, any company that does cover motor vehicles.

If it does not have plates, the generic TPL should cover it (similarly as a lawn mower).

To be honest your budget is too tight for a decent bike and whatever you do stay well away from anything with lead acid batteries, they are not suitable for any form of traction in this day and age.

You'd want to increase your budget to at least 1K for electric bike kit and that would be good quality and good powerful system using the Bafang 750 watt BBS02 motor. It's something that will pay you back big time in both fun and insurance, you might get about 20 mph.

BTY the likes of the Bosch legal electric bikes are all 750 watts but acceleration and speed are limited, the regulators don't understand that in order to move a human up a hill a bike needs a lot more than 250 watts of power but probably these legislators are big fat idiots that never got on a bike in their lives and have no concept of electronics, torque HP, Kw, Kwh etc etc.

grogi

Deleted User wrote: »

but probably these legislators are big fat idiots that never got on a bike in their lives and have no concept of electronics, torque HP, Kw, Kwh etc etc.

Says the one who consistently spell the units in wrong way Less arrogance, please.

grogi

grogi wrote: »

Says the one who consistently spell the units in wrong way Less arrogance, please.

On your Bike mate !

macnab

I bought the Bafang 350 watt BBS02 kit and fitted it to my hybrid bicycle. With a 13ah battery I can just cover my 45km commute from Meath to Dublin 4 in 80 minutes on full power, no matter what the weather dishes up (except snow and ice of course) If I lower the assist level I would say I could do maybe up to 90km.
On a flat road it will do 47kmph with a bit of manual input. I only use it during the winter to keep myself fit until normal cycling weather returns.

jsd1004

macnab wrote: »

I bought the Bafang 350 watt BBS02 kit and fitted it to my hybrid bicycle. With a 13ah battery I can just cover my 45km commute from Meath to Dublin 4 in 80 minutes on full power, no matter what the weather dishes up (except snow and ice of course) If I lower the assist level I would say I could do maybe up to 90km.
On a flat road it will do 47kmph with a bit of manual input. I only use it during the winter to keep myself fit until normal cycling weather returns.

Technically are these legal? In the event of an accident i mean. I thought 250watt was max?

macnab

jsd1004 wrote: »

Technically are these legal? In the event of an accident i mean. I thought 250watt was max?

Technically no, I have open driving motorcycle insurance but even then it's a grey area.
Ireland needs to update it's policy in this area.
I can cycle 45km to work on a normal aluminium bicycle with mudguards in just over 90 minutes, where as a "legal" 250w pedelec would increase my commute to at least 108 minutes as it is restricted to 25kmph.

prinzeugen

goz83 wrote: »

I would look for something a bit more robust. Look on done deal.

Heres one

https://mobile.twitter.com/GardaTraffic/status/890477022245519361

goz83

prinzeugen wrote: »

https://mobile.twitter.com/GardaTraffic/status/890477022245519361

And our laws can be so retarded, it's embarrassing. Technically, one of those electric scooters for less abled people would also require tax, insurance and the person shoukd be licensed and wearing a helmet. Ever see one of those pulled over by the gardai?

There was a case a few years ago where the Guards pulled a man for drink "riding" on an electric bike "motorised vehicle" , it p1ssed the Judge off for wasting time and threw it out !!

prinzeugen

goz83 wrote: »

And our laws can be so retarded, it's embarrassing. Technically, one of those electric scooters for less abled people would also require tax, insurance and the person shoukd be licensed and wearing a helmet. Ever see one of those pulled over by the gardai?

Mobility vehicles (invalid carriages is the correct term I think) are exempt under the Road Traffic Act from what I can remember but you would still be in bother if you went on a dual carriageway with one.

goz83

Deleted User wrote: »

There was a case a few years ago where the Guards pulled a man for drink "riding" on an electric bike "motorised vehicle" , it p1ssed the Judge off for wasting time and threw it out !!

You might be getting mixed up with another case. Recently a man was charged for drink riding. He had been banned for 10 years for driving anyway and the judge issued a 2 year ban and a fine for using a mechanically propelled vehicle on a public road. According to the Gardai, "he was goosed"

The article did however mention a previous case that had been thrown out. No booze involved in that one afaik.