Not a bike.. E-Scooters - anyone tried one?
Discussion
Riding in to work the other day I had some competition not from another cyclist, but by someone riding one of these E-Scooter affairs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqx91hOvAbs
Shockingly, I don't want another bike at the moment, I have quite a few, but this caught my eye as something that aside from making me look like a massive geek (not bothered about that), would potentially be a bit of fun for the rare occasions I either don't feel like cycling to work, or need to wear a suit or something.
Has anyone had any experience of these? areas of concern would be : amount of abuse received by pavement / road users; are they comfortable for the constant ups / downs of driveways etc, and how are they on hills?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqx91hOvAbs
Shockingly, I don't want another bike at the moment, I have quite a few, but this caught my eye as something that aside from making me look like a massive geek (not bothered about that), would potentially be a bit of fun for the rare occasions I either don't feel like cycling to work, or need to wear a suit or something.
Has anyone had any experience of these? areas of concern would be : amount of abuse received by pavement / road users; are they comfortable for the constant ups / downs of driveways etc, and how are they on hills?
sjg said:
Area of concern should be legality. You can't legally use them on the road, or on the pavement. That's not to say that using one considerately should cause any problem, but it only takes a bored police officer to get you 6 points on your licence.
I've seen a bloke commute on one of these type things for the last few years in central Oxford, he seems to be getting away with it. I guess it's a postcode lottery regards police some areas obviously don't give a s
t others do.sjg said:
Area of concern should be legality. You can't legally use them on the road, or on the pavement. That's not to say that using one considerately should cause any problem, but it only takes a bored police officer to get you 6 points on your licence.
Why would it be six points on my driving license? I wouldn’t be driving a car. How would they punish me if I didn’t have a driving license?E-Scooters: Should they be legal on public roads?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-49322216/...
Never actually seen one out here in Essex. Don't look any more dangerous than the Lycra-clad Kamikaze cyclists flying around London these days.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-49322216/...
Never actually seen one out here in Essex. Don't look any more dangerous than the Lycra-clad Kamikaze cyclists flying around London these days.
Really common in Copenhagen, we were there a couple of weeks ago and I used Lime to hire them. Great fun. In Denmark you use the cycle lanes with the cyclists. A good idea IMO, but we don't have the cycle infrastructure plus rented ones are not actually all that sustainable (someone has to drive around to charge them up).
Having said that, if they were legal here, I would use something like Lime to hire scooters to get me from Paddington to my office at Victoria.
Having said that, if they were legal here, I would use something like Lime to hire scooters to get me from Paddington to my office at Victoria.
I'd actually like to have a go on one, they look like fun 
I think the issues are caused mainly by people using them that may not be drivers or experienced cyclists that lack the situational awareness and/or handling skills to use one of these in traffic and get themselves in bother. One of my wife's friends came off one recently on holiday somewhere going too fast round a dusty corner, broke her elbow, collar bone and got some nasty cuts and grazes. Obviously coming off a push bike could be just as bad but I expect that a cyclist would have read the road a bit better and avoided the accident in the first place.
I think the issues are caused mainly by people using them that may not be drivers or experienced cyclists that lack the situational awareness and/or handling skills to use one of these in traffic and get themselves in bother. One of my wife's friends came off one recently on holiday somewhere going too fast round a dusty corner, broke her elbow, collar bone and got some nasty cuts and grazes. Obviously coming off a push bike could be just as bad but I expect that a cyclist would have read the road a bit better and avoided the accident in the first place.
I have had an e scooter for a couple of months now and using it to commute to work and it's great. It's nice to be in the open air and not getting sweaty. Visibility is great too as you stand upright like a meerkat and can see everything. I try to be sensible and give way to everything on the path / cyclepath and wear a helmet when I ride it. Hopefully Mr Plod will take this into account if / when they stop me. So far things are going well and I've ridden past numerous Police officers / cars with no issues. My scooter has different firmware to stock, unlocking speeds of 20mph (stock is 15) but I don't use this often.
To be fair, there aren't many of us in Doncaster
If you are looking at them, you cant go far wrong with Ninebot or Xiaomi (also made by Ninebot). Oh and Ninebot are Segway so they know a thing or 2 about these things.
To be fair, there aren't many of us in Doncaster
If you are looking at them, you cant go far wrong with Ninebot or Xiaomi (also made by Ninebot). Oh and Ninebot are Segway so they know a thing or 2 about these things.
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