Elecscoot 4 Review

It’s been a while since my last post and that’s because I’ve had a new bike to test.

I am unsure whether I tested the “new” flavour of Elecscoot 4 or the “old” flavour.

Let me explain:

The “new” bike has battery management. The test bike had this. The “old” bike was hub drive not “belt drive”. The test bike was hub drive.

Anyway, lets not get bogged down in the detail. The first and most striking thing was that the E4 was how very very fast it goes. I had a brand new bike with only a few K’s on the clock. This means that even though I tested it for a few days, it still won’t be “run in”.

In theory after a week or so, once the battery is conditioned. It will accelerate faster and get a longer range and a higher top speed. I only had the bike 3 days so I didn’t have time to condition it.

The battery management was very protective of the new battery and wouldn’t let me have full acceleration. Despite this the E4 was faster off the mark than the majority of scooters in the 50 – 125cc range. The mid range torque meant it would out-grunt 250cc machines with ease. This is a good and bad thing, good because I got to work 10mins quicker than with any other electric scooter. Bad because it is extremely easy to reach speeds that are a) illegal, and b) dangerous. So novice riders beware, even though this is a 50cc equivalent bike. The performance is far greater. Make sure if you ride the E4 you have the correct training, or you will get distracted, look down and you are going over 50mph towards your demise.

Scary part over, in the hands of an experienced rider the E4 makes light work of commuting and has much better low speed control than some of the smaller electric scooters. Despite being a “maxi scooter” the bars are narrow enough to let you filter as if you were on a normal sized scooter.

I found while riding the E4 that I was riding with the “big” bikes and leaving the scooters behind. The real change was the mid-range pull of the 4000w motor. I found that I could easily keep up with riders on 500-1000cc bikes if they were not accelerating too hard. Try doing that on a 50cc petrol scooter.

As I said with the Elecscoot 3, the future is here. The E4 is a technological wonder and really shows up the petrol powered bikes. Going back to my petrol scooter after the E1 and E2 was like having a rocket powered cushion strapped to my behind. After the E4 it was rattly, vibrating, slow and agricultural in comparison.

The E4 was also the only bike where astounded riders would pull up next to me (having been overtaken) and ask “is that electric?”. I rubbed it in a bit more by telling them it was a 50cc and cost £69 a year in fuel.

As a reviewer I was a bit upset that while whizzing about on the E4 was fun, I didn’t get it for long enough to give it a range test or condition the battery. I did however take it to the A3 (a 3 lane road in south London famed for speed cameras). While I was there I managed a good 45-53mph (depending on hills etc) cruising speed, and I’m sure that a conditioned bike would do better. It also showed the E4′s potential to replace your car in a way no other 50cc commuter could. Cruising along at 50mph in the fast lane of what is a motorway without the name (the A3). I realised that this was as fast as my car, but would be even faster through the traffic once off the A3.

This is where the E4 comes into it’s own. In town it is king of the scooters, for commuting. So it is only fitting to say it is the emperor of suburbia. Around suburban London, the bike flies, zipping through traffic and overtaking (where extra lanes and speed limits allow) any cars.

It left me in no doubt that if I was to use it everyday, it could be my commute bike for the week and get me to my parents / mates places in Surrey on the weekend (much faster than a car).

If you are considering buying an E4, I would give it my personal recommendation. even If it turns out I tested an “old” one, it was excellent and in a different league from similar petrol machines. My only sadness was that I had to give it back. I will be requesting an E3 or E4 as a long term test bike from Elecscoot, they may be persuaded if it will answer potential buyers questions, so please comment if you support this idea.

If you feel I have missed anything from the reviews of the E1-E4, please comment and I will be happy to answer your questions. The future is here, dump the petrol-powered lawnmower with handlebars and get a real bike.

Elecscoot 3 Review – Range Test Results

I have just arrived in from the rainy outdoors having completed the range test of the Elecscoot 3 lithium battery powered electric scooter.

Ladies and gentlemen, get out your chequebooks the future is finally here!

Lets have a quick recap before I give away the figures:

• Elecscoot 1 – Claimed range 40 miles. Range achieved during commute test – 29 miles
• Elecscoot 2 – Claimed range 40 miles. Range achieved during commute test- 21 miles

The above bikes did well and don’t forget how little they cost and how they use regular battery technology (none of this fancy lithium stuff). So now, lets see how the lithium battery powered Elecscoot 3 fared.

• Claimed range – Upto 30 miles.
• Range achieved during commute test… A whopping 24 miles. Finally a bike which can meet its paper targets on the road.

For those of you who are still wondering, 24 miles in the worst traffic imaginable, out of a claimed 30 is fantastic. The lithium batteries are so fast to charge (2 hrs) and so light that I wouldn’t be surprised that if you were to take it gently on suburban roads, away from traffic you could achieve over 30 miles from an Elecscoot 3. Lets not forget that the test bike hasn’t even got the regenerative braking option, and is the smaller 20Ah version. With the 40AH bike and regenerative braking (on either bike) even more miles are possible.

Congratulations Elecscoot, this bike is easy to use, rides well and is the best green transport by far. Based on this test alone, If I was not a lowly trainee (with courses to pay for) I would be getting my own wallet out and buying myself the 40ah version with regenerative braking as an extra. Using the 40AH bike I think 90% of my riding and driving could be done with zero emissions. Think about it, when do you go over 50miles in daily life in one trip?

As for the rest of you, what are you waiting for. The Elecscoot 3 proves that there are zero emissions vehicles out there which are affordable and “do what they say on the tin”.

Elecscoot 3 Review – Day 1

Today I swung a leg over the Elecscoot 3 and took it for its first introduction to the rough, wet crowded streets of London.

The bike itself works very well indeed, I will quickly summarise what made me conclude this so early on:

• Speed – With a quoted top speed of 30mph I wasn’t expecting much. However, the speedometer on this bike is spot-on accurate (I know I’ve tested it) and it will actually reach speeds in excess of 30mph quite easily. I expect it to reach 35 or higher once run in, this brings it into Vespa 50cc territory. The acceleration gets you off the lights faster than the traffic, but not a viciously as a petrol 50cc would. Despite this the Elecscoot 3 did out accelerate all the Aprilla Havana 50cc bikes I came accross and overtook some unbranded Chinese petrol 50cc bikes on a long straight.
• Technology - The battery on this bike is removable (although that still didn’t persuade my work to let me charge it there) and charges in a lightning fast 2 hours. To put it in perspective, the Elecscoot 3 charges faster than my laptop, mobile or ipod. Today, as part of the conditioning process I gave it a top up while I shopped for snowboard bindings. It is a true, “have a coffee and it’s ready again”, charge time. This technology means that you don’t need a massive range, and the associated heavier batteries. You can get home from a long commute from work, have dinner and go another 20 – 30 (claimed) miles.

My conclusions from the first day are that this is a good clean way to get around the city. It makes my slightly faster petrol bike look old school and expensive to run. Also if you are looking at Electric Scooters buy lithium. You will save so much time charging your bike, and the batteries are much much lighter.

For now this is all I will say. the Elecscoot 3‘s batteries are almost conditioned now and I will be carrying out a range test tomorrow.

Elecscoot 3 arrives for review

This afternoon, the Elecscoot 3 has arrived for review. This is the bike that will hopefully bring the performance to match its environmental credentials. The scooter is extremely light compared to the E2 and has a host of high tech advantages.

Being a “generation 2″ scooter it has the lighter lithium batteries and a faster recharge time (around 2 hours). It also has a more powerful motor than the last test bike.

The bottom line as quoted by many a motoring reviewer (including UK and Australian Top Gear), is that once electric vehicles are faster than petrol vehicles, the general public will accept them as the future.

After the initial running in period, I will review the Elecscoot 3 for a week and then switching to the Elecscoot 4 next weekend. I am hoping that these will be the bikes to convert the petrol riders of London. Riding slower than most bikes and being occasionally bullied by angry folk on the gen 1 machines (notably the Ego as stated by commenters elsewhere on this blog) has put off petrol bike riders, and made electric scooters too big a step for train commuters looking to save money. I’m hoping that the high tech bikes will show petrol machines up as slow, outdated and dirty.

I reached this conclusion as I saw one of London’s growing fleet of electric trucks, a real life, full sized lorry, powered by electricity. This thing accelerated away from the lights faster than everything else despite it’s size. Following the truck were taxis and buses travelling slower and belching out diesel smoke.

Hopefully I have seen the future and will soon be riding it. Watch this space.

Elecscoot 2 testing complete – Elecscoot 3 review coming soon

This week I have finished testingthe Elecscoot 2 and returned to my petrol bike until the new E3 arrives. The first thing that strikes me is how much smaller and faster the petrol scoot is. The second is that despite all this, my journey times are similar, and the third is the dent in my wallet (around £500 a year) from fuel.

Now that the budget end of the range, the first generation or “gen 1″ bikes have been tested, it’s time to move on to the high tech stuff.  The gen 2 machines have lithium batteries, longer ranges, regenerative braking and a whole host of fancy electronics to help you stick it to the petrol bikes.

As soon as the E3 arrives I will be putting it through it’s paces. I will also be getting a chance to ride the E4. Some manufacturers have bikes similar to the “old” E4 for sale for around £4000 but the gen 2 E4 from Elecscoot looks to be a far better bike for the same price.

On a different note, I apologise for not getting a “buyers guide” together sooner. The consumer law around vehicles is more complex than I thought. I have had the opportunity to speak to some importers and the general view is that there are a few rogue machines (mostly gen1) that will need a bit of attention. So the advice is still to go to the manufacturer / supplier first. That way you can rule out any known issues. If your problem is a new one, an over reading speedo for instance. They will probably carry the parts to fix that too.

Range test results – Elecscoot 2

Hi there everybody. I have now completed the 2 “real world” milage tests for the Elecscoot 2. If you are not familiar with these tests I will quickly summarise them for you:

• Commute test - Central London traffic. Scooter loaded up with spare waterproofs, charger, charging lead and big lock. Headlamp on. Riding style, normal.
• Long distance test – Surrey A road loop (16miles). No traffic and open roads. Top speed all the way. Scooter loaded as above. Headlamp on. Normal riding style.

In the commute test I got to 21 miles in horrible traffic. Until the battery protection “cut out” activated. You can still ride a bit further and fight the battery protection, but it’s not advisable, fun or safe.

The long distance test gave me 24 miles of top speed (30 something mph) cruising. I think more would have been achievable if today didn’t have gusty winds and rain to contend with.

So, the verdict is at least a 12% improvement in mileage if you ride out of town. If you were to ride more conservatively and remove some weight / turn off the headlamp. You could achieve more.

You may have noticed this is not near the 40 miles range quoted by Elecscoot. This is because it is my aim to get below claimed mileage, and make it as hard for the bike as possible. As stated above, better riding technique / lower speed would improve things.

In my mind, this means I can think “oooh I’m going 20 miles today, rain / shine / hills / nighttime / whatever. I know my Electric Scooter will get me there with some miles to spare”.

Elecscoot 2 review – Range tests this weekend.

As some of you may have noticed, I have not tested the E2′s range (full to flat) yet. Today and this weekend I will be carrying out my (not) patented “Run it out as quick as possible” worst case scenario, commuting test. The super tough test is outlined on this post.

I will also find a huge long road and do a cruising test, taking the E2 up to top speed for as long as possible. this will give a fair representation of the range likely to be achieved by most users.