While most of my posts tend to be about software I recently got a new electric scooter for commuting to work (shameless plug for the coolest new software product in years!) so I thought I would blog about it. After doing a bunch of research it came down to a choice between the goped 750 sport and what I ended up choosing the motorboard 2000x. The goped seemed a bit more powerful/rugged and the motorboard looked much much better and was less than half the weight. Since I plan to use this thing to commute around a mile each way to work on flat ground and I wanted to be able to easily dump it in the trunk of my car I went the cooler looking lighter route (also is cheaper 399 v around 599 but that wasn't a strong factor as neither were as expensive as all the parking tickets I was getting).
First Impressions:
I've had this device for two days so I will update this as I learn more.
- It looks even cooler in person than it does on the website. At first glance you wouldn't even think it is electric powered. So I'm happy about that.
- No setup at all really. Took it out of the box and had it together with no tools in about 1 minute.
- The battery stuff is a bit of a pain in the butt. It actually matters whether you plug the charger into the wall first or into the device first. I messed this up because, unlike the rest of the world, I didn't carefully read what was written on the charger.
- I can't ride it to and from work yet because the ground is wet from rain. That is a bit annoying but I knew about this limitation before I bought it so I can't complain.
- I got it all charged and tooled around our office with it. It's fast and smooth. Really fun to ride.
- When people in the 200 pound range from my office tried it they would often get the dreaded blinking red light. I think this could be a combo of them being close to the weight limit and riding on low carpet putting strain on the device.
- Did I mention all the rules around charging this thing are annoying?
- I live in a building so I took it into the garage and rode around for about 1/2 an hour. It was fun and the thing was smooth and worked great. It is nice and fast. It didn't make it up the hill between the first level and second level of our garage but that hill is a bit steep so I can't fault it to much.
- Another thing to note is that both before and after my purchase I sent support questions via e-mail and they always got back to me within 24 hours. In our world of automated phone systems and outsourced support I was pretty pleased with this.
So far I am happy with my purchase. I haven't seen anything else I would have rather had. If these guys can get the electronics to be a bit less sensitive this thing would be the greatest thing since sliced bread. I'll update when the rain in SF stops...
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