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Comment by czechdeveloper | Hacker News Reader

I've been wondering about buying electric kick scooter for some time now. Bikes can be dangerous where there is no separate infrastructure for them, but scooter you can drive on sidewalk in places that are almost void of pedestrians (this is my case). It's also way easier to take with in store or office. Pity there is no "rent for day" just to try it out.

I'd love to switch my car for electric, but that is still expensive.

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Just make sure it has a 500+ W motor. I have this one www.e-twow.ro. For an adult just buy the most expensive model.

I do take it with me in stores. Every time I go out somebody stops me because they have questions about it. If you ever come to Timisoara they do rent them.

A few days ago I tried a fat e-bike in store. That thing is crazy fun. The big pro is that you will not feel any bumps in the road. The downside is that you can not take it inside stores and it might get stolen.

I have an e-twow scooter as well. Clocked 1200+ kilometers on it already. Not owning a car, so the thing saves me a lot of time and money.

Only 700+ km on mine which means I saved about half it's price (compared with taxi).

The biggest advantage is that I don't have to find a parking space for it and it always drops me in front of the door.

How does it work uphill? Timisoara is quite flat. I have a hill with a 12% slope between home and work.

The only "hill" is a bridge over the railroad. From standstill at the bottom it will not go under 12km/h no matter what. This is due to the electric motor torque. Quite different from a gas engine. At first it will go quite fast and as you reach the peak, it will drop to 12-14 km/h.

PS. I have the 450W model.

I’ve got 1kW bike, it can hit 50kmh, but cruise speed with current config is more of a 35-40kmh.

If you want to be a reasonable road user you need to be able to keep up with cars, so cruise around 50 and go up to 70 kmh to overtake, maintain speed uphill etc.

Basically it’s more of a scooter in a bike format with low weight and manouvrability. Love it!

Edit: I assume downvotes are from people morally insulted of how illegal it is.

I've got a 1kW bike too, I can short two pins on the controller to bring it down to 250W but it is absolutely useless on uneven terrain or slight inclines.

I wish my controller wasn't braindead, I'd gladly accept the 25kmh speed limit if it could actually ramp itself up to 1Kw while below that speed.

On my way home in the dark, I barely have the throttle engaged and its more than fast enough for my liking.

I'm from Europe, limits on electric assistance here are quite low as far as I know (25km max, no support without pedaling, 250W engine output).

But I agree, my main concern is difference in speed with cars. Worst case I could use electric scooter just for "last mile" and use public transportation. That is something ebike will again have more problems with.

Legally speaking, there's three categories of e-bikes in the EU [0]:

* under 250W, under 25km/h: no more approval than a pedal powered bicycle

* L1e-A: under 25km/h, under 1kW electric

* L1e-B: under 45km/h, under 4kW electric ("speed pedelec" class)

L1e-A and L1e-B ebikes need an extra type certification. Plus there are hurdles in terms of insurance, sometimes also helmet obligation, and more.

[0] https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/automotive/legislation/m...

Helmets are required here for all cyclists in NZ.

What is the extra certification required? I assume something about tyre size, brakes and perhaps frame strength?

At least in Germany a normal diving license suffices for the s-pedelecs. But it's pretty obvious why you need one. They're forbidden on the cycle Lane's , so you need to drive on the street.

25 might seem low but when I pedal only I go about 22-24 km/h. Going 25 km/h electric only is more than enough. Then you can pedal and go even faster. In a city you will have to break soon anyway and you realy start to feel the wind.

The diference between 25 km/h electric and 25 km/h pedal only is the acceleration and the fact that electric motor never gets tired :)

To have a good acceleration they sell bikes with 500 W motors that are limited to 250 W. I guess in software.

The bikes that I tested, all have pedal assist but also a separate throtle.

”Going 25 km/h electric only is more than enough. Then you can pedal and go even faster.”

European “Speed assist” bicycles that max out at 25km/hour don’t do 25 on their own; they decrease the amount of assistance to zero when your speed reaches 25. If you don’t do over 25 on a ‘normal’ bicycle, you won’t do it on one of these.

I can go 31 km/h with my legs only with all the additional battery and motor weight. That limit is silly.

Well yeah... it depends on the rider. No limit will be fair for all. And then you can go downhill much faster.

Do you have some kind of windshield? Mine shuts off after 25km/h, and even that gets uncomfortable depending on the weather conditions.

Sunglasses.

It's a MTB bike shape, so you always leaning forward. Normal city "omafiets" would be dangerous at those speeds - not enough pressure/grip on front tyre.

Also, I don't have to commute, only use it for fun (ok I did came to do some work to the university library right now).

I have a ZZ-Thriller fairing on mine: http://www.zzipper.com/Products/prod_upright.php

I don't know if it makes much difference to top speed, but it's really nice at 25mph (40 km/h) in the rain! (I have a 1300W mid-drive.)

Which model do you have?

Pretty much canonical build nowadays - BBSHD on a cheapest bike (danger) with hydraulic brakes and downtube battery pack (48V, would be nice to go up, 11.6 Ah -- it can't sustain more than ~750W load, hence lower cruise speed), Lekkie Bling Ring - smaller ring for more torque but again, lower top speed.

I'd like to add that having less gears would be nice, currently I have 8, only half are needed.

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