I begin this blog on Sunday 9/18/2022
I recently "sold" my car to purchase an alternative mode of personal
transportation within the city: My own Hiboy SP2 Pro electric scooter.
This version of an electric scooter is not meant for high speeds,
off-road excursions, or fancy tricks. As I am in my 60s, I'm not
interested in any of that. What I am interested in is having a form of
transportation to a local store or bank. Across-town trips are pretty
much out of the question for me. Naturally, I can't carry around much
stuff on my scooter. The top speed for my scooter is rated at 19 mph,
which is faster than I intend to go. Just the same, carrying a lot of
extra stuff will slow it down. But even worse, unless you balance the
load properly, you could dangerously destabilize the motion forward.
I have ridden my scooter enough to feel that it is "safe" so long as I
follow all the safety recommendations for it. I wear a helmet when I'm
on the city streets. I watch my surroundings carefully, and I use the
proper tricks to stopping safely when applying brakes. I viewed many
YouTube videos to learn all about safety on scooters. Remember to keep
both hands on the hand grips at all times. If you have to scratch your
nose, stop and then scratch. Be wary of storm drains and bumps and
dips in the road. I found that it is safe for me to go over a speed bump
at 5-6 mph. Make sure to bend your knees if you do that.
Why did I "sell" my car? As a retired person on a limited income, I found
that I needed to make some cost-cutting measures in my life. That meant
that I had to get rid of my most expensive 'luxury cost' -- my car. At this
point in my life, I found that my car uses were rather limited, mostly, just
to go grocery shopping. But I found an easy delivery service that will do my
shopping for me and then deliver the goods to my door. They have done a
pretty good job of it so far.
I said that I sold my car, but that is not exactly correct. Actually, I donated
the car to a charity that accepts cars. Since I owned the car, I had the title
for it and I had to pay to have a notary assist me in the legal part of the title
transfer to the new owners. On the title transfer section, I was technically
the "seller."
Why did I buy the Hiboy SP2 Pro? It's true that there are a lot of scooters
to choose from. This particular model was highly recommended by many
scooter reviewers on YouTube for an entry-level scooter. Basically, I took
their word on that. For the couple weeks that I've been riding and charging
it, the scooter has worked as advertised. However, a problem developed
after a week. The charger that came with the scooter seemed to stop
working. I was not all that surprised. Anyway, I went on Amazon (where I
had purchased the scooter originally) and ordered a mid-priced charger
for it from a third party. So far, it works well.
Tomorrow, I plan to make a three or four-mile excursion to a random
destination, just to get better acquainted with the scooter and with the
routes I can safely take to my favorite shopping part of town. As the
city I live in does not allow electric-scooter riding on the city sidewalks,
I need to choose wisely how to get where I need to go. For the most part,
I intend to use residential streets or streets with bike paths or designated
bike paths.
Monday 9/19/2022
So, I left before dawn today for my 3-4 mile ride (one-way distance).
All went pretty well. I had to dismount in places where the street would
be too dangerous to ride on. That's okay by me because I have a daily
routine of walking, anyway. On a long stretch of level road, I found that
the fastest I could go was 13 mph. That works for me for most of my
riding, but I'd like to attain 15 mph, occasionally.
I found that I use my arms constantly, even at constant speed on level
ground. My legs get tired easily, which I didn't expect because I walk a
lot. But the more I ride the scooter (meaning over a period of days and
weeks), the less pain I feel. Of definite concern to me is the obscuring
of my vision when I ride into the sunlight when the sun is low to the
horizon. My sunglasses aren't enough protection from the glare.
Normally, I would use my baseball cap to block the sunlight, but I
haven't yet tried to wear it with the helmet.
Most of the roads of my city are well maintained but some of the least
used residential streets are not. They can be very bumpy when riding
over them on my scooter, because it has solid tires. Usually, I don't
experience much bumpiness on the scooter, so I like having solid tires.
As a former bicycle rider, who replaced his air tubes with solid tubes, I
came to prefer solid tubes to avoid getting flats. On those
really bumpy
places, I should stick to just 5 or 6 mph.
Tuesday 9/20/2022
Today I left after dawn to explore pathways to my second area in the city
for shopping and banking. Before I left, I even printed out a map of the
region to guide me, but that didn't work because the map was not an
accurate depiction of the actual layout of the streets. Anyway, on my way
back, I noticed that the power meter registered about 20% full battery.
That seemed to be way too low for the amount of riding I did. After
arriving home, I let the scooter rest (to cool off) and then turned it on
to see the charge setting. This time, it showed about 60% full. Mind you,
I did not charge it up in that period. I guess I can't trust the charge
meter on my scooter. So, I plugged it into the charger to "fully charge it".
That's supposed to be when the powering-up light on the charger turns
from red (during charging) to green ("fully charged"). I keep the scooter
"close by" during charging, so I can unplug the charger as soon as the
green light goes on.
But why am I so careful about the duration of charging? Can't I just
let it charge for an arbitrary amount of time? Well, most of my on-line
resources on how to charge the scooter suggest that we unplug it
as soon as the green light comes on.
But this brings up a sore spot with me. The sources I read on-line did
about as much disagreement as agreement with each other about how
to take good care of one's lithium-ion battery for an electric scooter.
Some of the things of basic agreement among the sources are (or are
implied by common sense):
But there are points of disagreement too:
P.S. I found that on a flat, level surface today, I could attain speeds up
to 17 mph. I have no idea what is the difference between today's and
yesterday's speed performance.
Thursday 9/22/2022
After I donated my car to charity, I cancelled my auto insurance. I recently
received a repayment check from my insurance carrier to reimburse me for
the amount of auto insurance I won't be using, since I cancelled the policy.
Today, I rode my scooter to the bank and deposited that reimbursement check.
All went well on the ride there and back. But I learned that I still have need for
a lot of practice making sharp turns and stopping and moving safely between
different riding surfaces, like between tarmac and cement sidewalks. I don't
ride on city sidewalks much because it's illegal, but sometimes I need to use
them as an escape from an unexpected rode hazard that I come upon
suddenly.
I find that on these long rides, my hands sweat a lot and I have to stop and wipe
them off for safety's sake. I also found that as I continue to ride for longer
periods of time, that my leg muscles don't hurt so much as they used to while
riding.
I seem to have found the reason for the difference between the speed maximums
I mentioned before, and that's because I was inadvertently in the "sport mode".
I don't notice any other differences so far between the two modes.
I noticed for the first time other electric scooter riders: three others, in fact.
Ride safely, folks.
As I write this post, my scooter is recharging. I'm running a small fan on it I
specially purchased just to cool off the charger, and it works just fine because
the charger stays cool.
Lastly today, I want to comment about the ease of electric scootering and bicycle
riding in my city. Sorry to say, it's rather poor. The city has gone to great effort
to make good roads and sidewalks for cars and pedestrians, but little thought
for how bicycles can get around, and even less for electric scooters. Hence, I have
to plan my routes in advance quite carefully, and just accept that I will have to
take inconvenient routes to get almost anywhere.
Let me give an example of how the bicycle riders and scooter riders get the short
end of the deal on the streets. Today, I rode on a dedicated bike path next to a
city sidewalk. All went well for a long time, until I came upon cars legally parked
in the middle of the bike path. Well, if the city wants to promote its citizens to use
alternative transportation to gasoline cars with all their pollution, they have to give
it more thought and action to put into place safe lanes for bicyclists and scooterists
to ride.
Friday 9/30/2022
I have been riding my scooter almost every day since I first got it. But I have
yet to receive my electric bill for the month to see if it has gone up much as a
result of my charging it so often. I checked the reports online and found that
the estimated cost per recharge should be small. Soon, I will know.
I recently received my Amazon order of dog spray that I now carry with me
when
I ride the scooter away from my apartment complex.
There are yet two scooter skillls that I practice a lot and will probably need to
practice for a long time to come: the first is to make small-radius turns and the
second is to make a fast start from a standing position. At the moment, I favor
shoving off with my left foot on the deck, hunkering down and keeping my
knees bent, then hitting the accelerator, while keeping my right foot off to the
side to help me balance, until I get a stable forward motion. Then I place my
right foot on the deck. This seems to work well so far.
Saturday 10/8/2022
My first note is about my electric bill. It was not unduly high, even though I've
been recharging my scooter nearly every day since I got the thing.
The next issue is a matter of general concern over the safety of the batteries used
in electric scooters. They can spontaneously burst into flame, causing great damage
to themselves and their surroundings, if the scooter is stored inside one's house or
apartment. I am concerned, but not to the point of getting rid of my scooter. I used
to store it inside, but, as I have recently been educated about their ability to
spontaneously 'explode', I now store it outside where it will do little damage if it
catches fire.
The scooter should be stored in the appropriate temperature range, which varies
for the type of battery that is in your scooter. According to one source, Nickel-Metal
hydride batteries are one of the safer batteries in terms of fire hazard, but it doesn't
have the efficiency of the Lithium-ion batteries, generally speaking. The Lithium-ion
batteries were, according to my research, the most likely to cause a fire hazard.
The first advice I can give if you are buying an electric scooter with a Lithium-ion
battery is to be sure that it has a well-respected manufacturer. As a general rule,
batteries used by well-respected scooter manufacturers should be of good quality
(this is my assumption, anyway).
Additional habits to follow to keep your scooter battery from catching fire include
1) not letting any water into the battery housing, 2) not riding your scooter over
bumpy ground, 3) not charging it with a charger not designed for your exact battery
type, and 4) not over-charging it. Let's look at each of these warnings separately.
Note: I looked on a multitude of electric-scooter parts diagrams but couldn't find
any 'official' word for the part of the scooter that houses the battery, so I made up
the name 'battery housing'.
1) Obviously, don't ride your scooter through puddles of water or mud. Don't let
the rain hit it, if possible. If you're caught in a sudden downpour, get out of it fast.
2) Besides the fact that riding your scooter over bumpy ground is jarring to your
body, slows your forward speed, and uses up your battery charge, it also is a possible
source of wear on the scooter frame. But maybe most importantly, such jarring can
cause the Lithium-ion batteries to lose their chemical integrity, allowing the chemicals
to leak out of the battery to cause a fire later on.
Don't do stunts on your electric scooter. Try to ride on as smooth a surface as you
can find. When I encounter a rough surface, I usually either slow down or dismount
and walk the scooter until I can find a smoother riding surface.
The city I live in is in the southwest. Therefore, the paved surfaces tend to succumb
to two different but related surface issues. The first is a general surface degradation,
caused by the city not resurfacing the pavement in a timely manner. The result of
this is that the surface is everywhere very rough because it has only small pebbles and
sand at the surface (I presume due to erosion). To be fair to the city, pedestrians,
bicyclists, and car drivers probably wouldn't notice this kind of surface degradation,
unless it were very advanced. But I notice it greatly on my scooter. Also to be fair to
my city, this kind of surface erosion tends to be rare, especially on the major roads.
But for my own safety, I prefer to ride on the non-major roads, which have a higher
percentage of this kind of erosion.
Warning! I am not a roadway engineer, so the terms I have used above are laymen
oriented. Once site I visited suggests thirteen different kinds of roadway defects.
Well, it's not my field of study.
The second, and more prevalent form of pavement issues that concern me is that
of pavement contraction, that causes the surface to form multiple cracks in it.
Even when these cracks are filled in with tar (or whatever they use), it still can
cause a lot of bumpiness. But when they don't fill them in, in a timely manner,
sometimes these cracks can get as wide as two inches! The upshot of all this is that
I do a lot of walking my scooter over rough surfaces.
3) Not charging the battery with a charger specifically designed for your exact
battery. Resist the urge to do this. Battery chargers tend to be smart devices, but
they aren't designed to charge up every kind of battery. Make sure when buying a
replacement charger that it specifically names the battery you have in your scooter.
And, as a general piece of advice when purchasing anything that needs to work
properly for a long time: Never go cheap!
One must be careful to notice that I said that replacement chargers are for specific
batteries. When I bought my replacement charger for my SP2 Pro, it still had the
original battery in it. So, when I purchased a charger replacement for it that said
that it was designed for my SP2 Pro, I knew that it was a correct match. But, what
if you had replaced the battery with some other brand and didn't remember that
fact when you go to buy a replacement battery? Or, what if you bought the scooter
second-hand and maybe the scooter doesn't have the battery in it that originally
came with the scooter? So, before trying a new charger on your scooter, be sure
to open up the battery housing to see what battery is actually in the scooter. And,
always be careful when handling a battery as powerful as those that come in
electric scooters. Always treat them with the greatest respect for danger.
4) Don't over-charge your battery!! The general advice I have gotten is to trust
the battery charger itself to indicate when the charging is complete and thus it
should be disconnected from the battery/scooter. We are told not to trust the charge
indicator on the scooter for that. I'm now going to state how my battery charger
acts through its charging process. This may not be the same for your battery charger.
The charger light immediately turns green when the charger is plugged into the wall
socket. Then, when I plug it into the scooter to recharge it, the charger light turns red.
It then stays red until the charge is complete, at which point the light turns green.
I check the charger frequently during the charging process to be sure to unplug the
charger soon after its light turns green. And, as I said before, I always have a fan
blowing on the charger to cool it off. I suggest that you do not charge your electric
scooter if there is no one around to make sure that it is not charging after the light
has turned green. Do not trust to 'charge it overnight' unattended.
My final comment on this issue of Lithium-ion batteries in scooters catching fire
is that there seem to be few warnings given about it by the people who run YouTube
channels that advise their audiences on electric scooters. I can only guess that the
reason for this is that none of them have personally experienced a scooter fire
caused by its battery spontaneously igniting. To some degree, this is comforting
news to me. In the end, I still think that due caution should be used by all owners
of electric scooters to prevent scooter fires.
Tuesday 6/20/2023
Well, it's been quite a while since I gave an update on my e-scooter experience,
so here it is. I have a number of questions I think the reader would be interested
to know my answers to. Let's get to them.
A) Question: Are you happy with your purchase?
Absolutely! For practical use, the scooter gets me to nearly every location
I need to get to. What I can't purchase while on a scooter trip, I can get
usually by just using Instacart (which is a order-in delivery service). The
scooter is reliable, sturdy, and safe as any e-scooter could be at that price.
On the other hand, it would be nice if I could go twice as far on a single
outing.
B) Question: Is your e-scooter experience fun?
Actually, it can be very fun. Far more fun than riding a bicycle. Since I
ride mostly in residential areas, I can ride mostly unconcerned about
traffic running into me. And it can be fun to ride the scooter, especially
in cool weather.
C) Question: Do you ride downtown streets?
Not very often, but when I do, it's usually very early in the morning
(and usually on the weekends) to avoid traffic and pedestrians.
D) Question: Are you happy with the power your scooter model has?
Well, mostly. Most of the time I ride, I go between 15-17 mph by choice.
Maybe a little faster on wide multiuse routes (of which there are few in my
part of town). But during those times I ride on non-residential streets (i.e.,
streets that are regulated by traffic lights), if they don't have a bike path
I can use, then I wish I could go between 25-30 mph (at times), so I can
get to the next residential street turnoff before the traffic catches up to
me. As it is, I need to avoid traffic by entering the sidewalk and
dismounting and then either walking my scooter or waiting for the
traffic to subside again. Also, I wish the scooter had a bit more
acceleration when crossing at an intersection. The longer one is in an
intersection, the higher the risk for an accident. I have noticed that the
fastest I can travel on level ground is 19 mph, which is what the scooter
is rated as. But it will go faster down slope, so keep that in mind.
E) Question: What about injuries?
I've had a few. Fortunately, I haven't yet gone over on the scooter, but
I did hit a dip in the pavement I hadn't noticed and that gave me a
jarring effect. Most of the rest of my injuries occurred when I lifted
the scooter from the pavement to a sidewalk. It took me some time to
learn that after I lift the front wheel of the scooter onto the sidewalk
and then lift the rear wheel to move the scooter onto the sidewalk without
the bottom of it hitting the edge of the sidewalk, that the back wheel is
suspended and the scooter can swivel freely, usually towards me. When this
happens, it will strike me hard on or about my ankle, causing at least
some pain and maybe an abrasion.
To avoid other injuries, I use accessories. The most important is the
mirror I bought and wear on my helmet. My knowing what traffic is coming
up from behind is crucial to me avoiding being hit by cars. (By the way,
whenever I deem it prudent, I yield to cars rather than demand my
'right-of-way.') Lastly, when I ride in the dark (either in the evening
or just before sunup), I usually wear clear-plastic safety glasses to
protect me from flying insects that are common in my city, especially
near canals and ponds.
F) Question: Do you have any other accessories?
Yes. I bought a chain and lock, though I haven't used them yet. I also
bought a cup-holder that attaches to the steering column. I use them to
hold my reading glasses and safety glasses and a bottle of water. I also
took two pieces of cloth and secured them onto the hand grips to reduce
the slipperiness caused by hand sweat.
G) Question: Do you follow the rules of the road as if you are a vehicle?
I try to, but I am not a vehicle, and I do not have the protection of
being in a vehicle nor do I have the visibility to motorists of being in
a vehicle. A few days ago I was nearly run over as I was crossing at an
intersection by an impatient/distracted driver, who apparently did not
see me when he should have, despite I being clearly obvious to anyone
who took the time to scope out the immediate surroundings. If I had
been a pedestrian or a bicyclist, I would have been in just as much
danger, so please don't blame e-scooters. Anyway, while I ride on a
street, I usually follow the rules of the road so that motorists can
better predict how I will steer the scooter. But, when I ride at times
when there are no moving vehicles around, I may relax that rule for
a short time.
H) Question: Do you still get as tired as you did at first?
No, I don't, not even on long trips.
I) Question: Do you see many other e-scooter riders in your city?
Actually, very few. I don't know why this is, but I think it's sad.
J) Question: Do you agree that e-scooters cannot ride on sidewalks
in your city?
Absolutely, I think that they shouldn't because of the many irresponsible
young e-scooter riders out there (though I haven't seen any of them
myself where I ride). But there are time that I wish I could ride on them
for safety's sake. 99.7% of the time that I ride my e-scooter on the street,
next to a sidewalk, there are no pedestrians or bicylists on the sidewalk
who would be threatened by me riding on it. In other words, the sidewalk
is almost always unused when I ride along side it. I have mentioned that
once in a while I used the sidewalk to avoid a dangerous road condition.
But much more frequently, I would use the sidewalks in those areas
where the roads are in disrepair. If my city would fix all of its road
surfaces, that would help a lot.
K) Question: Have you learned any moves yet?
Yes, especially concerning how to turn the scooter safely. It's taken me
many months of practice to turn without undo fear of falling over.
Let me make a comparison to riding a bicycle. On a bicycle there
are basically two ways to turn: One is the obvious turning of the
handlebars. The other is to lean a bit in the direction of the turn.
But on a scooter, you can add to those two, two other methods. One
is to lean with your hips and the other is to steer with your feet by
tilting the base of the scooter to the right or the left. But it takes a
lot of practice at those maneuvers to perform them competently.
L) Question: Do you have any miscellaneous comments to add?
Yes. I rarely fold up my scooter on the belief that to do so repeatedly
would be to degrade the mechanism the scooter uses to secure the
handlebars upright (a form of metal fatigue). Lastly, if possible, I
do not ride my scooter if it's windy out. If I do, I know it will
decrease my maximum range and reduce my average speed. Also,
to do so is to risk getting dirt in my eyes from the wind.