The scooter has been considered the prerogative of children and adolescents for decades. With the advent and development of electric scooter models against the backdrop of growing environmental concern for people in the form of abandoning personal cars and even public transport in favor of ecological bicycles and electric scooters, this two-wheeled iron horse gradually began to be used as a popular means to get to work.
Of course, this is a purely urban means of transportation, and you won’t go too far without recharging it, but sometimes you even have to wind many kilometers around the city, and you want to spend as little time as possible on it. In addition, fans of fast driving are ready to test almost anything as a racing mechanism, because many people are interested in how much this unit accelerates.
Maximum
Unfortunately, there is no officially recognized record for the speed of an electric scooter, if only because an ordinary unit of this type is not equipped with a speedometer. In addition, manufacturers usually do not seek to create a truly fast electronic unit, and there are two good reasons for this.
- Danger to the passenger. It is difficult to come up with a type of transport on which the rider would be protected even less than on a scooter. The maximum that you can think of for safety is the minimum “set of a cyclist” from a helmet and elbow pieces with knee pads, but at high speed they certainly will not save from injuries.In addition, a scooter with a motor, unlike the same bike, is noticeably more difficult to control at steep turns, because manufacturers prefer to set a relatively low top speed for the device.
- Mass increase with increasing speed. An ordinary mechanical scooter - the transport is quite easy, it is convenient to overcome obstacles and move up stairs with it, but in the electric version, the battery is the most difficult part a priori. Unfortunately, in most cases there is a direct correlation between the battery capacity and the power output by the motor, and the latter determines how well the vehicle picks up speed. Accordingly, existing models from among high-speed ones weigh quite a lot and this is inconvenient, but you can make them even faster, but then they will become completely uncomfortable.
Given all of the above, it should not be surprising that, by default, a factory scooter (and by no means everyone) develops at electric speed, at best, 60 km / h, and even if there are ideal conditions, which will be discussed below.
However, in our country there are enough craftsmen who want to remove the software speed limit and increase it due to some modernization of the device, due to which more serious 80 and 90 km / h are already achieved. An unofficial record and a generally recognized reference point for each modernized scooter can be considered 100 km / h, but the owner can accelerate so much only if he 100% trusts both the quality of the road, which should be perfectly smooth, and his ability to drive a vehicle in such conditions.
What factors affect the maximum speed of the scooter?
The concept of maximum speed for a particular model is somewhat arbitrary - usually it means the average maximum speed, which is relatively easy to achieve, but it happens that the manufacturer intentionally overestimates the numbers, and the declared maximum can be achieved only under ideal conditions. To understand how to squeeze everything out of an electric scooter, we consider what the swiftness of movement depends on.
- Motor specifications. This is almost the main criterion, which is one of two stably affecting speed. Power and torque - this is the supply of transport power, they do not change under any circumstances (except for modernization with replacement of parts). Expecting to drive as fast as possible, in any case, you should pay attention to those models that have the best indicators of these characteristics.
- Wheel diameter. The engine spins the wheels to a certain number of revolutions per second. It is clear that for a scooter with small wheels, the distance traveled will be less than that of a model that has a more serious diameter. Of course, the larger the wheels, the heavier they are, and the more difficult they are to rotate, however, the factory manufacturer usually takes this moment into account and makes the engine power appropriate.
- Vehicle and passenger weight. The total mass of moving vehicles greatly affects the speed of movement - if it is large, the friction force with the road surface increases, and you won’t go so fast. A quick electric scooter should be light on its own, without losing any other driving characteristics.
If you already load a difficult model not only with yourself, but with a huge backpack, do not be surprised that it barely rides.
- Features of the road surface. If the road is perfectly smooth, the scooter literally slides along it without experiencing much resistance, and this, of course, is a huge plus for transport. Whether it’s a case - a viscous coating that allows some scooter subsidence and wheels getting stuck in even the smallest holes formed under its own weight. In addition, the slope also matters - how to go uphill is much harder than from a mountain, and an electric motor will spend much more effort when climbing.
- Headwind. Even this factor, which seems insignificant, affects the speed, because it creates additional resistance. By itself, it is usually not so influential, but coupled with imperfect road surface and climbing uphill, the result may be depressing for someone in a hurry.
What speed do you need?
The reasons why manufacturers do not produce truly racing scooters have been described above - it remains to understand how to choose a specific model for their tasks, because even the declared 60 km / h is quite a lot for short trips around the city. There is a special classification of electric scooters in the context of who is driving - it also contains information about the normal power of such vehicles. Experts advise the following.
- To the children. It is believed that 5-10 km / h for them is the ceiling. In fact, this is walking an adult or unhurried running, but for someone who is just learning, it’s definitely not necessary anymore. For this indicator, a motor with a power of about 100 watts is enough.
- Adolescents and Adults. Those and other requests may be more serious than simple “pokatushki” in the yard - for them it is already a variant of personal transport. At the same time, such drivers are usually lacking experience and endurance, because a speed higher than 15 km / h is optional for them, which in terms of watt is 150-250 watts.
- Adults for daily routine. If you don’t surprise you with a scooter, but you need an electric scooter every day, since it replaces a car or public transport, focus on the high-speed barrier of about 35 km / h - in the end, you should not just go to the same job, but hurry. You can expect such agility from a model with a capacity of 250-350 watts.
- Racers. If you consider yourself a lover of fast driving and you are not afraid to accelerate such a fragile design to such swiftness, you should pay attention to models that can accelerate to 40-60 km / h. In such scooters, manufacturers often focus on ensuring that they do not lose their cruising speed even in adverse conditions, and therefore their power is impressive - it usually ranges from 700 to the amazing 2000 watts.
How to pump a vehicle?
No matter how you try to choose the most advanced electric scooter, with great probability it will happen that the declared characteristics are somewhat exaggerated. For example, with a power reserve of 90 km, the battery really only lasts for 60-70 km, the unit does not necessarily reach at least 2-3 km / h, and with a semi-discharged battery, problems begin in any driving mode.
For this reason, many craftsmen consider it reasonable to assemble an electric scooter on their own in order to adjust its parameters, or to upgrade the model purchased in a box.
To increase the “endurance” of the scooter, you must purchase for it and install a more powerful battery. The difficulty lies in the fact that for many models its dimensions are individual, and it is extremely difficult to find a model of the same capacity, but of the same size. Well, if the configuration of the case involves the installation of additional batteries in special cells - in this case it will be much easier to experiment.
As for the engine, in almost all cases it will normally survive acceleration about 1.5 or even 2 times higher than the factory standard, especially if you don’t scoff at the makeshift, riding on it uphill on rubble and otherwise wind. Another thing is that the motor-wheel controller has certain limitations that do not allow to disperse the scooter more than to the “normal” speed set by the factory. Hence, The essence of the modification is either to replace the controller with another, or you will have to thoroughly solder the original board.
Please note that self-modification of the scooter is not only fraught with its non-functionality, but also leads to loss of warranty.
You will learn more about the speed of an electric scooter by watching the following video.
