I am going to make my purchase this Wednesday. And a late addition to the fold is an electric scooter.
Now why I am considering an electric scooter, is I live in Vancouver’s downtown east side. It’s basically where hopes and dreams go to die. so It’s not the nicest neighborhood. and I am worried about theft. a scooter would be alot more easily secured. I could basically take it inside with me wherever I go. And it’s alot easier to take it on transit. Plus the ones I’m looking at have a supposed range or 60+ Km’s but even if I only got half that It would be good.
The only downside is no swappable battery which you get with most e-bikes.
So which would you choose? e-bike or scooter?
Having had both, the clear winner in my opinion is the e-bike.
A tried and trusted mode of transportation enhanced with a motor vs. a razor scooter on stimulants, seriously, I have no idea how these things are street legal. Even a small pothole has the potential to send you to the concrete because they are basically skateboards with a tiny little handlebar.
They are also a lot less comfortable for anything beyond a 5 minute trip to the bus stop because you can’t sit down, and on most models you also have to constantly hold down the acceleration controls, which gets very tiring for your hand. A scooter is also entirely useless if the battery is empty, whereas an e-bike can still be used as a normal bike in a pinch, albeit with more exhaustion due to the greater pedal resistance.
Since I got my e-bike I haven’t looked at the silly scooters once, literally like riding a bike downhill in all directions, even against wind. It also has room for some groceries which a scooter naturally doesnt. Definitely the more useful mode of transportation of the two.
The bike will do better with any shitty road conditions, the bike is going to be more usable in winter in Vancouver even if OP isn’t planning on riding it much over the winter.
I’m always gonna recommend cycling, even if electrically assisted, but if you’re on budget you may want to go scooter as you can get decent quality one for way cheaper.
Now I don’t know much about the “e” part of ebikes, but the “bike” part is usually utter trash for anything below like 2k while you can get an amazing acoustic commuter for under 1k
I don’t think I know what an e scooter is as I can’t imagine why it would be easier to take on transit or easier to secure.
Euc
Would a folding ebike fit the bill? Something small enough that you could lug it indoors if need be, but also with large enough (20-inch?) tires to not bottom-out on potholes? You’d get the benefit of being seated during the ride, many have removable batteries, and if the bus’s bike rack is full, you can fold it and carry on.
As a rule, I don’t ride e-scooters, as they’re fairly nerfed by California law, in addition to the troubled state of bike lanes near me. So I would steer you – pun intended – toward an ebike. Around me, I see a lot of people on Lectric ebikes, so I assume they’re at least decently competent. Of course, British Columbia is a fair bit different than Northern California.
