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Caution - Don't Buy an Electric Scooter Without Reading This

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by: morbrookdavies
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Word Count: 496
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 Time: 9:34 PM

So you're pondering getting an electric scooter. Well before you blow your hard-earned case you may want to think about it for a minute. Most commercially made escooters and not very good quality. They use tiny weak motors, low quality batteries that don't last very long and have low amperage controllers that barely put out enough power to get you up small hills. There are a few electric scooters that are better quality and use good quality batteries but they can run you many thousands of dollars and they still seem slow and don't come close to getting the range the manufacturer promised.

To save yourself some money and get a high quality, fast and powerful electric scooter with a decent range you are much better to build your own. By making the scooter yourself you can hand-pick all the parts you need to meet your exact specifications for what you want the escooter to do. Maybe you want a scooter will a really high top speed, or maybe you want to be able to climb up a steep hill so you need a high torque motor or perhaps you want to travel a very long distance. By making your electric scooter yourself you can build it any way you want.

Another advantage of building your own electric scooter is you can actually use a heavy-duty bicycle frame as the platform. You can pick up a high quality used mountain bike frame off craigslist for a low price. Using a bicycle frame has several advantages over using a scooter frame. In most places you don't need to license or get insurance for an electric bicycle, which can save you thousands of dollars a year alone. You can also ride an ebike on designated bike routes and paths. Riding an escooter you have to obey the same rules as an automobile so you are trapped waiting in traffic with everyone else. A bicycle is also much lighter than a scooter chassis, which means it will require less power to move it. This means you have a more efficient vehicle that can use a smaller (therefore cheaper) battery pack to go the same distance. This makes a decent battery pack that is has the ability to discharge a lot of current much more affordable. One final advantage of a bicycle is you can secure in a bike locker instead spending even more cash paying for a parking spot.

Making an ebike is a great way to get into an electric vehicle if you have a small budget. You don't need nearly as many batteries as you would to build an electric car so you can afford to buy high quality batteries that will last you many years. It's a perfect first project if you want to eventually build an electric car. Once you are familiar with all the electrical components and know how they work your next project should be a breeze.