Top 5 reasons why you need an electric scooter!
Post date: Jan 17, 2014 6:15:17 PM
Electric scooters have been around for many years yet the USA Market knows very little about them. The perception that I hear all the time is "that thing is awesome, my kids would love that!!" Yes they would and now you can love them as well!
#1: Quick, get up and go! Living the scooter life is a great, fun way to go about your everyday life except you will find yourself making excuses to go for little journeys. It is a great convenience to have transportation available that can go anywhere.
#2: It's quiet! LHP has put a major emphasis on making the scooter as quiet as possible. Utilizing a hub motor (similar to electric bikes), a quiet ride makes for a much more enjoyable experience. Not only is it great to just listen to the wind, the birds and the ocean, you will find it much safer as you can hear the cars all the way down the street, even when they are 1/4 mile behind you. The quiet scooter also makes them much more crowd and neighborhood friendly. If you have heard the gas powered standup scooters roar down the road, you know what I am taking about. Imagine Key West without the mopeds zooming down the street. Just quiet streets...aaahhh someday!!!
#3 A low wide base you can carry things on! The lower the center of gravity, the better it will handle. I have a wide low base on the LHP Nauti that enables you to put a cooler, a bucket, or even your little ones on it with out losing stability. In fact the handling gets BETTER with the extra weight on the base. Have you ever tried to carry a bag of ice on a bike? Better yet a case of beer? It does NOT work very well! The scooter or LHP Nauti makes trips to the hardware store, grocery or general store possible. Simply put a bucket on the base and you are set to carry things!!
Kids on scooters!! I can understand someone's initial reaction as that wouldbe dangerous to carry a kid on the scooter!! My kids and I - the favorite part of our day is venturing off to the park. I say venture because we do no go in a car but on a scooter, or sometimes one will drive a bike while another with ride with me on the scooter. I see people all the time with the "safety" kid seats that strap them in either behind the seat or on the handle bars.
The parent needs to balance the bike with a part of their body as they use their hands to secure the kid in the seat. Having the child up high raises the center of gravity reducing the stability of the bike and it creates a dangerous situation.
#4 Portability. No gas to worry about. Try putting a moped in your boat, car or SUV and sit back and smell the gas fumes. Electric can be light as well, as The LHP Nauti is made with a fiberglass base and Lithium batteries. You can easily fold it up and take it with you. Weighing in at about 55 lbs the LHP Nauti can easily be taken on and off a boat, camper, car or truck.
#5 They can take you farther that you think! Lead acid batteries have given electric vehicles a bad name. They are not optimum for electric vehicles as they are heavy, charge slowly and do not last very long, but even new lead acid batteries can get you where you want to go. Living the "scooter life", you will use the scooter for
quick trips all over the place and your range or use will vary on charging time as you plug in when parked. When developing the LHP Nauti, I wanted to get to Deerfield Beach (3.5 miles) and back to Lighthouse Point, so I designed in a 10 amp hour battery. This gives me a range of 12-15 miles on a flat Florida terrain. Moving at a speed of 12-15 MPH, this equates to about an hour of drive time going full throttle. Let's look at the scooter life in Key West. Duval Street is about a mile long and from the long end of the island it is about 5 miles. You can use the scooter to get everywhere on one charge. You would find yourself plugging in at say a destination on the North east side of the island while grabbing some lunch. When you have a fast charging system, the scooter will be at full power by the time you are done eating! Lithium batteries allow this to happen. If you are in the market for an electric scooter and have searched around you will find some interesting options that are very affordable. If you look under the hood you will see lead acid batteries. I have powered the LHP Nauti with 48 Volt Lithium Iron Phosphate battery that is more than twice as light, lasts three time longer and charges three times faster than lead acid batteries. I have learned from experience that the Lithium Iron Phosphate battery is the way to go. They are three times the cost but well worth it!
About the Author: Michael Braun I am the owner of LHP Custom Electric Scooters Inc. I was introduced to electric scooters three years ago and found them to be a great way to make simple things fun. Located in sunny South Florida, I have dedicated the better part of the last two years to making the perfect electric scooter. Everyone says that you need to follow your passion...I get to ride on mine! Someday maybe you can too...
