Category: 3 Wheeled Scooter
Dakota Lithium Clean Republic Battery Build
Posting my review of the Dakota Lithium Clean Republic 12V 10aH LiFePO4 Li-on battery. I have 2 – 24V Currie battery packs that I use for my scooter and bicycle. SLA batteries are cheap, say $25 a battery vs $100 for a Li-on battery, and they will get you on the road, but… heavy, limited range, limited life compared to Li-on.
So I finally scratched together the $400 I needed for 4 batteries and made my order. The batteries arrived quickly and were well packaged. The were an exact replacement for my 12V 10Ah SLA batteries.
I have used these packs all summer and they have been fantastic. They are much lighter and last much longer. How much longer? I would say at least double my SLA’s. I have used them in a 48V configuration with my e-Bikeboard scooter, on my 250W 24V 16″ Electric bicycle, and my 450W 24V 26″ electric bicycle, and… I even have used them with a step-down converter and my 12V Minn Kota electric outboard. In every application these batteries have performed exceptionally.
Another benefit is the power does not lag as the battery is used. With SLA’s the scooter starts to go slower as the battery drains, not so with these li-ons. The power stays constant throughout, but, when they die they die without warning. On…off.
You can see I have adapted the power connection to Anderson Power Poles. I charge the packs with a Li-ion charger that came with my eBikeboard scooter.
Hopefully it will take me years to find out how long they last, but so far they have been great, delivering all the power I have asked of them.
Snow Ride
Take it easy. It has been a while since I posted last, got caught up in the holidays. It is the busy time of year for my work as well. As this new year begins I hope it is a good one for us all.
I have been riding regularly. Most of it has been on my Lyric eBikeboard scooter, but have also been taking a quick ride on the tandem bike here and there with my beautiful wife. I don’t know what it is, but that bike is fun.
It has been snowing where I live and that makes scootering — treacherous. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, people are not serious about anything other than cars for transportation. The roads are plowed quickly here, but the sidewalks… forget about it. 
The sidewalks are the roads for everything other than cars and no entity maintains them. Private property owners should clear their walks, but that is hit and miss. I get that you don’t want to shovel the snow from your walks, but the collective “we” of our community needs you to. I know people are busy and have jobs and shoveling snow isn’t always a priority. But whenever I hear politicians or people who don’t ride talking about how important riding is, I can’t help but laugh.
Snow riding is off-road riding. It can be very dangerous with the rough terrain of ice and snow, you never know what is under what you see. My Lyric eBikeboard was designed to handle off-road riding and in the winter it really comes in handy. My scooter is super rugged, and the aluminum construction really helps with all the wet that comes at it from the snow. I let some air out of the front tire to get some more traction. It’s a wild ride, and in some ways it is fun, just like the unpredictable nature of off-road riding. Just very treacherous, freezing off-roading.
EW 36
Got the EW 36 back on the road, I have put some good miles on it. The big wheels really make it roll easily. It’s nice and comfortable. The big “lazy-boy” seat takes the mobility experience to another “luxury” level. The front is very street scooter. It has the regular controls of a motorcycle. Hi/lo headlight, tail light, brake light, turn signals, horn, keyed ignition, locking steering column, brake levers, mirrors. The fairing actually blocks the wind a bit, too.
The suspension is a little different on the front tire. There is a shock on each side that is independently mounted, so it feels like it twists or wiggles a bit.
The back has four 18aH SLA batteries, a circuit breaker, a brushed 400W transaxle motor and the controller. When I got this the controller wasn’t wired in properly and the scooter didn’t operate. Someone had obviously tried to put a new one in and it wasn’t pretty. I got a new controller, but couldn’t f
ind one with reverse so I wired in a golf cart switch. It’s kind of fun. I rode it over to Wally’s Wacky World and rode it around the store. Works good.
Going down the road is really a smooth ride on this thing, and with the big batteries you can go a long way. It is quite a sensation to be sitting in a big comfy chair whizzing down the road. It can be a little odd going around corners too fast though, so it helps to
As much as I like it, I am selling it. Someone else can get more use out of it than I can. Plus, I need the space in my garage.
Schwinn S600 Frankenscooter threw the chain the other day in a way that made it so that I couldn’t get it back on. I had to leave it, walk home and get my truck and go back and pick it up. This maintenance thing is getting to be a serious issue. Riding a scooter here and there is one thing. Riding it regularly in all kinds of situations…
My e-bikeboard scooter, a rock. Works every day. My GoPed KnowPed, a warrior. Seriously. I ran it over with my RV, no problem. My Currie equipment seems to need a fair amount of maintenance per mile ridden. I finally got better tires on them so hopefully the flats will slow down. I need to replace a spoke on my EZGO and adjust the chain on the S600.
EW 36 Revival
This past week has had several good rides. Threw my scooter in the car and ran it up the hill to the garage, about 4 miles. Scootered home then scootered back when it was ready.
Picked up a beautiful vintage beach cruiser in excellent condition this week. Did a little research and found out this is one of the original beach cruiser frames. You can read here if you want more info on how these bikes came to be, it’s interesting. Wasn’t really looking to buy a bicycle, but we came across it and jumped. The ride is really smooth and the bike feels long and sleek. Really feels good in turns.
I put in several days on a project scooter I have, a EW 36, and FINALLY got it running. It is an interesting design, with a full complement of turn signals, horn, lights, tail lights — and wires everywhere. Took a while but I identified the wires and got a new controller and started hooking things up. Tested the throttle, good. Tested the motor, good. Replaced the controller and then chased down a bunch of bad connections.
When the wheels finally turned I was thrilled. It has been a lot of work to understand how to check things and what to check. I still have some work to do on it but it is working great now. I took it for a few short rides and then today I took it out for for 4 or so miles. It’s a very comfortable ride with the big wheels and big lazy boy seat.
This project should be finished soon. I have an exciting project waiting for me and I finished another project right before this one that I have yet to share.
Good things are happening!
Urban Riding and Mobility Challenges
Finding information about mobility and urban riding has not been easy for me. There has been a lot of learning by trial-and-error. I realize that it is a small segment of the population who share these interests and concerns, but I know there are people like me. That’s why I share what I am experiencing, so someone like me who is looking for information can find more information.
Recently someone in our community was using a wheelchair on our urban train and got their wheel caught in the tracks while crossing. Unfortunately a train was coming and he was struck and killed. Using mobility devices includes dangers, and for those of us who use them it is serious business.
Working on a new piece of safety equipment for myself right now. Once I get further along I will share. My friend and I came up with an idea and it’s been fun to try making it. We have ordered parts and will begin prototyping soon. I am excited.
Been continuing to ride and been thinking about how maintenance is a key element to factor with any device. This week I replaced a faulty throttle on my Trailz, so that is back on-line again. Found a broken rear spoke that needs replacing on my EZGO bicycle. And I need to make some decisions and move ahead with my battery configuration upgrade on my Lyric, or should I say eBikeboard, scooter. Got my first flat on the Lyric the other day, goathead sticker. They are brutal in the spots where the weeds have been left to grow. Also picked one up in the front tire of the EZGO, so two flat tires in one week. I run Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires with puncture protection, still got me.
With the weather changing, I am heading into the winter riding season, which can be some of the most challenging riding.
Crash
Crashed my Lyric this past weekend. Was starting a ride and I hadn’t gone very far when my phone slipped out of the holder on the handlebars. As the phone fell, still operating the throttle, I reached down for it with my left hand. The phone bounced off the deck and onto the road. Still bent down, I didn’t want to run it over and I instinctively grabbed the brake with my right hand, which controls the front brake. The Lyric has very good disc brakes that stop on a dime. The front brake stopped the front wheel immediately, but the rest of the scooter was still moving and headed ass-end over the top with me going face first in front of it.
40+ years of motorcycle and bicycle riding has taught me instinctively how to fall. Time kind of slows down and I could see the back end of my scooter with its four 12v SLA batteries coming straight at me as soon as I hit the ground. Luckily it missed me when it landed. (You think experience would have taught me not to grab the front brake rather than fall.)
In the end, nothing was broken other than my pride. Got a bruise or two, but astonishingly no damage to the scooter. The Lyric is a beast. Luckily I had also decided at the last minute to put my helmet on. I didn’t think I could crash this scooter, but I learned differently. I can not only crash it, I can almost flip it. I need to pay attention, be careful.
My Schwinn s600 project jumped ahead. I took the 24v motor from my Schwinn s750 and put it on the 36v s600. I like it a lot. It is a peppy scooter on a smaller frame. I haven’t ridden it too much to see if I will keep it this way, but so far I really like it.
Making a Grocery Run
Time for supplies and with the perfect weather it was a great day to make a grocery run. When I need to pick up lots of things my Lyric is a mule, strong and capable. You can see my scooter parked by the shopping cart in this shot, maybe help give a sense of scale.
There are so many features that make the Lyric the scooter to beat. First, I have yet to get a flat. That alone is pretty epic. Suspension is great, brakes are fantastic, speed and acceleration are good. One great feature is you can choose from three speed settings, so when I want to go slow the throttle doesn’t jerk me. Another speed feature, and one I never thought I needed but now that I have it I use it all the time, cruise control. Almost sound ridiculous to have cruise control on a scooter but it is so useful. 
The Lyric also has a headlight and tail light as well as a brake light. There is a parking brake.
It’s hard to tell in the picture, but there is a front basket that is full. There is a basket on the back on top of my battery box (the battery box is a mod I will detail later) that is full, and on this run I also carried two 24 packs of soda on the running boards.
I drove the scooter to the store, I drove the scooter in the store and I drove it home. I love this scooter.
Frankenscooter
Endless-sphere.com is an excellent website for information about all things electric vehicles. I made a post there explaining my scooter named “Frankenscooter.” I put a Schwinn S750 together with a Schwinn S1000 Stealth. The result is awesome.Top speed 18 MPH.
Post Two : What To Ride
When it came to mobility, I quickly realized I didn’t even know what questions to ask. After many mistakes and much wasted time and effort, I found the question: With a seat — how fast, how far? What I found is I need to ride 3 speeds; walking speed (3-4 mph), running speed (4-8 mph), and city transport speed (12-15 mph). So basically shopping, riding with my wife while she runs, and zipping to the store in town.
A Pride GoGo mobility scooter can give you lots of walking speed — only. An inexpensive electric scooter can give you running speed, and an electric bicycle can get you all the speed you are looking for. There is a tool for each job.
So how far? My kick scooter; .5 to 1 mile (slow); My eZip 750 (8 miles 12-15 mph); my iZip EZGO 16″ folding bicycle (15 miles at 6 mph); and my eZip Trailz (12-15 mph for 20 miles).
What about something that can do it all? If you can balance, a 2 wheeled electric scooter is tough to beat. They can go fast or slow and can be ridden in stores. Currie has stopped making their 750w and 1000w scooters which is the smallest I would recommend for an adult, but you can find them used. There are other manufacturers making 2 wheeled scooters with a seat. I recently picked up a 36v Quazar scooter that is belt driven.
I had a 3-wheeled Dillenger M5 that could do it all. 350w 36v12ah, it could go over 10 miles at speeds of up to 18 mph. No rear suspension, it was fun to ride and surprisingly stable. Limited hill climbing ability though.
My best ride is my Lyric Runn3r. Full suspension, all aluminum body, speed, torque, brakes, lights, speedometer, quality tires, fenders, alarm, remote — it has it all. 48v 500w motor. It even has a speed selector so I can set the speed. Example, riding in a store I set the speed selector to low so the starts are not full-jerks. I have much finer throttle control. At high speed it is great, the tilting suspension allows me to lean into turns and take them at higher speeds. Controller is sealed, so riding this in the winter; snow, rain, whatever — no problem.
I try to ride my electric bicycles when I can. I like at least getting some exercise when possible. But on bad pain days it is nice to have the full electric options.
Post One
This site is for people who use mobility devices. I started using scooters when my body gave out and what I quickly realized was information about the devices I needed was not easily obtained. It was hard to understand what devices would truly serve my needs, and I needed affordable solutions.
To that end, I have bought (and sold) many scooters trying to find the correct solutions for me. I have started this website to share what I have found.
I currently have a stable of bicycles, electric bicycles, electric scooters and kick scooters that I use in my daily life. Keeping them running has taught me how to repair and customize mobility devices. Using and traveling with mobility devices has taught me how they work in the real world, in the wild.
Life is ahead of me. I can’t worry about what I can’t do, I have to focus on what I want to do and find the way to get it done.
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