momotarosan said:now thisBIKEwould be the stand-in for gas scooters until the get fuel cell bikes on the market.

62mph top speed and 70 mile range...with regenerative braking.

Wow! I like their sports bike concept! Sports Bike

When can I get one of those!?!

I bought one of these last sunday (Retro Model) and have been riding it to work everyday. An 8 mile round trip on 25 MPH, 35 MPH and 40 MPH roads. I weight about 170 lbs and I am going about 30 MPH no problem. Today I took it on a 20 mile round trip. I've been taking it to the store, to drop off movies at Blockbuster, garage sales and lots of other useless places I wouldn't waste gas going.

I plug it in at work after driving 4 miles and it only takes an hour or two to come back up to full charge. Everyone I have come in contact with while riding it has been impressed and wanting one of their own.

I live in a suburb of detroit and it cost me about 430 out the door with taxes (No dealer prep charge for me). I took the reciept to the Secretary of State (DMV) and registered it for 15 bucks, and that's my only costs. I now have a street legal machine I can ride virutally anywhere around town for about 345 AR. Also, I looked up ordinances and laws in Michigan and apparently you don't have to wear a helmet while riding a moped if you're over 19 years old. Now don't take my word on it and I don't really recommend it, but for those of you who are vain it's good news.

I've driven it at night, in the morning, during rush hour, and evey other time of day. No problems thus far. Everyone is pretty curteous and I simply stick to the right side of the road.

The amount of driving I am doing on this thing will eventually pay for itself in the gas savings. I'll stop driving it when snow hits the ground, but then again maybe I'll find snow tires.


If anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer them. I own one, I have been driving it for a week, I have put a hundred miles on it so far. FYI, I have the Retro model. I was going to go for the Freedom two seater model, but A. It's 20 pounds more (will take away top speed and distance), B. You can't ride two people on a moped in Michigan.


Skate

must resist buying until further research is done

with gas at 3 dollars a gallon that only 100 gallons, ie 10 fill ups

also the freedom looks sweeet, but is it really 20 lbs heavier ?

On the matter of adding batteries, don't discount the idea of upgrading the existing batteries.

Unless the manufacturer went out of their way to get the best capacity batteries, there are probably better batteries available.

Check those user groups and see if someone there has already tried other batteries. One area to look at are deep cycle marine batteries. In any one form factor of batteries there are usually a number of capacities available. You pay a bit more, but if it means longer rides with more time before power starts dropping off, it may be worth it.

Regarding the weight issue. 20 pounds is not that much of a difference once you consider you're adding a rider to the whole thing. Adding the second rider will make even more difference. I weigh around 200 pounds. That makes the total 400 for one and 420 for the other. A 5% difference. That's not going to kill the top end speed by much. Hill climbing will be worth affected.

I'd say if you like the idea of giving a lift to someone else now and then, get the freedom and enjoy. If not, go retro.

Have you run it until it was dry? What's the range? My commute to work is like 12 miles and that's what I would mainly us it for. My big problem is that I live in an apartment and would need to roll it into my apt to recharge.

For that, why not just get a stand up electric scooter? I have a few of those and for a 5 mile round trip, that's all you would really need. For $300-$400 you can easily get a decent one. Check out the zappy group at yahoo. I think the X500 is the $300 darling right now. Click

enemy231 said:Im thinkin about buying this to get me to class and back on my college campus... maybe ~5 miles of driving a day. What do you guys think..?

Bubbamac said:I am still trying to find one important thing out. Is this a moped or a scooter. That's an important difference in my state.
Yeah, I was trying to find the same thing for WA state. The short answer here seems to be that a moped has to have a pedal-assist (most of these don't). The scooters that go under "bicycle rules" had to have less than 2HP at the motor shaft (many of these probably do; how you'd prove it is a question. If it's 750W, it should be about 1HP).

I think we'll be seeing a great interest in electric transportation, as gas works its way on up to $4/gal. If you're handy with tools and would like to roll your own, you can step up to a more complete motorbike. Like this., which they claim can be built for $1200.

Be careful out there, no matter what you decide to ride. I commute by motorcycle and there are many drivers out there who are doing just about everything BUT driving. GL

How has the "feel" of this been? Does it seem well built?

I live in Michigan, home of the pot hole. Our state flower is the ever so common orange construction barrel. Riding over bumps and divots hasn't proved to be a problem. I am avoiding them when I can, and I wouldn't recommend running through a sink hole. Everything seems to be of decent construction. Welded in the right spots, nuts and bolts in others. In other words I don't forsee it falling apart under regular use. I wouldn't dump it for suredly you'd break some aesthetic plastic pieces. The brakes are easily adjusted, I tightened up the handle bars with ease and they are sturdy, everything else is a nice tight fit.

Have you run it until it was dry? What's the range?

I wouldn't run it until it was dry as I do believe this would effectively kill the lead acid batterys. The manual recommends recharging after every ride. I left the charger at home and drove about 11 miles away to a friends house, and the same 11 miles back the next morning. Battery still had a charge when I arrived at home. Although I am going to look into the deep cycle batterys MaroonGuru was talking about. An excellent idea. Theres no reason you couldn't theoretically replace any electric components on this bike in the future with similar more readily available parts. I did find a website that does sell replacement electrical components that they claim will fit this bike and a host of others. They are supposedly all clones of each other.

Is this a moped or a scooter?

In Michigan it's designated as a moped. The registration slip I got with it claims it has "1BHP" or one brake horse power. I would check out your local gov site to find the correct definition for your state and what you have to do to register it for the road. The important thing here is that yes it is legal to ride on the roads here and I had no problems registering it at the Secretary of State (DMV) here in Michigan. Check out your own states laws though!


My buddy just picked his up this morning. He's 200 lbs and 6'6! I'm going to have to get a picture of him and his moped. He claims he's cruising about 30 MPH as well. Hope this helps!

Rock on!

Skate

Don't forget to check with the rules and regulations on a TOWNSHIP/BUREAU level!!! My township just banned these from all public roads. Don't know what the state law is in NJ, but the county is banning them.

xpfshost

For those in California - this appears to be a motorized bicycle and is exempt from registration.

Ca DMV link

Definition link