Late last year I got the chance to review the WideWheel electric scooter from FluidFreeRide. The scooter packs 500 W motors into each of its two extra wide wheels resulting in a 1,000 W fun machine!
As awesome as the scooter was, my review noted a few areas that I felt the scooter could be improved upon. It turns out the FluidFreeRide team really took the critiques to heart, and has now introduced a new model with upgrades addressing each of my suggestions. And they are offering $300 off the price of the upgraded scooter this week.
WideWheel electric scooter
FluidFreeRide is the sole US distributor of the WideWheel electric scooter, which is built by South Korean electric transportation company Mercane.
We first encountered this hilariously awesome scooter at Interbike last year when we met with Mercane representatives.
A certain Electrek team member even got to crash test it when the two powerful motors proved to be too much for the polished convention center floors. Silver lining: we can now confidently say the scooter can survive wipeouts.
More recently, I did an in-depth review of the scooter and found that the high power, 45 km/h (25 mph) top speed, 32 km (20 mi) range and comfortable suspension made the scooter an excellent commuter vehicle.
Now I’m excited to see all of the improvements that FluidFreeRide has made to the WideWheel electric scooter.
The previous version that I reviewed
WideWheel electric scooter upgrades
The first upgrade includes a new throttle to smooth out acceleration.
With all of that power, the scooter could sometimes feel a bit jerky. Most electric scooters have much lower power and you simply peg the throttle wide open when you want to go. You definitely can’t do that with the WideWheel electric scooter – it has too much power to just floor it. But now with the new throttle, the roll-on is much smoother and you don’t have to be quite as careful with throttle modulation.
The next upgrade is a new battery meter. Before, there were just 4 LEDs that gave you a rough 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% battery capacity indication. Now the WideWheel electric scooter has an upgraded digital battery display that can tell you the exact battery voltage. For nerds like me, I prefer knowing the exact figure and not just a vague “you’ve got about half a tank left”. The precise digital meter is also good for charging, so you know how much juice you’ve put into the scooter if you want to ride off before you’ve reached a full charge.
They also upgraded the folding mechanism, which was another area that felt finicky to me on the original. It worked fine, but you had to unscrew the mechanism by an amount that was unclear, and I always felt unsure if I was going to unscrew it too much and have the piece come off in my hand each time I wanted to fold it. It locked down fine and was perfectly safe, but just didn’t feel like an elegant solution. Now the new model has a captured locking mechanism, so you can loosen it as much as you want for folding without even thinking about it. It’s definitely an ease-of-use improvement.
Lastly, they added a keyed lockout. The scooter comes with a physical key and it won’t start unless the key is in and turned. They pitch this as a good solution for leaving your scooter more secured if you run into a store for a moment. Theoretically no one can start the scooter and ride away. I’m not sure I’d want to leave my scooter unattended for any amount of time, but I think it has value as a deterrent since even if a thief walks away with the scooter, they can’t turn it on and use it.
Another benefit of the key is that if you lock your scooter on a bike rack, random idiots can’t just turn it on and screw with it, even while locked. Some e-bikes and scooters have simple push-button ignitions and I always worry someone will just walk by, turn it on and twist the throttle to see what happens. With a keyed start-up, your scooter is dead unless you’re there with the key.
There are also a few other non-forward facing improvements that further improve the scooter. The aluminum alloy used in the scooter is upgraded (though I didn’t notice any issues with the original frame). And the scooter comes with a new user manual personally written by FluidFreeRide.
FluidFreeRide is offering $300 off the new version
To mark the launch of their upgraded scooter, FluidFreeRide is offering $300 off pre-orders of the new model.
The dual motor version is normally priced at $1,199 but is now on sale for $899.
The single motor version is also on sale for just $749 – down from its normal price of $1,049.
The $300 discounts are good until April 10th, and the scooters should be ready for delivery by May 15th.
Having previously ridden this scooter, I can definitely recommend it. It has more power than most people would need for a commuter scooter, but that’s all the fun! In the same size as a standard budget scooter, you can have this crazy hotrod scooter. This is America, after all! Though FluidFreeRide does ship internationally, so everyone can experience this scooter excess, not just us Americans with our overpowered vehicles!
If you want to see the previous version of the scooter in action (which operates just as well, but without the new ease-of-use upgrades), see my video review below.
Video Review
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