Mercane Single motor on hills (with a bicycle beside for comparison)

'Morning

well I've done my street and this block before, but this time I've got some additional information to do with that last post (here).

First is this plot of the same "round the block" I did at the last part of that post where after the longer ride I went up about the steepest hills in my area. this is the plot from GPS showing speed and elevation over time. What's interesting is that the fastest and slowest speeds (aside from when I was just looking around at the top) are on the same actual place, that last "pinch" of the hill where my street joins the other one and the slope changes:

You can see also that after I crest that hill (shown pretty clearly on the GPS elevation) that my speed goes up (of course).

Now to "get real" here for a moment (aside from the "I want more speed" emotions), I think the following video I made on that exact route (but not at that exact time) makes clear that the single wheel is sufficient for hills when you see it with my friend on his bicycle.

Now I'm really sorry, but the wind noise is terrible and I discovered that I am probably hyper-attentive to looking around (think squirrel) and so that makes for a bad video. So with that apology out of the way:

So while that's hard to watch with all the movement and noise (sorry, hopefully my video skills will improve) it shows some important points:

• the hill at the last bit of my street is steep, even my mate had to work a bit harder.
• I kicked a bit, but really not much and its not like that's going to work up a sweat.
• at 1:30 I started pulling away, and by 1:45 I left my friend cycling behind and got to the top at 2:45 ... he arrived 3:19, which is a 34 second lead up a hill. Because it was blasted by the wind I was remarking that "people say "but will it go up hills?" ... and I recon the answer is well enough and this is only the single motor version, not the dual motor version"
• rolling resistance is a big issue on all scooters, and I'm quite sure that having two motors makes some sort of impact on that.

(as a PS)
I went back this morning and measured that hill and I got a slope (according to the GPS) of 4° but according to my tapemeasure and spirit levels 5°
Here is the GPS plot of my trip (this morning) and I've highlighted the speeds down and up.

you can note a gradual increase in speed on the way down (as it did get a wee bit steeper) and interestingly a gradual increase in speed on the way up (because in reverse it got a wee bit less steep).

Discussion

So while a dual motor would probably scale that hill better I suspect that it will reduce the max speed down the hills because it will give more rolling resistance and (due to speed) the motors will not be getting powered (not least) because of the speed cutout (and maybe because they'll have reached their maximum effective RPM too.

Now in the USA where the price difference between the single and the dual is about $100 its not so much of a decision, but in Australia where its more like $500 difference (or nearly 50% more) it is.

My view on this is that for my weight the Single Motor is sufficient and the $500 better off in my pocket, were I 100kg the answer would be different.

Additionally if one finds that one needs more speed, perhaps you would be much better / safer / well served by an eBike or (shock) an actual motor scooter, like a Honda Dio which I can buy in excellent condition used for $1500 (and that will do 90km/h all day long has bigger wheels and recharges in minutes with liquid energy at the servo).

HTH