MX60 up and down the mountain

The ride up an down the mountain is something I do with my scoots  not just because its a lovely ride but because its a repeatable and testing route, a combination of urban, roads, hills and mountain roads.

I basically had two reasons to go up there:

1. I wanted to see how well this new scoot (with great suspension and chassis) performed
2. I wanted to get an understanding of its power uses

So since that road is good for both purposes (see this blog post) I went there.

Summary for the TLDR crowd

• scoot handles fantastic at speed
• the design of the cockpit (platform and stem) is annoying on flats, an obstacle on climbs but good on down hills
• uses more power per 100km
• with greater power comes greater demands on energy, greater costs (battery as well as motors) and increased charging times
• physics is a harsh mistress

Doin it

Basically I'm a pragmatic guy but one who likes to have fun, but be around to have fun tomorrow (unlike some of my dead or badly injured mates of yore). So lets get into some of the pragmatic first. This is the results of my run on the MX60:

Which is very interesting to contrast with the previous run I did back on boxing day on the Widewheel:

So lets just look at the figures:

• Time to complete the run:43min vs just over an hour;
• Speed: max speed on the downhill 64kmh vs 44 on the widewheel;
• Average speed moving: 32kmh vs 24 on the widewheel

Looking closely the MX60 kept a slightly higher speed on the way to, and the crawl up the mountain while the Widewheel dropped down on each successively steeper hill in much clearer ways. The MX60 also maintained a much better downhill speed, and I can say felt more sure footed on the way down. However me myself I have no intention of making this sort of thing a habit, becuse (to be totally frank) my motocycle is far more fun, feels far more shore footed even at the same speeds and I can go faster legally too.

If I was in a rush to get somewhere then the MX60 would be the race winner. If I'm after an afternoon of some enjoyable riding then what difference does it make that one gets me back home faster?

So in some ways I sort of shake my head at wanting to buy a scooter for high speed blasts. Still I guess its like most modern cars, they'll do 160kmh but its illegal and most people aren't ever going to do that anyway.

Power needs

To get and safely use more power one needs bigger motors, bigger batteries, stronger chassis, better suspension and better brakes. All  this comes at costs; not just monetary ones either.

Bigger batteries require longer charging OR higher Volt and Amp outputs, the standard MX60 charger takes 13 hours to fully charge the battery, while standard one for the Widewheel takes 6 hours.

Of course you can upgrade the chargers (if you know what you're doing, if you don't then think explosive fire potentials) and for about US$40 I upgraded the charger on my Widewheel and got a really significant and practical charge time without pushing the limits (see here). Typically I can come home and charge for an hour and its nearly 100% again (say from down to 60%). The battery on the Widewheel is 13.2Ah, so 4A is pretty  decent and only double the Amp rating of the original.

For the MX60 however that's 20Ah and so to approach that (which is 0.3C) I'd need a 6A charger. This now starts to step into serious realms because the MX60 is a 60V system while the Widewheel is a 48V system. A MX60 60V 6A charger means its supplying 360Watt/hours to the battery (which is no small amount of energy as there are common bathroom bar heaters which are 500W) while the charging of the Widewheel (4x48) is only 192Wh and that's just two old light bulbs.

So we need more than double to go from a 1000W dual motor scooter to go to a 1600W scooter ... which is only a bit faster in practice. Recall that average speed moving (which is a reflection of trip time) went from 32kmh to 24kmh ... not double is it.

Meaning I have pay double to get 33% more overall speed.

If you're commuting, it just may be that I catch you (on the MX60) at the next intersection (on my Widewheel).

A last point (which probably doesnt' matter to most) is how much power I needed for my trip. The MX60 needed 708Wh put into it when I got home, while the Widewheel 410Wh. Meaning that my kwh/100km is worse at

• 3.2kwh/100km for the MX60
• 1.9kwh/100km

A Nissan leaf (with a few people and groceries) will use about 10kwh/100kmh cruising at about 90kmh. Meaning the MX60  is not as sustainable there too. I mean if one of your arguments is sustainable transport I mean.

Comparing decks

One thing which really immediately becomes obvious when you hit the power on the MX60 is that you've got nowhere to step back to and brace for that power (but hey,  just yank on the bars like a bob weight right? The stem is infinitely strong isn't it?)

Firstly lets look at the length differences:

So the Widewheel (which has a bit less power at take off) has much more board length (700mm), and its got a kickup at the right where its useful. Meanwhile the MX60, because of the stem angle you just really can't get to use that little bit more deck at the front of the MX60, except on down hills. But you'd better hope your feet aren't in any way damp ... because that rubber is friction-less with rubber soled shoes, but the grip is fantastic on the grip-tape covered surface Widewheel. If your front foot slipped off on the MX on a down hill you'd be smashing your nuts into the post then going down like a sack of broken bones. I'll be thinking about adding something to prevent that.

Its like whoever thought of the Widewheel was a agressive rider and whoever thought of the MX60 was a couch potato in need of a transport scooter over rough roads.

Speaking or rough roads, keep an eye on those bolts on the swingarm sides on the MX60, they undo. I put permatex on mine and I'll be adding this to my "keep an eye on it" list.

Lastly I'll finish off with a quick video of some of the other parts of my ride where I reflected on a number of points (not just the down hill-madness-run) 

If you are one to need a safe space, don't watch that, it contains "toxic masculinity" type language and you may feel afraid.

I did a ride this morning around my usual "gorge run" and got this:

which apart from a few quick "see what it'll do" squirts was not significantly different to the Widewheel either:

Which brings me to my last point, which is:

Safety

There is no doubt in my mind that the MX60 is very stable around corners and can be ridden with little skill around the same corner at the same speed more safely than the Widewheel.

The brakes are very nice (some might whinge about them not being hydraulic) but them being dual moving piston (not single sided) makes them feel fantastic. That you're forced back, by that stem, you don't have to shift your weight back with footwork, just lean back into braking and you're 90% in the right position for braking (well because you're pretty much stuck there anyway). Basically for anyone (I feel thats most people actually) who has poor riding technique that the engineering of the MX60 makes up for so much.

I feel that I won't be parting with my Widewheel any time soon, however I'm not so confident about the MX60 being with me for long.

So that about rounds it up, hope this helps someone.