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Caching by electric scooter?


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Was curious whether anyone else is caching with an electric scooter?

 

Previously we've been able to mostly cache on foot or with pushbike/trailer but due to a combination of having to travel further and also the useless council not maintaining cycle paths we've had to start driving to get new caches.

 

To get around that we've not got a new electric scooter - it goes up to 30mph and is meant to do 28 miles on one charge. Worked really well on a few test caches, when the days are longer quite tempted to do a proper run and see how many caches we can do on one day with it.

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28 miles on 1 charge? Maybe it's a bad comparison but my wife's electric bike does 120 Km (75 miles) on one charge. We take our bikes on/in our car to the area we want to go caching and have done 50-60 Km tours (that's enough if we stop at WPs and caches and I'm riding a human powered bike B) )

 

I hope you will at least be able to charge during the day. At least around here places near popular bikeroutes have chargingpoints to "fill up" while having a drink or icecream.

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23 minutes ago, daddybeth said:

Was curious whether anyone else is caching with an electric scooter?

 

 

I know a couple of people that use eScooters for caching.

 

While I am an eBiker myself - like on4bam, it's about range (mine can do about 120km if I ride efficiently, or about half that if it's hilly and I don't want to put in any effort at all) - but I totally get the convenience of a much lighter, and more compactly foldable device.

 

We have some great cycleways and paths around Auckland with some really good series' of caches along them, would be perfect for a scooter as they are pretty well maintained, for now anyway... Maybe you should head on down and check them out! ;)

 

Go for it, have fun, cache on!

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7 hours ago, daddybeth said:

Was curious whether anyone else is caching with an electric scooter?

 

Previously we've been able to mostly cache on foot or with pushbike/trailer but due to a combination of having to travel further and also the useless council not maintaining cycle paths we've had to start driving to get new caches.

 

To get around that we've not got a new electric scooter - it goes up to 30mph and is meant to do 28 miles on one charge. Worked really well on a few test caches, when the days are longer quite tempted to do a proper run and see how many caches we can do on one day with it.

 

Curious... just so we're on the same page, are you actually meaning a scooter, or an ebike.  What you call a "pushbike" we simply call a bike.  :)

Not sure what your regs are there, but here most parks have a limit on an ebike's motor.  Ours and surrounding it seems to be 750watts.

I've been looking into one after my last medical bout.    Figures, I just picked up a new trek 29er a year ago...     

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Thanks both :) bike will always be preference for us but unfortunately especially in summer many of the cycle routes here are impassable by bike with kids because they become totally overgrown with nettles.

 

Becsuse the scooter can fold and go in the bike trailer, we could potentially cycle 90% of the time, then lock the bikes and use the scooter to pick off extra ones.

 

 

IMG_20170717_155255.jpg

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8 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

 

Curious... just so we're on the same page, are you actually meaning a scooter, or an ebike.  What you call a "pushbike" we simply call a bike.  :)

Not sure what your regs are there, but here most parks have a limit on an ebike's motor.  Ours and surrounding it seems to be 750watts.

I've been looking into one after my last medical bout.    Figures, I just picked up a new trek 29er a year ago...     

The one in have is 300w, but to be honest it goes along at 30kph which is more than enough for what I need. Maybe in very hilly areas the extra power would be useful.

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6 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

 

This is what I thought you intended.   They'll travel in rough terrain ?   Not too much ground clearance there...   :)

The issue around here is more awkwardness, with stiles, kissing gates, locks etc which are a PITA to negotiate with bikes but you can easily lift a scooter.

 

They only have 20cm wheels so are less good on actual rough ground, but that's less of an issue around here.

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17 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

Yes, I've seen kids zooming around here on these things this summer:

 

image.png.435e4f5af0f9f73a861301db80a5163b.png

 

I was just in San Francisco and scooters like that, rentals from Uber, Lyft, and at least one other company are everywhere.   I found a few caches near Fishermans Wharf and one of these scooters would have made it much easier.

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I did a bike trail at the beginning of the year with an electric scooter.  I thoroughly enjoyed doing that.  I was able to go much farther from my car than otherwise.  I didn't need to be aware of the time it would take me to get back since the scooter could do a max of 48kph (30mph) back.  I kept that scooter in my car's trunk throughout the year.  It proved useful for situations when I had to park farther away than I would like.  I could just get the scooter out and be at the cache in no time.  Parking 1-2km away isn't inconvenient anymore--and isn't far at all by scooter.  And, finally, earlier this month, I was able to grab the scooter I wanted for about 45% off the retail price.  This one, pictured, should max out at 100kph (62mph).  I'm scared to take it that fast.  The most I've done with it on a vehicle road to get to a cache is 84kph (52mph).  I should really wear additional protection other than a bike helmet if I'm going to go that fast.

 

I plan to bring both scooters with me to the Nov. 5th bike trail event GC8HMKG.  I had hoped to find someone I can do the bike trails with, but no one replied to my note on the event page and six out of the seven people I contacted said they couldn't go.  I'm waiting to see what that last person will say.  (If anyone here wants to do those two bike trails with me, you can contact me.  I'll let you ride the more sedate scooter.  It's not like we'll be going that fast on the bike trails, anyway.)

 

I've seen the rental scooters around in different cities I've visited.  I haven't tried riding on one of those, so I don't know about their speed or acceleration.  I'd figure due to liability reasons they wouldn't be able to go all that fast.  But I don't know.

 

I've found enough caches that I feel like I need to keep finding novel things to do to keep things interesting.  This is novel enough that it'll take a couple years to wear out, then I'll need something else to do to freshen the experience.  One of the other things I'm doing to keep caching fresh is to do challenging hikes to waterfalls.  However, several waterfalls I've visited don't have caches, likely because the hikes to them are dangerous and difficult.

 

And, yes, I know the last post on this thread was from two and a half years ago.

IMG_4604 (Copy).jpg

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1 hour ago, mustakorppi said:

You intend to ride a motorized vehicle capable of going 100kph on a trail intended for bicycles and pedestrians? And that's legal in your jurisdiction?

 

Maybe there's something I'm missing but for now I'm just glad there's an ocean between us.

Agreed! Those scooters are only allowed to do... I think 25km/h here, and even that's in parts pushing it because you're not allowed to go on roads. So there are people whizzing about on sidewalks on a fast vehicle that you don't always hear. Don't get me wrong, I used those a few times on city trips and similar, and they are super convenient but some people should stay away from them.

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I have seen scooters on a paved trail on an old railroad right of way here in Florida. But some of the trails prohibit motorized vehicles. That restriction may predate battery powered bikes and scooters but I believe it has to do with where the money came from to create the trail.  Some organizations want those restrictions before they commit their money.

 

I think the scooter would be very advantageous in urban areas.

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On 10/27/2022 at 9:44 PM, mustakorppi said:

You intend to ride a motorized vehicle capable of going 100kph on a trail intended for bicycles and pedestrians? And that's legal in your jurisdiction?

 

I ride a class 3 e-bike (28 mph max pedal assist). Most of the bike trails have a posted speed limit of 15 mph. I'll be cruising along, and be passed by someone with a human powered bicycle, doing maybe 35. And, they don't warn you they are passing. (In Idaho, you must give warning when passing someone on a bike trail.) It's not necessarily the max speed of the device, it's the max speed of the brain of the person riding the device. Believe me, in some cases, 2 more IQ points, and some of these guys would be grapefruit.

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I was at a business conference in Dallas, Texas and with about two and a half hours free before my ride was coming to take me back to the airport, I rented one of those scooters and chased about a dozen downtown caches starting at Dealey Plaza.

You can't ride on the sidewalks, and they go FASTER than I liked, and in traffic. I haven't been on one of those since I was a kid, like, probably 55 years ago and THOSE weren't motorized.

The only problem I had was when I came close to getting nailed crossing an intersection (legally), by a POLICE CAR!

Had a GREAT time, but I was constantly worried about having it taken whenever I got off of it and turned my back to hunt. No way to lock it.

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4 hours ago, Wet Pancake Touring Club said:

 

I ride a class 3 e-bike (28 mph max pedal assist). Most of the bike trails have a posted speed limit of 15 mph. I'll be cruising along, and be passed by someone with a human powered bicycle, doing maybe 35. And, they don't warn you they are passing. (In Idaho, you must give warning when passing someone on a bike trail.) It's not necessarily the max speed of the device, it's the max speed of the brain of the person riding the device. Believe me, in some cases, 2 more IQ points, and some of these guys would be grapefruit.

The professional cyclist Filippo Ganna was the first ever to maintain an average speed of over 35mph (35.289mph to be exact) in his new 1 hour world record, on October 8th 2022. This was riding a prototype bike specially build for that purpose by the best in the business, wearing a custom skinsuit, on an indoor velodrome with carefully maintained temperature to get the lowest air resistance without quite overheating in exactly 60 minutes of maximal effort, and of course with a support team to figure all of this out.

Edited by mustakorppi
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On 10/28/2022 at 12:44 AM, mustakorppi said:

You intend to ride a motorized vehicle capable of going 100kph on a trail intended for bicycles and pedestrians? And that's legal in your jurisdiction?

 

Maybe there's something I'm missing but for now I'm just glad there's an ocean between us.

My motor vehicle is likely capable of going 185 kph (115 mph).  By the same logic, we can infer that by having a motor vehicle capable of going at such speeds, I intend to drive at those speeds.  Instead, we find I drive around the speed limit.  Same goes for an electric scooter.  On greenways, speed depends on the situation: the number of people on the greenway, the condition of the greenway, visibility, weather, and so on.  If I say 28 kph (18 mph) is a nice speed, you might be in a place where your greenways are crowded and such a speed is too fast.  On the other hand, I've been on few greenways that are on great condition (no roots growing underneath), wide, and vacant, at which I've gone at 56 kph (35 mph).  It's all situational, based on safety at the moment.  And you'd slow way, way down when approaching anyone, anyway.

 

In some places in the world, it's legal to have micromobility vehicles on certain roads, especially in downtown urban areas.  Having a capable electric scooter allows you to be in more situations and remain safe.  Drivers in my area are impatient and sometimes idiots.  If I have to park far away from a cache and need to ride on a vehicle road to get somewhere, I want to be able to go the speed limit or whatever is safe for the situation (whichever is less).  Over the years, I've observed the situations that develop when motorists encounter someone on a moped (or another motorist) going a fair deal slower than the speed limit.  People get impatient and an unsafe situation develops as traffic backs up, people try to change lanes, pass with limited sight, or attempt to pass in the same lane, leaving little distance between the car and moped.  The point of having something that can go very fast is you can use such speed when the situation calls for it in order to remain safe and not be the cause of an unsafe situation.

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