Ninebot F3 after 50km

Over the last week or so I’ve managed drive around 50km with my new Segway/Ninebot F3 E and I think it’s time for a quick review.

In general, I’m very happy with the scooter. It is stable and has a solid feel to it which is especially handy when a road isn’t as smooth as it should be. I also did some driving in the night and the front light is powerful enough to light up half a road. Perfect for streets that have no lights.

On the negative side, it is heavier than anticipated. The scooter is still much more portable than my e-bike but I wouldn’t carry it around for more than 100m. Another issue I had was that the F3 is not intended to be held vertically. Imagine a bus where you don’t want to take too much space up and therefore want to just lean the folded scooter somewhere. It’s doable but not comfortably so due to the weight and the area on rear that is intended for a license plate. Could I hold it up with the rear end at the top? That’s something that I also tried and it works “better” but is also uncomfortable since I have to use the steering bar to hold.

At least for Austrian “S-Bahn” trains the scooter is also about 10cm too long to fit under the seats there. Luckily, that wasn’t really an issue so far, though.

Now let’s briefly talk about the range: The device is advertised to do up to 70km on a full charge. That’s only for the Eco mode, though, which goes 15km/h. This would be fine but I doubt that it’s actually the case. I usually use the Eco, Drive (most of the time), and Sport mode depending on where I’m driving and so far I’ve had to recharge twice. It’s still decent IMO and I’m happy with it but given the weight issue it’s a tiny bit disappointing.

That also sums up my general opinion on my first e-scooter: It’s a solid device and I enjoy riding it. The weight is a bit of an issue but that’s about it. I’m happy with the purchase as it worked flawlessly for those scenarios I wanted to have it 🙂

After a week, though, I really longed for my bike 😂