eScooter arrives- Part 3

Finally arrived on 17th June after ordering it on the 5th June. The courier company StraitNZ took 7 working days to deliver, although website said 1-3 days. A couple of bak and forth emails with Black Sheep Trading Company, they paid another $30 on top of the $70 I paid for delivery, so they were not impressed with the service either.

Courier delivered it at 4.45pm and it gets dark at 5.30 pm (winter in southern Hemisphere) so I was not able to take it out straight away, so just plugged it in to charge and left it.

First impressions? Heavy. 18.5Kg is a reasonable amount and I’m not that fit in the upper body.

It was all setup in the box, I just had to unwrap it. The first thing I had to do is charge it up, and you do not look at display but at the charger transformer light, that tells you when its fully charged, when the light goes from red to green.

The handbook is wickedly traslated, the english is odd and I’m forbidden to ride it as I’m over 60. It is a pretty poor user manual. I wondered about tyre pressure , something you’d think would have been of some importance, but no mention of it. I have an email to the shop asking what is appropriate tyre pressures.

I’m going to haveto add a couple of images from the handbook as its funny. I didn’t realise that these translation issues are still around now, this is like a classic 1970’s japanease user manual translation. Nostalgic really.

Tyre’s and pressure

Back onto tyres, this article Electric Scooter Tire Pressure: A Simple Guide is really comprehensive. An interesting point is that scooter tyre pressures are way above car tyre pressures, around 50psi instead of 30-34psi for cars. I suppose smaller wheels doing more work for the weight. Anyway 50psi is about standard, and maybe more for fat guys (me) so 55 psi. I need to see if my battery operated one will go that high.

Scooter Settings

The handbook has minimal info on settings and poorly explianed with no diagrams. The following videos are of some help:

This video talks about settings and has a sheet on them:

Control Menu Enter by pressing power and mode together, power to cycle, tap mode to edit (will flash), up/down with mode and power, hold last button to accept

• P1: LCD brightness, 1-3
• P2: Units km/mi
• P3: Voltage, set to 48
• P4: Domancy Time, minutes power shuts off with no activity
• P5: unused
• P6: Wheel Diameter, 8.5 for Zero 9
• P7: # of magnets on motor, set to 28+
• P8: Power Level, 0 to 100% (display goes to 200, no change from 100 and up)
• P9: Zero Start, 0 for zero start, 1 for kick start
• P10: Cruise Control, 0 off, 1 on. Engages after maintaining speed for 2-3 seconds
• P15: set to 100 P99: set to 99

Default Settings

I’m missing a couple but most of them are there. I had to adjust the P9- Zero start to 1 so that I start with a push assist.

Setting up

After taking out of box and charging last night I’ve yet to set it up, this video I thought was good, although I couldn’t understand the language:

this one is good:

I followed instructions of last video and all went well.

Trolley Wheels

I was a bit mogodored with the trolley wheels, they didn’t seem to relate to the Sonic 600 at all. So I sent an email off to Black Sheep and am awaiting an answer on that.

I did find a couple of videos about installing: This first one is a bit of a hack, the angle brackets are used but trim is cut on front cover.

The 2nd video they re-drill bracket and remove angle bracket and put spacers under the trolley wheels so that front cover can be used

I might try the first process and see if I can put a packer under the brackets, hopefully the screws will be long enough. If that works I’ll stick with it, if not I can always try version 2 and drill the bracket.

I don’t want the trolley wheels too low or they may have a bit of effect on the clearance of the tray between the wheels.

Manual pages

First ride Evan’s bay marina and Cobham Drive 4km with Jess

I decided to use the Evan’s bay marina area as the first tryout as the Cobham drive cycle-way has been added so there is off-road area for the dog to run.

Jess seemed to be happy going at about 12Km/hr and after a while she was blasting along. She seemed happy to run in front or follow the scooter to the side. There were not many others using the cycle-way so that was fine. There were 2 cyclists coming the other way so I stopped and called Jess to me and she sat by the scooter.

I also did a bit of a loop at the marina and she short circuited the loop. She was panting at the end.

I used level 1 (up to about 16km/hr) and even stepped up to setting 2 up to about 25km/hr so have yet to try level 3 speed. The idea with the purchase is to be able to explore, have fun and walk the dog as Jess is so fit and needs a bit of exercise.

I took her into the SPCA to weigh her and she is now 34.9Kg, a fat dog. She was about 24kg when I got her last August (2020). I think that was a bit of the steroids (and me over feeding her) so we’ll see if she drops weight with a bigger walk/run for her with the scooter.

A nice ride, I need to put a tarp in the boot so I can conceal the scooter when I park the car. It fits in the back with Jess, although I do need to clear a bit of space for it. Still heavy.

End comment

A long wait to get the scooter, 7 working days (there were a few more days as Queens birthday weekend & a 2nd weekend) so about 12 days in all. It gave me time to get the accessories such as:

• Helmet -the Warehouse – $28
• U padlock KMart 15$
• Wire padlock (key) $10
• Bell KMart $3
• Puncture repair kit KMart $5
• Back pack KMart $29 with chest strap & Camel Water Bottle
• Front & back lights – $10
• White & Red lights $10 (these actually for Jess and night walking now winter here and dark in evenings)

It is bloody heavy, my back is a bit sore, not sure if from Ride & position or from lifting and twisting carrying the scooter, it weighs 18.5 kg so I’ll need to start getting fitter. Upper body strength is a bit lacking at the moment.

Hopefully, soon to come Gaming chair may ease my back pains a bit, also more exercise, although average of about 7-8km walks per day is not insignificant.

I’ve enjoyed the first ride and look forward to the 2nd. I’m thinking of going to Petone and trying out the waterfront there, and maybe the Hutt River too.