Thanks for the detailed write up. And thanks to ranlee for the manual.
Six years ago, when I bought my new gas-powered scooter, I figured I’d drive it until it died, hoping for at least ten to fifteen years. Then at that time I’d buy an electric scooter when the technology had improved.
I have four+ years left on my original plan, and even though the technology for electric scooters has improved, I still feel they can’t meet my needs for when I want to take long trips, which I often do to places like Ming Chi 明池 and Smangus 司馬庫斯. But I just realized, instead of waiting for my current scooter to die, why not get an electric model now, for my daily around town needs, and hold on to my gas scooter for my long trips?
I’ll be watching this thread and hopefully I’ll buy an electric scooter in the next year or so.
You sound Taiwanese (“Driving your scooter from Taoyuan to Taipei? That’s sooooo far!”) I’ve done one huandao, and my buddy has done three; surely he and I can’t be the only ones on this island who take long distance scooter trips?
When I first got here I also loved long scooter trips. Kaohsiung to Taidong, kending and Tainan, and even to Taichung. Got 60k on my scooter in 5 years … but getting older and kinda lost interest now.
But yeah all Taiwanese say it’s so far if the trip is more than 15 minutes
Thanks for helping em get there! I saw the updates already, hope this will keep a good start point for everyone interested. One thing I saw is that the link to the government subsidies doesn’t seem to work any more, a similar (?) link seems to be this one: https://www.lev.org.tw/Files/107年各縣市補助總額.pdf
According to a biker friend of mine this safety feature is not uncommon. After all, if you lean into a curve with the side stand down it will easily lift your rear wheel, causing you to lose traction and fall.
Good idea! And if more people join we could start printing official “Forumosa Gogoro Critizising Club” t-shirts
For those of us who live surrounded by rice fields and don’t have access to Gogoro, is there any valid alternative on the market at the moment?
I was quite interested in the Kymco Cozy, price is now slightly below 40k with removable battery (60 or 100km worth of riding depending on model), 10km spare/emergency battery and can be recharged anywhere. Haven’t seen many reviews, though.
Your other option are those dinky plug in scoots with build in batteries that Kymco and Sanyang sell. However, you might as well buy a new bike or aero wheels since you can probably ride faster than their max speeds.
that’s true, most of them are capped at 25km/h -___- but recently I’ve started to need 5 to 10kg of equipment with me on each assignment and I really need a more comfortable way to transfer to the bus/train to Taipei.
This one doesn’t look too dodgy for me:
Speed is a minor issue, the home-station route won’t take me long.
If you have a safe/private place where you can park your scooter and charge it on a wall outlet, you might consider using the gogoro charger (available in a few weeks as far as I know) for bridging the time until battery stations are available on the east coast.
Depending on your usage profile and preferences, the other mentioned options might be even better suited though.
Electric scooter share scheme in the US.
Pretty interesting .
Imagine if it was operating in Taiwan ? The fee would be a lot less that’s for sure.
This bird company seems to be deliberately doing an Uber relatively high charging fees (earnings) at first to broaden market reach at an exponential rate, later they will ratchet the fees back.
Quick tip for getting the Gogoro 2 onto the main stand / center stand: Use your foot to apply the force to the center stand lever a bit towards the back - not just straight down. If necessary pull the rear handle straight up a bit. It works best when the other foot is standing a bit to the front of the center stand.
I had considerable problems getting the scooter onto the center stand. Not being a big scooter expert, I asked friends and they told me to simply put my weight onto the center stand, pushing it straight down, and pull up the rear. Well, I can put all my ~80kg onto the center stand lever, even balance on it free-handed - the scooter doesn’t move much. So I need to stand on it heavily and pull up at the same time with considerable force. My girlfriend (half my weight) seemed to have no chance to get the scooter onto the stand in any way she tried.
Once I push the lever a bit to the back though, not only straight down, the scooter comes up quite easily.
Safety isn’t an issue where I live, but I don’t have a wall plug. Another point for the Kymco Cozy was the removable battery that I can bring upstairs once or twice a week, recharge and don’t worry about it.
I’m basically ready to pull the plug on it but I want to check with the guys at a Kymco store near home about the cost of replacing the battery, its expected life etc etc.
The Cozy with 60km battery runs around 40k
Same model with a few extras and 100km battery is around 50k
A second hand regular motorbike would be around 20/25k (not too old, decent conditions) but it carries along the constant petrol cost
So Gogoro had a press release today and unveiled the Gogoro 2 Delight geared for the Cuxi riders that wanna go electric and Gogoro 2S for those wanting the speed of the similar S, but in the body of the 2 series.
They also rolled out different battery plans. One which brought back the unlimited for 899NT/month and the unlimited 699NT/month for new users.
(“Driving your scooter from Taoyuan to Taipei? That’s sooooo far!”) I’ve done one huandao, and my buddy has done three; surely he and I can’t be the only ones on this island who take long distance scooter trips?
