I became an e-scooter owner in June (Segway Max G3) and have since had to teach myself how to do any and all repairs, which thankfully isn’t that difficult, provided you’re okay with researching and teaching yourself via YouTube and have the income to buy tools.
The closest advertised repair shop to me is 50+ miles away.
It’s important to know, since many people are going the e-scooter route due to fuel costs that you may have to do all of the repairs yourself if you do.
Sounds like the opportunity for good side hustle, that could turn into something bigger.
Yup, maybe in a year or two when I have a better handle on what I’m doing.
Having owned one since 2021.
My advice would be, look up how to change the tyres and or tubes if not tubeless on the model you are thinking of buying before you buy it. If it looks like a cunt of a job in the tutorial video, it will be 10X worse when you do it!
I have one with split rims which is slightly tedious but very light work to do a tyre change.
Stretching 10" fat tyres over a wheel with a motor and cables in the way on the other hand can be a bit challenging.
Also, wear a full face helmet. Either motor cross or at least mountain biking one.
Also, wear a full face helmet. Either motor cross or at least mountain biking one.
Very smart point. The Dept. of Transportation recommends a full helmet if you’re going over 20mph, which is smart, as if you end up going over your handlebars unexpectedly it would be nice to still have a face.
I have worked in a bike shop that also did e-scooter repairs, which was my main job.
The work is shitty, so most shops stop offering it. Debugging issues can take hours. Finding parts is a nightmare. People furious why it takes weeks for parts to arrive from China. Parts that are advertised as compatible but aren’t.
I’m glad I don’t have to do that any more.
One recommendation from my side: stick to the big brands (Xiaomi, Segway, etc). Your scooter WILL fail sooner or later. These are the most repairable and the parts are easy to source.
stick to the big brands (Xiaomi, Segway, etc).
This is partly why I bought a Segway: much easier to find parts and the knowledge base for repairs is huge and easily accessible. I actually have a whole playlist of videos for my Segway on my YT account.
This is so true. I’ve punctured the front wheel of my Xiaomi twice. It was the inner tube both times that you need to remove the wheel off the scooter for, put on the new tube, and then fill it with air with a pump.
The first time it happened, the scooter was still under warranty iirc, so we sent it in to them and had them repair it. FF to not too long later, it got punctured again but outside the warranty. This time, I left the scooter in the corner of our flat and didn’t touch it for like more than half a year until I decided to do something about since I figured sending it for repairs would be unaffordable. Instead, I ordered tools (metal spacers or prying tools or something?) to stick between the wheel and the tube + tyre to get the tubes off, unscrew the wheels (front tyre was tough since it has all the electronics in it) and put on rubber tyres instead. I’ve been using them for around 3 years now and they drive barely different compared to the previous ones.
Overall cost of repair was maybe 30-40€, an evening of time, and lots of nerves followed by mandatory cursing, but it turned out great and should I ever need to do something again with my wheels, I have the prybars already.
Broke off my rear splash guard that has the backlight plus license plate on as well recently which kinda sucks. Not quite sure what to do about that.
Glad you were able to fix it!
I’ve put off sliming my rear tire for two days, so today I popped the valve stem tool and got after it. Then, on a whim, I decided to try tightening the valve stem and just re-airing the tire to see if the pressure would hold… and it did.
So now I have slime to use later when I need it and bam, I’m back in action. It was a happy little accident of sorts.
That’s awesome! I had to look up what sliming means - tire sealant, right?
Yup.
My rear tire just wasn’t maintaining air pressure and there’s no puncture, so it seemed (at least to me) likely related to the stem in some way, and most of my research indicated that sliming would be the best way to fix it. Thing is, I didn’t realize until I actually had the tool in the valve stem that I could try tightening it instead. I’m glad it was that simple to fix.
A week ago I put new bearings in the front tire, so I’ve been doing work on the scooter a fair bit of late, but I expect to. I’m a bigger gent so maintenance is key, but even that repair only cost me about about $50 bucks for the tools and bearings and a few days of watching videos and building up my courage to do it myself.
You’ll be able to buy a replacement rear tail cheap on AliExpress. I’ve already replaced my throttle and I’ve bought spares for the brake, dashboard and handlebar
