I have been absent from this forum for almost 2 years. I really enjoyed browsing through the posts now when I logged on. I am anxious to do something to solve my transportation needs as well as to hopefully contribute something to the community of people worldwide that are trying to do more with less and live a more green life.
I live in the suburbs of Shanghai now and find transportation to be completely inconvenient. I am 17 km away from the closest place I need to go, and a productive day finds me trapsing over more than 80 km. The electric scooters that I have seen here cap at about 70 km, under ideal circumstances (I don't think that having a 180 pound rider is an ideal circumstance ;) ) For that reason, I have spent the past week looking into gas powered scooters and discovered an armful of red tape, even for a 50cc scoot....so, I went back to the drawing board with an electric scoot.
I saw a number of e-scooters that are identical in side and shape to their gas powered cousins. They are really cool looking but I am wondering, isn't all of the extra fiberglass and plastic counterproductive to efficient use of electricity? Is it necessary to make a bike heavier so that it can travel faster safely? The batteries in these scooters are still SLA and, at either 48 or 60 volts account for about half of the weight of the bike (not including the tubby driver). I have seen some ebikes with mid mounted batteries that get the same range and about the same speed as the e-scooter - can even carry a person - but do not weigh nearly as much. There is little to these streamlined bikes but the frame and seat.
What is really necessary?
So add some batteries to extend your range.
The choice of e-scooters in China is vastly greater than what you can buy most places. You should be able to find something.
You should also be able to find a shop to do the modifications if you don't want to do the work.
Check out the shop in this video:
The world's coolest fastest little electric scooter (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l1DPrIr5m8
I wish I spoke Chinese. I would love to talk to the guys doing the work in the video.
I would get them to build me an 85 volt turbo with long range battery packs
I think the shop is in Shenzhen but you should be able to find something similar in Shanghai.
I wish I could read Chinese:
http://shop58157498.taobao.com/
I got this out of a Shanghai expat forum:
"Anyone want to come with me to check out the illegal bikes on Sat?
I'm looking to buy a Vespa one at Yili lu or Kai Xuan lu."
So maybe that's where the hot-rodded bikes and modders are to be found.