The Silver Bomber Electric Scooter
GG was up late the other night watching a WWII documentary on The History Channel and started to doze off. Right as my eyes were closing, I heard a commercial pop on the TV about "owning your own Silver Bomber." Of course, one eye immediately popped open (I had to make sure this was worth opening both eyes first). I then saw a bunch of people zooming around on these little scooters. Rats! Where's the B-17's? Where's the machine guns? Where's the concussion bombs? The announcer went on to say that the scooters were electric powered and cost 1/4 of what other electric scooters cost. Bingo! A 75% discount is definitely worth opening both eyes. It turns out these scooters were really cool. I did some research on them and noticed they were starting to pop up at major retailers across the country, so, I decided to pick one up. What is a Silver Bomber (MSRP $199, $99-$149 street)? Well, it's an electric scooter that sports a 24V battery pack (two 12V batteries), a dual speed motor capable of 7 mph and 14 mph, steel frame construction, and a collapsible frame that folds into the size of a large duffle bag. The manufacturer says the scooter works nicely for riders up to 250 lbs., and I can attest to that. GG weighs around 210 lbs. (yeah, I know...lay off the Ho-Ho's), but during test drives the scooter was still quite speedy. The SB is pretty heavy due to the battery case (located on the bottom of the platform), weighing in at 49 lbs. With that much weight, it's not really portable enough to take downtown with you to zip between office buildings, but it does make for some great fun at the park, large parking lots, etc. It's also small enough to fit in the trunk of most vehicles.
Ready for Takeoff... The SB comes with everything you need and is ready to run right out of the box. The batteries are already installed and come pre-charged. You get a battery charger with a standard two prong outlet, keys to turn it on, and instructions on how to prevent you from killing yourself. The frame and handle assemble are all steel, while the platform is plastic with embedded anti-slip strips. The plastic platform seemed kind of flimsy (it would bend and distort when standing on it), but the anti-skid strips keep your feet firmly in place. There is also a key slot on the side used to turn on the batteries. You get two small keys (they look like those keys you get with luggage) which I guess are supposed to provide some sort of security. I think an on/off switch would have sufficed as any scooter-jacker with access to a set of Samsonites would be able to turn it on. The best advice would be to put it in a safe place or lock it with a chain if you're going to be leaving it outside. Anyway, GG hopped on as soon as it was out of the box and took it for a cruise down the street. It was relatively speedy (about the speed of a bicycle at moderate speed) and was easy to steer. I'm tall, so the handlebars were a bit low and I had to crouch over to reach it, but it was still very useable. One problem I noticed right away was that it comes with solid 8" rubber tires rather than air-filled tires. With the solid tires, you feel every rock, pebble, squirrel you run over (that was a nasty incident I'd rather not go into right now), so it makes for a rough ride. I found myself being careful not to run over small rocks in the road because they would put small nicks in the tires, which over time looks like it would cause tire failure.
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