mten3 420Wh

[mark321]

I've wanted a tiny "last mile" scooter of some form for quite a while, but I was never quite convinced I needed the mten3 at $1000.  So recently when the new slightly smaller distance slightly slower 420Wh version came out for $600 at ewheels I finally took the plunge.  And this is a really great wheel.

I haven't evaluated it at high speeds or distances; my usage really is "last mile" and in fact so far most of my trips have even been well under one mile.

This is where it shines for me.  I only ever take my KS18 out for longer rides because it always seemed cumbersome to lug it in and out of the house to do something short.  And now that I have the mten3 the KS18 seems 10x as cumbersome as before.  The mten3 sits by my door and I take it just about any time I leave the house.  It's so easy to pick up and sling around.

Rough list of likes/dislikes:
good:
* tiny, super easy to carry around, easy to use all the time
* fast enough
* wide wheel is pretty stable
* excellent headlight
* can "flick" one-handed it to make the pedals fall down
bad:
* led light show is not configurable
* headlight can't be set to "always on"
* cutoff button easy to accidentally un-press
* the ON switch requires a long-press

Going into more detail on some of these:

The tire is a good width, I wouldn't mind even wider but it's enough to handle road imperfections decently.

For usability I like how I can carry the EUC with one hand with the pedals up, then just rotate/flick the EUC back and forth with a little speed and that's enough to make the pedals fall down to ride.  (Doing the opposite to put the pedals back up one-handed is kind of possible, but too hard to be useful.)

The headlight is very well positioned, I would never ride my KS18 without a flashlight, but I feel fine taking the mten3 out by itself.  There is of course a difference in the speed/distance I'd be riding the two, but it's also a much more useful headlight.  It's a sharp beam at a height where it casts a strong shadow over road hazards.

A small improvement I'd like for the headlight though: 100% of the time when I turn the EUC on, I immediately hit the button a second time to turn the headlight on.  I'd like to just be able to configure the headlight to always on.

As for the other lights, I can't believe there's no configuration for that silly rainbow light show.  At least give me the option to turn them all to solid white, or virtually anything would be better than the gaudy setting it comes with.

Now for my biggest dislike: that manual cut-off button.  At first I liked it, but I'm becoming less pleased with that design.  It only works if you press the button, wait for the beep, then pick up the EUC and maintain firm contact with the button continuously after that point.  If your finger slightly reduces pressure on the button while holding the EUC, it spins up and once spinning it no longer responds to the cut-off button.  This is probably a safety feature to avoid cut-off while riding.  But it makes real world use of the cut-off button finicky.  You can't reliably pick up the EUC while it's turned on, there's always the risk you'll end up with the EUC spinning wildly out of control with no way to regain control but to carefully balance the EUC while holding it.  And that's the entire point of cut-off buttons: to not get in that situation.

The only caveat I'll make to my cut-off button complaint is that if you rock the EUC back and forth while it's going crazy it hits 0rpm as it reverses direction, and if you can rock it moderately slowly it'll stay at that "roughly 0rpm" speed long enough for the cut-off button to become active again, so it's not quite as hard to regain control as an EUC with no cut-off whatsoever.

Another small but worthwhile improvement would be to make the on/off button work like kingsong.  The kingsong takes one-short press to immediately turn on, and only requires a long-press to turn off.  The mten3 requires a long-press even to turn the EUC on.  That may seem minor, but as much as I use the EUC with one hand that really makes a difference in usability.

[mark321]

One other things I noticed recently: when traversing a sidewalk with lots of people the mten3 blends in effortlessly and without disturbing anyone.  If I did the same thing on something the size of a KS18 people get startled and start jumping out of my way as if they think I'm about to run over them.  The mten3 blends much more smoothly with pedestrians, and only draws moderate attention if you live in a city that already has rentable electric scooters everywhere

[PennBruce]

On 3/4/2020 at 10:06 PM, mark321 said:

........................Now for my biggest dislike: that manual cut-off button.  At first I liked it, but I'm becoming less pleased with that design.  It only works if you press the button, wait for the beep, then pick up the EUC and maintain firm contact with the button continuously after that point. ................

When I pick mine up and it starts spinning, a push of the button cuts it off.  And my button is under the MTen3's neoprene overcoat

Bruce.