I’m typically disillusioned with a great chunk of electrical kick scooters I take a look at. Many of them simply haven’t got a variety that satisfies my wants. I regularly trek from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, into decrease Manhattan for a gathering, round 15 miles in complete. Hopping on a scooter is way sooner and much more nice than the subway (particularly in the summertime), nevertheless it’s not at all times assured that I’ll have sufficient juice to get dwelling.
But the Apollo Phantom V3 has by no means disillusioned me with its vary. I as soon as rode it in a single stretch from my dwelling in Brooklyn into Manhattan, as much as 179th Street, and over the George Washington Bridge to a espresso store in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and the Phantom had 43 % left within the tank—22 miles. It took me about an hour and a half! It’s the last word commuter scooter.
Phantom Woes
Here’s the rub. The vary on an electrical scooter is not solely primarily based on the dimensions of the battery however on a myriad of things, like rider weight. I’m a 6’4″ man who’s 240 kilos—lots of people can usually eke out a number of extra miles than me on the identical scooter. Folks like me want one thing that may deal with further weight with out sacrificing vary.
The Phantom V3 is rated to help as much as 300 kilos and had no bother climbing even the steepest slopes on my method up the George Washington Bridge’s bike path. The compromise to get this sort of vary lies within the weight of the scooter itself. Alas, this factor is a whopping 77 kilos. Seventy-seven.
I can carry it, sure, nevertheless it’s not simple. I actually want Apollo would make handlebars that fold down, as a result of they continually hit the wall in my slender stairwell or get caught within the rails—not useful while you’re carrying one thing so heavy. Thankfully, the stem is slender so my hand can truly grasp it comfortably, and the extra deal with on the finish of the deck is a pleasant contact. Some lighter scooters have super-thick stems that really damage my arms when attempting to tote them round, a lot in order that I’d slightly carry the Phantom V3.
You would possibly want a hand pulling this escooter out of the massive field it arrives in. Setup additionally required a number of steps greater than regular; mounting the handlebars is extra of an concerned course of, with extra screws and elements than its friends. Weirdly, not one of the wires across the handlebars had been plugged into one another, and this step wasn’t listed within the directions. For a couple of minutes, I sat confused questioning why the Phantom wasn’t turning on. I figured it out and plugged all of them in, nevertheless it’s odd that this is not talked about within the handbook.
As traditional, you’ll be able to pair the scooter with Apollo’s companion app on iOS or Android, which is far more steady than my prior experiences with different Apollo scooters. It linked rapidly too. You’ll have to enter your scooter’s serial quantity throughout setup, which is annoyingly on the underside of the deck. That’s my solely gripe. You’ll must run by way of plenty of security movies, nevertheless it’s useful and necessary info.
The app permits you to see your scooter’s trip info, just like the odometer, however you may as well tweak quite a lot of settings, from the pace and the acceleration to the extent of the regenerative brake. The latter nets you a modest quantity of cost while you use the regen brake thumb throttle as an alternative of the usual disc brakes. Speaking of, I’d have favored hydraulic brakes on a scooter this costly as an alternative of disc brakes, however the reality is, I hardly ever used them. I caught to the regen brake more often than not, and it was completely able to bringing me to a fast halt.
Photograph: Apollo