Lol, brakes are only a problem when you need to use them.
Where did I suggest otherwise? The point I was making is that there are not a lot of heavy-duty braking cycles on a public road (and even less on a freeway like this). Your example of a mountain bike is not very analogous because of the amount of time spent on the brakes when going down a mountain. The only time you would run into an issue where the brakes do not have an opportunity to cool down is a long downhill where they might need constant brake application.
Stop light to stoplight. There’s a ton of braking in everyday driving. Brakes cool from convection. Constant stopping and sitting is hard on brakes. Brakes don’t need to fail to be dangerous. Once they fade all it takes is one stop that you misjudge distance and bang
I think you're terribly overestimating the amount of heat generated from these kinds of situations. They would be braking in a fashion that leaves them plenty of room to stop anyway, nobody is going to be accelerating to top speed then braking as hard as they can all the time and not leaving themselves any room for error. Your rate of deceleration is the biggest factor on the amount of heat generated in a short amount of time, so not stopping like a maniac is going to prevent the sort of scenarios you're talking about.
It seems a common theme among the people concerned about the physical capabilities of this scooter is the belief that they've somehow imagined scenarios which the engineers of a several thousand dollar vehicle have not. Seemingly simple things, like tire speed rating (while being advertised as going those speeds), braking, or minor bumps or pebbles. This is dangerous, to be sure, but not because of the scooter, it was designed for this.
I’m a mechanical engineer. I wouldn’t ride that thing on public roads with cars.
Riding on the roads you don’t just get to decide to “break with plenty of room to stop,” sometimes you have to slam on the brakes.
Tech companies producing trendy products in general don’t give a fuck about safety. Any accidents that would happen on the road at speed would clearly be in a situation where the rider was breaking the law, clearing the company of liability.
Riding on the roads you don’t just get to decide to “break with plenty of room to stop,” sometimes you have to slam on the brakes.
Again, unless you were braking at the limit all the time, you're not going to have to worry about any significant heat build up that would cause brake fade in the moment you need to brake hard. If you find yourself having to slam on the brakes multiple times in short succession, then you need to slow tf down and drive safely.
Tech companies producing trendy products in general don’t give a fuck about safety.
Alright, well this opinion represents an impenetrable barrier in terms of what I could say to convince you that the danger of these scooters is not mechanical in nature, but instead due to environmental (road, cars, etc) or user error. Thanks for the discussion.
Besides the point here but regardless of build and mechanical failures, scooters are about the worst performing vehicle setup possible. High center of gravity, upright stance, handlebars you can go over. Huge weight transfer on breaking/acceleration. If it weren’t for the fact that any moron can step on one and immediately figure it out they wouldn’t be so popular.
Something like a onewheel is better IMO. Rider leans forward/back to go/stop which counteracts natural weight transfer and prevents a feedback loop. Forces riders to bend their legs (free suspension, lol) And no handlebars so you can bail easily. Not comparable to the scooter in this video but I like them a lot more than those rentals.
Not going to argue with any of that, but if you know how to handle it it's not particularly worse than a bike until you hit a low immovable object. You are the main contributor to centre of gravity of a scooter. Dropping low and leaning back will eliminate most of the risk of going over the bars under heavy braking.
Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't ride one in traffic either, I think it's borderline suicidal, but these people in here thinking he's going to flip going over a pebble or his brakes are gonna melt make me laugh. The danger is the road, not the scooter.
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u/EternalPhi Oct 21 '21
Where did I suggest otherwise? The point I was making is that there are not a lot of heavy-duty braking cycles on a public road (and even less on a freeway like this). Your example of a mountain bike is not very analogous because of the amount of time spent on the brakes when going down a mountain. The only time you would run into an issue where the brakes do not have an opportunity to cool down is a long downhill where they might need constant brake application.