Four Years Of Scooters 2 Years Of Niu Kqi Air And
- Battery & Range-1 pts
I've had it die randomly overnight due to this. This means I have to bring my charger from home to work.
- Speed, Power & Hills-1 pts
The throttle is a twist throttle and took some getting used to.
- Portability & Folding-1 pts
The Air is large for what it is. The handlebars are wide and don't fold. When the scooter is folded, it is also large with a fair amount of wasted space between the deck and the handle bars.
- App, Display & Security-1 pts
Hi All, I have been using folding electric scooters for just over 4 years. I thought I would share my experiences with these two ultralights. I currently have the Air. I used the GT SE from 2022-2024 so my experience may be a little out of date. TLDR: The NIU Air is a great ride with terrible firmware/features and bulky. The GT SE is a rough ride and the hard wheels can be a hazard, but it is small, light, and powerful with minimal features. My Commute I live about a mile from a train station. I ride my scooter to the train, take the train, and then have about 3 miles to work. So it is an 8 mile round trip. Both scooters had no issue doing this round trip on a single charge. I am riding with urban traffic and suburban traffic. I do this commute year round with rain, snow, and sunshine. I probably have about 2000 miles of riding on each. My Requirements (I am open to recommendations for other scooters!): 1. Light (<30 lbs) 2. Able to fold and be taken on a train 3. 20+ mph top speed (going only 15 mph makes me feel dangerous with traffic) Air Build Quality: The build quality felt top notch to me. The design felt over built in some ways though. Size: The Air is large for what it is. The handlebars are wide and don't fold. When the scooter is folded, it is also large with a fair amount of wasted space between the deck and the handle bars. The deck is wide, which is nice for comfort, but contributes to the scooter feeling large. Tires: It has air tires and that has been really nice. The ride is smoother and I feel much safer. I have had to deal with punctures, but found that slime sealant worked well. Features: Cruise control works well. Everything else is between meh and awful. There are turn signals, but they are difficult to use with gloves on. The wider handle bars are nice for stability when riding. The throttle is a twist throttle and took some getting used to. Regenerative braking has different levels but is then fixed at that level. The brake then cuts in whenever you aren't on the throttle. As such, I leave that feature off. The alarm: there is an alarm that can't be turned off. Due to this, the scooter needs to be powered whenever moving it. Otherwise the alarm will sound (which can be turned off) and lights will flash (cannot be turned off). A key is needed to unlock it so you have to carry around the key card at all times. There is also bluetooth, which can be used to control the lock. But this means that the scooter is always on to some extent. I've had it die randomly overnight due to this. This means I have to bring my charger from home to work. I've also had the firmware lockup (only once). I had to disconnect the battery from the controls and restart the scooter. All of the settings were then reset. There is an app that is pretty much meh. Rain: I had no issues with this in water. GT SE Build Quality: The build quality felt kinda meh to me. That said, I had no issues with it. Size: The GT SE folds very nicely, including the handle bars. The deck is narrow. It feels very small. Tires: The tires are hard tires. The ride is very bumpy as a result despite the shock absorber. There is also less traction. I wiped out once on a wet road and that hurt. A lot. I was much more careful after that. Features: Cruise control never worked for me, though I think that has now been fixed. The extra top speed (up to 23.5 mph) was quite nice without being "too fast". (I briefly bought the replacement that allowed speeds up to 30 mph and returned it immediately. I think I would have wrecked and really hurt myself at some point.) I liked the thumb controls and the separate regen brake control. There aren't a lot of frills otherwise. But it does work well. Rain: Other than the tires, I had no issues commuting in the rain. Though I had an electrical issue and maybe that was caused by water? It didn't seem to be. Verdict: The GT SE had an electrical pr [truncated]