Electric kick scooter turns annoying toy into something useful

Dan Seitz Contributing Writer, Tech

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Kick scooters are fun toys, but they’re not useful for getting around. At least until you motorize yours, like Ben Katz of Atlanta did.

Here’s his motorized kick scooter, fully electric and essentially rebuilt from the ground up, in action:

Katz didn’t just strap a motor onto a Razor and call it a day. It’s rugged aluminum and completely all-terrain, right down to the fairly tough tires. Katz had to do a lot of custom work to build this: he designed a disc brake from the ground up, built his own shocks, and tore out a lot of the toy’s original frame.

It’s also a lot safer than it appears to be: the batteries, for example, are completely sealed away inside hard cases. The most ridiculous part is the top speed: so far, Katz has gotten this up to twenty-five miles per hour.

OK, so it’s dorky: it is still a kick scooter. But it’s also light (well, relatively), cleverly designed, and tiny: you can ride this thing with little if any assistance from your foot. Besides, the looks on people’s faces as you whip by them at 25 mph alone would be worth it. Katz has a detailed look at how he built it on his site.

Kick Scooter Converted to All-Terrain Electric Vehicle [Gizmag]