If you are an adult who wants to save gas money doing local errands and short local trips under 10 miles round-trip, you might want to consider using an electric scooter, a cheap, hassle free , excellent method of transportation that helps the environment too. I use the Schwinn Stealth 1000 Electric Scooter (Schwinn S-1000) which is perfect for me. Licenses are not required in most places for the Schwinn S-1000 (though I would check locally) and about the only thing you really need is a helmet and to weigh under 250 pounds.
I am a total klutz and the S-1000 is incredibly easy to use as the balance is so good and the ride is super comfortable. It took me 1 hour of practice in an empty lot and I’ve ridden the scooter ever since, easy as pie. Believe it or not, I prefer to ride in the street in the bike lanes where the ground is smooth rather then going over the cracking sidewalks. The scooter goes up to 15 miles per hour and you can go as far as 15 miles with it till the battery is empty, though I think 10 miles is a more reasonable expectation. Charging the battery is super easy as you just use a small charger connected to any electric outlet in your home and connect it to your scooter. Takes about 10 seconds to plug in and about 6 hours to charge. The battery lasts about 6 months, and costs about $125 for a new one and is very easy to put in requiring no mechanical skills.
What I like about the Schwinn Stealth 1000 Electric Scooter is it’s cheap, around $410 or so – it will probably cost you $50 for a bike place to put it together, and requires little maintenance primarily because of its direct drive system. I had an earlier Schwinn Electric Scooter with a Cable drive system, and the cables kept getting tangled up and it was costing me $75 a pop to fix. With the Schwinn S-1000, after about 8 months, I’ve had no repairs or maintenance charges, which I attribute to its direct drive system.
I would recommend you get your local bike shop to put a small basket on the back of the scooter if you do errands because I don’t believe Schwinn Electric Scooters still come with baskets. Most of the time, because the balance of the Stealth 1000 is so good, I just put any packages on the front part of the floorboard where they seem to balance perfectly.
For local travel, the Schwinn Stealth 1000 is the greatest thing since sliced bread too me.
