Table of Contents
If you don’t maintain your scooter correctly, it can result in breakages.
When these happen, higher costs are a certainty. So, in this guide, we’ll look at how to maintain electric scooter parts and why it’s essential.
Owning an electric scooter opens up a world of possibilities for thrill-seekers, tech fiends, commuters and individuals that cannot afford a car. As little space is required to store them, and newer models can boast long-lasting power features, there’s no doubt that e-scooters are here to stay.
The Importance of Regular Electric Scooter Maintenance
Just as with your car or any other electrical item, regular maintenance ensures your e-scooter will be able to perform well. It’s also the best way to identify minor issues with your scooter to prolong its lifespan.
Scooters are much easier to maintain than cars, and there’s no yearly MOT needed. In most cases, you’ll need to clean the scooter regularly and make sure the electrical components continue to work.
Small steps can make a significant difference in the long term and save you a lot of money.
Let’s take a look at the benefits of scooter maintenance.
Remove High-Risk Hazards
Electric scooters have a powerful motor, which means some can reach speeds of 50mph. Driving a car means you have a seat belt and airbag, but a poorly maintained scooter can cause accidents that might prove to be fatal.
Ensures Scooter Reliability
Even minor faults in your battery, motor or tyres can make a significant impact on your scooter’s performance. Regular maintenance and servicing mean you’ll be able to adjust tyre pressure and ensure the battery is holding a reasonable charge.
Avoid Costly Repairs
A high-quality electric scooter is an investment, so you must do everything you can to prolong its lifespan. Taking the time to read the user manual means you’ll be able to notice minor issues that anyone can fix.
However, leaving your scooter will often result in high-cost repairs performed by a professional mechanic, or you might have to replace the scooter completely.
Preventative vs Corrective Maintenance
You’ll often notice people discussing the difference between preventative and corrective maintenance and which is better. Preventive maintenance means looking after your scooter to avoid severe issues, and corrective maintenance happens when there’s already a severe problem.
In most cases, you’ll only perform corrective maintenance if you haven’t looked after your scooter, and anyone would agree that looking out for minor faults and taking care of each component of your scooter will save you more money.
How Often do Electric Scooters Need Maintenance?
When it comes to how often electric scooters need maintenance, there’s no definitive answer. Your care and repair routine depends on how often you’ll use the scooter and the kind of conditions you ride in.
In general, you should perform a quick check every time you use the scooter, including feeling the tyres, ensuring each component is secure and whether your battery has enough charge.
Main Parts of An Electric Scooter
In their most basic form, an electric scooter has similar parts to mechanical scooters, with one significant difference; electrics. TIf you want to learn how to perform e-scooter maintenance, it’s essential to know the role of each component.
Brakes
Brakes are essential for road safety because they enable you to slow the speed of your scooter and stop it in an emergency. Much like your car brakes, an electric scooter is a safety hazard if it doesn’t have a supportive braking system.
Many scooters have two sets of brakes to ensure complete safety. While electric brakes are easier to maintain, mechanical brakes provide more strength, so manufacturers usually combine them to make a high-powered yet reliable scooter.
Batteries
As your car needs petrol to run, your electric scooter requires batteries to power the motor, lights and other electrical components. If you opt for a budget scooter, the manufacturer might use a lead iron battery, but most choose lithium-ion cells that merge to form a battery pack.
The capacity of your battery determines how long each charge will last and whether your battery can provide energy for higher power motors.
In electric scooters, battery capacity is measured by Wh (watt-hours), ranging between 250 – 3000Wh.
Tyres
Tyres provide the traction to brake in an emergency, but they’re also necessary for your scooter to run. Just as a flat tyre would make riding a bike or driving a car incredibly difficult, the health of your scooter depends on a strong set of tyres.
Grips
Grip refers to how the contact surface of a tyre meets the road. In simple terms, the more grip your tyres offer, the safer your journey will be. Car manufacturers usually make specialist winter tyres because standard grips don’t provide proper support during the winter months.
You should pay special attention to your scooter tyres and check if your model offers enough grip for rain and icy conditions.
Motor
While the battery provides power to the motor, the motor, in return, keeps your electric scooter moving. High-powered motors are usually seen in performance scooters because they can offer higher speed levels, but these electric scooters often consume more energy.
Most people try to find a happy medium between power and efficiency. But, with some scooters offering high-capacity batteries, they can provide you with hours of usage while enjoying the experience of a powerful motor.
Frame
The frame supports each component of your scooter, so if it becomes damaged in any way, the handlebars, deck, wheels and electrical components will feel the effects.
Electric Scooter Maintenance Tips
When it comes to electric scooter products, numerous factors can damage each models life cycle. Everything from bad charging cycles to tyres not having the correct pressure and your riding style can cause damage.
But with some basic tools and the ability to recognise potential faults, you’ll be able to save a lot of money.
Our electric scooter maintenance guide will help you learn the components of your electric scooter and show you how to fix minor faults.
Clean Your Scooter Regularly
It’s incredible how something as simple as cleaning your electric scooter can protect it from future breakages. But washing the frame and cleaning each component means your scooter will be less likely to rust, and vital parts can continue to function.
How to Clean the Frame
All you need to clean the frame of your scooter is warm water, dish soap and a cloth. Try to drain the cloth as much as possible and wipe the mechanical components, including the kickstand, lights, handlebars and brakes.
Once you finish wiping down the scooter, grab another bucket of clean water and use a different cloth to remove any excess dirt. Moisture is a breeding ground for rust, so it’s best to make sure you dry the scooter.
Washing the Wheels
Both your front and the rear wheel will see the most dirt because they’re in direct contact with the surface you’re riding on. For this reason, you should use a sponge to remove the grime, but don’t include any soap.
Clean and Degrease the Chain
You’ll need water, a brush and eco-wash to clean the chain of your scooter. Place a small amount of eco wash into a dish and use the brush to scrub the chain. Once complete, you can use clean water to remove any excess dirt.
Next, it’s time to dry the chain and add some lubricant. You only need a small amount of lubricant, but we’d recommend using a specialist brand and not something like Vaseline.
Check Your Tyres Regularly
We cannot stress enough how important it is to check your tyres regularly. Under-inflated tyres will make it difficult to control your scooter, and you’ll be highly susceptible to bumps in the road. When scooter tyres are correctly inflated, they’ll be able to handle rough terrain, and punctures won’t be an issue.
Your user manual will tell you how inflated your tyres should be, and you can use a bike pump to get them to the right level.
Some scooters have solid tyres, but you should continually monitor them because weakening rubber can cause it to wear down quickly, which will lead to early replacement costs.
Be Wary of the Weather
One of the golden rules of scooter maintenance is to use your common sense. It’s never advisable to ride in poor weather, but if you commute, then you probably don’t have a choice. The most important aspect of your scooter is its IP rating if you plan to use it in the rain.
The IP rating refers to how waterproof your scooter is, and the higher the second number is, the more likely it is that your scooter will repel moisture and reduce the risk of damage.
For example, an IP54 signifies an adequate level of protection, but anything above IP56 means your scooter can withstand jets of water from all directions.
While IP ratings can help you determine how safe your scooter will be in the rain or snow, we should still mention that maintaining your electric scooter is essential for avoiding accidents.
Don’t Let Your Electric Scooter Battery Run Out
Electric scooter batteries are designed to be long-lasting, especially as they have to power the motor. There are conflicting opinions on managing lithium-ion cells, and some people believe it’s a good idea to let their battery run flat. It’s not.
Every battery runs on a lifecycle, so when you let it run from 100 to 0 and back to 100 again, it will result in shorter battery life. Instead, you should keep your scooter on a frequent charge cycle and try not to let it get below the 90% battery charge capacity.
In contrast, battery overcharge can also wear the system down slowly, and if you let your scooter go flat all the time, it will lead to you purchasing new LI batteries.
Service The Brakes
Electric scooter brakes are essential for protecting others on the road and being able to stop in time. Your scooter could have electric brakes, disc brakes, band brakes or other types, but it doesn’t matter.
The important thing is that you know how to monitor and service your brakes.
Check your wheels and brake elements.
Put your scooter on a platform, and evaluate how easily the wheels spin. You should look at each element, including the brake pads, shoes and brake wire.
Fine-tune your brakes
You’ll need different tools for your brake pads and shoes. Allen keys will fit the pads, but you should use a small key for the shoes.
Have Patience
Be patient when turning your brakes. It takes a lot of time and effort, so some people find it’s easier to ask a mechanic to do the work.
Electric Speed Controller Repair
The electric speed controller (ESC) is one of the most vital components that make up your e-scooter. It’s responsible for maintaining and controlling the speed of your motor through battery flow. Some higher-end ESC’s have regenerative braking features, too – so you can understand how important this small piece of equipment is.
If your ESC isn’t working, you can do a few tests to see what the problem is. However, messing around with electrics isn’t advisable, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing.
We recommend you do the following things to repair the controller:
- Make sure your power switch is on. It seems simple, but it can happen.
- Check the circuit breaker or fuse – carefully!
- Push the scooter to see if it will start.
- If there’s a burning smell, it signifies something is wrong with the wiring.
If you do the above checks and can’t find the problem, it’s best to take the scooter to a specialist.
Performance Checks
How well your electric scooter performs will determine its overall health. One critical component is the battery because all-electric vehicles require it to run correctly. E-scooters are no different, so if yours is underperforming and there’s nothing wrong with the basic parts, you might have a problem with your battery.
You can evaluate your battery’s voltage and health by performing the following check:
- Charge your battery for at least 8 hours, and grab a digital Voltmetre. Make sure to immobilise the scooter and set your Voltmetre to VDC (value 200).
- Switch your scooter off and connect the Voltmetre to the battery. Your manual should tell you how to do this properly.
- Once you read the voltage from that position, ask someone to stand on the deck and use the throttle levers a few times. You’ll be able to get an accurate reading while the throttle is in use.
- Readings that come in below 2V indicate your battery is faulty, and you should multiply the voltage of each battery to find the ideal battery pack size. (For example, 2.5V for 12 batteries equals 30V).
Final Thoughts
Caring for your e-scooter doesn’t have to be a headache, and while in some cases a customer assumes mechanics won’t perform vital repairs, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The popularity of motorcycles and other scooters means many mechanics are choosing to specialise in electrical repairs.
Failing to perform some essential maintenance creates higher expenses in the long term. If you don’t look after your scooter, most manufacturers will say you have complete responsibility to pay for any repairs.
The most critical components of your scooter include the battery, motor, wheels and frame. By remaining vigilant to any changes in how the scooter performs, you’ll be able to resolve minor faults before they become a big problem.
If you’d like more helpful tips about how to prolong your scooter’s life cycle and get the best performance possible, we have everything you need to know.
From the latest e-scooter news to reviews on the best models for your budget, the ride starts here.
Nely Hayes
BIO:
Nely is an adrenaline junkie and one of her life goals is to sky dive, but until that day she gets her kicks from testing fast electric scooters. Part time scooter fanatic & part time SEO analyst. Nely’s favourite scooter is the Dualtron X.
Free Shipping
Service included
Theft Insurance included
No BS
