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Čezeta e-scooter: The rebirth of the chicest communist-era scooter
- _raoulcousins 8y agoI really want a scooter, but I'm really afraid of how vulnerable it makes me. I walk and bus most places I go (in Seattle) and I've wondered how much more dangerous it would be to ride a scooter than walk.
- nkkollaw 8y agoLooks cool, but £11,000 is almost twice as much of a similar scooter...
- unmole 8y ago> Looks cool That's the whole point. It is marketed as being chic. People will pay the premium in to look cool.
- glogla 8y agoNot in Czech Republic. We don't have money for that. And non-Czech people who want chic will probably just wait for Vespa to make one.
- mrweasel 8y agoIt's also the price of a small car, but less practical, depending on your need of cause.
- tecleandor 8y agoAnd not that small, that's almost the starting price for a Škoda Octavia in Czech Republic, and that's kind of a big car.
- freddie_mercury 8y ago£11,000! I can buy an electric scooter here for $700. Unfortunately, the article is really just a Press Release. So it doesn't go into any detail about what you get for all that money and whether it is worth it. Where I live (not the US) there are a growing number of electric scooters. I'd guesstimate maybe 20-30% of vehicles on the road now are electric scooters. It is amazing how much quieter it makes...everything. Internal combustion engines are so noisy yet we've become so accustomed to them.
- yardie 8y agoFor $700! This is the stand up push style pedestrian scooter. What they are selling is the larger motoscooter (I wish the English language had a better way to indicate the difference). Similar to a Vespa which is far more than $700.
- victornomad 8y agoIn China you can buy quite nice e-scooter (Vespa-like) for around 2500 - 3000 CNY which is around 320-400euro. I think the reason that dont come to other countries is just pure lobbying from local companies.
- Tepix 8y agoWhat type of batteries do they have?
- hwillis 8y agoI would guess it has much more to do with shipping and dealerships- you can get these things delivered, but even a horrible quality gas scooter costs 800-1000 USD delivered. A buddy bought one several years ago. It showed up at his doorstep in a neat little box and worked quite nicely once we had changed the oil (full of metal shavings from manufacture), although the CVT and tiny engine weren't quite up to getting on the highway. Even most scooters and motorcycles in the US are sold through dealers, and they will simply be making no money on a vehicle that costs <$500. It's probably only feasible to store them in a warehouse and ship via freight, which is expensive. I don't know why you don't see them in Walmart, but maybe there's some sort of law or maybe even Walmart can't move them.
- llampx 8y agoIt is very long, at 2 meters. I can't see that size being easy to maneuver or park. In Germany for example, scooters and motorcycles can be parked anywhere on pavements. This would be harder to park and more conspicuous (just by size, leave alone the looks!). I'm all for e-scooters replacing ICE scooters though, for the noise and air pollution benefits. I bought an ICE scooter to putter around in the city mainly because the cheapest e-scooter was almost 3x the price and could only be serviced by the manufacturer. I hope the next scooter I buy will be electric and have a good range.
- C1sc0cat 8y agoYou can park any motor bike on the pavement (sidewalk) - even a Goldwing ?
- hwillis 8y agoI have not spent much time in Germany, but I believe it is not technically allowed except for specifically marked (signage) sidewalks. It's just accepted basically everywhere. A Goldwing is very nearly as big as a Smart FourTwo, I would suspect that if someone complained you would get a ticket. Best case, a bemused policeman laughing and asking how you managed to get it up over the curb. Germans are surprisingly relaxed about rules, despite the reputation. If nobody will get hurt, then it's usually not a big deal in my experience. This is the country of the autobahn and Oktoberfest. Compare that to Switzerland (where I have spent more time); there the police will give you stern warnings even if you haven't broken the law. They are very "just-so".
- mgv11 8y agoUsually yes, if it's not in the way of pedestrians. The MC/scooter parking laws (and filtering for that matter) are surprisingly lax in Germany. I've only once seen a MC to get a parking ticket and this was even warranted as it was blocking a entrance to a house/garage.
- detaro 8y ago> In Germany for example, scooters and motorcycles can be parked anywhere on pavements Not true, motorcycles have the same parking rules as cars. It's just easier to park a bike so that it doesn't get in the way, making it more likely it's ignored.
- app4soft 8y ago> rebirth of the communist-era Look like it started from 2014...
- lower 8y agoWe have something similar in Germany. The Schwalbe scooter was built in Easter Germany from the the 60s to the 80s and has achieved a sort of cult status. One still sees them today, even in the west. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simson_Schwalbe https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simson_Schwalbe There is now a new electric scooter that looks just like the original: http://www.myschwalbe.com/en/ http://www.myschwalbe.com/en/
- hwillis 8y ago80 kg, oof. I bet you could crash that into a tree at 30 mph/50 kph and once you got out of the hospital you'd only need to hammer the dents out.
- lower 8y agoWait until you hear that the new electric one weighs 120kg (one battery) to 135kg (two batteries).
- adrianN 8y agoThey have a cult following because they can go 60km/h but are treated tax-wise and driver's licence wise like a modern scooter that is limited to 45km/h. (The regular speed limit in cities is 50km/h)
- lower 8y agoYes, but it must also be the looks of the thing. The Simson S51 is newer, has the same sort of speed, is legally treated as a scooter, but does not appear to have the same cult status. I see the new electric Schwalbe quite often in city traffic and the acceleration of the thing seems insane.
- vetinari 8y agoIn 80's Czechoslovakia, S51 Enduro was the thing that cool teens had :).
- 8y ago
- ctack 8y agoIt doesn't look like the headlight can swivel.
- INTPenis 8y agoI think it looks rather clunky compared to a modern e-scooter like the new Schwalbe for example. Say what you want about those modern city scooters but the design is nimble and relatively small. The Čezeta seems like a tractor version of a scooter.
- beaconstudios 8y ago> It’s always struck me as odd that scooters, with their pragmatic step-through design and fogeyish upright seating position, so easily outscore motorbikes when it comes to pure panache. They pack more sass and sex appeal into their dinky two-wheel frames than almost any other vehicle That's a very bold statement.
- Benjamin_Dobell 8y agoThis article caught my attention and I started reading. However, I got to this point in the article (the very start) and stopped reading. There's just no way I could bring myself to take anything after that seriously. Comparing one entire class of vehicle to another so offhandedly is both brash and peculiar. It'd be like saying SUVs are much classier than sports cars. Which SUV and which sports car? Sure, that statement will absolutely be true in some cases, but it's a wicked generalisation. Particularly when the subject matter is inherently so obviously subjective.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y agoIndeed, in the UK scooters are associated with 16-year-old "chavs" riding dangerously. That or the recent spate of scooter-based violent crime in London.
- JohnJamesRambo 8y agoSilly question, but how does that keep from falling over when you stop? It looks like your legs can’t touch the ground?
- JasonFruit 8y agoThe word chicest doesn't seem right to me; I keep reading it as a typo for choicest or something like that. Should it maybe be chic-est? Most chic? I'd have avoided the problem by saying "The rebirth of a chic communist-era scooter". Maybe even "a chic Czech scooter".
- monochromatic 8y agoI didn’t figure out what that word was supposed to be until I read your comment.
- trhway 8y ago>Power comes via a patented two-way “Sway” throttle. Roll it back as usual to accelerate, then roll it forward to brake as novel and non-obvious as they come...