How to repair and electric scooter
If you own or plan on owning an electric scooter then sooner or later you are going to have to either repair it or have it repaired in an electric scooter repair shop. Just like any other working product like a car or motorcycle your electric scooter will break down or you may accidentally break it and the e scooter will require repair. Whether is something as simple as a puncture or a more complex issue you will have to decide if you want to try and repair the electric scooter yourself or find a local scooter repair shop to do the job. This article is to give you an overview of electric scooters in general in order for you to decide if you are capable to carry out the repair or if it would be a better ideal to drop it into your local electric scooter repair shop.
Firstly, in order to make such a decision you need to understand the main components of an escooter, it maybe the case that you feel confident fixing one issue but would be out your depth tackling another. The other main consideration is if you have the tools to do the job, good tools are not cheap and could end up costing more than a professional repair, so this must also be taken into account. Another consideration is where to carry out the repair, if you live in a small flat the wife isn’t going to be happy having broken electric scooter parts all over the kitchen table for days.
So, lets take a brief look at the main parts of an electric scooter so you can determine if you could fix the scooter on your own or if it’s best to find an “electric scooter repair shop near me”.
THE FRAME
Everything on the scooter is fixed to the scooter frame it can also be referred to as the chassis. This is the part you stand on whilst scooting about town, most e scooters are made from steel or aluminium, in general the scooter frame is pretty tough and shouldn’t cause you much problems. If you have snapped the frame then this isn’t something most people and most shops won’t be able to fix especially if its aluminium as this isn’t easy to weld with out specialist equipment that most scooter shops won’t have. If, however the frame isn’t snapped maybe it’s just bent or split this maybe possible for a good repair shop to fix.
WHEELS AND TYRES
Most scooters have 2 wheels 2 inner tubes and 2 tyres 1 wheel has the motor inside and the other usually has a brake of some sort. Most scooters drive from the front and have the brake on the back in the form of a disc and calliper setup. Some larger scooters have 2 motors and 2 brakes and some more advanced scooters have the motor in the rear, regardless of the configuration repairing the scooter is pretty much the same. If the scooter has a puncture, then the wheel in question would need removed the tyre then removed and the inner tube either patched or replaced. If the puncture is on the motor wheel then the motor needs removed and split in 2 in order to fix the leak, this adds considerable time and complexity to the repair. Small scooter tyres are not east to fix and good tyre levers are essential to do the job, the wife’s good silver spoons aren’t going to cut it leave them in the drawer…. As well as buying tire levers you will need spanners, allen keys, screwdrivers and a lot of will power to fix a puncture, it is NOT an easy job.
ELECTRONICS
All electric scooters have at least 2 electronic devices 1. ESC Electronic speed controller 2. LCD Liquid crystal display some others may have more electronics in the throttle. Most scooters have quite a lot of wires inside to connect these devices as well as to the front and rear lights and connections to the battery. If you open up the scooter chassis cover and see a nest of wires and you have no clue even where to start then I suggest call the scooter repair shop. If however all of a sudden the LCD screen stops working in many cases these can we swapped out without issue as most of the time they just use connectors to connect into the scooter wiring loom. Some scooters have built in self diagnostics and will flash up an error code giving the user an indication of where the fault lies, others will flash the lights in a sequence which again tells the user where the fault is. The issue is you need to know what the error codes relates to, information that is sometimes only known by your local electric scooter repair shop. In general, unless you know the basics about electrics/electronics and at least have a multimeter, such faults are best left to the electric scooter repair experts.
GENERAL REPAIRS & MAINTENANCE
Electric scooters are working machines and like any other similar product require some general repairs and maintenance. This could be simple stuff like tightening the screws on a loose mud guard or checking and pumping up the tires on a monthly basis, just simply paying attention to some unusual noise developing or noticing the range isn’t quite as good as it used to be can save you time and money in the future. Most people are more than capable of tightening a loose screw on a mud guard before it snaps or pumping up a tyre before it bursts. These are the type of jobs that can save you money on scooter shop repair bills and extra scooter parts you wouldn’t have needed if you had caught in time.
More advanced maintenance like lubricating wheel bearings and moving parts or changing wear and tear parts like brake pads are probably also best left to experts as there are many types of grease and buying a whole tube to use a tiny bit may not be cost effective.
CONCLUSION
Owning an electric scooter can be great fun, it can also save you lots of time and money especially if you are using it to commute to work, not to mention how much better it is for the planet. As this technology improves and the scooters can go even further on a charge more and more people will see the benefit of getting one, cycle lanes in cities will soon become scooter lanes and charging ports will start popping up everywhere. As it becomes more the “norm” and the legislation becomes clear you will no doubt use your escooter more and more, this will mean more breakages and more repair bills. With that in mind, it is well worth the time and effort to get some basic tools and gain some basic knowledge in order to keep your electric scooter up and running as much as possible and keep it out the local scooter repair shop as much as possible saving you time and money.