I called the Smartped a scooter
But FlyKly is calling it a "kick assist E-Bike"
"The perfect urban getaway" and "The most wanted piece of transportation tech in any city"
The concept here is simple :
The Smartped will use it's electric motor, not to accelerate
But to MAINTAIN whatever speed you kick it into
Up to 16 Miles an Hour
And I must confess, that it does sound and look pretty cool
But is it cool?
And is it worth 1000 US Dollars?
No, it's not!
[Intro]
[Intel brings DDR4 to the mainstream]
[With their new Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K processors]
[Check out the link in the video description to learn more]
[Linus] : You're a.. FlyKly Smartped...
(Unintelligible)
[Linus] : ...Wearing this?
Yeah. Is it funny, or not?
*......*
[Linus} : Taran, you are funny...
It's too late to change ;)
(distant laughter)
So originally, Linus was going to review the Smartped
But when we got it, both tires were completely deflated
Which wouldn't have been a problem...
Except that the front wheel has a Schrader valve
While the back wheel has a Presta valve
What?!
And because the SmartHub that powers the real wheel is in the way...
There's so little space to insert a pump and it's nearly impossible to inflate this tire
This was enough of an inconvenience, that Linus never got around to fixing it
And told me to figure out and do the review
Sure...
So i picked up a Presta valve converter
And after trying about a dozen pumps...
I finallly found one that was low profile enough, to fit in here and inflate the tire
Right... so now let's charge it up, shall we?
Except, i don't see anywhere to insert the cable
Hmm...
And this thing didn't come with a manual..
Turns out that the charge port is in the axle, hidden underneath this bolt
Huh...
Okay...
So now we're ready to go, right?
Well, connect it to the FlyKly app, and...
Nope!
The app doesn't connect at all
People sure aren't happy about that..
More on this later
Well, let's just drive without the app
Now the Smartped doesn't have a throttle
So you have to push off the ground to get it going
And it seems to take several pushes before it will engage the motor
Even pushing with all my might...
I've never been able to get the Smartped to move very fast
Despite being WELL under the weight limit
And that's just on level ground...
But going DOWNHILL, is also SLOW...
Because of the regenerative brake
I wish i can just turn this feature off
Furthermore, even the slightest uphill will slow it down significantly
And if it gets any steeper, the motor will shut off completely
You can TRY helping it along by pushing with your leg..
But it's exhausting..
The best way to get up a hill with a Smartped, is to get off, and walk
And sometimes, especially if you're going fast
The Smartped refuses to lock in ANY speed at all
So you'll just slow down until you roll to a stop, unless you kick off to get the motor going again
You see, because the Smartped doesn't have a throttle control, the SmartHub wheel has to guess how fast you want to go
And it has to guess whether you've applied the brakes or not
That's probably why it just gives up when you encounter a hill..
So much for all of those fancy sensors and programming..
So wherever you're going, you're gonna be pretty sweaty by the time you get there
And i'm no lightweight
I ride a bike everywhere. I have never owned a car in my life
So when i say the Smartped is slow and exhausting..
I mean it
To quantify this, i decided to benchmark the Smartped
And compare it to all of the other vehicles we have lying around in the office
So that's my Bycicle
My crappy Razor scooter
The ZBoard Electric Skateboard Linus reviewed here
And of course, The Lamborghini
The course i chose for testing begins at the office
Goes down this long flat road
Then up a hill
Down the hill
Around this roundabout
And back the same way to the office
That's a total of 2.2 kilometers
WOW!
At 10 minutes for the round trip, the Smartped ONLY beat the JD Razor Scooter
Which, by the way, has NO motor, and only costs me 5 bucks at a garage sale
To make this review, i've been using the Smartped as my daily driver instead of my bike, for all of my errands around town
That's the whole point, right?
Cruising through the city, or commuting to work?
But it's not clear to me, if the Smartped is actually a VEHICLE or not..
It's way too slow for the street, but it's too fast for the sidewalk
Making it feel dangerous both ways
Whoa! (X7)
HEY!
What the *bleep*?!?!
Also, FlyKly says you can take the Smartped on public transportation
But it doesn't fit in the bike holder on the front of the bus...
And most of the bus drivers i've talked to, wouldn't even let me bring the Smartped on to the bus
Even when folded up, it's just too big
This one doesn't even have a joint right here
Now, it rains a lot in the Vancouver Area
And the Smartped appears to be resistant to rain, which is great!
But this regular version, doesn't even have a back fender
And this means, that the back of your pants will get absolutely soaked with water and mud. Even on short trips
Unless you MacGyver yourself a solution out of a milk jug, like i did
Works pretty well, actually
By this point in the review...
I realized that i was supposed to be using the bitride app, and not the FlyKly app
Which i learned after finally getting my hands on the, pathetically short manual
I've tried a couple of different modes
Settling on TURBO mode
Which seems to help with hill climbing a little bit...
But not much
I'd like to make some reccomendations for the FlyKly 2, or whatever..
But i don't know if there's any point, because basically
The whole thing is BAD
And the final conclusion about this product can pretty much be summed up, with one final story from the 2 months i've been using it
I've completed an entire trip with the FlyKly without realizing...
That a small piece of wire had broken off inside the power connector, shorting it out
The Smartped motor wasn't even WORKING, and i couldn't tell the difference...
That, combined with the rusting body...
And foldable stem that doesn't even lock in place sometimes
Makes it impossible for me to recommend the Smartped... to anyone
And from the looks of the angry feedback from Kickstarter backers...
Both from ones that did receive the products and those who didn't..
I'm not the only one dissappointed in the Smartped
Well, thanks for watching guys!
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