I’ve personally tested dozens of electric scooters and covered hundreds more over the years, but never before have I rested my eyes, feet or butt on one quite as cool or weird as the Fiido Beast. It’s a novel design that, despite having a few issues, is a heck of a lot of fun to ride.
That joy comes from two main advantages: a ton of power and the ability to ride it either sitting or standing.
Plenty of electric scooters have a ton of power; that’s nothing new. But the whole “sit or stand” thing takes a powerful electric scooter to the next level by offering a whole new take on the riding experience.
Matching the versatility of a sit-or-stand electric scooter is a nice loadout on the electronics side, from a pair of high wattage motors to an ultra high capacity battery.
When combined, these features create the type of ride you have to feel to understand. And while that’s difficult through a screen, the next best thing you can experience is my test riding video below. But don’t stop there! Keep reading for all the details from my in-depth review of the Fiido Beast electric scooter.
Fiido Beast electric scooter video review
Fiido Beast electric scooter tech specs
- Motors: 1,300W between two hub motors
- Top speed: 51 km/h (30 mph)
- Range: Claimed 70 km (44 mi)
- Battery: 48V 32Ah (1,536 Wh)
- Weight: 37 kg (82 lb)
- Brakes: Hydraulic disc brakes
- Price:
- Extras: LED display, included head/tail/brake LED lights, 3 speed settings, half-twist throttle, suspension in front and rear, foldout foot pegs, small padded seat, electronic lock for starting scooter and removing battery
Hang on, it’s a wild ride
So here’s how the Fiido Beast works.
At first glance, it looks like a typical off-road electric scooter. It’s got front and rear suspension, big tires, a wide deck and pulls hard off the line. It’s fast and powerful with two motors and a top speed of 51 km/h (30 mph) once you unlock the speed limit.
It also folds up, just like you’d expect from a scooter. The ability to fold the handlebars down flat with the deck makes it easier to carry it (though it still weighs 82 lb!) and also makes it easier to toss in a car trunk or back seat.
But the real key here is that you can partly fold the handlebars down and lock them at an angle – that would make the scooter almost unridable if you were still standing, but you won’t be standing. Instead, you pop a squat on that little boxy thing on the rear that is actually a small padded seat. You can flip out the foot pegs on the front fork to rest your feet and then you simply ride it from the seated position.
I say “simply ride it,” but it’s not quite that simple. The ride style is a bit different in the seated position, and it took me a minute or two to get used to the steering. Even though the ride position feels like a go kart with your feet way out in front of you, the steering is still scooter-based, as in you’ve got a rotating axis up front to turn the wheel like a bicycle wheel, except now the angle of the handlebars means you’ve got something like a boat tiller that you’re holding in front of you. So instead of simply turning the bars like a steering wheel, you’re sort of pushing the entire handlebar assemble left and right while spinning it a bit.
Like I said, it takes a minute two to get used to it. I rode for the first 90 seconds or so with my feet constantly leaving the foot pegs to catch myself. But within a couple of minutes, the new steering doctrine kind of clicked and then I was off to the races!
As a seated scooter, it’s a hell of a fun time. The scooter is fast. Like, almost scary fast. When your butt is a few inches off the ground, and you’re clocking close to 30 mph, the pavement is a literal blur.
The suspension keeps the ride quality quite decent, or at least in the seated position. While riding in the standing position, the ride felt harsher. That was especially true on grass and other uneven surfaces. But for some reason the scooter seemed to handle better in the seated position, suspension included.
I found that I enjoyed riding it sitting down significantly more than standing. That’s a bummer on one hand since the standing position gives you quite a bit more visibility among cars. While riding the scooter seated, I watched a guy go by on a Vespa and I was looking up at him like he was riding a painter’s ladder. So yeah, it’s a low-feeling ride when you’re popping a squat on the Fiido Beast.
But it’s just so much fun that you throw little concerns like “visibility” and “safety” out the window.
That being said, there’s definitely room for improvement. The ride is a hoot, but the scooter still needs a bit of work. The removable battery (which is gigantic at over 1,500 Wh) is stored under a pop up door on the deck. It’s not supposed to pop up until you tell it to, but it still did sometimes when I was riding fast over bumpy ground. Fiido told me that will be fixed on the production unit, and that they let me test was a pre-production prototype, explaining the issue.
Then there’s the keypad. It’s the same type of keypad that was used on the ill-fated Fiido X electric bike (RIP). It is used to turn the scooter on and to unlock the battery door. It defaults to 012345 then “ON” as the ignition code and 012345 then “OPEN” to open the scooter’s battery door, but you can (and should) change these. There are also other codes that will allow you make performance modifications.
The stock out-of-the-box speed of 25 km/h (15 mph) can be unlocked to 35 km/h (22 mph) with the code 198219 then “ON” or to a faster 51 km/h (30 mph) with the code 298219 then “ON”.
It’s cool that they give you those features, but I’m not a huge fan of the keypad itself. For one thing, it’s placed under the seat so you basically have to get on your knees and turn your head upside to use it. That little wrinkle is underlined by the fact that they purposefully install the keypad upside down because they know your head will be upside down while looking at it. I mean, I love micromobility devices as much as the next guy, but it’s not everyday I get down on my knees and service them.
They are also going to include a better headlight on the production units (and a Fiido rep reached out to me to let me know right away not to judge them on the current prototype headlight). So I can’t speak to that specific part yet.
But all in all, I can tell you that the Fiido Beast is as creative as it is fun, which is to say, very. It’s a powerful and long range electric scooter that offers multiple ride styles, one of which is unlike anything you’ve ever tried before. Of that, I can all but guarantee you.
The original $1,598 price when Fiido launched the Beast on Indiegogo earlier this year was an awesome deal; now, it’s up to its actual MSRP of $2,399. That’s a bit steep, but you are getting a massive battery, two motors, hydraulic brakes and full-suspension, not to mention a custom engineered design.
So while it ain’t cheap, it certainly offers a lot of options combined with an excellent loadout of parts and components.
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Author: Micah Toll
Source: Electrek
