Segway Ninebot S2 Electric Self-balancing Scooter, 11.2mph Top Speed, 21.7 Miles Range w/Adjustable Height, Hoverboard UL-2271 2272 Certified

Decided to replace my ~6 year old MiniPro when these went on sale for prime day with a new S Max, mainly for the larger battery capacity and higher top speed. I tried the "steering wheel" it comes with and don't really care for it, I'm much more used to the knee bar, but fortunately it directly swaps with the MiniPro, they use the same red triangular quick-detach (unlike the S/S Plus which press-on and are a PITA to remove). You can easily switch in the app to tell it if you are using the handlebar, or knee bar.The battery is about 40% higher capacity (430 vs 310 WH), and this is definitely noticeable. As usual, Ninebot's range claims are complete BS (MiniPro was claimed to do 17 miles, actually 10-12). They claim "up to" 26 miles from the S-Max, I've found realistically it's more like 15-17, but that falls in line with about 40% more range from 40% more battery. However, the charger is the same one as my MiniPro from 6 years ago, same voltage and wattage. Meaning the S Max also takes about 40% longer to charge. If it's flat or nearly so, you're looking at about 3.5 hours for a full charge. Definitely would have liked to see a more powerful charger accompany the larger battery, however Ninebot doesn't even offer one. Note the 59.5 volts the charger is at corresponds to only a ~80% true charge based on cell voltage. This is done partially to extend battery life, and partially because it relies on regen for braking, so it leaves a little capacity open in case you live at the top of a hill it can still absorb energy even when "fully" charged. You can buy an aftermarket 63v charger (which will get you a "true" 100% charge and a couple extra miles of range), however you will quickly get an error if you go down a hill right off the charger, will lean back, stop, and throw an error on the app for over-voltage, so I can kind of see why their official charger leaves a little juice on the table so to speak.The motors are also much smoother, you really feel like just floating along. My old Minipro had a little vibration, particularly around top speed, or going up hills/braking when the motors were under load, the S Max is totally smooth. While the Minipro would considerably slow down when going up hills and it was pretty easy to get the "over torque" alarm, the S Max can go up pretty much any hill still at full speed. It has to be really steep (definitely over the 15* max recommended) for it to start slowing down.Ninebot has definitely improved the lean-back/speed limit alarm. Older segways this was extremely tedious, as it was super easy to accidentally hit the "speed limit", triggering an aggressive lean-back slowdown and annoying beeping (ended up fixing that with an aftermarket firmware). The S-Max will start to gradually/gently tilt back as you get close to the max speed, you kind of don't even really notice and feels much more natural. If you continue to lean hard against it, really fight it's roll back then the beeper will go off, but in normal riding, I find that rarely happens, while it was a constant annoyance with the MiniPro before I flashed it.One big miss is that it comes with the solid "drift" tires (really intended for the gokart), even when purchased on it's own and not bunded with the gokart accessory. These tires suck for use in self-balancing mode. They're rock hard and the ride is extremely harsh and jittery. You feel every crack, bump, pebble, or grain of sand you run over. Traction is also quite poor on wet or uneven surfaces. You can get the "Comfort" tires (still solid/air free), which have a tread similar to the aired tires on other segway models, and are a much softer rubber compound. They feel like an aired tire at around the max PSI. Still a bit stiff, but worlds better than the "drift" tires it comes with. I guess Ninebot thinks the gokart is so amazing that everyone's going to buy it so they ship it with tires expressly made for use with the gokart? You'd think if purchased as a bundle, then it would have the hard tires, but if purchased on it's own, would have tires appropriate for use on it's own. If you will be using your S-Max in self balancing, consider the $130 or so to buy a set of "Comfort" tires a must, day 1 change. Fortunately changing the tires is a breeze. 6 bolts, hubcap comes off, the tires just slip right off. No need to remove the fenders or pull the motor. Thumbs up for that, thumbs down it ships with objectively the wrong tires.The S-Max is also notably heavier than my older MiniPro, but I suppose that isn't surprising considering the larger battery and more powerful motors. It's not something you want to be carrying around for any length of time. Picking it up over some stairs or in/out of a trunk is no big deal, but in an area you can't ride, you'll want to leave it on and use the "trolley bar" with the kneebar, or in handlebar mode it has a "power assist" button that lets you just tow it around with almost no effort.Overall really happy with it, the only miss is having to swap the tires essentially right away, but was able to sell them quickly (apparently the gokart eats tires pretty quickly sliding around, so replacements are in demand) and recoup most of the cost of the comfort ones.

I bought this for the go-kart kit and it is indescribably awesome. This accelerates at 1.02G according to Segway and I measured over 1.1G using my phones accelerometer. This is higher peak acceleration than most supercars... like actual Lamborghini's and Ferrari's. It almost feels like the launch coaster at the Six Flags near me. You can do donuts with this indefinitely just holding the peddle down if you're light enough, I'm a bit too heavy at 170 but my 12 year old son can do it. The top speed is 24mph, which I'm pretty sure has to do with laws regarding electric vehicle classes and is artificially limited but honestly it's fast enough for kids, even teenagers. There is no suspension so unless you have a very smooth surface to ride on (we go to a local public parking lot that is often empty) anything faster would be far too bumpy and jarring.The only downside so far is the tires wear out quickly when most of what you're doing is drifting and donuts. We've went through maybe 6 or 8 battery charges so far and it's already time to replace the tires, at $60 a piece ($120 a pair). You can get them for $25 a piece through Alibaba but you have to buy 10 minimum at a time and pay via wire transfer and they will probably take a month or more to get. I'm going to try that next time and then always have a pair or two in reserve so I don't have to wait for shipping from China.As with anything electric I wish the battery life was better... but that's not a fault of the product it's a limitation of the current technology and the battery in this already weighs almost 50 pounds. If you go flat-out the whole time you might get 30 minutes. Cruising around not at full speed and with less insane acceleration you can go for about an hour, it really depends on how you drive. It charges in a couple hours, 2-3, I've never measured it. What we often do is take it and our other go-kart out in the morning or early, then charge it for a few hours while we do something else and then take it out again. Pretty easy to get 2 sessions in on a Saturday or Sunday, could probably get 3 if you wanted to.Bottom line: If you want to experience acceleration like a Tesla S without spending $100,000 this is as close as you're going to get outside of launched roller coasters, assuming you can afford to replace the tires regularly.