Nixon wrote: ↑Tue Jul 16, 2019 8:36 pm So, my experience changing from tuktuk to bike is (not calculating depreciation):

Conclusion
Buy a bike, follow the rhythm in the traffic and always make sure you check everywhere before any movement.

Nixon wrote: ↑Sun Jun 30, 2019 3:21 pm

timmydownawell wrote: ↑Sun Jun 30, 2019 2:09 pm Does anyone know what the status of electric motos is? Do they need to be registered/number plated? e.g. this one: https://www.oyika.com/

I talked to a guy about electric motorbikes and he said that they are too weak. Don’t know if it’s true but he didn’t recommend to buy electric. Stick with petrol he said.

ressl wrote: ↑Wed Jul 24, 2019 7:37 am

Nixon wrote: ↑Sun Jun 30, 2019 3:21 pm

timmydownawell wrote: ↑Sun Jun 30, 2019 2:09 pm Does anyone know what the status of electric motos is? Do they need to be registered/number plated? e.g. this one: https://www.oyika.com/

I talked to a guy about electric motorbikes and he said that they are too weak. Don’t know if it’s true but he didn’t recommend to buy electric. Stick with petrol he said.

Since last week I own one of them. They are definitely not too weak, I'm first at the green light, although most locals do an early start. No registration/numberplate needed, they have a special agreement with the ministry and are allowed to issue their own plates (!!). Go there for a free test ride, after that you will be annoyed, that you left your ATM card at home and you can not buy it immediately. The downside is top speed, which is 50km/h, but honestly: how many times you are able to go that fast in PP? (and in theory you are not allowed to go more fast than 30km/h anyway )

ressl wrote: ↑Thu Jul 25, 2019 8:59 am No, there is no charger. They use a swap system. This has its up- and downsides. The upside are:
- the price includes a 2 year "free fuel" policy (after that time there are different options available, starting from a single swap to monthly plans)
- no charging time. When the battery is close to empty you drive to the next Circle K and simply swap
- not all people have a parking place for their scooter at home, where there is a power plug available at all (me) or even if there is one, most of the time you wouldn't be allowed to use it for charging
- For triggering the swap, the serial number of the scooter needs to be registered to your account and your account needs to be unlocked by personal identification. So when the scooter gets stolen, they can easily block the supply with energy or even deactivate the scooter at all. Simply putting in an other (your own) battery is not possible, because the engine controller communicates with an NFC device inside the battery. Ripping this NFC device off an original battery and attach it to your own does not work either, because only the charging stations can reset the batterylevel values and charge counters (yes, I had extensive talks with that guys about that). There is a location service available as well, but yet I'm not 100% sure, how this works (track the stolen bike to its "new" location).
Downsides:
- you can not refill "a bit" while staying somewhere for a while
- you depend on your Smartphone for swapping (Andriod/iPhone), but the scooter has a build in USB plug for charging

Totally independent of the battery thing: They give a 3 year warranty! For me, this was the all deciding reason. There is an other seller of electric vehicles of all kind about 500m further on the road, but that one was more expensive (+200$) the scooter were way more huge and heavy while having the same power (800W) and absolutely no warranty (except for 3 weeks on the lead acid batteries - Oyika uses LiION)

Nixon wrote: ↑Thu Jul 25, 2019 10:07 am Can you keep a spare battery at home or are you only allowed to have the one in the bike? Thinking - longer trips out of town..