Lime-S review

"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
10/25/2018 at 14:19 • Filed to: None

Yes, I haven’t fixed my bike. With that I present the Lime: A Razer scooter for adults.

Lime is one of the California companies behind the E-scooter craze that has taken over the world in the last couple of years. A mix of Tech-bubble investing in Wall Street, improved battery tech, and a great infrastructure known as GPS and celular towers make these scooters possible.

In order to get going, you approach it, pay a 10MXN unlocking fee, and take it. The electric motor doesn’t kick in from stand still, you need to get the scooter going before hitting the accelerator.

The Lime-S is front-wheel drive and carries all of the batteries in the post, as opposed to other E-scooters like the Razors, which hid the battery and motor on the board. This may seem counterintuitive, but it makes carrying the Lime-S much easier, which is good... because you’ll have to carry it a lot.

The lime has a range of 20km under optimal conditions and it can take me, a 220lb grown-ass-adult, to a top speed of 30km/h in about 5 seconds. It has a regenerative braking system in the front wheel and a friction brake on the rear wheel; neither are very effective and panic stops on a lime scooter from the insane top speed are... panicky.

The small wheels and limited suspension make for an uncomfortable and challenging ride; groves on concrete roads that would be unperceetable in a bicycle make your eyes shake on the Lime-S.

These small wheels are a big issue for this scooter, small obstacles like potholes, manhole covers, speed humps or raised curbs upset the balance easily and make for a very unstable vehicles. The steering is very quick and precise, but coupled with the shitty brakes, it’s almost like an accident waiting to happen. So you need to carry it across most obstacles, making it significantly slower.

But not all is bad. The Lime-S is very fast. I know that 30km/h sounds underwhelming but the average speed of a car in Mexico City at rush hour is a pathetic 12... twelve ! The very heavy mobikes and eco-bicis won’t break 20km/h;even the sacred BRT can only travel at 40km/h on average. This means that the Lime-S is the fastest way to move around in many of the areas it has coverage on.

The Lime-S does suffer a strategic issue, particularly in Mexico City: Cost. You could half expect this to happen. The GDP of San Francisco, the city where Lime is based, is 86,000 dollars a year, whereas Mexico City’s is... ahem...26,000. The scooters are best for short distance, fast mobility despite their 10MXN unlocking fee. This is the cost curve:

The distance maxes out at 20KM given the range.

Charging by minute rather than distance seems like an abusive policy considering it encourages people to ride faster, and it’s not correlated strongly to battery consumption... at least not as much as distance is.

Riding for 3.5km cost me 42MXN. While it is cheaper than many cars on the same route considering parking and gas, it’s magnitudes more expensive than the 50MXN/month mobikes or the 430mxn/year ecobicis. However, it’s worth noting that the Lime-S is twice as fast as a car during the rush hour... and still somewhat faster than the Mobike. But also much more uncomfortable.

In conclusion, the Lime-S is an expensive, unsafe, fast method of transportation toy for the few adults who could pay the exhorbitant cost. The high costs and limited mobility of Lime makes it an unlikely, facetious competitor in the growing, and highly competitive last-mile-transport sector of Mexico City.

DISCUSSION (28)

lone_liberal > Spanfeller is a twat
10/25/2018 at 14:28

These things, and the Li me b ikes , are everywhere near my office. That’s perfectly fine for those that stick to the bike lanes but most of the people riding them choose to do so down the sidewalks. Not good.

Decay buys too many beaters > lone_liberal
10/25/2018 at 14:37

This!

I have almost been hit by a couple while making a right turn in city traffic because I can’t see someone careening along the sidewalk at 15mph :/

AestheticsInMotion > Spanfeller is a twat
10/25/2018 at 14:45

Scooters too?! I haven't seen those yet....

Spanfeller is a twat > AestheticsInMotion
10/25/2018 at 14:46

First we send Mexicans to California, Then Californians send us scooters before reaching their cousins in the PNW.... How odd. I think the Lime-S could be a serious contender in Seattle, as long as the costs are lowered.

AestheticsInMotion > Spanfeller is a twat
10/25/2018 at 14:48

I’ve got no interest in commuting on a bike, but short little trips on a scooter that I can just leave wherever when I’m done? Yes please.

I'm 100% going to be that guy riding on sidewalks tho

Spanfeller is a twat > lone_liberal
10/25/2018 at 14:48

Honestly, I agree with you. We need to change how we look at transport. Infrastructure for bicycles needs to improve and drivers of all methods of transportation need to be more curteous with eachother.

Like, honestly, in heavy traffic and in the middle of the day, sure, I’ll ride on the road. But at night and with low traffic there’s no way I’m gonna be in the way of cars. Granted, when I use the sidewalk I either dismount or ride at walking pace, I also yeild to foot traffic.

Spanfeller is a twat > AestheticsInMotion
10/25/2018 at 14:51

The cost curve suggests it’s made mostly for short trips... But...my short, 2.2 mile trip cost me the equivalent of 4 hours of minimum salary, no way this shit will catch on for that purpose unless they reduce costs...a lot.

The other issue is that it doesn't have any place to put any stuff. Mobikes have a small basket and it makes them infinately more useful.

AestheticsInMotion > Spanfeller is a twat
10/25/2018 at 14:51

These One Wheel’s seem incredibly popular with Seattle business men. Every time I drive through the city I see scores of guys in suits with briefcases cruising around on ‘em. Looks like fun.

Kinja'd!!!

bshappy > Spanfeller is a twat
10/25/2018 at 14:51

I rode one of these for the first time in Dallas just last weekend. It was very convenient and I hope they come to NYC soon.

Spanfeller is a twat > bshappy
10/25/2018 at 14:54

How much do they charge in Dallas?

Spanfeller is a twat > AestheticsInMotion
10/25/2018 at 14:55

I can't imagine those have a good range...

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > AestheticsInMotion
10/25/2018 at 15:12

*that’s not a guy in a business suit

AestheticsInMotion > Spanfeller is a twat
10/25/2018 at 15:14

7 mile range, and tops out at 20mph. Low range is helped by the 40 minute full-recharge time though

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Spanfeller is a twat
10/25/2018 at 15:15

So these scooters and bikes are now littering the streets of san francisco. Some are used, some are abused. IMO they are filling a small need but only really helping the already privileged.

https://blog.producthunt.com/we-tried-every-shared-bike-and-scooter-in-san-francisco-bb766abd0a96

bshappy > Spanfeller is a twat
10/25/2018 at 15:16

$1 to start then 15 cents per minute.

Spanfeller is a twat > AestheticsInMotion
10/25/2018 at 15:23

Ah, just long enough for the most barebones soul cycle session*

*: I suppose, I’ve never been in one.

fintail > lone_liberal
10/25/2018 at 15:25

I like seeing the random places where limebikes or clusters of limebikes are parked/ abandoned in Bellevue. Also some of the riders appear to be learning how to ride a bicycle for the first time.

Spaceball-Two > fintail
10/25/2018 at 15:34

I’ve seen a handful along the banks of the slough in Bothell.

Spanfeller is a twat > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
10/25/2018 at 15:46

I think these fill very important holes in Public transportation (last mile transport options like these could kill buses in large cities with metros) but they need to have a serious talk with city hall about the legality of usage and really deflate their prices.

Spanfeller is a twat > bshappy
10/25/2018 at 15:47

Huh, the unlocking fee is half as much here, but the minute increment is virtually the same

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Spanfeller is a twat
10/25/2018 at 15:48

Walking is good too. I don’t mind walking a mile or so.

bshappy > Spanfeller is a twat
10/25/2018 at 16:01

Like you said, relative to GDP they can get away with it. In the rest of the country its seems, uber is cheap and fast. In NYC uber is crazy expensive as and slow as any other car. The subway is a crapshoot (but still your best bet if you’re going far). These scooters would fill a huge gap in public transport so I am all for them. Lime- on!

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > AestheticsInMotion
10/25/2018 at 16:29

Really? They're all over Portland! Lime, Bird, and Skip brands. Anywhere in the major metro area you're never really more than a few blocks from them.

Spanfeller is a twat > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
10/25/2018 at 17:20

Walking is really good. But LMT does serve a legitimate purpose, specially in more densely populated cities. The way I put it to my father was this:

You can walk and take 30mins, drive and take 10 in traffic plus parking or you can grab a bike and take 10 cruising. The bike is 50 pesos a month; which is almost insignificant. Near Metro stations bicycles began to show up and people used them to get to their destinations within a 1-3 mile range rather than catching a bus. While buses are very space efficient, only walking is more space efficient than bicycles... but bicycles can be two or three times faster comfortably.

I think that LMT then serves two kinds of services:

Commuting within the community where you live, it’s faster than walking, it’s cheaper than driving.

Commuting from a very far away part of a city: This is the main use. Let’s imagine someone who lives in the DC suburbs like one or two miles away from a Metro station; this person could grab a bike to the metro, and after the metro. If the math makes sense, this person would save a lot of money in transport and avoid congesting the city with their car.

Sure, this person could walk, but they clearly don’t. LMT gives these people an incentive to get out of their cars, It’s not made for people who already walk....Those people are ahead of the curve

Spanfeller is a twat > bshappy
10/25/2018 at 17:22

It’s still way too expensive for mortals to use. Even if they halved their fees, I suspect a lot of people would still have a hard time paying for it.

fintail > Spaceball-Two
10/25/2018 at 17:33

I haven’t seen any in a ditch yet, but some kind of close to bushes, or in areas (little lanes in Medin a, etc) where they’d likely never find an actual user.

bhtooefr > Spanfeller is a twat
11/01/2018 at 23:16

I feel like, if you’re actually going to use it a lot, the scooters these services use aren’t actually that expensive (although they just got quite a bit more expensive in the US due to Trump tariffs - the Xiaomi M365 that makes up most of Bird’s fleet, and the other companies use at least some of, went from $500 to $600 recently), and they’re folding and quite compact... if you use it a lot, just get one and keep it with you, rather than using the rentals, IMO.

(Also, from having ridden a Bird-owned M365... the pneumatic tires seem to ride pretty well actually, and the rear disc brake is also a helpful thing to have, instead of the solid tires and the fender brake being the only friction brake on the Ninebot ES2 that it looks like you rode...)

Spanfeller is a twat > bhtooefr
11/01/2018 at 23:35

Yeah, we get Ninebots. I think that breaking even on these scooters takes something like 70 hours of use for the ninebots . Obviously they have to pay for infrastructure and electricity and insurance and what not, so it’s probably closer to one hundred hours... but that’s still a ludicrously low amount of time from liability to asset.

However, I’m not sure I’d buy one. To be honest the biggest appeal to me is that I can throw it away when I don’t need it anymore and just forget about it. Same is true of Mobike. My bicycle is a zillion times more comfortable and quicker than the mobikes, but the fact that I don’t need to worry about the mobike being stolen and that I don’t need to figure out servicing for it is worth the added cost and time.