In June, I took the A train all the way from Brooklyn to 175th Street in upper Manhattan—about a 50-minute ride. Once I got out of the station, I hopped on the lightweight electric scooter I'd been carrying, rode it over the George Washington Bridge, and met up with a friend in Fort Lee, New Jersey. I threw the scooter into his car's trunk, all folded up, and we were on our merry way to the Poconos for a get-together.
My friend didn't have to cross the bridge and pay a toll or drive in bumper-to-bumper traffic to pick me up, and I didn't have to sit in a bus (and pay for it). This is why I've come to love escooters—they're a great last-mile solution. Fluidfreeride's Fluid Mosquito is ideal for this. It's one of the lightest escooters I've tested, at a mere 29 pounds, yet it packs a decent amount of power with a top speed of 24 miles per hour. The sacrifice? Range and ride comfort. But the fact that I can just pick up the Mosquito and take it anywhere has me letting those flaws slide.
Most scooters I've tested sit somewhere between 39 and 80 pounds, sometimes even more. At 29 pounds, the Fluid Mosquito is like a dream come true. I've hardly huffed and puffed taking this thing up my flight of stairs, or even up and down the subway system in Manhattan. It's very easy to fold down—undo a lock by the front wheel, push your foot on a folding lever, bring down the stem, and it'll click into a lock on the rear mudguard. It even has a comfortable grab handle on the stem so you can easily tote it around—a serious perk.
How exactly did the company shave down the weight? Well, take a good look and you'll notice that the entire frame is very narrow. The handlebars aren't wide (you can fold them down to save even more space), and the deck can only fit my feet one in front of the other, not side by side. The 8-inch tires are also quite thin.
In consequence, ride quality suffers a bit. For example, there's barely any room to attach a smartphone mount on the handlebars in case you wanted to use one for GPS. (I mounted mine on the grip itself, which further cut the amount of space I had for my palm.) Thankfully, height wasn't an issue, since you can extend the stem a fair bit.
More importantly, the wheels are so narrow they have trouble handling ridges running parallel to the scooter on the road (NYC has some weird roads). It makes me more cautious about avoiding potholes—even small ones, as it feels like any raised surface might cause the scooter to skid. It doesn't help that the Fluid Mosquito has solid tires. These require less maintenance than pneumatic tires, but they don't absorb bumps on the road as well. The dual-spring-based suspension does make it all manageable, but you'll have to do some swerving to maintain a smooth ride. If you're in an area with nice roads (lucky you!), you'll be totally fine.