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What Kind of Scooter Tires Are Best?
When building a scooter you will need to think about what kind of tires are the most suitable for the intended use case and budget. Three common areas you need to take a look at are the tubing, surfacing, and size. Here’s an explanation about how these three different factors influence your ride and what use-cases they have.
The wheel-type is often the first thing that your customers see in technical specs and discuss as the choice affects the ride experience a lot as well as maintenance needed.
As the name suggests solid tires are made of solid material like rubber or silicone. As they are solid there is no fear of punctures and the wheels are practically maintenance-free, manufacturing is also easy. These are the main reasons why shared scooters and entry-level scooters typically use solid tires. They do have some downsides too – because they are solid they don’t absorb bumps well making the ride harder. The traction is also decreased as the solid tires don’t have the same amount of contact with the surface of the road as pneumatic tires have.
For riding at slower speeds like < 30 km/h (20 mp/h) or under these kinds of tires are still a completely fine option, thus being the tire of choice for the shared commuter scooters.
Tubed tires are pneumatic tires that hold the air inside an inner tube and the surface contact comes from the outer tires. These are the one
s that can be found in traditional bicycles and they have basically the same benefits and downsides in scooters as in bikes.
The ride is smoother since the air can cushion the bumps from the road. They also have a larger contact area with the road making the traction much better than the solid tires can have. This combination means that the ride is smooth and the traction is much better so you won’t slip easily with these tires. The downside is that tubed tires are the most prone to punctures out of all three options. Then again they are pretty easy to fix as well as bicycle owners know.
Tubeless tires are the common choice of practically all premium-level electric scooters. They have the same benefits as the tubed tires but they are much more puncture resistant. This is basically the reason why they are the choice also in cars and motorbikes. The maintenance they need is the same as well, meaning you need to keep eye on the tire pressure from time to time.
Here the choice is relatively simple. Slick tires offer absolutely the best
traction on smooth and dry roads. Hence they are used by Formula 1 cars and other high-speed vehicles that are ridden in race tracks. In real life, these kinds of tires are pretty useless though. Completely slick tires need a completely clean road, some dirt, or worst case – water, make the tires very slippery and you can lose traction completely.
Semi-slick then is the solution to the traction problem of the full slick tire. By introducing some grooves that can move the water away and help the tire to dick into the dirt better you can still get excellent traction and all its’ benefits while being relatively safe from the elements. Basically, there is the best choice for scooters used in the cities and suburbs.
Now then, if you want to do serious off-roading and ride on all kinds of loose surfaces the choice is clear you need nubbed tires. They dig to dirt and gravel roads with no problems and provide traction that no other type of wheel can offer. They can be a bit bumpy on smooth tarmac roads though so if you are a city rider the semi-slick is probably the best choice for you.
The size of the tire is related to the same issues as nubbed/slick tires. Off-roading is easier with larger tires as the bigger the wheel is the less they care about bumps and potholes on the road. For city usage, this can be nice but not as necessary as you ride on the tarmac. That’s why electric scooters for urban environments typically come with smaller wheels as the roads are better and they take less space making the scooters more portable.
These are also the reasons why Langfeite C3 comes in an 8” Semi-slick version for suburban roads and a 10” nubbed version for Off-roading. Big brothers C2 for the city is also semi-slick 8” and C1 which is a beast for off-roading with whopping 11” nubbed tires. Nothing stops you from changing the tire types for your needs though so if you want to take your C1 to tracks you can change your tires for even full slick ones if you so wish.
Langfeite manufacturers electric scooters with any type of tires you need.
If your dealership wishes to build your own scooter or just choose from our selection we can help you design and manufacture scooters with any kind of wheel type you wish. Contact Langfeite today and build your dealership a full fleet of urban and off-road electric scooters!