Speedway Mini 4 Pro Review: A City-Friendly Escooter That’s Near Perfect

Speedway Mini 4 Pro Review: A City-Friendly Escooter That’s Near Perfect

Range. Speed. Weight. If an electric scooter can strike a good balance between these three elements without costing an arm and a leg, that’s an instant win for me. I am happy to say that after years of testing escooters and usual finding a few flaws in at least one of these components makes Speedway’s Mini 4 Pro the closest thing to perfection.

Speedway is a sub-brand of MiniMotors USA, which makes expensive and powerful scooters such as the Dualtron Victor and the Bluetran Lightning (we’re talking $3,000+ for one of those bad guys). Those escooters also weigh over 80 pounds, which isn’t great if your Brooklyn apartment is on the third floor with no elevator. This Speedway, on the other hand, delivers enough power to cruise around most hills, has a reliable range and weighs just 36 pounds. It’s a dreamy city ride.

slow start

Before I get into everything I like, I want to note that I only had two issues with the Mini 4 Pro. On the return trip from my first scooter trip, the brakes made a screeching noise. It was so loud that I could see incredulous looks from passersby. I grimaced and kept on howling home.

This problem disappeared the next time I started riding the scooter. But I took it to a shop just to be sure and found that the brake was misaligned. After less than 10 minutes it was resolved and I was on my way, feeling a little safer than before. Dozens of trips later I have not encountered this problem.

My second woe? I had no idea how to fold this scooter all the way down for a while. There is a small folding lever on the underside of the stem that you have to push down, but no matter how hard I pushed with my foot, it never gave in. It turns out that you have to push the stem forward as you kick the lever, which releases it and folds the entire stem onto the deck.

Once I got this, I couldn’t take it anymore stop fold it anytime I didn’t use it. It’s so easy! I can fold it down with a light push of my leg, and the stem snaps into place once parallel to the deck. You can also fold the handlebars down to make it very compact.

Best of all, you simply grab the stem to carry the Mini 4 Pro as if it were luggage. At 36 pounds, it’s one of the lighter scooters I’ve tried, and much easier than most to lug up and down stairs.

Go speed racer!

Despite its meager size and weight, this thing is powerful. With the 1360 watt hub motor you can drive up to 45 km/h in the highest speed mode. I almost always put it on the second level, which hovers around 18 to 20 mph and doesn’t drain battery life as quickly. He can even handle hills. The Mini 4 Pro is powerful enough to go over the Williamsburg and Brooklyn bridges here in New York City at speeds that aren’t frustratingly slow.

It’s worth noting that once or twice, when I stepped down and pressed the accelerator before putting my foot back to the front of the deck, the entire front of the scooter went up a few inches in the air. I had to hit the brakes to make it stop before it fell out of my hands. This seems to be the result of installing a powerful engine in a relatively lightweight frame. Just make sure both feet are firmly on the deck when you hit it.

As with all electric vehicles, the terrain you drive on has a big impact on your range (as does your weight). I’m a lanky six-foot-tall man and I’ve covered 15 miles on the Mini 4 Pro, but that was quite a journey that involved crossing both of the aforementioned bridges. a readout on the steering wheel display said 63 percent was left. Most people can safely expect a range of 20 miles (Speedway claims a range of 30 miles). That’s much better than the Segway F30† It takes you about 6 hours to fully charge again.