Birdie BIRD Kick Scooter for Kids, 3-Wheeled, Adjustable Height Handle, Lean to Steer, Back Stomp Brake (Jet Black),60cm L x 30cm W x 70-94 cm H

Product Information

The Bird app has connectivity issues, and given you use the app to turn on the scooter, deactivate the tamper alarm, see your scooter’s battery and toggle the lights, that’s a huge problem. We frequently found the app seemed convinced it was connected to the scooter when it wasn’t. First of all, setting up your new Bird One is incredibly easy – just scan the QR code located on the handlebar to add it to your profile. Sleek-looking, built like a tank, with super impressive connectivity features – as well as battery life galore – the Bird One is about as versatile and as future-proof as e-scooters get. It's not the most compact or portable option available, especially as it doesn't fold, but if you’re looking for the smartest e-scooter around – this is it. The Bird One’s 300W brushless front hub motor is capable of reaching a top speed of 18mph / 29km/h, which is plenty fast enough, and actually faster than is legally allowed in the UK. In the interest of fairness, we should say the Bird One has one or two redeeming qualities. Its range is one of the best of any electric scooter we’ve tested, so it’ll suit people with longer commutes, and its acceleration speed was perfect for comfortable starts.

Part of the reason the Bird One feels so solid is that there is no folding mechanism – a weak, flexible point on many other scooters. Instead, the upright is secured in place by four large bolts. Central between the handlebars, at the top of the scooter’s stem, is a large plastic box - on most scooters, this would house a display to tell you your speed, remaining battery, and which riding mode you were in - the Bird One just has two LEDs that tell you if the scooter is charging or not. That means when you’re riding it’s impossible to know how fast you’re going, or how much charge you have left. We got past this issue by gripping the handlebars tight and pushing them forward or pulling them towards us, to use our strength to stop the shaking, but this is a tiring and stressful way of riding. It’s better than the constant fear of falling off into traffic, though. You can also receive regular over-the-air firmware updates, as well as remote-diagnose and update firmware issues.

One to avoid

At a time when demand for e-mobility continues to surge and US e-bike sales have increased nearly 250% according to NPD, Bird’s expanded personal micro-EV portfolio offers something for everyone. That includes the Bird Bike, a vehicle expertly designed to make everyday cycling a joy, as well as our two newest scooters perfect for riders of all ages. People are looking to micro-electric vehicles to replace their gas-powered car trips and move efficiently around their cities,” said Brian Buccella, Senior Vice President of Consumer Products and Government Partnerships at Bird. “By offering a new product line of personal micromobility devices, we can help significantly expand access to eco-friendly transportation across the United States.” These are just the bigger issues we faced with the Bird One - each is enough to deduct a few stars from our score, but together they’re a recipe for disaster. Even if you can look past one or two problems, there are enough more that it doesn't matter. Riding the Bird One was a stressful experience, one we were nervous to embark on every time we took the thing for a journey. Like most electric scooters, when you first buy the Bird One you have to attach the handlebar stem to the board yourself with an allen key provided. Despite this process usually being easy, we found it incredibly difficult with the Bird One, as no matter how much we tightened the bolts, the handlebars still rattled worryingly in use.

Here, we'd usually talk about speed settings, but the Bird One only has a single setting. Honestly, we don't think this is too much of an issue, as we generally only use the most powerful setting on other e-scooters anyway. Reducing the number of settings certainly makes the Bird One simple and straightforward to use. Bird Bike is the first high-performance consumer e-bike from Bird, the company that revolutionized shared micromobility. Designed by our in-house team of aerospace, automotive and micromobility engineers, it’s crafted to capture the thrill of the ride while delivering all of the technology and safety you expect from Bird, featuring: This information is available in the app, but we think it's useful to have it right in front of you as well. This assembly issue won’t plague people who are using Bird’s rental scooters, instead of their private ones. So construction and handlebar problems aside, how does the Bird One ride? Well, it’s okay, but nothing to write home about.

According to Bird, the One electric scooter has a range of about 25 miles or 40km. This is a fairly good range for such a vehicle, and to the credit of the scooter, it felt fairly accurate in our testing. We drove 5 miles and finished with 75% charge left. The Bird One electric scooter is the same model you’ll find if you use Bird’s scooter rental app available in many cities - this is just a retail version of that same vehicle.

The app was originallydeveloped to help rentalriderslocate Bird One e-scooters in their local area,but Bird’s companion app now alsooffers you complete controlover your e-scooter.Adding to its stylish credentials is the sleek and streamlined design, with fully integrated brake wires and a built-in headlight unit. It looks aerodynamic, like an Airstream caravan. What’s more impressive is that usually, electric scooter makers quote the distance you’ll get on the less-power-intensive slower modes. In this way, while the figures are technically true, they often don’t reflect the real experience of riding a scooter. The Bird One doesn’t have different modes though - we got our distance when traveling at the scooter’s top speed, so the range feels doubly correct.

The Bird One electric scooter takes six hours of charging to get from full to empty - that’s fairly average for this kind of vehicle, as four to eight hours tends to be what we see in most. You charge the vehicle by plugging a cable from mains into the base of the scooter, and a charging light on the handlebars lets you know something’s happening. Riding The scooter doesn’t fold down, unlike most its rivals, which we’ll explore more in the ‘Portability’ section. Here's where the Bird One gets really interesting – its app – because Bird isn't just an e-scooter company, it's a software and service company.It's IP34-rated, which means you can take the Bird One outin showery conditions without voiding the warranty, and it can take a maximum load of 100 kg.