There are many things NOT to like about the Segway Max G3 electric scooter – part 2

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See Also: part 1 and part 2 (and more coming).

Now with my scooter background disclosed, let’s get to the actual subject of this blog entry: The Segway Max G3 electric scooter.

As soon as I knew my Kugoo G5 could not be repaired, I began looking for my next scooter. I was interested only in a name brand that might be sold in actual stores. Brands like Segway, GoTrax and a few others showed up at retailers like Best Buy, Target and Walmart. I decided to focus on those brands and see what they offered that was comparable to my Kugoo.

The GoTrax models I could find at retail looked terribly underpowered and limited for my needs, but Segway seemed to have some comparable models. As I searched on YouTube, I started seeing videos for the Segway ZT3 Pro – a $1000 scooter that looked like it had similar power and range as my Kugoo. After watching a few videos, and seeing that the Segway website offered replacement parts, I decided that would be enough searching. “Just buy it,” I thought. (One could spend weeks or months just researching, and finding every scooter has reviews saying it is the best thing ever, and reviews saying it is total garbage. Not helpful.)

Although the reviews on Amazon looked good (4.6 stars out of 5), my attempt to “just buy it” there was halted when I saw this message:

Frequently returned item

Check the product details and customer reviews to learn more about this item.

How is a product so well rated, but also so frequently returned Amazon has to warn customers about it? To get an answer to that, I headed to REDDIT and asked there. I braced for the expected set of nasty replies and vitriol, which seems to be what REDDIT is mostly good for these days.

To my surprise, I actually got helpful responses. Perhaps the electric scooter community is just nicer than most? (Well, maybe not entirely as there were certainly the unhelpful “Segway is trash!” responses that didn’t bother to explain why that was the case.)

But one response caught my attention. I was asked why I wanted the ZT2 instead of a Max G3? Well, because I didn’t know anything about that model, and when I looked it up, I saw it was $200 more.

After a few nice replies, I learned that the Max G3 was likely a better fit for what I wanted.

And that’s how I decided to buy a Max G3 directly for Segway.

“Segway.com is trash!”

Unfortunately, after spending over half an hour trying to buy the scooter there, I gave up. The site would get stuck, “Next” buttons going nowhere, and refuse to let me put in a valid billing address. I’d enter my shipping address, then when it wanted me to enter a billing, it would then change both to the billing (a post office box, which they cannot ship to). Lather, rinse, repeat.

I even had a $100 discount code someone on REDDIT offered me and there were some extra promotions (extended warranty, etc.) I could get if I bought direct.

But I couldn’t.

Someone on REDDIT suggested using Best Buy since “they are easier to return to.” I decided to go that route, even after a chat with their customer service said they could not price match the $100 discount on Segway.com. Bummer. At least I could get 0% interest financing if I wanted, or a 10% bonus ($120 credit?) from Best Buy.

I ordered on Sunday evening, and the scooter arrived the following Tuesday morning. I did the quick assembly (attach handlebars and insert four screws, attach license plate holder) and let it charge.

Segway Max G3 first thoughts

I was blown away by how well the scooter seemed to be designed. While it is stupid and annoying to buy something you cannot use unless you “activate it” (what do people without cell phones do?), this nonsense is getting more and more common.

You bought it, but are not allowed to use it. Yet.

Once I activated the scooter, I ran through the app and looked at things that could be customized. It was neat being able to enable higher speeds, including a speed faster than my Kugoo G5, and having the nice display with auto-lock when you walk away from the scooter. The built-in “Find My” support, really impressed me. No more trying to hide an AirTag somewhere and hope a thief wouldn’t find it.

But all of this ended when I rode the thing…

Disappointment Drive

First, let me say that this scooter is zippy. It has intense acceleration — even without BOOST MODE. Possibly too much, even. It is very aggressive, and I would sure like a way to lower that. My electric bike has a similar “problem” where, if you are at a cross walk waiting for the light to change, starting to peddle will engage the motor and try to jump you into traffic. (It took many rides to get used to that eBike trying to kill me!)

I feel similar with the scooter, though I expect I may get used to it. I really hope there will be a way to reduce the acceleration. I like to get to top speed, but I don’t need to get to it that fast.

The next issue is how badly this thing rides. Compared to the Kugoo G5, this thing (maybe due to the thin tires) it just so much rougher and challenging. While it handles bumps okay, hitting any bump makes it feel like it is slowing down to brake (or the motor cutting off). I tested with the traction control feature ON and OFF: no difference that I could tell. I also tested with and without the energy recovery (which, as you slow down, causes the wheel to generate power to send to the battery). No difference that I could tell.

Between the jerky speedups and the erratic feel of “just riding,” it was not nearly the pleasant experience I had when first learning to ride the Kugoo scooter. Or the GoTrax.

If I had test ridden it first, I would not have bought it.

Sadly, in this world of “online order everything,” test drives are impossible. I am convinced had I had a chance to ride this first, I would have never purchased it. And if this had been my first scooter to try, I probably would have decided scooters were just not for me.

Overall, while it does seem to be a “really good” scooter, the riding experience for this $1200 scooter is a huge step back from the $800 Kugoo G5. My ride down to the post office and back (8 miles) was not fun.

Some searching on Facebook groups and REDDIT groups let me know I was not alone. The term “jerky acceleration” comes up often, with some folks saying theirs is just fine, and others saying it is jerky. The interesting thing is that even Segway Support has a document about “jerky acceleration” (though the problem they describe is a hardware defect).

After so many people told me I was the problem and my scooter was fine, I turned to Segway Support. After going back and forth with them (great support, by the way), they suggested I return my scooter for replacement. The things I, and many others, described were not supposed to be that bad.

Even though I ordered online, I was able to return my Max G3 to a Best Buy store. They had none in stock, and shipping to store would take many more days than directly to me, so I had them refund the unit, and then went to order it. Unfortunately, I was unable to do this since I had yet to receive my new Best Buy credit card I signed up for to get the special offers when buying the scooter. I had to go back to the store and let them order it, and wait for the replacement to arrive.

Look for part 3, shortly…

Segway Max G3 battery range tests

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Last Updated: 7/3/2025

This page will have real-world milage from a full charge of a Segway Max G3 electric scooter. As I add new entries, I will add notes about what modes and speeds the scooter was used in. This data is pulled from my Google Spreadsheet which you can also view for more details.

Segway Max G3 range tests

DateStart MilageStart chargeEnd chargeEnd MilageCharge miles
Miles per %Notes
5/30/20250100%14.914.9First ride on my replacement Max G3.
6/1/202514.9100%40.725.8Missing an entry? This seems too high.
6/20/202540.7100%57.917.2Mostly Drive mode, 16mph.
6/29/202557.9100%
75.217.390% sport, 25mph max.
On each charge of my scooter, I will update this table with how many miles I got on that charge. I will also start logging what level I charged to, and what level it was at before I re-charged.

There are many things NOT to like about the Segway Max G3 electric scooter – part 1

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See Also: part 1 and part 2 (and more coming).

This blog post serves as my “first impression” of the Segway Max G3 electric scooter. However, thoughts like this are meaningless if you don’t know the background of the person doing the thinking. Some “professional scooter reviewer” that goes through fifty scooters a year, spending maybe a week with each one, has a very different opinion on scooters than someone who spends years with the same model.

Likewise, folks who are used to $3000 scooters probably have very different views on $500 scooters.

In order to let you know if my thoughts even matter to you, here is a rundown of my “scooter background.”

2020: The Kugoo G5 made me a “scooter guy.”

In December 2020, I got my first electric scooter – a $799 Kugoo G5. This was a review unit I was sent, and as I wrote about at the time, it was dead on arrival. After some weeks, I was able to receive a replacement unit, and that one worked great. After a few weeks of getting used to riding it (I had never even ridden a skateboard, so the whole experience was new to me), it became my new favorite means of transportation. If I lived close enough to work to ride it there each day (weather permitting), I would have started doing that and been quite happy. It was a joy to ride.

I became a “scooter guy,” even though I had previously had zero interest in them, and thought they were dumb.

Here is the Amazon listing for that scooter:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09L81Q3VV?ref_=ppx_hzod_title_dt_b_fed_asin_title_0_0

As you may notice by the awful reviews, I was not the only one that had a problem with the unit. Amazon even pulled the listing, and shut down the reviews. I was never able to post my review there.

The Kugoo G5 was a wonderful riding experience. It had 10″ air filled tires, and they were wider that I expected on a scooter. This made rides very smooth and it handled small bumps easily. It was also a very powerful scooter, able to speed up hills in my neighborhood without any struggles at all.

The Kugoo G5 was lacking in a few areas. First, the Kugoo app was crap. Every time I ran it, I had to search and find the scooter and connect to it. Since you had to use the app to “lock” the scooter (which was dumb since anyone could download the app and unlock it), I was constantly having to “disconnect and reconnect” when I went back to the scooter and wanted to unlock it.

Second, my unit started squeaking as I rode it and there was zero maintenance guides I could find anywhere about what I might do about it.

Third, while it did fold down, it was cumbersome to do that, and when you folded it, the front wheel went up so the base would rest awkwardly on the floor.

And fourth, it was heavy. It was a real pain to get up and down the steps to m apartment. If it was easier to fold down, I would have just done that and carried it, but since that was a pain, I ended up trying to lift/roll it up the steps. I sure wished I had a lighter scooter every time I did that.

But beyond those items, it really was a wonderful scooter — far beyond what I would have expected from a brand I’d never heard of. I routinely got around 45 miles on a charge, and never had any issues with it … until it broke. But more on that in a moment.

2023: The GoTrax Apex Max made me a dual-scooter guy

In 2023, I got a GoTrax Apex Max. At $399, it was half the cost of the Kugoo G5. I referred to it as my “toy scooter”. It had much less power, with much shorter range and a slower top speed. BUT, it was lighter, and I could easily pick it up and carry it without needing to fold it down.

However, it was so underpowered it could barely drive up my street. A slight incline would cause it to slow down to 7 mph. Had the hill been any longer, I would have been walking it.

BUT, it was a great “easy” scooter to use for running a few blocks away to pick up a TO GO order or whatever. I wouldn’t dare try to ride it anywhere else since I expect I would get stuck on a hill or just run out of battery.

It also had no way to “lock” it so I had to carry it when I entered a business, and would only park it when I could be on the other side of a window keeping an eye on it.

2025: The Kugoo kraps out.

When it warmed up enough to start riding the scooters again this year, I noticed my Kugoo handlebar was loose. It had a bit of wiggle that it never had before. As I rode it, I felt unsafe from that.

I tried to fix it by tightening some bolts at the base of the stem, but that didn’t help. Eventually, I resorted to disassembling everything I could down there to see if I could find something else to tighten.

I found this:

Yep, the stem broke. That was the “wiggle” I was feeling, and my feeling of being “unsafe” was well justified. The only thing holding it together was a plastic housing! Riding with that broken part could have ended badly.

I tried to contact the Amazon seller, but their account was no longer active. Searching to find the Kugoo website led me to a half-dozen or so different websites with variations like Kugoo Mobility, Kugoo USA, Kugoo EU, etc. I reached out to a few of them looking for a maintenance manual (before I had disassembled the stem), and then again trying to see if any replacement parts were available so I could repair it.

Silence.

Well, almost. One of them which sent me to a blog post that talks about airing up tires, and a confirmation that they had no parts.

At that point, I knew I wanted a replacement scooter and that it would not be a Kugoo. I wanted something from a company that supported their product and had spare parts available.

And I needed it “now” since I did not want to spend the next few months going down the rabbit hole of reading reviews, watching “review” videos, and hanging out in scooter forums asking questions.

To be continued…

A BASIC coin flip…

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Us humans (this is not an A.I. post, bleep bloop) have a tendency to try to find patterns in randomness. For example, when asked to pick a number between 1 and 10, a magician/mentalist will know that statistically humans are more likely to choose certain numbers. There is alot of “human nature” that makes us somewhat predictable.

In a deck of 52 playing cards, if you were asked to predict what card is on the top of a shuffled deck, you probably wouldn’t say Ace of Diamonds, but that card is just as likely to be there as any other. No matter which card you guess, you have a 1 in 52 chance of being correct.

Call it in the air…

When it comes to a coin toss, do you always call heads? Always tails? Or do you alternate?

When a gambling casino game presents a grid of squares and asks you to pick four squares, do you “randomly” pick various squares, or do you just click the first four on the top row?

If it is random, either should have the same outcome.

And don’t get me started on picking lottery numbers. While we do not often see the picked numbers be “1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6”, that sequence should be just as likely as any other.

If it is random.

So let’s play a game in BASIC with a coin toss. Heads or tails will be represented using CoCo’s Color Basic RND() command. Doing RND(2) will produce either a 1 or 2 result.

NOTE: This is not random. This is psuedo random. I have discussed this previously, but for the sake of this blog post we will pretend it truly is random.

Would calling heads every time produce a better result than calling tails? Or would randomly choosing heads or tails each flip be better?

Let’s try…

0 'COINFLIP.BAS
5 'POKE 65495,0
10 W1=0:W2=0
20 FOR A=1 TO 1000
30 V=RND(2)
40 IF V=1 THEN W1=W1+1
50 IF V=RND(2) THEN W2=W2+1
60 NEXT
70 PRINT "ALWAYS GUESSING 1:";W1
80 PRINT "GUESSING RAND 1-2:";W2

This program will “randomly” flip a coin 1000 times and count how many times it landed on heads (1) versus how many times it matched a randomly (1-2) chosen value. At the end, it will print the results:

As you can see, in this “random” test, neither method really proved to be that different. We could also alter the output to print how many times guessing tails (2) would have worked (1000 clips minus how many times it was heads, 511 in this example, so 489 if my math is correct).

But it still feels better thinking we have some “control” over things and guessing rather than always choosing the same guess.

Alphabetically speaking…

Let’s modify the program to select a random letter, A-Z (represented by 1-26). We will now always guess A, versus randomly guess a letter (1-26):

0 'COINFLP2.BAS
5 'POKE 65495,0
10 W1=0:W2=0
20 FORA=1TO1000
30 V=RND(26)
40 IF V=1 THEN W1=W1+1
50 IF V=RND(26) THEN W2=W2+1
60 NEXT
70 PRINT"ALWAYS GUESSING 1:";W1
80 PRINT"GUESSING RND 1-26:";W2

And here is what I get…

Maybe this perspective will help you “always choose tails” or “always guess Aces of Spades” in the future.

And speaking of the future, there is another “random” test I want to experiment with, coming soon.

Until then…

Using BASIC to prove a (dumb) point.

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I recently got lured in to downloading some casual game for my phone. (Thank you, gas station rewards program, for telling me I could earn a bonus from you if I downloaded this stupid game.)

I gave up these time wasters years ago when I realized how much time they wasted.

But with this addictive substance back on my phone, I was thrown back in and realized… nothing has changed. It’s even worse. These games are not games. They are ad platforms. Every few minutes you get an ad. Or, you have to watch an ad to get something you need.

I will repeat… These games are not games. They are ad platforms.

But, once new trend is how many ads for other games I see that offer “real cash” for playing them. They show folks who are broke pulling out their phone and then playing to get the money they need. “It’s just that easy!”

Obviously, if you could easily make hundreds of dollars playing a game, you wouldn’t need to pay to advertise that game. People would all know about it from word-of-mouth and we’d all be doing that.

What is even more amusing (at least to me) is how many ads warn you about “scam games” … while basically being the same game they are warning you to avoid.

But one thing caught my attention… These ads will claim to be “skill based” games. Many of them are card games like Solitaire.

While it is true there is skill to know how to play a certain set of random cards you have been dealt, there is zero skill that can prevent you from losing if you get enough bad hands. Likewise, any “skill” game that uses a roll of the dice you can 100% be guaranteed to lose if you had enough random bad rolls of the dice and your opponent had enough random good rolls.

And that gave me a (dumb) idea…

The house always wins.

As a kid, I remember playing Battleship with friends. In case you are unfamiliar, here is the wiki page for this game:

Battleship (game) – Wikipedia

Basically, you place your ships on a grid, aligned vertically or horizontally, and your opponent does the same. You then call out the coordinate you want to “bomb” on your opponent’s grid, and they tell you if you had a “hit” or a “miss.”

Some of us cheated.

Since there was no way to verify where the ships were, if your opponent called a shot that was a “hit,” you could easily move your piece out of the way to a new spot and report “miss.” Evil. But fun. This caused LONG games, playing until you basically got down to where the ships had no other place to be.

Because of this, I never trusted the Battleship clone I played on my Radio Shack Color Computer. How could I ever trust that computer wouldn’t “cheat” the same way?

But hey, Battleship is a game of skill — after all, it does not use any random roll of the dice or deal of a card.

But the card and dice games are completely “random” and no matter how skilled you are, you can have a hard time winning against bad randomness ;-)

I thought it would be fun to write a simple BASIC Blackjack (or 21) card game, except the computer would cheat. It would have a list of all un-dealt cards, and ensure it always gives the best card to the dealer, and the worst to the opponent. If things were truly random, this is a possibility with a truly random outcome.

The same cheating computer could be done for any random game — just as Monopoly. Imagine ALWAYS getting a roll that makes you pay rent or Go To Jail, while the computer always got a roll that got them to a safe property, or one they could buy.

Shall we play a game?

I will not present code for this yet. I have not written it. But, perhaps one of you will beat me to it.

My idea:

  1. The cards are in a random array of 52.
  2. The computer dealer will always get the best cards. Initially a face card and an ace, then as those cards are depleted, two cards totaling ten. At that point, there is no way the player can ever get two cards at 21. And, if the player got 20, the “house always wins” so even if that happened, the computer wins.
  3. After the player receives its cards, any request to “hit” would be a card just enough to make them bust.
  4. This process would continue through the rest of the deck.

I am unsure if, at some point, it would ever turn into a “fair” game. And this is why I want to write this dumb idea.

Thoughts?

Insta360 X5 night shooting – 360 Video versus PureVideo

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The local government is about to tear down some intersection fountain displays, so I have been capturing them in photos and VR. I was hoping to get some night video as well, with the lights on, but the lights may no longer work.

Anyway, here is a recording using fully automatic 360 “Video” mode, versus fully automatic 360 “PureVideo” mode. The 360 video was then exported as a flat video in 4K, then combined as a split screen using Final Cut Pro. The video is shown in horizontal split screen, then again in vertical split.

What do you think?

Segway Ninebot Max G3 and jerky acceleration

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The Max G3 is an amazing piece of tech. While this $1200 scooter does not have even half the range my $799 Kugoo G5 had, nor the smooth ride (thinner tires), everything else about it seems much better. However, if you look at some reviews, and search posts on REDDIT and Facebook groups, you find many users reporting jerky acceleration. My unit definitely has this issue, and I’ve been e-mailing with Segway Support over it the past 7 days since I initially received my unit.

This post is a compilation of what I have learned so far, based on user reports and official information from Segway.

Known Issue: Riding is jerky

First, Segway has posted an article, which I found inside the Segway App’s help section, specifically about riding feeling “jerky”.

You can also read this article on their website:

Riding is jerky | Segway eKickScooter Ninebot MAX G3 Series/F3 Series | Ninebot

Whatever this issue is, it is common enough for them to address it inside the app and on the website. However, as I went to write up this post, I found they have similar entries like this for other scooters, so it is not limited to just the Max G3 and F3 series.

The jerking is just the acceleration being awesome.

Another common report of “jerky acceleration” is likely just that this scooter has WONDERFUL torque and accelerates incredibly fast. Reports from users with “good” Max G3s say this is wonderful and super smooth. However, the throttle is touchy and if you are trying to hold a slower speed (i.e., you are in Sport mode with a max speed of 28 mph then you want to slow down to 15 and cruise through some tricky spots), the scooter will feel jerky, as if the motor is pulsing on and off.

On my scooter, this is very noticeable. As I ride, it feels like the motor is cutting off and I am pushed forward a bit towards the handles each time it happens. Very annoying. And, when I was initially trying out Sport mode, it felt dangerous. Because of that, I have been riding in lower speed modes, and avoiding Sport entirely.

There are reports that the earlier firmware had issues like this, but an update solved it. Recently a new firmware was released which some users reported made it better — but that update was quickly removed. I have not seen it pop up in the USA yet.

I think there are two issues here. The touchy throttle sounds like something they can fix in firmware, or maybe make go away completely just by reducing the acceleration. (I’d suggest slow acceleration in normal mode, fast acceleration in Boost mode.)

Max speed can still have “jerkiness”

But for my problem, I feel the jerking even when running with the throttle all the way down in Drive mode (16 mph). While I certainly do have the problem when trying to maintain a slower speed, it still happens when I have it maxed out — which tells me my scooter has a different issue than “acceleration is really fast.”

Not variable speed? That’s what they say!

A real puzzler is how many users responded that this scooter does not have variable speed. They say the motor is either on or off and that “all Segway scooters are like this.”

However, when I asked Segway Support about this, they said it 100% has variable speed and you should be able to maintain any speed level you want. I suspect the users saying this have the same problem I have and may not know it’s a problem — they think “that’s just the way it is.”

My scooter is perfect!

And then there are plenty of folks saying everything is perfect — specifically, every YouTube review I have seen so far. Not one of them mentioned any issues with acceleration. Perhaps they had review units that were inspected to make sure they were 100% working?

Conclusion

I will update this page with more details. Segway Support thinks something is wrong with my scooter, and asked me to disassemble some stuff to send to them for inspection and repair. When I explained I just got it last week, they suggested returning it to the seller for replacement.

I will be doing that, and if my second unit has the same issues, I plan to return it. Mine is not a pleasant experience compared to every other scooter I have ridden.

Segway Max G3 charging question…

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Here is something I am wondering about … When I plug in the Segway Max G3 to charge it, the tail light will light up and slowly fade up and down as it charges.

At some point, I heard a sound I did not recognize. I assume it was a sound from the scooter. I opened the Segway app, and saw that the scooter was now at 100%. I now assume this sound means “I’m done charging now.” I also noticed that the brake light was solid red instead of fading. I now assume that “fading on/off means charging” and “solid red means done.”

Screenshot

You will notice it says 100% with an estimated range of 40 miles. This means the app is showing the low-end of the “40-50 miles” range that their marketing states of this scooter:

However, you will also see that the time left for charging says 33 minutes. So are we done, or are we not?

I left it plugged up to see what happened. After a half hour or so, I noticed that the brake light as now completely off. I now assume “off” means “I am done charging now, for real this time.” The app still shows the same 40 miles estimate, but no longer has the “time left” readout:

My question is … what is the purpose of having the initial “I’m done” with the sound, 100% in the app, and the brake light changing to solid, but still having a “oh, but wait, there’s more time to charge” indicator. I wondered if that extra time would get the range estimate higher than 40, but as you can see it did not.

Thoughts?

The tech in this scooter is amazing. There is a TON of battery diagnostics. I’ll have to post about that at some point. But first, I need to finish my multipart blog post about what I dislike about this scooter, in hopes it might save someone from making a $1200 mistake if they also don’t like those things ;-)

Until then…