Stranger with my face.
The Urbet Ego is the latest offering from Urbet, a Spanish company that specializes in electric scooters. Its strange design, complete with aesthetically-placed rivets, looks to me like an open-mouthed fish flying down the street. That, coupled with its funky dual-swingarm suspension front and rear, make it stand out pretty well. At least, so I’d thought.
“Wait a minute, I’ve seen that scoot before. It had a different name, though,” Director Jason told me. “Stand by.” Sure enough, it looks almost exactly like the Rumble, which he’d written up way back in 2018. Friends, it’s déjà vu all over again!
The most noticeable difference between the two is the specs, which are completely different. Back when it was called the Rumble, this creature boasted a 1,500-watt, hub-mounted motor that was powered by 60v batteries. Top speed was a claimed 43.4 miles per hour, with a range of around 50 miles. The speaker, which I’d taken to just be a design-feature fisheye in the Ego, allegedly pumped out whatever piston bike noises your little heart desired.
The Urbet Ego, on the other hand, boasts a 3kW motor, also hub-mounted. It’s powered by 72v 42aH batteries, which can charge to full in 7 hours. Top speed is a claimed 90 kmh, or around 55 mph. Range is around 120 kilometers, or about 74.5 miles. Of course, a maker can claim anything they want, and numbers like these are frequently to be taken with enough salt to fill a table-sized shaker, at the very least.
A commenter on Jason’s 2018 piece said they were an early supporter of the Rumble’s crowdfunding in 2018, and that they’d since received their bike.
“The bike probably is designed here in US or Sweden. But the mass production is coming from China, a company called Pioneer in ShangDong province. The spec of the bike I received has a 60V battery with 28 amp, the hub motor is QS 2000w motor, the controler is LingBo LBMC060122 for 1500w-2000w,” RideApart reader Dan wrote.
“I can tell you that the top speed of this thing is not close to 44 mph. From my experience, it's more like 34 mph after I removed the restriction which come with all bike export from China for this. I've been complained this top speed issue with Rumble for months but haven't got any responses yet. As I said the battery is 60V, is not what listed on their website as 72V. The range is definitely less than 60 miles unless you ride it 20 mph. it's more around 30 miles with normal speed of 30 mph,” he went on.
“I still like the style of the bike and the fact that I can turn the engine sounds on and off by desire. But I'm really frustrated with the top speed, as is not as claimed at this point. The charge time is around 4 to 8 hours.”
“Wait a minute, I’ve seen that scoot before. It had a different name, though,” Director Jason told me. “Stand by.” Sure enough, it looks almost exactly like the Rumble, which he’d written up way back in 2018. Friends, it’s déjà vu all over again!
The most noticeable difference between the two is the specs, which are completely different. Back when it was called the Rumble, this creature boasted a 1,500-watt, hub-mounted motor that was powered by 60v batteries. Top speed was a claimed 43.4 miles per hour, with a range of around 50 miles. The speaker, which I’d taken to just be a design-feature fisheye in the Ego, allegedly pumped out whatever piston bike noises your little heart desired.
The Urbet Ego, on the other hand, boasts a 3kW motor, also hub-mounted. It’s powered by 72v 42aH batteries, which can charge to full in 7 hours. Top speed is a claimed 90 kmh, or around 55 mph. Range is around 120 kilometers, or about 74.5 miles. Of course, a maker can claim anything they want, and numbers like these are frequently to be taken with enough salt to fill a table-sized shaker, at the very least.
A commenter on Jason’s 2018 piece said they were an early supporter of the Rumble’s crowdfunding in 2018, and that they’d since received their bike.
“The bike probably is designed here in US or Sweden. But the mass production is coming from China, a company called Pioneer in ShangDong province. The spec of the bike I received has a 60V battery with 28 amp, the hub motor is QS 2000w motor, the controler is LingBo LBMC060122 for 1500w-2000w,” RideApart reader Dan wrote.
“I still like the style of the bike and the fact that I can turn the engine sounds on and off by desire. But I'm really frustrated with the top speed, as is not as claimed at this point. The charge time is around 4 to 8 hours.”
Here’s where it gets weirder.
The OG Rumble from 2018 was apparently the first in the Rumble line. There have been two other versions since then, handily named the V2 and V3, respectively. The V2 features a 2kW motor paired with a 60V battery pack, a claimed charging time of 3 to 5 hours, claimed max speed of 40 mph, and claimed range of 44 miles per charge.
Meanwhile, the V3 was released in March 2019, with delivery planned for July 2020. Rumble’s site says its design team changed, so it upgraded body parts between V2 and V3. The motor/battery setup here is exactly the same as the Urbet Ego: 3kW hub-mounted motor, 72v40ah battery pack, claimed top speed of 55 mph, and claimed range of 80 miles. Claimed charging time is 3 to 5 hours, which is slightly less than the Ego, but one supposes that Rumble couldn’t very well go backward from its V2 in its V3 claims.
The Urbet Ego so briefly mentions the speaker and the piston bike noises it makes that if you blink, you’ll miss it. The only major difference between the Rumble V3 and the Urbet Ego appears to be price. The Rumble V3 will set you back $4,790 American dollars, while the Urbet Ego will set you back $3,738.67. Neither of those prices includes shipping or taxes. Urbet seems to be willing to ship to most countries in the world, while Rumble only lists prices in US, Canadian, and Australian dollars, as well as British pounds and Euros.
So, what gives? Given what RideApart reader Dan mentioned about his Rumble V1, it certainly sounds like a case of a Chinese manufacturer and wholesaler making these bikes to order for any interested retailer. If we were richer, perhaps we’d order one of each just to compare. Maybe they’d even drop-ship to us directly from the factory in China in the same shipping container! Unfortunately, we are not made of money, so no go. Therefore, we can’t definitively prove this theory at this time.
Meanwhile, the V3 was released in March 2019, with delivery planned for July 2020. Rumble’s site says its design team changed, so it upgraded body parts between V2 and V3. The motor/battery setup here is exactly the same as the Urbet Ego: 3kW hub-mounted motor, 72v40ah battery pack, claimed top speed of 55 mph, and claimed range of 80 miles. Claimed charging time is 3 to 5 hours, which is slightly less than the Ego, but one supposes that Rumble couldn’t very well go backward from its V2 in its V3 claims.
The Urbet Ego so briefly mentions the speaker and the piston bike noises it makes that if you blink, you’ll miss it. The only major difference between the Rumble V3 and the Urbet Ego appears to be price. The Rumble V3 will set you back $4,790 American dollars, while the Urbet Ego will set you back $3,738.67. Neither of those prices includes shipping or taxes. Urbet seems to be willing to ship to most countries in the world, while Rumble only lists prices in US, Canadian, and Australian dollars, as well as British pounds and Euros.
So, what gives? Given what RideApart reader Dan mentioned about his Rumble V1, it certainly sounds like a case of a Chinese manufacturer and wholesaler making these bikes to order for any interested retailer. If we were richer, perhaps we’d order one of each just to compare. Maybe they’d even drop-ship to us directly from the factory in China in the same shipping container! Unfortunately, we are not made of money, so no go. Therefore, we can’t definitively prove this theory at this time.
See more at: RideApart
