This All-Season Fat-Tired Electric Scooter Can Ski Too
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If you’re looking for one of the most interesting micromobility solutions on the market, the Skick definitely deserves to be on your short list of contenders. This electric utility scooter has a fat tire on the front and two smaller tires on the rear, which isn’t all that unusual in itself, but the Skick’s unique feature is being able to raise its rear wheels off the ground so that it rides on skis, which enables it to be ridden on snow for true all-season capability.
The idea for the Skick, which is designed and built in Finland, came about after Markku Laatikainen’s bad experience with riding a fat-tired 2-wheeled electric scooter in icy conditions, which ended with a bad fall on his first test ride. Soon after, he began sketching out the idea for a more stable scooter that can be ridden in the snow, and the first prototype of the Skick was built in part from components of his original scooter. That led to the founding of Arctic Rides Ltd with Antti Karjalahti, who built the first prototype, and after a few more prototypes, the company was able to develop a production model and patent it.
The name for the scooter is a portmanteau of the words ski and kick, as while the Skick features an electric motor to make it ski (or roll), riders can also kick to help move the scooter along, such as for getting moving from a dead stop, going up hills, or just for adding a bit of human power — and exercise — into the mix.
“Skick has an optimized 48V powertrain for various conditions and has been designed to be used in cold environments too. When the battery is starting to run out and you are still on the road, you can support your motor by ‘skicking’ the scooter. This comes especially handy when going uphill or if you just want to boost the speed with your muscle power. Even an unpowered Skick with completely empty battery is still surprisingly light to skick forward like a traditional scooter without motor assistance.”
With a 1000W electric hub motor in the front wheel, which has an 18″ x 9.5″ inflatable ATV-type tire that provides traction on any terrain, and a 48V 20Ah battery, the Skick can reach speeds up to 25 km/h (15.5 mph) on pavement, and is said to have a range of up to 55 kilometers (34 miles) per charge. It has three speeds to choose from, plus a reverse gear, hydraulic disc brakes, a front cargo rack, and it includes front and rear LED lights as well as a parking brake. Its design allows the Skick to have a very tight turning radius, and it can also be folded up to fit into the trunk of a vehicle for transport.
Currently, the Skick is only available to residents of Finland, where it is priced at €3690 (~$4000), but there is a signup form on the website to be put on the waiting list and notified when it will be available in other countries.
Images courtesy of Arctic Rides Ltd.
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