Bird One Reddit Verdict: A Scooter Let Down by Its Own Company

We don't hear much about Bird scooters to be honest. They have an established name in the rental market but you almost never hear about someone purchasing one. I don't even see them listed in the ESG database. Why are you looking at that one?

Holy crap that scooter is $1k? Single 300w motor with a 36v 12.8 Ah battery? If those specs are correct then two things: 1. Typical ebike or escooter setup gets 1 mile to 1 ah of throttle only distance. So 14 miles is right on par for an almost 13Ah battery. 2. Did anyone actually pay $1k for that thing? Or even $600 for the refurbs? If so, why? Seriously asking. ESG lists 9 scooters all 500w-1000w with 13Ah or more from $560-$1k.

Math. 12.8 Ah, 36 V, 473.6 Wh, 25 miles. That's 19Wh/mile, which sounds perfectly reasonable for a scooter in that class. Different question is what you need to actually do to reach that low of a figure, but it seems doable.

I bought one last year. The personal model vs rental is much better. The quality is good, and its held up great in all 4 (upper midwest) seasons. The app is also very good (and obviously familiar if youve ever rented one), and I've found the customer service to be great since they're an established brand.

if they say 25m max range, than 15 miles in real life sounds about realistic ...

I no longer even assume any testing is actually being done. This is not a carefully controlled environment like the car industry, where they have to show that they somehow got to those results. Nothing stops them from pulling out of their arse a number that isn't entirely unrealistic for what an ideal-conditions test might feasibly result in, and plastering it on the box.

OK let's talk about vendors of scooters and range. What is going to appeal to you as a buyer? A 30 mile range or a 21 mile range? Marketing department steps in, we have Karen over here weighing 98 pounds, she is willing to ride the scooter. Charge it up. They tell Karen to ride around this park at 8mph. We will measure how far she goes.

It doesn't fold

Bird one is running on modified M365 Software

Also, to be clear i bought the actual Bird One model, not the walmart-spec ESI-300.

The Bird One is great for a commuter scooter. It has built it GPS tracking so if it gets lost or stolen you can find it. The scooter also goes reasonably fast and has a good range. It's basically a better version of the rental Bird One.

Horrible. Spend some time browsing this forum and read about the better scooters. You might like an Emove Cruiser?

every single scooter manufacturer falsely advertises their range. The max range usually has some fine print saying 'ideal conditions, tiny rider, etc' so no real world range can ever come close. Sorry you got scammed OP

Most of the ones I know of have had grief, mainly connectivity related issues. Might be the local cellular situation here in Australia but I'm not sure.

get a ninebot g30p max over a bird scooter.

I wouldn't buy anything from bird personally. Its not like they make scooters they import and brand them and they aren't a good company. Beware of their non folding reconditioned scooters they are junk and hard to distinguish from rentals which can cause you issues especially if the street folk in your area hack scooters.

Think of the Bird app as the control panel / key to your Bird. It's the only way to control anything on your One.

I bought 2 of them from Walmart.com last week for $225 (brand new and sold by Walmart, not third-party). I figured I have 30 days to see if I like it enough to keep it and cheap enough to not worry about frying if I decide to hack them.

I have the White BirdOne so far no problem and still works well... NO on/off, the closest is Sleep Mode. You need the BirdApp to turn off headlight when pair. If it's not broken don't fix it... tampering is like risking for slightly better or worse, even broken.

Sheesh they screwed you without the lube. What a crap company.

So the bird is up and running! I had to do a blue light reset and got a new IOT SIM card. These two things have risen the bird from the ashes! I am too afraid to lock it again so permanently unlocked will do just fine.

Looking for a solution myself - have a Bird One that was not plugged in as of 5/1/24. Red blinking light and not working either. No luck with Bird...

My bird has been turned off for a few months now so I missed the update. I've tried customer services with no reply.

I tired all the steps BirdOne recommended and downloaded the lightblue app. The 2 BirdOne scooters I have still don't work. I keep getting connections error.

Sounds like a dying battery pack.

To see if it's a battery dying, charge it and then put it up on a crate or something stable and run it until it dies. If it's the same runtime as on the ground, it's likely something else. If it runs significantly longer before dying, it's probably the battery.

Either a few dead cells or a completely dead battery. Get it checked by a repairman. $50-$100 bucks to check it. If its only a few cells cheap repair compared to buying a new battery.

If it only charges to 7% and stops the issue with the battery is quite clear. Some cells have become very unbalanced, the battery is in series and stops charging if any pair of the series reaches 100% state of charge. This huge of a gap is very concerning, the battery pack may have failed due to differences in battery capacities.

You will have to cut and splice wires. Also the M365 controller will not talk to the Bird dashboard, so you'll also need a M365 dashboard. If it is a genuine M365, or a 1:1 clone, then it can actually be ran without a dashboard if you flash it with SmartESC.

Hey i got the same issue and support send me a code to reset the Bird using an app call Light blue.

It still holds a charge and charges normally. Could it still be bad battery or BMS?

I found this and it worked for me https://www.reddit.com/r/birdscooter/s/flBUfTOgjP

That fucking sucks im sorry

Don't own one but it looks similar to the Ninebot Max if that's something you're looking for as well.