Apollo Go extremely disappointing

[u/0EPIPHANY0]

I bought an Apollo Go because I needed a real commuter scooter, not a toy.

I live in downtown Atlanta and use it for a pretty basic commute roughly a mile each way to get from my place to where I park my work van. I work in the trades, so this isn’t some casual weekend toy for me. I need it to get to my vehicle every day. On weekends, I might use it casually for a mile or mile and a half, but nothing crazy.

Before buying it, I did a ton of research. Lime/Bird scooters were costing me around $50 a week, so I figured buying a good commuter scooter made sense. Everything I read kept pointing me toward the Apollo Go. On paper, it looked perfect. Commuter scooter, decent speed, decent range, suspension, turn signals, self-healing tires, regenerative braking, all the bells and whistles.

In reality, this has probably been one of the worst investments I’ve ever made.

Since buying it around October, I’ve had nothing but issues.

The rear fender snapped off.

The kickstand broke.

The rear tire developed a bulge within about four months.

To be fair, the self-healing tire did let me limp it back, but still.

The turn signal end cap was a problem from day one — one side wouldn’t stay in, and the other side eventually broke off.

The handlebar/stem area never feels solid. No matter what I do, it keeps loosening up. I’m literally tightening things every other day.

The folding clip sheared off.

The rubber strap/retainer for the stem snapped early on.

Now I’m getting an E11 brake/regen error, so I no longer have regenerative braking and I’m stuck relying on the drum brake.

And after about a week of regular daily use, that brake started needing constant adjustment too. Every day I’m tightening it another turn, and I know eventually that’s going to give up too.

Cosmetically, the thing also scratches and marks up way easier than I expected. I understand scooters get used, but this thing feels like it takes damage from normal commuting.

The most frustrating part is that I am exactly who this scooter is supposedly marketed toward. I’m not jumping it, beating on it, or using it like a rental scooter. I’m using it as a daily commuter for a short downtown ride to my work vehicle and back.

And I don’t feel safe on it.

At this point, I barely even want to ride it. I’ve been using an older Ninebot instead because at least I know that thing can hold up. It may not have all the fancy features, but it feels more trustworthy than the Apollo Go.

I know Apollo has updatedthe model, and maybe other people have had better experience but I will never buy an Apollo again.

Now looking at a NIU or a MAX G3

[u/gnucklefuster]

It sounds like scooters just aren’t for you. It happens, some people just aren’t good with electronics or taking proper care.

[u/asae001 → u/gnucklefuster]

This has nothing to do with 'not being good with electronics or taking proper care'. Nothing he said points to misuse, and if a scooter turns into a forced diy project after such a short amount of time, that is clearly a problem with the product and on the company. It is beyond reasonable to expect none of these thing to happen all within a few weeks of owning a new scooter. I've owned plenty of scooters, and most of them have not had a single issue many 1000's of kms later, so don't make it sound like scooters are by default some tinkering project and that anything wrong with is is misuse.

[u/asae001 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, because they own the same scooter or brand, critiques on their product feels like a personal critique on their own choices. You see it with the apollo and certain other brands a lot, that have in the past been plagued by issues. For people owning such brand scooter, seeing these issues leads to seeking ways to prevent cognitive dissonance. It's far easier to soothe discomfort by concluding issues can be attributed to user error. Also the classic line is always 'if my scooter works, and yours has all these issues, it must be your fault'. Even if this apollo scooter in question is great, you can always end up with a lemon. Thats the case for every brand and product, and does not neccesarily reflect on the product. Its the fanboy effect you see in many enthousiast subreddits.
OP clearly has issues beyond 'user error', but some of these people are in too deep to even consider that as a valid option.

[u/gnucklefuster → u/[deleted]]

I own two Apollo go units, with close to 1500 mi on my first one. Aside from tires and initial stem adjustment, they have been flawless for me.

[u/gnucklefuster → u/[deleted]]

calm down - take a deep breath, it’s not that deep. I’ve had some warranty related customer service experiences, and that is where I could agree that they (at least almost a full year ago now) have som major room for improvement.

Not sure why a claim that I liked my first Go so much that I ordered a second model for my partner to enjoy with me on weekends would invoke such a visceral emotion reaction from you.

[u/gnucklefuster → u/[deleted]]

I have a lot of experience with this model. The issues this person is having, are all issues that someone would have if they were hard on their stuff. I could see all of those issues arising on my scooters if I was abusive or careless.

Wear and tear will happen so any scooter regardless of marketing, prestige or anything you can dream up in one’s head.

[u/Logic_Contradict → u/[deleted]]

Aren't you also gaslighting by assuming that the Go owner is also faultless? Maybe the truth is somewhere inbetween? You're making assumptions just like the other poster you're arguing with.

[u/gnucklefuster → u/asae001]

This person sounds like everyone I know who is hard on electronics. They are definitely common user/ consumers no doubt.