I'm definitely no stranger to inexpensive fun. Ask most kids who grew up in a family where funds were tight and they'll tell you the same thing. Sometimes you have to get creative, and you also have to keep your brain nimble to figure out what's going to be the most fun bang for your very limited amount of bucks. It's just a different kind of math, at the end of the day.
But with that in mind, just how good can an EV quad with an MSRP of just US $1,599 be in 2024? I mean, I just checked and that's now a lower MSRP than a new 2024 Honda Navi. which now sits at $1,999.
Back when I tested a Navi a couple of years ago, the asking price was slightly under what this quad costs, but no more. Inflation, it seems, comes for us all.
Anyway, if you follow the EV bike (both bicycle and motorcycle) space at all, then chances are excellent that you're already familiar with YouTube creator Sur Ronster. He's ridden pretty much all of them, and has developed plenty of opinions on them over time. Recently, he got his hands on a Kayo EA110 quad, entering an adjacent space that he hadn't previously explored very much.
Right out of the box, he found this thing to be surprisingly fun. Sure, it's only going a little over 20 miles per hour out of the box, but off-road riding usually isn't about speed anyway. You'll feel like you're going pretty quick in the moment, but then you'll look down at your speedometer and go "oh, not really."
The torque is low down and very usable, and he found himself getting almost to the top of a test hill that some of his previous EV motorcycle tests couldn't quite reach. And it has reverse, which is excellent because as an EV, it's not exactly lightweight. Kayo's website claims a weight of 227 pounds, for the record.
Now, if you find a stonking bargain on a bit of fun, you can take it one of two ways. One is, you can just appreciate all the money you saved, enjoy the thing as-is, and be happy.
But how much fun is that? Not much, particularly if you're someone who had a set budget in mind to spend on your project, but then were pleasantly surprised at how much you were able to save. What do you do with all the cash you kept in the bank (or under your mattress, or wherever)?
Say it with me now, folks. You spend it on sweet upgrades.
In the back portion of this video, that's exactly what Sur Ronster does. There's a company that makes an upgraded controller, battery, and mounting hardware for this exact quad. It's almost another $900 on top of the price of the quad, but considering how inexpensive the quad was, that's actually not all that bad.
Since it's a new kit, though, the company that makes it is still working out some of the bugs. At one point, a loose throttle plug connection means the quad almost ghost rides itself off a cliff, but luckily it stops in time. The motor stays the same with this kit, but the controls and battery (and the really cool battery mounting brackets for the new unit) all change.
With a price this good, would you take a chance on a bargain EV quad like this? There's no telling how long it will last, which is always the question. But could you have a sufficient amount of fun to justify your $1,600, however long it lasted?
That's the question. I mean, you're probably not planning to pass any quad down to your grandkids, right?
