Osheep "All-Terrain" 500W Modular eScooter Review: Promising City Scooter With Serious Problems

As long as you're only riding on flat city roads, it's lovely. Just don't veer off the beaten track. But did this really need to be crowdfunded?

The Osheep All-Terrain Modular 500W electric scooter is a powerful beast, in spite of the ludicrous name. I'm not entirely sure how the manufacturers would deem it to be "all-terrain"—unless they live in an enclosed dome composed entirely of asphalt and lightly dusted variants of asphalt terrain—but thanks to the front suspension it certainly offers a smoother ride over minor road bumps. Join me as I put the Osheep 500W Modular Scooter through its paces, and find out if it's worth backing on Indiegogo.

Spoiler: as long as you're literally riding on flat city roads, it's lovely. Veer off the beaten track though, and it all collapses very quickly. There are plenty of options out there nowadays, so I see no reason for this to be a risky crowdfunding campaign either.

Osheep Design

In terms of style: I hope you like red and black, because your color choices are black, with red highlights (as reviewed); or red, with black highlights.

It's easily foldable from a secure clip on the main shaft, but it also weighs just under 20kg. So while technically foldable, few people would classify this as portable. The height of the handlebar is from the floor when upright is 120cm (4 feet), which felt perfect for my 185cm (6'1") height, but definitely higher than average. It's not adjustable, either.

The bulk of the scooter sits just over the front wheel. Unlike most scooters which place the battery underneath the footboard, Osheep has opted to install it at the base of the steering shaft. The Osheep is being marketed as "modular", and while we don't yet know what that entails for the rest of the scooter, the battery can at least be removed. This allows you to easily charge it indoors, without having to lug your entire scooter up the stairs or into Starbucks. You're also given a set of keys to lock the battery in place and prevent theft, but the lock is optional.

The battery is 360Ah capacity, running at 36V 10A, which seems to be a standard voltage now across both ebikes and scooters. However, from my testing, it feels mismatched to the 500W motor.

The modular design means it should be easy to replace when worn out, or perhaps even upgraded if a higher capacity version is released. Osheep also claims you'll be able to swap out the control module, or the tires. While technically possible, it's early days to tell how this pans out in practice, so you shouldn't buy on that basis alone. We all know what happened to the grand designs of modular phones, after all, but it is at least a laudable goal to have.

The underside of the Osheep is a single molded ABS plastic piece. There are no obvious signs that the scooter is ruggedized, though it doesn't feel cheaply made either. It looks good, but it's certainly not an outstanding design by any means.

On the front you'll find a hydraulic suspension, but as far as I can tell it's not adjustable. Personally, I would have preferred it to be a little springier. However, the rear wheel isn’t equipped with any suspension, so while it does help to smooth out the ride more than no suspension at all, you’ll still feel any really rough patches.

The handlebars—which are the only thing you'll need to attach after unboxing everything—are a lovely textured grippy surface with a protrusion on the rear. Your thumbs fit around this for a more secure grip, and I found that compared to standard tube grips, it was indeed a far more comfortable ride.

In the center, you'll find a very basic control panel. There's no advanced app functionality here; just a single power button and the front light button. Once on, you can double press the power button to swap between the three speed-limiter modes. Ours defaulted to the highest speed, which makes a nice change to every other scooter that begins on baby-level and demands you change it every ride.

Overall the design is quite simple, but looks adult and feels good.

Motor Power

The Osheep is equipped with a 500W motor, which compares well to the more typical 300-350W that you'll find on most scooters in this class. There are higher power, dual output eScooters available, but those are in another price bracket entirely. So this is a cut above most, and that extra power really gives it the extra kick you need to get someone on the bigger side up a slight incline, or simply to provide a more consistent maximum speed.

Osheep claims it can take 120kg (I'm about 108kg), up a 20-degree incline without issue. In practice, I didn’t really find that was the case. It was certainly easier than most scooters I've tried, but it still needed me to push a lot. And even then, that was only at full battery. Once the battery was down to around 40%, I found the motor power to be seriously underwhelming compared to competitors.

You also can’t go from a dead start, you’ll need a little movement before the accelerator will kick in. Because of the high power output, you’ll need to make sure you do that on solid ground or the rear wheel will just slide right away from you.

Safety Features

Thankfully, you have both a front drum and rear disc brake, and the design of the Osheep is such that it's actually just safer to ride than most (again, I'll clarify that: on flat city terrain).

Firstly, you have a wide standing board, with plenty of room to maintain a comfortable sand-safe riding posture.

The placement of the battery is also key. Because it's not on the underside, Osheep have been able to lower the base down a little, giving an overall lower center of gravity, and therefore more stability.

Then there are the tires: wider than average honeycomb design, at around 2.5 inches thick and 9 inches diameter. Unfortunately, the grip on anything other than a street surface is horrendous.

Of course, you also have a rear and brake light, and front light—though it's not particularly bright, so you might want to mount something else on the front.

Phone Mount

One other interesting feature is the sturdy phone mount, accompanied by a cable clip and USB-A port on the top of the steering shaft, so you can keep your phone charged. That said, perhaps you shouldn't use the Osheep battery for that, given how much speed you'll lose when the power bottoms out. The phone is very sturdy, with a screw to secure it from the side, ensuring even the bounciest of rides will not let it fall out.

How's The Ride?

Since I'm surrounded by a fair bit of rugged Cornish terrain, I took the Osheep out for a spin on both the local village streets and up the moors. Or at least I tried to.

Sure enough, all of these comfort and safety features out on the streets led to the most comfortable and secure feeling scooter I've tried yet—and the competition was already pretty strong from the Niu KQi3.

It's quite hilly around my village, and while the claims of 120KG up 20-degree inclines are dubious, I did notice a difference that the 500W motor made. I had to put in far less work overall compared to 300W or 350W scooters that I've tried. On relatively flat roads, I could accelerate quickly and effortlessly to the maximum 25KM/h. So as a powerful city scooter, you're going to leave everyone in the dust, even if you're larger than average, like me. The front suspension certainly smoothes things out, too.

Unfortunately, the 500W motor also appears to really suck down power from that battery. Unless I was shipped a defective device, when I went out to film on the grass and gravel of the moors, I was already down to 40% after just ten minutes. At that point, the motor had simply lost all power. It wouldn't even skid across the grass. I abandoned the plan and dropped back to the relatively flat road, but it couldn't achieve more than 8KM/h. Embarrassingly, I got off and walked back to the village. For whatever reason, the battery seems mismatched to the motor power; perhaps a 48V battery would have been better.

Once I was back on a downhill path, the battery was able to regenerate and speed off home again, but I'd be worried about taking this on extended journeys if I wasn't absolutely sure of the route beforehand.

All-Terrain?

The IndieGogo preview makes references to "conquer all-terrain", though the official Osheep page has since removed the claim from the sales pitch. It does however, still include a photo of the Osheep scooter on the beach. Not a chance. I mean, sure, it'll stand up in the sand, maybe? It just won't go anywhere.

Attempting to ride in any kind of rough terrain was a disaster. The wheel lacks any decent tread, and the increased motor power exacerbates the problem, resulting in skidding and the rear wheel coming away from under me. What I will say is that the additional clearance thanks to not storing the battery underneath did mean that once I was going, I had less of a problem with potholes and other obstacles, but riding this off-road is not an experience I wish to repeat. The Osheep scooter just isn't safe on anything other than roads or pavements.

Should You Back the Osheep eScooter?

I suppose it sounds less impressive in the marketing material to say it's a powerful city scooter that can smooth out bumps, and might, at some point in the future, have some modular upgrades. But that would be more accurate. Don't be fooled into buying this for off-road or all-terrain use, though. Just think of it as a nice grown-up-styled smooth, powerful city ride, and I think you’ll be pleased with it. It may not have a fancy app, but do you really need one? The removable battery is a standout feature: much safer and easier to charge than those that have it built into the underside.

But it's nothing remarkable, and the battery seems to have serious issues. Hopefully, those can be worked out before mass production. It's certainly not worth taking a risk by backing a crowdfunding campaign, compared to numerous commercial options already out there. Avoid.

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