Is the DUALTRON 3 Worth It in 2020? – Full REVIEW and COMPARISON with the Dualtron SPIDER and THUNDER

Released two years ago, the Dualtron 3 was shipped to every corner to the globe and received countless positive reviews from customers from all around the world. Since then though, Minimotors released two new models with amazing features – the Dualtron Thunder and the Dualtron Spider. My question is – is the Dualtron 3 still worth your consideration?

The short answer is yes – the Dualtron 3 is still kicking it – it’s still a great value for the money and it stays strong against its competitors. It was designed for a certain application in mind and it gets the job done.

So the real question now is – what is the Dualtron 3 best at? In this review, I will try to give you a detailed picture of what this scooter is so you can decide whether it suits your needs.

Here, I will be also comparing it to its two biggest brothers – the Spider and the Thunder (I happen to own both so I will try to point out as many important details as possible). You can find the full comparison chart at the end of this review. For now though, I could say that the Dualtron 3 has more things in common with the Thunder than with the Spider. You could say that the Dualtron 3 is a budget version of the Thunder, while the Spider belongs to a completely different category.

Dualtron 3 Review

Riding Experience and Handling

The Dualtron 3 is a heavyweight racing scooter that can go as fast as 72 Km/h (45 Mph) and as far as 120 Km (75 Mi) in one charge. It has insane torque, at the point that an inexperienced driver might feel somewhat intimidated by its power. On full performance mode, the Dualtron 3 does indeed feel like a rocket.

That being said, I believe the Dualtron 3 is a fantastic entry into the world of racing scooters and a great value for the money. This scooter is indeed extremely powerful, though it’s also very nimble.

You see, Minimotors scooters are known for having excellent maneuverability and the Dualtron 3 is no exception. It has a tight turning radius and feels very agile. Despite its pretty big weight, the scooter turns exceptionally easy. Even a beginner won’t have any trouble driving this on busy city streets, as long as he or she goes slow and respects traffic rules.

All the weight of the scooter is in the deck so it has very low center of gravity, which makes it very easy to handle. Just keep in mind that the scooter is few times lighter than the driver so your posture still has a great impact on the balance. However, the low center of gravity is still pretty noticeable compared to the models that have a light deck and batteries inside the T bar.

Overall, the Dualtron 3 is one of the best handling scooters that I’ve ridden. It accelerates hard, brakes hard and can carve any corner.

How beginner-friendly is it?

The scooter is easy and fun to ride no matter how experienced you are at scooter racing. In fact, if you are a beginner, you might prefer the Dualtron 3 over the Thunder because it is slightly slower, lighter, and more agile.

If you think that the scooter is too fast or has too much acceleration, you can easily change that on the fly:

dualtron 3 handlebar buttons

dualtron 3 acceleration and finger print

Note: Always use a bike or motorcycle helmet and the appropriate hand, elbow and knee protection. Also, check scooter speed and weight regulations in your area, as well as paper requirements. Check this post for protective gear https://www.madcharge.com/electric-scooter-riding-safety-and-protective-gear/

Brakes

As a racing scooter, the Dualtron 3 comes with powerful dual cable-activated hydraulic calipers with 140mm disks. They are reliable and good for racing, though you might find them a bit of an overkill if you’re using the scooter as a daily commuter. The two brake clutches are distributed the same was as in a conventional motorcycle – front brake on the right, rear brake on the left.

Additionally, we have the conventional regenerative brake that can be toggled on and off from the dashboard. The regenerative brake significantly adds to the braking ability and recharges the battery in the process.

My only gripe with it is that as soon as you touch the brake clutch, the regenerative brake engages and the motorcycle brakes pretty hard, even if you wanted it to slightly slow down. There is a limited amount of gradient with the regenerative brake turned on since you cannot use it on its own – you always have regenerative brakes going by hand with the disk ones. While not a deal breaker, this detail takes some time to getting used to and it could use some refinement – most other models of similar price range I have tried don’t have this issue.

But again, it’s not that big of a deal once you get used to it and it can also be easily turned off on the fly.

The Dualtron 3 also features an ABS (anti-lock braking system) that can be turned on and off. Unless you want to do drifts (which will probably kill your tires pretty fast), I see no reasons of having ABS off. ABS prevents wheels from locking when you brake, allowing you to brake harder and safer. If one of your wheels locks, you lose control of the vehicle, which might lead to an accident. ABS is a system that is also used in cars, motorcycles and even aircraft.

I know some drivers don’t like ABS but I would definitely recommend you to give it a try.

dualtron 3 brakes

dualtron 3 motor brake

Comfort

This scooter is the king of comfort.

As expected for the price, the Dualtron 3 comes with high-quality dual rubber suspension that does a great job with sharp bumps. You can even jump off the curb pretty comfortably. Compared to spring shocks, rubber suspension absorbs more and bounces less, making the ride more consistent and giving you a feeling of control and stability.

The chassis has front and rear suspension and both use an adjustable swing arm system. That’s a very handy feature because it allows you to fine-tune your scooter to the use you are giving it. Say, you use the scooter to mostly race on asphalt. Opening the swing arms and reducing the ride height might give you some extra stability and better control on higher speeds.

In addition to that, you can also adjust the softness of the suspension by changing the rubber type. There are five rubber types to chose from that range from extra soft to extra hard. They are sold apart and can be easily swapped without any specialized tools or tech knowledge.

If you want to keep things as simple as possible though, you can always use the factory ones. The scooter comes with medium suspension that is a good compromise between shock absorption and stability, and most people find it to be the sweet spot anyway.

From my personal experience, riding around the especially awful streets of an old town with paved roads is no problem for the Dualtron 3. Besides the great suspension, the huge weight (39 Kg or 85 lbs) of the scooter itself greatly adds to the smoothness and consistency of the ride.

The Dualtron 3 uses a trigger throttle that is activated by your right index finger. Some people like it while others are more into thumb or even twist throttles. I suppose, finger size and strength comes into play here. Some people also argue that the thumb throttle allows your hand to have a more natural position, plus it makes you use the strongest finger – the thumb.

Some add that it’s harder to have fine motor control with one finger to have the speed you want and hold it in one place. I think they have a point, though luckily there is cruise control that helps with that. By turning it on from the EYE dashboard, you can give your index finger a rest while maintaining a comfortable constant speed.

dualtron 3 suspensions

dualtron 3 rubber suspensions

dualtron 3 size

dualtron 3 deck size

Portability

Just like the Dualtron Thunder and Ultra, this model is quite on the heavy side. It weights 39 Kg (85 lbs), which might be too much weight to carry around, for most people. It might even be a bit challenging to lift it into the car.

dualtron 3 portability folded

dualtron 3 folding hook

Power

The Dualtron 3 has power.

With two motors rated 2000W (3600W peak) each, the scooter handles every hill I throw at it without hesitation. I still have to find a hill that would slow down my Dualtron 3 for more than a couple miles an hour. It can easily maintain 32 Km/h (20 mph) on the steepest hills I could find and I felt like it could go even faster than that, though at the expense of faster battery consumption.

Fun thing is, the Dualtron Spider has almost three time weaker motors and still same top speed as the Dualtron 3, which is 65 Km/h (40 Mph). The main difference between the two is torque and gradeability, which basically translates into the amount of speed you lose when going uphill. The Spider is amazing on flat surfaces but it does slow down considerably when the slope is too steep. Besides, it also reacts a lot to the driver weight, road condition and wind.

The Dualtron 3, while having same top speed, feels way more powerful. If you don’t want to slow down when going uphill or against wind, you will definitely love this scooter.

Range

Minimotors claims the 120 Km (75 mi) range under ideal conditions. From my experience, I can drive up to 95Km (60 mi) in one charge. That’s an impressive range for an escooter. I am not the lightest driver and my road conditions are far from being perfect too – I live in a hilly area so I have to accelerate and brake constantly. It is also windy here sometimes, so that affects battery consumption too.

Battery-wise, the scooter comes with a 60V battery system by LG Electronics. I believe that LG batteries are superior over any generic Chinese brand, with Samsung being one of the few other alternatives I’d go for.

The Dualtron 3 comes with a single charger. You can purchase a second one to half charge time. This is possible because the scooter has two charging ports and two chargers can be plugged in at the same time. If you ask me, this system is very clever.

Most other scooters, even those on the expensive side, either have no ways to speed charging time up at all, or they come with one port and few chargers to chose from. This means that first you pay for the weaker charger that comes with your scooter by default and then you have to pay additional money to replace it with something more powerful. So you basically end up paying for a charger you won’t use, while in the case of the Dualtron 3, you do get to use the charger that comes from factory.

Durability

Just like the Thunder, the Dualtron 3 has a strong metallic frame made of aircraft-grade aluminum forging alloy. Nothing about the scooter feels loose of flimsy. I also haven’t discovered any weak spots or design flaws that could potentially decrease the lifespan of the vehicle.

Some parts, such as the tires, do wear off with use and have to be replaced regularly. Minimotors has representatives in Europe, America and Asia and they sell all the parts that can be replaced. For example, Minimotors USA sells the tubeless tire already mounted to the rim so you don’t have to bring the scooter to the shop to swap out the tire.

Maintenance-wise, the Dualtron 3 requires the same maintenance as your smartphone – charge it daily and that’s about it. Its motors are located inside the hub of the wheel, which means that there are no belts and no chains to lubricate or maintain. Besides, this makes the scooter nearly silent. About all the sound you hear are the wheels on the pavement.

Ey3 Dashboard

Right next to the trigger throttle you will find an LCD dashboard that displays all the information you need about the ride, as well as three buttons that let you navigate through the different menus and tune some of the most important parameters.

Here is the info you will see on the Ey3 display:

Here are the parameters you can adjust from the Ey3 dashboard:

So even though the Dualtron 3 is a racing scooter, it can be easily configured to be ultra-smooth, slow, gentle and beginner-friendly. And then, it takes a few button presses to release the beast that lives within it.

Dualtron 3 P Settings

LED Coloring

The scooter comes with a triple ambient LED lighting system. The LEDs are powerful and bright enough to be seen during the day and power-efficient enough to not have a significant impact on your battery life. And if you really want to impress your friends, take this scooter out for a night ride – you won’t regret it 🙂

The scooter comes with a remote control that allows you to fully customize the LED lighting system. The Dualtron 3 has three LED clusters – there are two powerful blue LED lamps on the bottom of the standing pad, a LED stripe on the bottom of the T bar facing the driver and another long stripe that goes all the way up from the wheel to the hand grips.

You can use the remote to switch those lights on and off individually. Say, if the LED stripe that faces the driver (aka you) somehow distracts you from the road, simply use the remote to turn that specific light off on the fly. Moreover, you can program both lights that are on the T bar can to have a specific color or to even slowly change color over time.

The bottom LED lamps (ground effects) have a fixed color and can only be turned on and off.

dualtron 3 bottom lights

dualtron 3 led lights

Minimotors Dualtron 3 Specs

Dualtron 3 vs Spider vs Thunder

(*) Top Speed taking into account the battery is full, there is slight wind and the scooter has a 185 lbs driver.

(**) Max range taking into account that there is no wind and the scooter goes on a flat surface. Expect the real range to be about 10-15% less.

(***) Foldable handle bars are more convenient in some ways, however they make the scooter heavier.

Note: Even though The Dualtron 3 and Thunder are considered racing scooters, they can be used for the daily commute too, though they might be not as good as the Spider for that purpose because of their huge weight and size.

Which one to choose?

In the scooter community, we have a consensus that the Dualtron Thunder is the king of scooters. It excels at racing and is probably the best choice for long rides too. If you want something cheaper and slightly slower, the Dualtron 3 is a great option – most people won’t use their Dualtron 3 on max speed anyway because of the law regulations in their area, so they won’t notice the slight drop in motor and battery power anyway.

Compared to the Spider, the Dualtron 3 has more torque and rides smoother because of the added weight. It also has way more range, better brakes and bigger tires that make it the better option for long rides. The Spider is a better solution if you are after a lighter scooter. It is easy to pick up and throw in the trunk of your car, or take it with you to the metro station.

It all boils down to your budget and needs. Do you need a high-end commuter? Get the Spider. Want a powerful racing scooter? The Dualtron 3 is exactly what you are looking for. Want to go completely bananas and get the fastest scooter on the market? Get the Thunder, you know you want it.

Where to Buy Dualtron III

Join the forums to discuss more about the Dualtron III

Recommended Accessories and Upgrades

In Conclusion

The Dualtron 3 is a scooter I would recommend for most people who are looking for a fun, fast and smooth ride. It doesn’t matter whether you live in Kansas or in San Francisco – there is no hill that can slow down the Dualtron 3. The scooter is highly-customizable and can be tuned the exact way you want it to be.

Those were my thoughts on the Dualtron 3, what are yours? Let me know in the comments section below: