MadChargeFew days ago, Kaabo announced a brand new scooter that is meant to be as big, powerful and exciting as the Dualtron Thunder we all know and love.
I had the chance to be one of the few people to test it in the official meeting in Bucharest and I’ve got a lot of impressions to share with you folks.
note: this was originally written on Feb 8 2019 but i didn’t had the time to publish it.
Kaabo Wolf Warrior II Review
Meet the Kaabo Wolf Warrior II
Designed to be a high-end off-road scooter, the Warrior II is very closely related to the Dualtron Thunder by Minimotors. Not only the two perform similarly in many ways, the Warrior II also borrows several elements from the Dualtron Thunder by Minimotors, which are:
- LCD display EY3
- Both motors
- Controllers
- Battery
- Electronics
The only things that change are the body, the suspension and the design, and the price. Now, even though I will be tracing a lot of parallels between the two, I will share as many details as possible so those of you who are not familiar with the Dualtron Thunder can still find this review helpful.
Dualtron Thunder vs Kaabo Wolf Warrior II
Riding Experience
The Wolf II is large, heavyweight and powerful. The first thing you want to do before you turn the engine on is to put a helmet on.
The scooter feels big and long, even compared to a Dualtron Thunder. I was driving an empty street and I felt comfortable, though I would probably feel a bit worried if I had to drive around people. The Wolf II is definitely not your classic commuter. It’s also 3 kg (6 lb) heavier than the Thunder and 6kg (13 lb) heavier than the Ultra, making it one of the heaviest scooters on the market.
The handle of the scooter feels a bit hard. Unlike the Dualtron Thunder, it takes some effort to turn the handle bar of the Warrior II. I can see why the manufacturer designed it this way– limiting the turning speed and angle of such a heavy and fast scooter might be a good idea, however I still prefer the Dualtron Thunder in this regard. Being able to turn easily makes the ride way smoother and more fun, in my opinion.
That being said, I still had a lot of fun driving around town on the Warrior II – this scooter definitely makes you want to ride it until you deplete the battery.
Here is a video with the ride
Handling
Driving a scooter that has two 2,700 W motors is a pretty unique experience, and takes time to get used to. When both motors are engaged and working at full power, the torque is so strong that the wheels lose traction with the asphalt every time you press the throttle. On low speeds, you can easily lose control of the scooter if you are trying to accelerate it on turbo mode with both motors on.
To solve that, the Warrior II comes with two buttons on the handlebar that allow you to control torque and max speed on the go. The first button switches between Turbo and Eco modes – I would definitely recommend you starting the scooter on Eco mode to have slower acceleration. The next button controls how many motors to engage – again, it’s a good idea to start with one motor and then turn the second one on, if needed.
The Wolf Warrior II comes with double hydraulic 160mm disk brakes made by Zoom. Founded in 1991, Zoom is a Chinese company that is well-known for manufacturing decent mid-end brakes. Zoom products are good enough to receive overall positive reviews and are recommended on many blogs and forums. While the brakes are extremely powerful when fully engaged, you can easily control brake power by gradually pressing the clutch.
As expected from a scooter that can go as fast as 80 km/h (50 MPH), the Warrior II features ABS. ABS prevent wheel locking and is a life saver feature that allows you to engage brakes at full speed without losing control of the vehicle. The Warrior II also has regenerative brakes for when you are driving on slower speeds. Regenerative brakes allow you to brake more gradually and save battery life in the process.
Comfort
The Wolf Warrior II comes with a decent suspension for an off-road scooter. In fact, I could add that its suspension is better suit for off-road driving than it is for racing.
On the front wheel, we have an inverted hydraulic tube suspension, which is the same kind of shocks we see in motorcycles. What’s good about it is that compared to springs (which are what most other scooters use), the hydraulic suspension jumps less and absorbs more. If you are driving on a very uneven surface (i.e. off-road), you would actually want this one over springs any time of the day.
Compared to the rubber suspension the Dualtron scooters come with, this hydraulic one is not adjustable. If you remember, the Dualtron Thunder allows you to chose between 5 different suspension types, going from ultra soft (meant for off-road driving) all the way to ultra hard (for high-speed racing). The suspension that comes in the Wolf Warrior can be classified as ‘medium’, making it acceptable for any kind of driving style and speed you might use the scooter for, though personally I find it better adapted for off-road driving.
The rear suspension of the scooter uses spring shocks. Same as the front suspension, the rear one is fixed and configured to be somewhere in between soft and stiff.
Additional Accessories
One of the things I like about the Warrior II are its dual headlights – they are ultra bright, making night rides safer and more enjoyable. There are also two smaller frontal LED lights that are closer to the wheel, as well a tail/brake light. When the headlights are on, the taillight will be lit on too, though not as bright as when you are braking.
The scooter also comes with a pretty loud horn that sounds pretty much like a car’s. This little detail is important because from my experience, pedestrians only react to sounds that sound like car horns. No matter how loud your horn is, if it does not remind people of a car horn, they will probably not react to it at all or will first look around, trying to figure out what that sound is instead of immediately moving out of the way.
Portability
First thing you need to know is that the Warrior II is heavy (46 Kg or 101 lbs). It is hands down the heaviest scooter I have reviewed so far, which means that unless you have good physique, you might not be able to carry it around. Even those of us who are strong enough might find the scooter pretty uncomfortable to carry.
The reason is simple. Besides the weight, the scooter is pretty bulky. It is bigger than the Dualtron Thunder, which says a lot. In fact, I doubt this model will fit in a car trunk, unless you fold the rear seats of the car or something.
What makes carrying it around a tad easier is that the thick metal tail rack comes with a handle.
When it comes to folding, the scooter, while having a pretty strong and rugged folding mechanism, also relies on an external pin. To fold the scooter, you have to remove a pin and then carry it in your pocket or somewhere safe. Problem is – if you lose the pin, you won’t be able to use the scooter until you get a new pin. I will probably find a way to always the pin to the scooter to avoid losing it in the most unfortunate moment (Murphy law and so on).
Looks
One look at the photos is enough to appreciate the elegant and memorable design of the scooter. And believe me, it looks even better live.
The first thing that catches the eye is its huge frontal suspension. The rest of the scooter combines perfectly well giving it a rugged, unbreakable look. If I had to describe the style of the scooter in one word, I’d probably use the word ‘professional’ because of its simple, straight lines and conservative gray colors. This scooter is not a toy and one glance at it is enough to realize that.
Most high end scooters come with LED lighting and the Warrior II is no exception. While it does not have something fancy and huge, it does feature two LED strips, on the side of the board. The LED strips, besides looking great, make the scooter way more noticeable at night, especially when looking from the side.
There is one little detail that could be improved, though. The button that turns the LED strips on and off is situated on the standing pad, which means that (a) you won’t be able to turn the LEDs on/off on the fly and (b) you have to bend every time you want to press that button.
Durability
As any high-end off-road scooter, the Wolf Warrior II can take a beating. Made completely of aluminum alloy, it features a reinforced frame and joints. The Warrior II is not a lightweight scooter, partially because of the huge amount of metal it has.
I mean, even the mudguard is mostly made of metal, which is pretty nice. If you step on it by accident, it’s won’t break or warp. In fact, since the mudguard is angled, you might want to have your foot on it every time you drive fast because it allows you to have better posture and better grip on the foot board.
The scooter also has a thick metal rail that contours the standing pad and the mudguard, and acts as a shock protection. While it adds to the weight and bulkiness of the scooter, I can see how it can potentially save the battery and lights in the case of a crash.
There are a couple minor details that could be improved in the Wolf Warrior II, though:
- The rear suspension shocks are not protected from the mud and dirt that comes from the wheel. The spring gets filled with mud pretty quickly, which means you have to get used to clean it regularly.
- There are two screws that get loose very easily. One is holding the frontal mudguard, while the other one holds the headlights. Adding a washer to each screw seems to fix the issue.
Power
The scooter comes with double motors or 2,700 W each (5,400 W total). Thanks to that, the scooter has insane torque. Its powerful motors also make it great when driving off-road – your speed is almost the same as on asphalt, except that you probably don’t want to go at full 80 km/h (50 mph) on a bumpy surface.
The power output is highly customizable. From your dashboard, you can limit the acceleration when the scooter starts, as well as you can also adjust the power steps of the motor, limit the speed and even change some settings on the fly (Turbo or Eco mode).
Even though the Warrior II can reach a speed of up to 80 km/h (49 MPH), I’d rather not consider it a racing scooter. The reason being that this model has a pretty soft suspension – as we talked earlier, soft suspension is good when driving off-road but it can make your scooter feel unstable on higher speeds.
Range
The Wolf II has a 60V, 35 AH Li-io battery manufactured by LG. We all know and love LG, so that’s definitely a pro here. In fact, the Dualtron Thunder comes with the same battery and it proved to work extremely well so far.
The battery takes a while to charge – up to 14-17 Hours with one charger. Good thing is, the scooter has two charging ports, which means that you can cut the charge time by half if using two chargers simultaneously.
Kaabo Wolf Warrior II Specs
Max Speed: 80 Km/h (49 MPH)
Max Distance: Up to 150 km (93 Mi)
Charge Time: 14-17 Hours with one charger, 7-8 with two.
Battery: 60V 35AH(LG)
Gradeability: >=45°
Motor Wattage: Two Brushless motors rated 2,700 W each (5,400W total)
Weight: 46 Kg (101 lb)
Max. Rider Capacity: 150 Kg (330 lb)
Tires: 11 Inch Vacuum
Suspension: Inverted hydraulic tube (frontal), shocks (rear)
Brakes: Front and rear 160mm hydraulic disk brakes +ABS
Lights: Double LED headlight + Taillights + Lateral Color LED Stripes
Dashboard: Eye Dashboard by Minimotors (same as on the Dualtron thunder)
Open Size: 1210×625×1250mm (46x24x49 In)
Folded Size: 1500×270×470mm (59x10x18 In)
Material: Aviation-grade Aluminum alloy
Where to buy Kaabo Wolf Warrior II
Recommended Accessories and Upgrades
- Protective gear: https://www.madcharge.com/electric-scooter-riding-safety-and-protective-gear/
- Helmet: https://www.madcharge.com/product-tag/electric-scooter-helmet/
- Extra front lights: https://www.madcharge.com/product-tag/electric-scooter-lights/
- Turn Signal Widget: https://www.madcharge.com/product-tag/electric-scooter-turn-signal/
- LED Backpack: https://www.madcharge.com/product-tag/electric-scooter-backpack/
- Phone Holder: https://www.madcharge.com/product-tag/electric-scooter-phone-holder/
- Mirror: https://www.madcharge.com/product-tag/electric-scooter-mirror/
- Bag: https://www.madcharge.com/product-tag/electric-scooter-bag/
- Horn: https://www.madcharge.com/product-tag/electric-scooter-horn/
Join the forums to discuss more about the Wolf Warrior II
In Conclusion
What can I say – the Wolf Warrior II is a solid scooter that gets the job done extremely well, with style. It shares a lot of common ground with the Dualtron Thunder, with the design being one of the key differences. While I am not necessarily excited about some of those design changes, let’s not forget that the Warrior II is about a grand cheaper than the Thunder.
While the latter remains the king of off-road scooters, the Wolf Warrior II is definitely a great product worth every penny. Have you had the chance to try this new jewel by Kaabo? Let me know in the comments below:
