This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I’ve been riding the SWFT Maxx Moped for about a week now, and the short version of my feedback is that it’s a ton of fun. It’s making me consider purchasing a slightly larger, faster one in the future, but I’m going to get at least a few years of enjoyment out of this one first. The only significant weak point, and the only reason I didn’t give this 5 stars, is the heads up display, which I’ll delve into further below.
A quick note before getting into the review, there’s a sticker on the box the moped ships in that explains how to open the seat compartment, but I was so excited to open it that I didn’t even see the sticker until after I failed to open the seat compartment for a good 10 minutes. To open the seat compartment, you have to insert the key into the ignition, push in slightly but not all the way, then turn it to the left (counterclockwise). That releases the seat latch where you’ll find the instructions on how to actually use the bike. If anyone from SWFT reads this, I would strongly encourage attaching the instructions to the handlebars (like the keys) as it was a very frustrating experience since I missed the sign on the outside of the box.
Aside from a bicycle, the last two-wheel vehicle I rode was dirt bikes ~15 years ago, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect when hopping on this moped for the first time. It took me a few minutes to get oriented and comfortable, but after that, I was zipping down the street at 20 mph in no time. It took a couple days of riding before I felt comfortable shifting my weight to turn without slowing down to a crawl, but after putting several miles on the moped, I became much more comfortable and feel much better maneuvering it. I even took it to run some errands, picking up school supplies and a bubble tea from a restaurant a few streets away. Riding the moped turned mundane things into an enjoyable trip that I’m looking forward to repeating again in the near future.
Aesthetics / Quality
The moped looks really nice. It’s all black, sleek and shiny and just looks and feels like a quality vehicle. I don’t have any concerns at this point about it’s longevity, aside from perhaps the natural depletion of batteries.
Power / Speed
At 20 mph, I primarily drove in the bicycle lane, but felt comfortable when I had to get into a vehicle lane to make a left turn. From a dead stop at a light, it takes several seconds to reach 20 mph, but even with a line of cars behind me, it didn’t really feel like I was holding up traffic.
Going up an incline, the display still read 20 mph, but I felt like I was moving noticeably slower, so I’m a bit skeptical that I was actually going 20 mph vs the bike just putting out what it would normally consider to be 20 mph worth of power. I don’t have a great way to test this short of having someone drive alongside me at 20 mph up a hill for a comparison, so I really can’t say for sure if 20 mph on a hill was reached or not. All in all though, it wasn’t really a hindrance to the experience, so I wouldn’t worry too much.
In California at least, since the moped caps out at 20 mph, I *think* it qualifies as an e-bike and can be ridden in the bicycle lane, which I consider a plus. I had a hard time finding anything concrete on the DMV website about this specifically, but third party sites seemed to indicate this was the case. I made 2 attempts to reach DMV to get clarification and gave up after 45 minutes on hold, so I would definitely recommend finding out what your local laws are. Since it’s so fun at 20 mph though, it’s definitely got me considering a 30 mph moped in the future.
Charging / Battery
Charging the moped was easy enough. Under the seat, there’s a switch to turn off the battery when not in use, which is also required to be off when charging. The connection port is a fairly standard plug, like what you would normally see plugged into the back of a TV or monitor, which I considered to be a drawback. It was a little difficult to insert the plug, and I think there may be better options as this type of connection isn’t one I typically see intended to be connected and removed frequently. Comparing with the experience of charging my plugin hybrid car, it was a much less simple process.
The instructions recommend charging the moped after every use, and especially after any long use and indicate some things like lights / display may not function properly if riding on a very low battery. Though not something I ran into, it’s a little concerning that I could potentially be riding my moped for a long distance and suddenly have the electronics start failing, even though there’s power to the moped itself.
Charging itself, while easy, does take a considerable amount of time. The instructions indicate to allow 10 hours for a full charge, which really does limit riding the moped to one good ride a day, or possibly a couple shorter rides. I’d love to have a faster charge option (like plugin hybrids do), even if it requires an optional, more expensive charger.
Heads up Display (HUD)
The Heads up Display is by far the weakest point on the moped, and if I were shopping around between mopeds that otherwise had the same specs, is the only thing keeping this from being a 5 star product.
The battery display leaves something to be desired, showing only a symbol of a battery with 4 bars to indicate how much battery is left in the moped. I found when on a trip that was ~8 miles that the battery indicator fluctuated between 2 and 3 bars frequently, which was definitely concerning considering the max range of “up to 37 miles”. I understand that’s likely on a completely flat track so I wasn’t expecting to get a full 37 miles, but the fact that it dropped to 2 bars after 5-8 miles and then when up and down between 2-3 bars gives me a very poor understanding of how far I can actually take the bike. I’m considered if I planned a 20 mile that I wouldn’t have a good sense of whether I could make it home or not. If the moped instead estimated miles remaining and fluctuated that based on use, like a car normally does, it would be a much better indicator. Even having more than 4 bars on the battery would be more helpful. For instance, having the battery separated into 10% increments rather than 25% increments would provide a much clearer picture of how quickly I need to plan to return home to charge the moped.
The overall display itself has some useful information, such as the speed you’re going, whether you have your brights or turn signals on, parking break, etc, and when you’re in the garage getting ready to ride, or if you’re out riding at night, these things show bright and clear. Unfortunately, when you’re actually out riding in the sunlight, the light completely washes out the display so you can barely make out the speed and battery, let alone anything else on the HUD. It felt almost unsafe straining my eyes to try and read the display while riding in the sun. I had accidentally flicked on a turn signal, and it was really difficult to tell if I had successfully turned it off or not.
Lights
I briefly rode this moped at night through a neighborhood, and I was really impressed by the power of the headlights. Not only did it have a solid headlight, but there’s even a “brights” setting if you need additional lighting. The instructions recommend not riding at night for safety, which I thought was odd, but should you need to, there are quality headlights to at least let you see where you’re going.
A Few Minor Things
The moped seat is comfortable, but does jiggle a bit if you pull up on it due to the latching mechanism. It’s not really a “flaw” but I feel like leaving anything of value in the seat while away from the moped would be a liability. The seat pulls up just enough that you could insert something between the seat and the bike to get leverage to pull up and break into the compartment. If there was a more secure locking mechanism that prevent it from moving, that would be a sold design improvement. Definitely not a deal breaker, but if anyone from SWFT sees this, may be worth considering for further design improvements.
The storage under the seat is pretty small. It will hold the charger and your phone, but not a ton else. I’m going to explore additional storage options at some point.
There is also a cup holder that works well for bottles, but I wouldn’t trust for anything without a screw top lid. I would also like if there were 2 cup holders instead of one as there is just and empty space on the right side where a second cup holder could be.
The moped has an alarm you can set using a lock button on the key, as well as that you can set off manually using a panic button on the key as well. It is very loud and very sensitive, so anyone bumping the moped will set it off, which I consider to be a big plus for safety. The alarm will start sounding and then stop once it’s not longer being moved, so if someone accidentally brushes it, it will only sound for a second, which I appreciated as well. If it motion continues for a few seconds, the alarm ramps up in sound and duration to really get people’s attention. It’s a really well done system that I wouldn’t have thought too much of but am glad to have.
The bike has a hook that folds down from the center under the HUD so you can hook a bag or backpack. It’s a nice feature that adds a little bit of storage and makes a grocery trip more plausible, though I would definitely recommend bringing your own cloth bag rather than trusting a cheap paper/plastic handle while riding.
Overall, the SWFT Maxx moped is super fun, and aside from the HUD is really an incredible vehicle. There are a few minor things I would love to see improved in future iterations, but they really did put out a quality product. Despite my issues with the HUD, I would definitely recommend this moped if the HUD doesn’t sound like a dealbreaker for you.
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