Glion Dolly Foldable Review
Pros: Folded dolly function, huge travel range, hill climbing power
Cons: Rough ride, single brake
Manufacturer: Glion
Our Verdict
Compare to Similar Products
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Glion Foldable Dolly is a stand out model in the class due to its commuter specific features. This machine can turn grinding traffic and parking nightmares into a memory and replace them with joy as you zip to and from work with ease. This scooter cruises at a reasonable 12+ mph and is a leader in travel radius. It folds up quickly and easily into a compact package that is (thanks to the dolly function) a cinch to transport when it's not being ridden. The only knocks against the Glion are its relatively rough ride and single electronic brake.
Performance Comparison
In a concerted effort to isolate and analyze the very top electric scooters on the market, we've combed the web compiling user's praises and criticisms, manufacturer's innovations, and redundancies and finally bought the most promising electric scooters for a regiment of peer-to-peer tests. We narrowed product assessments down to key features that, when designed and integrated well, coalesce to form a high-quality product that is greater than the sum of its parts. Here we divided our analysis into five weighted categories and the Glion Foldable Dolly's performance in each is discussed in depth below.
Range
The Glion was the top performer in this category with a matched effective and maximum range of 13.2 miles. What that means in plain terms is that a rider can pretty much go full speed until the battery is completely depleted. The flip side of this appraisal is the time that is required to recharge the battery. Here, too, the Glion delivered a strong performance with a 4 1/2 hour recharge time.
As referenced above, our range assessment is comprised of two separate tests: travel radius and battery recharging interval. To properly appraise what the travel radius of a scooter is, we broke the assessment up into two parts that we call effective range and maximum range. The effective range is the number of miles a scooter can travel on flat ground going at or near full speed. Conversely, the maximum range is how far the machine will go at any speed. Unlike many in the class, Glion's effective and maximum are the same.
Power
The power metric is a composite of a few different tests that provide an overall understanding of how well a scooter will propel a rider across a range of topography. Here we assessed flat ground max speed and hill-climbing capability. The speed test is a measure of the time it takes a tester to cover 100 feet of flat pavement given a running start and a full battery. The test was performed three times in a row and the average was converted into miles per hour. The Glion was no slouch in this category, but it didn't dominate either with an average max speed of 13+ mph.
Hill tests were conducted on two hills — one at a 3.5% grade, and the other at 10.5%. The Foldable Dolly cruised up the shallower grade, steadily climbing at a respectable 8-10 mph. Impressively, this machine worked its way up the quarter-mile stretch of 10.5% grade pavement. This feat was out of reach for almost all of the other products in this class.
Ride
The world is a rough place and we're looking for a scooter that can smooth it out. Ride is admittedly a more subjective category than others here discussed, but what isn't subjective were testers' reactions to the rattly ride served up by the solid rubber tires on the Glion Foldable Dolly.
This scooters' performance (or lack thereof) in the metric ride assessment hurt it in the overall assessment.
Braking
While most electric scooters in this class offer an electronic hub brake, it is less common for that brake to be the stand-alone stopping mechanism. The fact that the Glion uses a single electronic brake (with no mechanical redundancy) hurt it in our stopping power assessment.
To get at stopping power we isolated two components that most will agree are paramount: hill braking and flat ground stopping. The first is an evaluation of the scooter's ability to maintain the desired speed when going down a hill. Considering that the scooter only has one brake it did pretty good. But the lack of redundancy had testers concerned - if the battery died on a descent, then the brake would cease to work as well.
The second half of the assessment is an analysis of the scooter's capacity to stop when cruising at the maximum speed. What we want to quantify here is how quickly we could stop if something unanticipated popped out in front of us like a car or pedestrian. Here the Glion did poorly. For those scooters with dual brake systems we looked at each brake individually and then in unison, and what we found was that, regardless of brake type, two brakes always stopped a scooter better than one. While the Glion's single brake was functional and effective, it lacked the power of a dual brake system.
Portability
If you're looking at electric scooters to simplify your commute, then portability is paramount. Why? Because a scooter has to be carried or stowed as one moves from the train, bus, or cab to the street where the scooter is useful and vice-versa. Our portability analysis aims to isolate and appraise specific features that make transporting and stowing a folded scooter as easy as possible. This appraisal focuses on weight, folding ease, carrying latch design, carrying ease, and folded dimensions.
The Glion put big points on the board in each of these subcategories and garnered the highest portability score overall. It's no surprise since the design focuses on these needs specifically. As the name implies, the folded scooter is essentially a dolly with two small rear wheels that stabilize the machine when it's being rolled in this configuration. So, it's no big deal that the weight of the machine is average when compared to its peers. However, if you do need to carry the machine, it has a comfortable handle and the most compact folded dimensions in its class.
Value
We understand that price is a chief concern for most consumers. However, as the old saying goes: buy cheap, buy twice. With that in mind, the Glion Foldable Dolly is one of the more expensive machines in its class. Yet, given all the performance that the machine delivers, particularly to the commuter, we find this machine to be well worth the money spent and thus a good value.
Conclusion
While other electric scooters in this review outperform the Glion Foldable Dolly In individual categories such as ride and braking, few do better at addressing the portability needs of modern commuters. However, if commuting isn't your primary reason that you're looking for a scooter, then the Glion's strengths may not outweigh its weaknesses.
— Nick Miley and Austin Palmer