The Inmotion Climber Earns Its Name

The Inmotion Climber has 1500W of nominal dual-motor power for climbing any hill with ease. We put it to the test on the steepest hill in San Francisco… and then we rode it up San Bruno Mountain.

Inmotion Climber – $699

The Inmotion Climber is a relatively inexpensive dual motor electric scooter that is built to climb hills with ease. But is it really better at hill climbing than other similarly priced electric scooters? We find out in our review with three brutal hill climb tests.

Plus, we test real world range and top speed to find out if this scooter’s good to ride. The Climber is made by Inmotion, a company that’s famous for their electric unicycles, but we’ve only ever tested one other scooter made by them – or rather three variations of the same scooter – the Inmotion RS.

Can Inmotion also make a scooter that competes with the Segway Ninebot Max in terms of quality and reliability for daily commuting? That’s the other question we’re going to answer in our review.

Who Is This Scooter For?

The Inmotion Climber is for anybody who needs a reliable commuter but doesn’t need suspension. That means anyone who is considering the Segway Ninebot Max, not the G2, but the original Ninebot Max G30.

The prices of the Climber and the original Segway Ninebot Max are now identical. The range is basically identical, as are the build and ride quality. But the Climber has a higher rider weight limit at 286 pounds, and it’s got more performance, especially if you’re a heavier rider or you live in an area with a lot of hills.

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Inmotion Climber Specs

Our Full Video Review

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Inmotion Climber: Performance

Top Speed

During my speed runs it became clear that top speed on the Inmotion Climber is firmware limited. This scooter could go faster if it wanted to, but you’d get less range. Inmotion has struck a nice balance, with a top speed of 21.4 mph, just slightly better than typical at this price.

According to the Climber’s speedometer, its top speed was 22 miles per hour, but speedometers are almost always wrong. That’s why, since 2019, ESG has used a $540 data logger for all of our real testing.

Acceleration

The Climber has dual 750 watt motors, which means it’s got 1500 Watts of nominal power, which means it’s got a lot of power. The 0 to 15 mph time is outstanding at 3.5 seconds. The only real rival in term of acceleration at this price is the Hover 1 Journey Max.

What I love about the Climber is that even though it is the fastest accelerating scooter at this price, it has a throttle that’s really easy to handle even in Sport mode, so even brand new riders will have no trouble riding it.

What I love about the Climber is that even though it is the fastest accelerating scooter at this price, it has a throttle that’s really easy to handle even in Sport mode, so even brand new riders will have no trouble riding it.

Hill Climb

Spoiler alert: the Inmotion Climber is really good at climbing hills – one of the best. It climbed the ESG test hill in 11.2 seconds, which is faster than any other scooter at this price. And you know, we kind of expected it might be. So the natural next thing to do is to put it up against the steepest hill in San Francisco and see if it can climb that. It’s a hill so steep it has stairs; so steep that people actually fall down it.

Just like I did with the VMAX VX2 Extreme, I started from a dead stop at the bottom of the hill to make it as difficult as possible. (I also had 10 pounds of gear in my bag both times.) While the Climber outperformed a lot of other scooters on the 10% grade hill test, it didn’t dominate this hill, but it made it to the top.

What really shocked me is that I did this steep climb two more times and the motors on the Climber didn’t overheat. In fact, they seemed to get strangely cooler on the third run, and I ended up with 90% battery afterward. So, I decided to ride the Climber up San Bruno Mountain. I made it to the top, easily, cruising at 18 mph, and the scooter’s dual motors stayed cool.

Range

The Inmotion Climber covered 21.4 miles in our test, which is above average for the price and almost identical to the original Segway Ninebot Max G30. Bear in mind that I covered this ground in the highest mode, with both motors engaged, on our very hilly, challenging range test course.

Braking

The Inmotion Climber uses a single disc brake in the rear, in addition to its dual regenerative brakes. The Climber stopped from 15 miles per hour in 15.8 feet. It could stop even shorter if it had the disc brake in the front instead of the back. But this makes it safer for new riders, so that if they grab a big handful of brakes, they won’t go over the handlebars.

Ride Quality

The Climber’s deck is nice and big, with a rubber-covered, grippy surface. It’s a pretty comfy ride, overall, even though it lacks suspension. This scooter also uses tubed tires, which are not going to give you as nice a ride a tubeless and are more prone to pinch flats.

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Inmotion Climber: Design, Build & Reliability

There are a few things that will ultimately pull the Inmotion Climber down in our reliability rankings – it currently lacks a UL certification, for one, and uses tubed tires, something we don’t really expect to see on electric scooters in 2024 and which are harder to maintain than tubeless.

That said, however, the Climber will likely compete with the Ninebot Max when it comes to build quality. It’s built like a screwdriver or a hammer. It just has this kind of indestructible, very clean look to it, and with dual motors and an upper limit of 286 pounds, it can definitely handle larger riders

Inmotion Climber: Is It Worth It? Our Verdict

If you need a fast commuter that can tear up any hill you’re likely going to encounter – and you don’t need suspension – then the Climber is absolutely worth it for $700.

The Climber is truly the best hill climber you’re gonna find at this price, or anywhere near this price. Another pro is just the overall build quality and the way the motor temperature is completely stabilized going up big hills.

A few minor gripes aside, I have a feeling the Inmotion Climber will be really tough to kill, mechanically and electronically.

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