Central between the handlebars, at the top of the scooter’s stem, is a large plastic box - on most scooters, this would house a display to tell you your speed, remaining battery, and which riding mode you were in - the Bird One just has two LEDs that tell you if the scooter is charging or not. That means when you’re riding it’s impossible to know how fast you’re going, or how much charge you have left. The app was originallydeveloped to help rentalriderslocate Bird One e-scooters in their local area,but Bird’s companion app now alsooffers you complete controlover your e-scooter. The handlebars also house a bell and the brake on the left side, a light in the central box, and the accelerator and QR code on the right. The latter is used for initially scanning the scooter, after which its purpose is to make your scooter look more like a rental one than a personal one. The presence of a front-facing light is mirrored by a red rear one, which flashes when in use. First of all, setting up your new Bird One is incredibly easy – just scan the QR code located on the handlebar to add it to your profile. What’s more impressive is that usually, electric scooter makers quote the distance you’ll get on the less-power-intensive slower modes. In this way, while the figures are technically true, they often don’t reflect the real experience of riding a scooter. The Bird One doesn’t have different modes though - we got our distance when traveling at the scooter’s top speed, so the range feels doubly correct.

The scooter doesn’t fold down, unlike most its rivals, which we’ll explore more in the ‘Portability’ section.Like most electric scooters, when you first buy the Bird One you have to attach the handlebar stem to the board yourself with an allen key provided. Despite this process usually being easy, we found it incredibly difficult with the Bird One, as no matter how much we tightened the bolts, the handlebars still rattled worryingly in use. Out of the box, not much needs doing to the Bird One; there are just four simple bolts which need securing with an Allen key. Here, we'd usually talk about speed settings, but the Bird One only has a single setting. Honestly, we don't think this is too much of an issue, as we generally only use the most powerful setting on other e-scooters anyway. Reducing the number of settings certainly makes the Bird One simple and straightforward to use. Sleek-looking, built like a tank, with super impressive connectivity features – as well as battery life galore – the Bird One is about as versatile and as future-proof as e-scooters get. It's not the most compact or portable option available, especially as it doesn't fold, but if you’re looking for the smartest e-scooter around – this is it. You can also receive regular over-the-air firmware updates, as well as remote-diagnose and update firmware issues.

Perhaps even more impressive than its aesthetics, though, is how solidly the Bird One is built. It feels like a tank. This is because it was originallybuiltfor Bird'srideshare schemes, and the hard life of abuse that that entails. We deconstructed and reconstructed the thing multiple times, but could never get the stem feeling safe and rigid. Since we’re used to assembling scooters, and even we had trouble putting the thing together, we’ve got to imagine most will have an issue with this same thing. This is a massive issue for the Bird One, as shaking handlebars makes the thing feel supremely unsafe, as we’ll explore more in our ‘Riding’ section. Portability The Bird app has connectivity issues, and given you use the app to turn on the scooter, deactivate the tamper alarm, see your scooter’s battery and toggle the lights, that’s a huge problem. We frequently found the app seemed convinced it was connected to the scooter when it wasn’t. This assembly issue won’t plague people who are using Bird’s rental scooters, instead of their private ones. So construction and handlebar problems aside, how does the Bird One ride? Well, it’s okay, but nothing to write home about. In fact, the Bird One is built accordance with 31 separate safety and quality certifications,so that you can rely upon your e-scooter day-in, day-out.The Bird One electric scooter takes six hours of charging to get from full to empty - that’s fairly average for this kind of vehicle, as four to eight hours tends to be what we see in most. You charge the vehicle by plugging a cable from mains into the base of the scooter, and a charging light on the handlebars lets you know something’s happening. Riding

It's IP34-rated, which means you can take the Bird One outin showery conditions without voiding the warranty, and it can take a maximum load of 100 kg. At a time when demand for e-mobility continues to surge and US e-bike sales have increased nearly 250% according to NPD, Bird’s expanded personal micro-EV portfolio offers something for everyone. That includes the Bird Bike, a vehicle expertly designed to make everyday cycling a joy, as well as our two newest scooters perfect for riders of all ages. Here's where the Bird One gets really interesting – its app – because Bird isn't just an e-scooter company, it's a software and service company.Adding to its stylish credentials is the sleek and streamlined design, with fully integrated brake wires and a built-in headlight unit. It looks aerodynamic, like an Airstream caravan. Bird Bike is the first high-performance consumer e-bike from Bird, the company that revolutionized shared micromobility. Designed by our in-house team of aerospace, automotive and micromobility engineers, it’s crafted to capture the thrill of the ride while delivering all of the technology and safety you expect from Bird, featuring: People are looking to micro-electric vehicles to replace their gas-powered car trips and move efficiently around their cities,” said Brian Buccella, Senior Vice President of Consumer Products and Government Partnerships at Bird. “By offering a new product line of personal micromobility devices, we can help significantly expand access to eco-friendly transportation across the United States.”

Firstly, initially connecting the scooter is a pain. The option to do so is well hidden, and we spent a lot of time Googling and searching before we figured out the solution - there’s no unique way to register a personal vehicle, you just scan your own scooter as though it’s a rental one. This could be a lot clearer. This information is available in the app, but we think it's useful to have it right in front of you as well. We got past this issue by gripping the handlebars tight and pushing them forward or pulling them towards us, to use our strength to stop the shaking, but this is a tiring and stressful way of riding. It’s better than the constant fear of falling off into traffic, though. According to Bird, the One electric scooter has a range of about 25 miles or 40km. This is a fairly good range for such a vehicle, and to the credit of the scooter, it felt fairly accurate in our testing. We drove 5 miles and finished with 75% charge left. However these features don’t do much to improve the experience. If an electric scooter should be anything, it’s ‘safe to ride’, and we felt profoundly unsafe when testing the Bird One. As a result it’s hard to recommend the thing. Bird One price and availabilityOf course, the inability to fold down might instantly make some people stop reading. We usually review electric scooters by using them as a 'last mile' solution between a car park and our office, but as this doesn't fold, it wouldn't fit inside our car. If you live in a city and plan on using the Bird One as your sole mode of transportation, then this is less of an issue. The Bird One’s 300W brushless front hub motor is capable of reaching a top speed of 18mph / 29km/h, which is plenty fast enough, and actually faster than is legally allowed in the UK. The rubber handlebars are slightly tapered to make them easier to hold, and while they aren’t the comfiest in the world, we’ve used worse too. Plus, they seem more durable than most.