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Boing Boing Boing
Oscar Morgan - Bo CEO - July 2025
A common question is why we didn't fit Bo - a $2000 scooter - with suspension. The truth is that we tested it; and the results were not entirely as you'd expect.
Zero ai: Bo does not use Ai to write, because we believe you’ve come here to speak to humans not Nvidia GPUs. That will mean that some of our language has errors, and we feel that’s a price worth paying.
While I’m as open to the idea of a Porsche 911 as anyone, the reality of my life is that I optimise for comfort. Happiest driving in a Land Rover, sleeping on a Tempur mattress, and jogging in a well-cushioned shoe. So it does seem odd that Bo is a premium electric scooter without big suspension.
But that’s the thing: the aim was never just to “fit suspension”. The question we kept coming back to was what actually makes a great ride?
Our Segway Had Suspension: It Didn’t Help
Although our Segway GMax had suspension, riding it felt like riding a pogo stick - bouncy bouncy bounce down the road. That’s not to single out Segway; we tried other “suspension e-scooters” too. Kugoo, Dualtron, Inokim, we found they all had the same issues.
At the heart of the matter we realised scooter suspension was set an impossible task: deliver comfort and reliability, over a short travel (motion) for riders from 50kg to 150kg.
This is as if a car engineer was asked to set up the same suspension for cars weighing between 1 tonne and 3 tonnes; it would end up far too stiff for the lightest car and far to soft for the heaviest one. If you've ever driven a van you may have noticed this - when empty it's a bucking bronco, then when fully laden it wallows and flops over bumps.
One symptom of this was that the short travel suspension pre-load was never quite right for our weight. The result? Wobble, sway and a general sense of standing on a balance ball at speed.
Suspension Made Other Aspects Worse
We noticed that to make room for suspension travel, the GMax had been jacked up. We had both a Gen 1 Segway (no suspension) and a Gen 2 Segway (with), and parking them side by side made the difference obvious: the treadboard of the Gen 2 is much higher.
While the Gen 2 was technically smoother at the moment you hit a big bump, it now felt tall and unstable all of the rest of the time — a bit like tottering around on stilettos. Better in one way, but as a result noticeably worse in others.
Inspiration From Motorsport
Inevitably when we started work on Bo’s riding dynamics, we looked beyond scooters to the Bo team's background in motorsport. The best ride in performance cars is often achieved without complex suspension. A vehicle feels great to drive when you achieve a combination of minimal body movement, and keeping the contact patch - the tyres - connected to the road.
No bounce; grip, control, and most importantly poise. Poise is just a fancy way of saying you know what the vehicle is going to do next; it's predictable. When a vehicle is predictable, it feels comfortable.
Tyres First, Then Vibration
We ordered every tyre that would fit our wheels - over 30 in total - and rode a test course with accelerometers strapped to the deck. The standout performer was a proper balloon tyre. It removed most of the big hits - kerbs, potholes, speed bumps - whilst also being grippy and tough. This solved the first part of the equation.
Next, we needed to address the small, high-frequency vibrations - the road buzz that wears you down after 10, 15km or more.
Nike Innovation Meets Bo
That’s where Nike came in. Not officially (we’re not quite in that league yet) but an individual from Nike’s Innovation Kitchen heard what we were doing and decided to help.
The result: Airdeck™, an engineered elastomer inspired by the sole technology that makes Nike shoes feel good after 24 miles. It’s designed to smooth out surface-level vibration and buzz from rough road surfaces. Airdeck is not going to save you from shocks, but it removes the threat of pins and needles from long rides.
The Bo Ride: No Bounce, No Compromise
With balloon tyres absorbing the big impacts and Airdeck™ removing the road chatter, Bo delivers genuine comfort with zero moving parts, zero maintenance, and none of the weird geometry compromises we saw on scooters like the Segway or Kugoo.
The result is a unique feeling: not over-smoothed, but controlled and confident. You still feel the road, but it’s solid, planted, and predictable.
Test Everything
To be clear, this does not mean we avoided testing a Bo with proper suspension. One of the key themes of the last five years spent developing the vehicle is to test everything, so delve into the Bo prototype stores and you'll find all sorts of mule vehicles designed to test different suspension systems.
Because mini-scooter shocks obliged us to jack up the vehicle, and because doing so invariably ruined the geometry and ride handling, we had to make a choice:
Either we wanted Bo to have the 911-style poise and predictability we'd been working toward, or it could have shocks - but both was not permissible within the current rules of physics.
Since there are already several hundred scooters with various bouncy suspension systems, our decision was to prioritise the characteristic others had neglected. Thinking of it in terms of overall ride quality rather than pure bouncy bump swallowing and it makes great sense.
The good news if if you ride off-road there are plenty of suspension scooter choices..!
Comfort Isn’t Just Softness
The truth is, comfort has several components. Smoothing bumps is one. But if that comes at the cost of stability, predictability or precision, then the experience still sucks.
Bo gives you that 911 feeling; you know the bumps are there, but you also know exactly how the vehicle is responding to them.
There is a Caveat
Bo isn’t designed for serious off-road. Most of the miles we actually ride are on tarmac, so we optimised for the real world. If your commute involves rough gravel or mud trails every day, a big-suspension setup might still be the right tool for that job.
That said, we did test several Bo-compatible off-road tyres, and the results were surprisingly solid. You can see for yourself on YouTube:
🔗 Watch the test
What Is This Series About?
This post is part of an article series where we’ll look at how Bo stacks up against some of the most popular electric scooters in the UK and USA. From the Segway Ninebot GMax, to Pure Electric, Navee, Xiaomi, Apollo, and more.
If you’re currently Googling:
- “Best electric scooter UK 2025”
- “Segway GMax vs Bo”
- “Electric scooter with hill power”
- “Alternatives to Segway, Carrera, Navee or Haiboy”
- “What’s better than Segway GMax?”
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