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Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a review of a unique winter toy - the Eunorau ICEX 1.0 electric snow scooter/snowmobile. Is this your next way to enjoy winter? | Find more info at https://eunorau-ebike.com/en-canada/products/sled-xd-1500pro
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Table of Contents:
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0:00 - Intro and Concept
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
[music]
0:10
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
0:12
for a obviously different kind of
0:14
review. [music] Not only a different
0:16
kind of review, but a different kind of
0:18
winter sport machine than I think we
0:20
have ever seen before. This is an
0:22
electric snow scooter slashupright
0:26
snow machine and it is a very
0:28
interesting toy for those of you that
0:30
maybe want something a little bit
0:32
different than your traditional
0:34
snowmobile or sled out in the middle of
0:36
the snow. So today we're going to dive
0:39
into what comes in the box, what it's
0:41
like to put it together, uh what the
0:43
ride quality is, the build and features
0:45
of it, all those things. And I'll give
0:46
you my conclusion at the end of the
0:48
video. Let's start, however, by jumping
0:50
in and taking a look at how it arrived
0:52
at my house and what was required to get
0:55
it ready to ride. All right. Well,
0:57
yesterday this big monstrosity, which is
1:00
the Ice X1.0, was delivered to me. And
1:04
so, I'm going to give you a time lapse
1:06
of unpacking to see what's inside the
1:08
box and what is required to assemble it.
1:12
Let's dive in and take a look.
1:24
So, actually the assembly itself, as you
1:26
can see, was really straightforward and
1:28
easy. It was just really a matter of
1:30
taking it out of the box, standing it
1:32
into the upright position, getting it
1:34
charged up, and out we went. So, let's
1:36
talk a little bit about what we have got
1:38
here in terms of the build and
1:39
specifications of it. The main hub of
1:42
all of this is right under the
1:43
Caterpillar track at the back and it is
1:45
a 200 watt motor. Now, if you're talking
1:48
about ebikes, that sounds like it's
1:50
massively powerful, but obviously
1:52
running a Caterpillar track in snow is a
1:55
whole lot different than trying to run
1:57
an ebike on pavement or even off-road.
2:01
And so, it definitely takes a lot more
2:03
torque, a lot more power. And so I would
2:05
say that this is probably a sufficient
2:07
amount of power, but it's as we're going
2:09
to see not necessarily overkill. The
2:11
battery itself, kind of the battery
2:13
design is like the skateboard style,
2:15
really like what you see in a lot of
2:17
EVs, and that the battery makes up the
2:20
flat deck of the standing surface that
2:21
you go on. It is a 52vt uh 23.4 amp hour
2:26
battery. And uh if anything, I wish that
2:29
battery were bigger. The top speed here
2:32
is 15.6 6 mph or 25 km. Now, that
2:36
doesn't sound particularly fast, and in
2:38
some conditions, it's not. However, if
2:41
you are going down a fairly narrow trail
2:43
through the woods, as I've done some,
2:45
it's going to feel like plenty under
2:46
those conditions. And so, it really
2:48
depends on your actual riding
2:50
environment. Probably going too much
2:52
faster on something like this where
2:54
you're just standing upright and
2:55
exposed. Be sure to wear a helmet uh may
2:58
not be particularly smart. Anyway, now
3:00
the range is up to 37 miles or 60
3:04
kilometers. Now, that's going to vary
3:06
according to a lot of different factors
3:09
and from what I have seen in the kind of
3:11
riding I've done, which has been in
3:12
pretty difficult conditions because
3:14
we're at the end of the season, far from
3:16
optimal conditions, either very icy or
3:19
right now I'm out on snow that has
3:21
fallen, but it's also been freezing rain
3:24
and ice and thawing and so there's like
3:25
a crust that really kind of binds things
3:27
up on everything. So, not like nice soft
3:30
fresh powder. And so, under those
3:32
conditions, I would say you would be
3:33
lucky to get anywhere near that range.
3:36
In fact, if you're in the top speed,
3:38
it's 25 miles. And so, 25 to 37 miles
3:41
depending upon your riding conditions.
3:44
The build quality seems to be very good.
3:46
No problems with that. Everything seems
3:48
to be tough. I was impressed as I took
3:50
things out of the box. I've already had
3:51
some pretty, as I've mentioned, been
3:53
riding in tough conditions. So places
3:55
where, you know, there was places where
3:57
I ran into something that kind of bound
3:59
me right up and so lots of potential to
4:01
put stresses on various things.
4:03
Everything seems to be very tough at
4:04
this point. The actual frame is a forged
4:07
aluminum 6061, so you know, good high
4:10
strength. It is IPX4
4:13
uh rated. And so if you're not familiar
4:15
with IPX rating, that means it is
4:17
resistant to water splashes from any
4:19
direction. Basically, anything short of
4:21
actually submerging it. It is uh you
4:24
know water resistant in those
4:25
conditions. Obviously pretty important
4:27
considering where you're going to be
4:29
riding it. It does have a reverse gear
4:32
on it which can be useful. I find that
4:34
because you have to kind of lean into
4:36
turns. You can only lean so far unless
4:38
you're very very good at balance. And so
4:40
um your turning radius isn't always as
4:42
tight as what I would like. So having a
4:44
reverse gear is useful. If you get into
4:46
situations where you get stuck, you can
4:47
reverse out. And it's a very simple tap
4:50
right here to uh go into it. tap again
4:52
to come back out of it. All of that is
4:54
good. We have uh safety features
4:56
including a front headlight. We've got
4:59
tail lights and we even have turning
5:00
signals on it. You can access those here
5:03
on the left side along with the
5:04
headlight itself which can be turned on
5:06
here. Nala approves. Payload capacity is
5:10
120 kg or 265 lbs. And obviously, you
5:16
know, that's going to affect your range
5:17
also depending on how much weight you're
5:19
putting on it.
5:21
One thing I really do like is rather
5:22
than having a single charge port, um, we
5:26
actually have dual charge ports. And so,
5:27
and two chargers are included. And so,
5:29
if you're using just one charge port,
5:31
which you can just chug plug into, you
5:34
know, any 110 um, volt typical household
5:38
plug, no problem there. And it'll take
5:40
eight hours to charge in that. However,
5:41
if you connect both chargers up, you can
5:44
dual charge in as little as 4 hours,
5:46
which obviously is having your total
5:48
charge time. That's very useful and I
5:51
found that it is easy to get it charged
5:52
back up quickly on that. The machine
5:55
itself, as you might imagine, isn't
5:58
super light. It weighs in at 50 kg or
6:02
110 lbs. And um so I mean I will comment
6:07
a little bit more on the weight in a
6:08
moment when we talk about transporting
6:10
it and riding it. Um but fortunately,
6:12
the way that the weight is distributed,
6:13
it's it's not too bad. I I haven't found
6:16
it all that difficult. And it's good
6:17
because again in the conditions I'm in
6:19
there's been some situations where you
6:21
know I needed to pick up the rear track
6:22
and you know shift that around move it
6:25
into a better condition and so that I
6:26
could keep on riding. So no problems
6:29
there. Price. This baby isn't cheap. In
6:32
the US market it's $2500
6:34
right now current pricing. Here in
6:36
Canada it's 4,700 bucks. And so here in
6:38
Canada there's definitely a price
6:40
premium relative to the US pricing. Um
6:42
and so you know it's a it's an expensive
6:44
toy. I don't know. Everything about
6:45
winter seems to be expensive in my
6:47
opinion, but that gives you a look at
6:48
the overall specifications. There is a
6:51
nice LCD screen here at the top. It's
6:53
kind of the size of a like an iPhone SE
6:56
maybe, and uh it has a lot of useful
6:59
information on there. The safety
7:01
features, I've still got them attached
7:02
here right now, but the safety features
7:05
to make sure that no one steals your
7:06
expensive machine is that it does
7:08
require the specified smart NFC chips,
7:11
which you can throw onto a keychain.
7:13
They do include three different ones and
7:15
you just when it's when you go to power
7:16
it on it will ask for that NFC you just
7:18
tap that to the screen and it lets you
7:20
in. So there's no key but there is these
7:23
smart cards and so make sure that you
7:25
don't lose them. However, if you do lose
7:26
them you do have a couple of backups
7:28
that get you into the LCD screen and
7:30
there's lots of useful information that
7:32
is on there. So that gives you a look at
7:34
the overall build and design. One thing
7:36
I will say before we move away from the
7:38
section, the grip surface that you stand
7:42
on, I'm surprised that it doesn't have
7:44
more grip to it. It's it's kind of like
7:47
a rubberized mat. And it does, you know,
7:50
to touch it, it is it is grippy, but
7:52
it's not riged or um any kind of like
7:55
sandpaper type quality. And so what I
7:57
find is that when I'm riding along and
7:59
I'm throwing my foot down in the snow
8:01
and packing snow into the treads of my
8:03
boots, after a while it does get a
8:05
little slippery. Right now with my
8:06
treads basically empty, it grips nice.
8:09
But if you got snow in those treads,
8:10
it's a little more slippery than what I
8:12
would like. But so far so good. When it
8:14
comes to the overall build here, it
8:16
feels tough. It feels like you can ride
8:18
for a while without worrying about it
8:19
falling apart. All good. So, how about
8:22
the ride performance? Well, first of
8:24
all, I think the first challenge for a
8:25
lot of people is going to be getting it
8:27
to the place where you want to ride it
8:29
on. And so, I would say this probably
8:31
works easiest, best for those that have
8:34
a property where you could ride it right
8:36
on your own property, maybe back into a
8:37
trail system that's attached uh to your
8:39
house. If you're going to have to
8:41
transport it, um you know, it does, as
8:43
we noted, it does weigh 110 lbs. But
8:45
what I found is that because of the
8:47
nature of this frame and the fact that a
8:49
lot of the weight is here in the battery
8:50
at a midpoint, it's actually quite easy,
8:52
even for me by myself, to put it into
8:54
the back of my truck. Simply lift the
8:56
front end up and, you know, start slide
8:58
that in, lift the back end up, and then
9:00
push it forward. Very easy there. And it
9:02
also is very, very simple to actually
9:06
disconnect and to lay that flat. And so
9:09
it's a well-designed system that's very
9:11
robust. And so easy to lock that into
9:13
place, but also easy to collapse it down
9:16
and to lock it into place and so that
9:18
you can use it for transport. Now, when
9:20
you get it to sight, and I I'll give you
9:21
a few caveats before I talk about the
9:23
actual ride experience. I wish I would
9:25
have gotten this earlier in the season.
9:27
Obviously, we have a lot of winter
9:29
around here. I've had snow on the ground
9:30
for over 5 months at this point.
9:32
Unfortunately, by the time that they are
9:34
actually getting to release and they uh
9:37
Uniro sent me one of these, um we're
9:40
very close to the end of the season and
9:41
so unfortunately we've had mostly ice,
9:43
some thawing during the day and so my
9:46
first time taking it out, I was on pure
9:48
ice, so slippery that I couldn't hardly
9:50
walk on it. So, it was good news that um
9:52
I could even ride it in that conditions.
9:54
And as I noted here today, we h have had
9:56
some snow, but unfortunately I was away
9:59
in Arizona where thank god I got away
10:01
from the snow for a while, but returning
10:03
there had been some new snowfall, but
10:05
there had also been uh some freezing
10:07
rain and ice on top of that, some
10:09
thawing during the day because of the
10:11
sunlight. And so unfortunately, it's
10:13
kind of tough conditions because it's
10:15
not easy for anything with a ski or, you
10:18
know, a sled to actually cut through
10:20
because you're having to cut through a a
10:22
crust like this all along. And so, um,
10:25
not great conditions for that. And so, I
10:27
take my remarks on riding with a grain
10:29
of salt. I think in more ideal
10:31
conditions, it could be even more fun
10:32
than what I would like. Now, when it
10:34
comes to actually riding this, you need
10:36
to think less of something like an ATV
10:39
where it's, you know, all planted and
10:41
stable and a little bit more like a dirt
10:43
bike in that there's a lot of room for
10:45
leaning on this. So, it does require
10:47
some balance and kind of getting a feel
10:50
for the actual ride quality. And then
10:52
so, um, you know, once you start to get
10:54
a feel for that, that does actually help
10:56
with the maneuverability. And again, you
10:59
know, we, you know, play around with it
11:00
in more icy conditions, kind of throwing
11:02
and spinning out the rear end and, you
11:04
know, you can have some fun with it in
11:05
that. And I think that that's where a
11:07
lot of the fun is. One of the things
11:08
that I actually envision this being
11:10
useful for is kind of breaking trail for
11:14
um, you know, again, if you have trails,
11:16
a lot of trails are more usable in the
11:18
winter if a snowmobile, a sled goes over
11:21
them and kind of packs them down a
11:23
little bit. So, your initial run
11:25
through, at least in conditions like
11:26
this, is a little bit of a tough slog
11:28
and it will get stuck at times. And so,
11:30
you know, when I took off the helmet
11:32
here after, you know, riding it over the
11:34
last hour, I was sweaty because there
11:37
was times as I was kind of setting up
11:38
the trail, I would get stuck. I'd have
11:40
to use, you know, elbow grease to get it
11:42
moving [music] forward. Once I had one
11:45
pass over and I rode back over it again,
11:47
things got much, much easier. And
11:49
because it is fairly narrow, you've got
11:51
a a footprint that's only about 20
11:52
inches wide. I could go through the
11:55
woods on pretty much a goat track. I
11:57
wasn't trying to go fast because it's a
11:59
little bit of a wild and harrowing
12:00
experience to do that. But it allowed me
12:03
to punch through to where there was
12:04
actually a snowmobile trail that was out
12:06
there. And once I got on that trail,
12:08
obviously, I could then start to
12:09
approach the top speeds and move in a
12:12
lot more optimal conditions because it
12:14
had already been packed down. So, if
12:15
you're going through deep powder, I
12:17
would say anything that is approaching
12:19
like a foot of powder, um it's probably
12:21
going to be challenging to break trail
12:23
with this. It just doesn't have the bolt
12:25
and weight to do it. And obviously,
12:27
these, you know, these sleds at the
12:29
front, it's going to be, you know,
12:30
somewhat easy to get them kind of
12:31
burrowed down. And if the weight is off,
12:33
it means that the caterpillar track at
12:34
the end could end up spinning. As you
12:36
can see here, this does have a full
12:39
suspension. So, the ride's actually
12:41
pretty decent. you can go up some some
12:43
bumps and up and down without, you know,
12:45
it kind of jarring through you. And so
12:46
all of that was good. Um, it is fairly
12:50
maneuverable, but you have to be
12:51
comfortable leaning to some degree. Now,
12:54
if you're looking at this thinking, oh,
12:55
I can imagine myself doing big jumps and
12:57
things like that. Well, let's take a
12:59
look at that. I I tried to set up those
13:01
conditions to see what it was like. And
13:02
so again, on that first pass through the
13:04
fresh snow, as I started to go uphill,
13:06
this has a hard time both cutting trail
13:09
and going uphill at the same time. And
13:12
so that was a bad combination. And so
13:14
first pass, not so successful. Second
13:16
pass, as I had something packed down a
13:17
little bit, a little bit more
13:18
successful. And by the third and fourth
13:20
runs, you know, I could go up and down
13:22
fairly steep inclines and do it
13:24
successfully. But again, you almost have
13:26
to have a bit of grooming in advance to
13:28
do that successfully. But it's never
13:30
going to be so fast you're going to be
13:31
able to do these big flying jumps. I'm
13:33
not sure I'd want to do that anyway. I
13:35
mean, it does feel like it's sturdily
13:36
built, but you know, it's a big
13:38
investment. I wouldn't want to bang it
13:40
up unnecessarily. Your mileage may vary.
13:42
You're maybe much more of a risk taker
13:43
than me, so that's up to you. Just wear
13:46
your helmet. Now, if you're on a wide
13:49
trail and a straight run without a whole
13:51
lot going on, you're going to wish for
13:52
more speed in that condition. And when
13:55
you get it up to max speed, you're going
13:56
to wish that you could put it up into
13:58
another gear or two that has three
14:00
different runs that you can go to. And
14:02
so as you're actually over here on the
14:04
right side once it is powered up and
14:07
you're into it, you have the option of
14:10
it has PAS one, two, and three. Three
14:13
being the top. And so that you can, you
14:16
know, kind of choose accordingly. When I
14:18
was breaking trail, it was more
14:19
effective to keep it in one. And so I'm
14:21
not adding too much thrust at the end.
14:23
is more likely to spin out under those
14:25
conditions and uh you know not be able
14:27
to break trail successfully. So at the
14:29
end of the day I it is a lot of fun.
14:31
It's fun in the right conditions,
14:33
however. And so I think you need to have
14:35
realistic expectations as I've tried to
14:37
prepare you for uh when you think about
14:39
what you're going to be able and not
14:41
able to do on this. So what's my
14:43
conclusion? It's a little bit of a
14:45
complicated review for me because as I
14:47
mentioned earlier, I wish that I'd
14:49
gotten it earlier in the season where I
14:51
could use it in more optimal conditions.
14:53
And unfortunately, it's a little late
14:54
for that this year and I'm probably not
14:56
going to see those conditions again. So,
14:58
I do think that this is going to be fun.
15:01
As far as practicality, I don't know
15:02
that it's necessarily a hugely practical
15:05
thing, but what winter toy is
15:07
necessarily. And so, this is for someone
15:09
that wants to have a different kind of
15:11
fun. Maybe you don't want to go the full
15:13
investment in a, you know, in a sled or
15:16
maybe you don't even have, you know,
15:17
access to those kind of conditions and
15:18
you just want something to kind of jet
15:20
around maybe on your property or run
15:22
ride some trails on, do things like
15:24
that. I think that it works fine for
15:25
that application. But I do kind of feel
15:28
like, you know, at least from what I've
15:29
been able to experience, this is a first
15:31
generation of this kind of product. I
15:33
think we're just kind of on the brink of
15:35
the electrifying of, you know, winter
15:37
sports and all of those activities. And
15:40
there are going to be challenges that
15:41
come with that. You winter is a cold
15:43
season. Cold and batteries is not
15:44
necessarily an easy combination. And so
15:47
I think there's going to be some
15:48
challenges to overcome. There's also
15:50
going to be this tension for all of
15:52
these designers in being able to
15:55
engineer the heaviest part component
15:57
here, which is going to be the batteries
15:59
to find that balance between weight of
16:01
the machine and then also giving you
16:04
speed and range. I do question whether
16:07
or not um people that are true kind of
16:10
adrenaline junkies are going to find
16:12
this fast enough. I think that um you
16:15
know in certain conditions it is fast
16:17
enough, but if you're out on an open
16:18
trail kind of going along, it's going to
16:20
feel like you wish that there was more
16:23
speed to it. And also I think that uh in
16:25
certainly some conditions like the way
16:27
I've ridden today, you can burn through
16:29
the battery fairly quickly and there's
16:31
no way that I'd actually be achieving
16:32
that 25 mile even the bottom 25 mile
16:35
range with what I've had to do today in
16:37
terms of breaking the snow and getting
16:40
through there. And so after riding it
16:42
around for about an hour and only, you
16:44
know, going four or five miles at this
16:47
point according to the odometer, um you
16:49
know, my battery is sitting at 47% at
16:51
this point. So obviously in certain
16:54
conditions you're going to deplete that
16:55
battery more quickly than what you would
16:57
like. And so I think that those are two
16:59
of the main challenges to overcome here.
17:01
But at the same time, I'm really glad to
17:03
see new things like this. I've been
17:05
hoping to see the electrification of
17:06
things like snowblowers. And I you know,
17:08
and there's they're coming, but they're
17:11
still not quite to the level of what we
17:12
were able to see from, you know, gas
17:14
powered internal combustion in the past.
17:16
And so I'm hoping to see more like this
17:18
in the future. So I'm really glad to see
17:20
the product come. But it does feel like
17:22
a first generation product in some ways.
17:24
I feel like they're going to grow in
17:25
sophistication as time goes by.
17:28
>> In the meantime, however, if you're
17:30
really interested in the idea of having
17:31
a snow scooter and uh you know, getting
17:34
out and having some fun even when the
17:36
conditions are rough, check out the
17:37
Uniro Ice X1.0.
17:40
And uh I'll throw some links in the
17:42
description down below where you can do
17:43
a little bit more research and check it
17:45
out for yourself. Hopefully this review
17:47
has helped you since there isn't really
17:49
any reviews of this out here at the
17:51
moment and so give you a little bit of
17:52
insight on what's going on. As always,
17:54
thanks for watching. Have a great day
17:56
and let the light in.