My motor overheating is a "once in a great while" problem, but it does happen. I didn't want my battery review post to be confusing, so I'm putting this as a separate entry. Even though Leo the L'ion performed beautifully at the zoo, over the course of a couple of hours my motor overheated three times. The first two times were after I'd been riding for awhile and then gave it a bumpy wooden bridge to struggle with. The third time was after I'd ridden my great nephew Jaxon around and around and around and around and around and around.
If your first thought is, "Oh no, I don't want a scooter that does THAT!" keep in mind that I'm much larger than the average rider. My friend Rhonda, who is about 250 lbs., doesn't have these same problems. Yes, her battery has overloaded on an incline, but it happens far less frequently than it does for me. Also, in everyday use for work and shopping it's rare for these things to happen even to me. I did have the smaller lithium ion battery overload twice on a recent shopping trip at the mall, but the first time was because I was in a jewelry store with incredibly plush carpet and the second time was on carpet when the battery charge was already low.
So... how do you know if it's the motor overheating or the battery overloading?
In both cases the scoot just suddenly stops, leaving you wondering what just happened. If you try turning the throttle, it doesn't do anything. The way you'll know which thing happened is by looking at the lights on the on/off switch panel.
Battery overload: Red light on display or no light on display.
Motor overheated: Green light indicating the battery is still giving you power.
What's the solution? If the motor has overheated just sit for a few minutes and give it a chance to cool down. I wasn't timing it, but it wasn't more than 5 minutes before I was moving again. If your battery has overloaded you can either charge it again briefly to turn it on again or use your scoot as a generator and, leaving the battery in the on position, get off and give it a couple of hard pushes until the battery light turns green again. (My husband and sister Rae have gotten mine going for me again by running with it.) If you were on an incline when the battery overloaded, turn around and try going back down the incline. That's always worked for me to get the battery going again.