The Best Electric Scooter Accessories

Remember when your electric scooter was simple? You could whip out your scooter and hop on for a quick ride to the bodega around the block, and then toss it back in your garage.

But when you really decide to commit to your electric scooter and take your relationship to the next level, i.e. making it your only mode of transport, is when things get a little more complicated.
It’s not enough anymore to casually board your vehicle with no protection when you’re thinking long-term. And yes, by long-term, we mean rides more than 5 miles. Those daily commutes and venturing to a different part of town will really test your electric scooter relationship — and leave you wanting something more.

Like an extra pair of LED lights.
Or a better helmet.
And a phone holder.
A jacket too. Maybe even gloves.

Let’s face it: electric scooters are minimal at best, especially ones in the budget to mid-range category. You’re doing to need accessories to make your ride safer and more comfortable.

The team at Scootermap has been riding electric scooters for a long time. Here’s our list of the best electric scooter accessories to significantly increase your ride quality experience.

If you’re a beginner to riding an electric scooter, check out our guide to learning how to ride (internal link) one!

Here is our definitive list of the best electric scooter accessories in order of most important to least important.

  1. Helmets
  2. Eye protection
  3. Tire Sealant
  4. Jacket and knee pads and gloves
  5. Lights – Visibility
  6. Locks
  7. Phone Holder

1. Helmet: Safety First

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Getting a helmet is so essential for electric scooter owners, that we’re almost hesitant to call it an accessory. Riding an electric scooter leaves you almost entirely exposed to the elements and a helmet can do a lot to protect you from head injury in case of a traffic collision.

Helmets are also mandatory in many jurisdictions. The helmet you ultimately choose to purchase greatly depends on how powerful your electric scooter is. In fact, we’ve dedicated a whole review guide to the best electric scooter helmets of 2022.

It’s a simple formula.

The more powerful your electric scooter is = the more protection your helmet needs to offer.

For electric scooters with more than 1000w of power, a full face helmet or a half-face one (at the very least) is recommended. Less powerful e scooter riders can technically get away with more lightweight bicycle or moped helmets.

If you’re going for a bicycle helmet, make sure it’s CPSC-certified. Full face and half helmets should be DOT certified.

Best Full Face Helmet: ILM Off-Roading Helmet

If you’re riding a powerful electric scooter, you need a well-performing full face helmet like the ILM. It’s technically built for motorcycles, meaning that it offers more than enough protection in case you get into an accident. We particularly like this helmet because it has multiple air vents for airflow and ventilation, as well as a heavy duty robust build for face, neck and eye protection. It doesn’t get more comfortable than this when you’re looking at full face helmets.
Check it out here.

Best Half Helmet: Vega Rebel Warrior Helmet

This is a lightweight helmet that a super popular choice for city commuting. It fits really snug with an adjustable chin strap, and follows DOT FMVSS 218 helmet safety standards in the United States. It’s perfect for smaller electric vehicles that go below 20mph, and provides enough protection without making you feel like you’re wearing a Halloween Darth Vader costume.

Check it out here.


2. Eye Protection

Some helmets have in-built visors, but not all. Eye protection is an often overlooked aspect of riding on an electric scooter. You need a pair of sunglasses or a helmet visor to prevent wind, rain, bugs, dust and debris from falling in your eye, especially when you’re riding at faster speeds.

It’s also important to shelter yourself from the sun. Sun glare can temporarily blind you, which is obviously dangerous while riding.

If you do a lot of day riding, consider purchasing colored lenses to shelter from the bright sun. Shades of green and brown usually work best. However: if you’re riding during rainy season, you’re going to want yellow-tinted lenses that increase contrast on cloudy days. Look for the word hydrophobic: which goes a long way when you’re riding in the rain. Hydrophobic lenses are a little more pricey, but they stop droplets from forming on the lens. It’s the best solution to riding in the rain — since no one’s invented a tiny windshield for sunglasses yet.

For night riding, you’ll need glasses that have a photochromic lens for better visibility.

If that sounds like a lot of lenses — there are sunglasses with removable lenses in the market, so you can use one pair for all kinds of riding conditions.

Best Riding Sunglasses: Belinous Polarized Dust-Proof Glasses

This pair of Belinous glasses is all you need for electric scooter riding. It’s affordable, and has 4 interchangeable lenses for all kinds of riding. 1 lens is polarized for anti-glare, while the other 3 are colored lenses — yellow for cloudy riding, copper for extremely bright riding, and clear for better visibility when night riding.

It fits snug (adjustable tightness for different faces) and doesn’t let air in through the sides — high on comfort and eye protection.

Check it out here.


3. Tire Sealant

If there’s ever been something that should be tossed in your backpack — it’s this. Tire sealant is an incredible and inexpensive way to safeguard against a flat tire. When you’re riding long distances, or even off-roading in the wild — a flat or puncture in your tire can be catastrophic. In case you forgot, there’s no AAA for electric scooters, and it’s tough to find the smaller size scooter tires in local mechanic stores.

If you’re planning to embark on longer rides, investing in some tire sealant (also called tire slime) is a great way to both prevent and repair tire issues. Tire sealant usually lasts about 2 years as a preventive measure, and you can reapply if you get a flat as well.

Make sure you’re buying one that’s specially made for bicycles or dirt bikes, since sealant made for car and truck tires may not work or cause balancing issues. We also recommend choosing a non-toxic sealant with an easy applicator to make sure that you’re making safe and environmentally-friendly decisions.

At scootermap, we use this tire slime. It’s non-toxic and lasts a while. You might want to buy a smaller bottle to carry in your backpack for rides.


4. Electric Scooter Apparel: Jackets, Knee Pads and Gloves

Look: why should motorcyclists have all the fun? It’s not strange to see a motorcyclist decked in a leather jacket, full elbow and knee padding, with armor gloves.
Then why do we see electric scooter riders wear an old t-shirt, cargo t shirts and ride 55mph standing? It’s just as dangerous, if not more, and we strongly recommend wearing the proper gear when you’re testing out the throttle on a powerful electric scooter.

Jackets/Reflective Clothing

There are two purposes that an armor jacket serves: protection and visibility. You can greatly reduce the risk of impact when you’re wearing a structured jacket with interior boning and padding. It doesn’t just protect your bones from being crushed, but also your internal organs.

We recommend this armor jacket for riding on powerful electric scooters with speeds higher than 35mph. It has built-in elbow pads, and enough ventilation to wear during the summer while also providing protection.

Visibility is super important, and not just for night riding. The biggest danger that electric scooters face is the other vehicles on the road: namely cars. You want to be as visible as possible to prevent other vehicles getting too close to you — and reflective stickers or lining is a great way to do that. Investing in a jacket or other reflective clothing like a fluorescent vest/waistcoat can make you more visible in cloudy and dim riding conditions.

This Darevie Thermal Jacket is a great reflective jacket for increased visibility. It doesn’t make you look like you work in construction, but lights up when the lighting is dim or cloudy. It also just looks like a regular good-looking jacket when there’s bright lighting.

Knee Pads/Riding Trousers

Trust me, your knee joints kneed protection. You have two options — wear strap on knee pads underneath your regular pants, or invest in riding trousers with built-in padding for greater protection.

We found this set of knee pads great for breathability and reinforcement, and recommend this pair of riding trousers for heavy riding.

Gloves

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Lastly, you’ll need gloves. We instinctively reach out with hands to grab something when we’re thrown off the vehicle in an accident. Unfortunately, impact on the hands first is a terrible idea: and your fragile wrist and knuckle bones can very easily get shattered. Wearing gloves is a smart way to prevent this from happening. If you’re riding faster speeds, don’t get anything less than motorcycle gloves to protect yourself. We recommendthis pair of motorcycle gloves for full hand and knuckle protection.


5. Lights

It’s a fact — if there’s a common area where most affordable electric scooters suffer, it’s lighting. It’s really rare that an electric scooter has a super bright headlamp and rear lights, unless it’s a premium high-end model (Dualtron scooters are probably the only brand to consistently make bright lights on all models).

The problem only really arises when you’re riding at night. It’s not much of a problem during the day when you can see everything clearly, but you need to be able to see well-ahead of you when you’re riding at night. Factor in that most scooters aren’t riding on the highway at night — and smaller roads and lanes don’t always have bright enough street lamps and lights.

Luckily, it’s pretty easy to buy an aftermarket light and install it on your electric scooter. In fact, it’s one of the most common accessories that electric scooter riders make an investment in.

Front Light – NiteRider Lumina

This is a great choice for riders who do a lot of night riding. The headlamp on most affordable electric scooters can be dim, only illuminating a few feet ahead of you. The gold standard is to generally have a headlamp that’s at least 500 lumens if you’re riding after sunset, and it should be even brighter if you happen to ride on an unlit road. The NiteRider Lumina is 1100 lumens, which is super bright and helps you see and be seen.

Rear Light/Tail Light – Touhuhot Tail Light

While a front light needs to be bright enough for the night time — it’s the opposite with tail lights. While you do need to be visible at night, it’s the sun you compete with during day riding. Electric scooters are already at a disadvantage since tail lights are placed much lower than other vehicles, and this can make it tougher for other vehicles on the road to spot them.

A bright tail light like this one from Touhuhot has great battery life and different flash modes, while making sure that you’re visible crystal clear, no matter what time of the day you’re riding.


6. Locks

Not so much an accessory as a necessity — locks would make it pretty high on our essential accessories list if we were writing about commuter scooters. If you live in the city and often need to park your electric vehicle in a public space, you know you can’t just leave it unattended and hope it waits for you.

Locks vary from a simple bicycle lock to sophisticated bluetooth smart alarm locks — and a more expensive powerful scooter deserves a lock of the same caliber. We recommend saving the bicycle locks only for rental scooters or really affordable ones. Check out our more in-depth guide on electric scooter locks.

Best electric scooter lock for expensive scooters: Kryptonite Keeper 712 Combo Chain Lock

This is a great choice if you park in a high-crime rate area — the chain lock is extremely strong and can’t be cut with a regular metal cutter (most chain locks can be easily cut at the metal links). Petty theft criminals would have a pretty tough time getting through this lock, and would much rather quickly move on to an easier target.

The long chain also makes it easy to hook up to pretty much any bike rack or rod without having to take measurements.

However, if you’re going to be parking in a less crowded area, we suggest getting a secure lock with an alarm.

Best electric scooter alarm lock: NUNET Smart Bike Bluetooth Lock

Sometimes, your best bet is to have an alarm lock with a screeching siren that alerts everyone in the vicinity. Not only is this alarm clock equipped with a 110db alarm, it’s also a smart bluetooth lock and can only unlocked from your phone.

Best electric scooter U-locks: Kryptonite New York LS U Lock

In general, U locks are sturdier than chain locks since they’re more heavy duty. However, the issue with U Locks are that they’re similar to a padlock, and can only fit on certain metal rods and bike racks. So if you’re traveling to a new area, you might be clueless about where to lock your electric scooter.

This U Lock is special because it has a much longer design, making it easier to attach to different poles, and is built with a 16mm shackle size. You also get an Anti-theft protection offer with the lock.


7. Phone Holder

While we have listed out accessories in order of importance — the phone holder makes it to the very end only because it can’t be compared to safety accessories like helmets, sunglasses, and tail lights.

But that’s not to say a phone holder isn’t equally important for an electric scooter responsible rider. Having your phone securely stationed near the throttle means you never take your hands off the handlebar — and can make navigating through GPS a hundred times easier.

There are a couple of things to consider when looking for phone holders.

  • It should protect your mobile phone from the vehicle’s vibrations.
  • It should be waterproof if you’re planning to ride in the rain
  • It should be the right size for your phone — not too snug that it could damage it, but not loose enough for the phone to wiggle about.

This BRCOVAN phone holder is a great high-quality accessory, super sturdy, and has enough vibration absorption to safeguard your phone from any internal damage. Most phone holders made for motorcycles are well-built, because they’re typically capable of withstanding greater vibration and speeds than an electric scooter.
Just ensure that it has to be mounted to the handlebars, or look for a specified ‘bicycle handlebar’ style mounting.

A more affordable but well-performing option is the Inokim phone holder. It can be used on almost any electric scooter, not just Inokim scooters.


FAQs about Electric scooter accessories

How do you carry things on an electric scooter?

It’s recommended that you carry things in a backpack when riding on an electric scooter so that you keep your hands free to ride. Many riders carry grocery bags on their handlebars when running errands, but this can be a distraction while riding, and also potentially fall down or swing about.
Make sure you don’t keep anything balanced on the deck while riding, as this will take up foot space and could cause you to lose your balance.

What clothes to wear on an electric scooter?

Most electric scooters built for city commutes will not go very high speeds, and you can get away without wearing any padded or protective clothing. However, it’s still advised to wear a helmet as well as pants, to limit the exposed skin in case of an accident. You should also always wear closed shoes, and avoid wearing flip flops, sandals, or heels on an electric scooter.

If you’re riding a more powerful electric scooter, make sure you’re wearing an armor jacket, and gloves with knuckle and wrist protection. You can also choose to wear elbow pads and knee pads if you’ll be riding at top speeds and on the highway.

How do I carry groceries on an electric scooter?

The best way to carry groceries would be in a backpack — but if you have a lot of groceries, you’ll need to strap them to the electric scooter in a safe way that doesn’t hinder your riding. Consider investing in an electric scooter basket, or use bungee cords to attach a milk crate when you’re in a pinch. Make sure your groceries are secure with a fastener to the vehicle; avoid carrying them yourself.


Wrapping up

As you ride your electric scooter, you’ll slowly become aware of the accessories you need to make your commute more comfortable. We’ve detailed the absolute essentials — with your safety and protection as a primary focus.

Of course, there are 100s of other accessories that can just improve quality of life, such as Bluetooth speaker helmets, a cup holder for your morning Starbucks, or even a USB port phone charger.

Just remember: the cost of accessories can pile on quick. If you find that you’re having to spend a lot on a long list of ‘essential accessories’, then maybe it’s worth looking for a better upgraded electric scooter that already has the features you want. Check out our tried and tested list of the best performing electric scooters of 2022.

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