Last Updated on December 16, 2022 by Matt
The electric scooter handlebar height is critical for comfort. If not suitable for your height, you will have difficulties riding. This can often be a major problem for tall scooterists.
I’ve tried riding many different scooters. I had trouble controlling the scooter when the handlebar was too low. My forearms hurt when it was too high.
It must be just right for you. That’s why you need to know the handlebar height when buying a scooter, but also your ideal personal handlebar height.
Electric scooter handlebar height
The average scooter handlebar height is 39.1 inches / 99.3 cm. This is close to the perfect height for adults of average height. Most electric scooters have an adjustable handlebar height, which can add or subtract up between 1 and 4 in / 2 and 10 cm from the average.
The electric scooter with the tallest handlebar today is the Nami Burn-E 2 Max. Its handlebar height is 43 in / 109 cm. It is one of the best scooters for very tall people.
The electric scooter with the shortest handlebar is the Speedway Leger. This scooter has a handlebar height of 35.4 in / 90 cm.
We obtained this data by analyzing 73 electric scooter models. We will go over some common questions electric scooter owners have about handlebar height. In addition, we will go over the data at the end of this article.
Why is electric scooter handlebar height important?
You will be spending a lot of time on your electric scooter. If your scooter fits you perfectly, it will give you safer and more enjoyable rides.
Your electric scooter handlebar height will have an impact on the following:
- your steering and control
- your comfort
- your safety
When your handlebar doesn’t fit your body and build, you may have problems when riding.
If the handlebar is too high, your forearms will exert more effort.
Your entire ride may soon get very uncomfortable. It’s very possible you have muscle aches after it. Your control will suffer as well.
On the other hand, if your handlebar is too low, you will have really big problems steering.
Controlling and using an electric scooter is pretty easy, but you do need a good range of arm movement. The handlebar will simply be too far away from the distance where your arms have full control.
Personally, I noticed these issues quite soon after trying scooters with unfitting handlebars.
Chances are, these issues will become big problems in the long run. Possibly even make your scooter useless, or not fun to ride.
That’s why it’s very important to pick a model that fits you. At the very least, pick one that has adjustable handlebars.
How do you measure scooter handlebar height?
Some of the time, manufacturers provide the handlebar height of their models. While researching this post, I found that many manufacturers simply don’t provide this information publicly, so I was forced to try and estimate it myself based on the scooter’s general height, its tire size, and how tall was the top of the deck in relation to the tires.
Keep in mind, handlebar height is not the same as the general height of the scooter.
We measure handlebar height as the vertical distance between the top of the deck and the highest point of the handlebar.
The name “handlebar height” is common for this metric, but it may be easily misinterpreted. Many people get confused and think they should measure the stem itself.
That’s not useful very information. If the stem is too inclined, the handlebar height will be low, even when the stem itself is long.
Sometimes manufacturers don’t provide the handlebar height. In that case, the piece of data may not be available anywhere online.
If you are curious about a model, take a look at our list at the end of this article. It has about half the scooter models today.
If your desired scooter is not on the list, you will have to do a bit more work.
When you don’t know the handlebar height for a scooter, you have three options:
- measure it yourself
- calculate it
- ask about it in an online forum or community
Of course, measuring the handlebar height requires access to the scooter. That will probably rarely be the case for anyone.
If you do have access, however, this will be the superior method by far.
When that’s not an option, you can always post a question in some of the online forums.
Sadly, while some of these forums have big numbers of registered users, few of them are truly active.
Also, chances are, users will only be able to help you with the more popular scooters.
Luckily, we can easily figure out the handlebar height by calculating it.
True, it will not be the most accurate information. But it will be much better than nothing.
How to calculate handlebar height
To calculate the handlebar height, you will need three pieces of information. Usually, all of them are easily available online. You will need the following:
- the height of the electric scooter when unfolded
- the diameter of the tires
- an image of the electric scooter
Do a quick inspection of the scooter image. See where the top of the deck is positioned in relation to the tire.
Often, the deck will be around half of the height of the tire. Usually, it will be between two-thirds or three-quarters of the tire height. In some cases (usually off-road scooters), the deck will be almost at the same height as the top of the wheel.
According to that, calculate how high is the top of the deck.
For example, if the tire size is 8 inches, and the top of the deck is at about 3/4 of the tire height, then the top of the deck is:
8 inches * 3/4 = 6 inches
Tire sizes are usually expressed in inches. If you have the scooter height in centimeters, convert the deck height to centimeters too (just multiply it by 2.54).
With all of those pieces of information, you can now calculate the handlebar height.
Simply subtract the top of the deck from the general scooter height:
[Handlebar height] = [Electric scooter height] – [Top of deck height]
Formula for calculating handlebar height
Now we can easily calculate the handlebar height for any scooter. But what height exactly should the handlebar be for you?
What height should my scooter handlebars be
Finding out the perfect handlebar height for you must come through experience. You will not be able to know this without trying out some scooters.
However, in most cases, there is a very good rule of thumb you can use. That way, you will not have to spend hours on different scooters to figure out your ideal height.
The simple, but very effective rule for figuring out your ideal handlebar height is this:
- Stand up and let your arms hang
- Bend your arms at the elbows, with your knuckles facing up. Your forearms and your upper arm should form an angle between 100 ° and 120 °.
- It’s very important that you can keep your arms that way for some time. It should not be very tiring. This will be the position in which your arms will stay most of the time when riding. If it’s uncomfortable, try a bigger angle.
- Take note of where your palms are. The distance between your palms and the ground is your ideal handlebar height.
If you want the full, detailed version of this method, check out method number 2 in our scooter handlebar height guide.
For most people, this will effectively be a few centimeters above their hips, but not above their belly button.
While this is a great way to find out your handlebar height, finding this out through riding will still be superior.
We are all different, and sometimes formulas don’t work well for everybody.
If you don’t own a scooter yourself, rent one through a ride-sharing app, or borrow it from a friend that owns one. Spend some time with it. Ride it for as long periods as you can.
You will get a very good feel of how high should your handlebars be.
Are electric scooter handlebars adjustable?
Many electric scooters come with adjustable handlebars. In fact, around 70% of them have this feature. You can easily change the handlebar height on those models.
Usually, electric scooters will have several handlebar height levels.
They will sometimes have latches or levers that let you change them. Other times, you will have to unscrew some screws around, set your height, and tighten the latch back up.
Sometimes, scooters will have just a pipe and no fixed levels. In that case, you will have a more fluid choice of your height levels.
What to do if the scooter I like doesn’t have adjustable handlebars?
Sadly, some scooters don’t allow their height to be adjusted at all.
In some of these instances, the manufacturers will still try to accommodate users of different heights. They will provide several options for the length of the stem.
So while the handlebar will be fixed, at least it will be fixed close to your ideal height.
If you have your eyes set on a scooter, but you find out that its handlebar height will not work for you, contact the manufacturers. They might have other different stem sizes that may fit you.
In any case, only get that kind of scooter if you are 100% certain its handlebar height will work for you!
Other than that, you can see if your model has a customization part that you can install to extend the handlebar height.
For example, you can get a specialized part for the Xiaomi M365 and Xiaomi M365 Pro that you install between the stem and the handlebar. It will give you an extra 2 inches of handlebar height. You can find it on Amazon, and other scooters may have similar parts for them too.
Electric scooter handlebar height data
We got the average by going through the data for the scooters in this list.
These are all the electric scooters for which handlebar height was available.
As mentioned, when the handlebar height data was not available, but the general scooter height and its tire size data were available, a visual estimation and calculation was used. Even though I reached out to all of the companies for this data, only some of them responded. The estimated handlebar heights are marked as such.
By looking at this data, you can make an informed choice when getting your scooter.
| Electric scooter | Handlebar height (cm) | Estimated? | Adjustable handlebar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nami Burn-E 2 Max | 109 | est | no |
| Inokim Mini 2 | 106 | est | yes |
| Hiboy S2 | 106 | est | no |
| Zero 11X | 105 | est | yes |
| Inokim OXO | 105 | est | yes |
| Inokim OX 21Ah | 105 | yes | |
| Inokim OX 13Ah | 105 | yes | |
| GoTrax XR Ultra | 105 | est | no |
| Levy Plus | 104 | est | no |
| Levy | 104 | est | no |
| FFR City Rider | 104 | est | yes |
| Dualtron Spider | 104 | est | yes |
| Apollo Phantom 52V Mechanical | 104 | no | |
| Zero 10X | 103 | est | no |
| Varla Pegasus | 103 | no | |
| UScooters GT Smart | 103 | yes | |
| UScooters Eco | 103 | est | yes |
| UScooters Booster V | 103 | yes | |
| Kugoo S1 Pro | 103 | est | yes |
| Kugoo S1 | 103 | est | yes |
| Ninebot Max | 102 | no | |
| NanRobot LS7 | 102 | est | no |
| Currus NF | 102 | est | no |
| Swagtron Swagger 5 Elite | 101 | est | no |
| Kugoo M2 Pro | 101 | est | no |
| Kugoo ES2 | 101 | est | no |
| Swagtron Swagger 7 | 100 | est | yes |
| Swagtron Swagger 5 Boost (update) | 100 | est | no |
| Macwheel MX Pro | 100 | est | no |
| Kaabo Mantis Pro SE | 100 | yes | |
| Emove Touring | 100 | est | yes |
| Varla Eagle One Pro | 99.8 | no | |
| Zero 9 | 99 | yes | |
| Turbowheel Swift | 99 | yes | |
| Swagtron Swagger Pro 3 | 99 | est | no |
| Ninebot ES4 | 99 | est | no |
| Ninebot ES3 | 99 | est | no |
| Ninebot ES2 | 99 | est | no |
| Ninebot ES1 | 99 | est | no |
| Ninebot E45/E45E | 99 | est | no |
| Glion Dolly 225 | 99 | yes | |
| Glion Dolly | 99 | yes | |
| Dualtron Compact | 99 | est | yes |
| Xiaomi M365 Pro | 98 | no | |
| Turbowheel Lightning | 98 | est | yes |
| Speedway Mini 4 Pro | 98 | yes | |
| Speedway 5 | 98 | yes | |
| Kaabo Skywalker 10S | 98 | est | yes |
| FFR Horizon | 98 | est | yes |
| Emove Cruiser | 98 | est | yes |
| WePed GT | 97 | est | no |
| Kugoo G-Booster 20Ah | 97 | est | no |
| Kaabo Wolf Warrior 11 | 97 | est | yes |
| InMotion Lively | 97 | est | yes |
| GoTrax GXL V2 Commuter | 97 | no | |
| GoTrax GXL Commuter | 97 | no | |
| Unagi Model One 500 W | 96 | est | no |
| Razor E300 | 96 | est | no |
| Hiboy Max | 96 | est | no |
| Dualtron Thunder | 96 | yes | |
| Xiaomi M365 | 95.2 | no | |
| Varla Eagle One | 95 | no | |
| NanRobot D5+ | 95 | est | no |
| Kugoo M4 Pro | 95 | est | yes |
| Inokim Light 2 | 95 | est | yes |
| GoTrax XR | 95 | no | |
| Swagtron Swagger 3 (update) | 94 | est | no |
| Mercane Widewheel Pro | 94 | est | no |
| GoTrax G2 | 93 | no | |
| Kugoo Kirin S2 | 92 | est | yes |
| Kugoo Kirin S1 | 92 | est | yes |
| Kugoo G2 Pro | 92 | yes | |
| Speedway Leger | 90 | est | yes |
Again, I need to say that for the scooters with estimated data, the height may not be 100% precise.
It is better than nothing though, and it’s a good starting point if you need this data point. If you need the exact data for a scooter for which I only have the estimated data, I suggest reaching out to the brand yourself, you may have better luck than me.
