I saw a Motocompacto in the wild
If you like bikes and weird little electric vehicles, you have probably already heard about the Motocompacto... but if you haven't, please read this Wikipedia page about it and its predecessor, the Motocompo. The Motocompacto is a re-imagining of the Motocompo scooter for the ebike era... but it's much worse than an ebike. It goes only 15 MPH and has a shockingly poor range of only 12 miles. My Rad Power ebike - which I used as my primary commuter in 2022 and part of 2023, before switching to an "analogue" bike - went much faster and had a much longer range. Most stand up scooters probably beat at least one of the Motocompacto's numbers - I know you can get a fancy Ninebot scooter for under 700 USD that goes much farther at the same speed. (Which is nuts, because the Motocompacto has a volume that seems like it should be full of more batteries?)
Also, the Motocompacto costs a thousand bucks!
Anyway, I finally saw one of these in the wild. I went fucking nuts behind the wheel of my car and forced my husband to take a picture. It was a moment of delight and astonishment. I love dumb fucking little personal mobility devices, and I love how often you can see weird ones in LA!!
Unfortunately I do not think I should post the picture here. The woman I saw riding the Motocompacto is extremely recognizable, with a very distinct haircut and outfit, and I am worried that if I post her on her little crap-device, I will very unambiguously identify her. So just imagine in your head that you have seen a very cool looking woman sitting on an absolutely trashed Motocompacto. It had significant body damage or markings of some kind. It hadn't occurred to me before, but the Motocompacto's big white sides are an excellent canvas for dirt.
Anyway, just wanted to log my little victory here. I finally saw one!!
The only thing better than this would be seeing a Motocompo! But that's too much to hope for, isn't it?