SPLACH Ranger Review

Cockpit

The cockpit is one of the Ranger’s best assets.

Alongside a QS-S4 display that lets you track your speed, distance traveled, and battery level, you also get a newly added NFC security scanner. This stops people from turning the scooter on without a pre-programmed card.

NFC, otherwise known as near-field communication, is the same kind of technology that’s used in fob readers to gain access to offices and apartment blocks. With the Ranger, you get 3 cards, meaning you’ll have spares if you lose one.

Elsewhere, everything is clean, tidy, and within easy reach of your thumbs and fingers. Take for instance the turn signal buttons that have been cleverly embedded into the rubber handgrips.

Alongside the 24-inch grip-to-grip dimensions, the Ranger promises good handling. In fact, it has the widest handlebars in the sub-$700 class, enshrining it with a sense of control that can’t be matched.

Frame

There are no complaints when it comes to the Ranger’s aesthetics. The matte black paint juxtaposes artfully with the streaks of orange that pop across the swingarms, stem, and handlebars.

Sporting an IPX5 water resistance rating, it also promises durability. It’s sturdy, well-constructed, and built to last.

Deck

Slathered in a grippy coating, the deck ensures that your feet remain glued to the platform. The available space, meanwhile, measures 18.0 x 5.9 inches with the kickplate adding a further 5 inches.

Add to this the shallow 17-degree angle of the kickplate, and you have a scooter that’s comfortable to ride.

The only area of its design that you need to be mindful of is its ground clearance. With just 5.1 inches of space, it’s enough of a gap for riding over city streets, but it's too low to roll over curbs.

Tires

As is common on scooters that are destined for reliable everyday use, the Ranger has adopted a varied approach to its tires.

Leading from the front is an 8.5-inch air-filled tire that absorbs shocks and delivers oodles of traction for carving and turning. At the rear, you’ll find an 8-inch solid disk of rubber that ticks the low-maintenance box.

Rear tires bear more of your weight and as a result, are more susceptible to flats. So, by using a configuration that mixes the best of both worlds, the Ranger significantly reduces maintenance, whilst still benefiting from shock-absorbing capabilities.

Portability

The Ranger weighs a relatively hefty 45 lbs. You can hoist it on and off public transport without too much aggravation, but good luck carrying it up flights of stairs.

That’s not to say that the Ranger isn’t compact, though. Thanks to its cantilevered folding mechanism, telescopic stem, and foldable handlebars, the entire frame collapses down to a size that makes it easy to store under an office desk or transport in the trunk of a car. For context, its folded dimensions measure just 42.9 (L) x 7.9 (W) x 15.7 (H) inches.

It’s also worth noting that the telescopic stem allows you to adjust the height of the handlebars. The lowest setting measures just 30.6 inches from the deck, while the highest is 40.3 inches.

On the topic of the handlebars, the cuffs that hold the foldable grips in place can occasionally come loose. Here, you need to re-twist them to tighten everything up (this takes a matter of seconds). It is, however, a small price to pay, since they offer a far more solid foundation than foldable handlebars that rely on spring-loaded cuffs (like those on the EMOVE Touring).

The only improvement is if the cantilevered mechanism were to have a safety latch. This would add a layer of reassurance for when the stem is locked upright.

Load

Sporting the same frame as the SPLACH Turbo, the Ranger naturally shares the same load-bearing capacity. However, is it realistic to expect that riders of up to 265 lbs can successfully ride the Ranger? Based on my tests, it's not.

While testing the scooter I weighed 190 lbs and I found it slothlike. For optimal performance, I wouldn’t exceed 165 lbs.

Lights

The lighting rig certainly suits the rest of this scooter's sleek aesthetic, but does it have the substance for night rides? In some ways it does, and in others, it doesn’t.

A strip light that runs up the stem works in tandem with two deck LEDs to illuminate the front of the scooter, while a couple of lights at the rear double up as flashing brake lights and turn signals.

This setup is perfectly adequate for ensuring your visibility to other road users, but what it’s not so good at is guaranteeing that you can see them. I suggest buying an extra clip-on headlight.

Build Quality

The level of build quality on show is what I would expect for a scooter of its price. To give you some perspective, its build is a match for scooters from VSETT but isn’t quite as high-end as those from NIU or Apollo.

Nevertheless, it makes use of OEM components that have been designed for the mass market. Here, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) – who, in this case, is Ningbo VSETT Intelligent Technology Co – makes the scooters for a range of companies – including SPLACH and VSETT – who then sell them under their own brand names.

SPLACH does, however, leverage this to its advantage. By utilizing OEM manufacturing, they’re able to use economies of scale to sell their scooters at more affordable prices.