A year ago, no one would have believed that Minimotors would take one of their fastest, most powerful scooters: the Dualtron Thunder, and more than doubled its peak power while also extending range by more than 31%.

But here we are. It’s a great time to be alive!

World-beating performance without compromise. That is what owning a high-performance heavyweight-class electric scooter is all about.

To be clear: there will still be compromises (mainly portability and cash flow), but none when it comes to performance!

After going for a rip, you’ll pull your helmet off and nod to yourself, “totally worth it!”.

Riding the Thunder 2, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing 99.9% of the world’s electric scooters are currently eating your dust every time you double click the throttle.

With 10 kW of peak power on tap, it’s easy to forget that the Thunder 2’s world-beating superpower is not actually top speed or acceleration, but record-shattering range: 59.5 miles of range on our real-world test course, to be exact.

You may never need (or want) to ride nearly 60 mi on a scooter in one shot, but having range that is effectively bottomless, allows you to be merciless on the throttle.

Like: absolutely bloodthirsty for electrons.

No remorse. Just hammer it.

Add in the Thunder 2’s adjustable rubber cartridge suspension and roomy deck, and you’re going to find yourself making up excuses to go places; (oh darn, the milk is expiring six days from now, I’d better go get more) and taking the longest possible way to get there.

Yes, but…

The Thunder 2 has everything a larger rider needs: power, foot room, firm suspension, which can be optimized for any weight and riding style.

It has the battery power to crush hills for hours regardless of rider size. Except for one thing: the handlebars remain inexplicably low at just under 38 in.

Our favorite handlebar height is 40 in, and 2 in lower is a big deal. Fortunately, Minimotors gives us plenty of cable length to work with, and bar risers are readily available, so correcting the stem height isn’t difficult.

It’s also surprising that a scooter of its size and capability has such a conservative specified maximum rider weight, at 265 lbs.

Lesser scooters regularly push the 300 lb mark.

We don’t usually recommend going beyond the manufacturer’s recommended weight limit, but this is a scooter where I do not see the downside to going to 300 lbs, especially if you can use stiffer suspension cartridges than stock.

Full-throttle on the Thunder 2 is mind-blowing. Then you double click and get 1680 more watts (roughly a Dualtron Eagle Pro worth of boost!)

The double click feels like you’ve suddenly caught a colossal tailwind, shoving you right past the original Thunder’s top speed of 58.3 mph and well beyond.

Full-throttle on the Thunder 2 is mind-blowing. Then you double click and get 1680 more watts (roughly a Dualtron Eagle Pro worth of boost!)

The double click feels like you’ve suddenly caught a colossal tailwind, shoving you right past the original Thunder’s top speed of 58.3 mph and well beyond.

The Thunder 2 will climb any hill at just about any speed. 

It recorded the third quickest hill-climb time ever, scaling our 10% grade 200 ft long test hill in 6.7 seconds, just behind the NAMI BURN-E and Wolf King GT.

Feel free to crush hills everywhere you go. You’re very unlikely to need the battery power later. (more on that below)

If your runway is long enough, and you have as little sense of self-preservation as I do, you’ll eventually arrive at a top speed of 58.3 mph! (63 mph indicated).

On level ground, you’ll have 41 very long seconds of holding off your better judgment before fully maxing out top speed.

The Nutt hydraulic brakes and 160 mm rotors feel impressive and direct, stopping from 15 mph in about 10.1 ft.

Any scooter near the 10 ft mark is among the world’s best.

We think the Thunder 2 would stop even shorter with the rear footrest removed since it would allow an even more aggressive braking stance.

Dualtron scooters are known for excellent ride quality, primarily due to their fantastic, adjustable elastomeric suspension with cartridges that can swap out to change ride stiffness. I love this design because it’s lightweight, maintenance-free, and just feels good!

That said, if you’re 165 lbs like Chuck and me, you’ll find that the suspension of the larger Dualtrons is a little stiff. Everything about these scooters feels tight and maybe a little like a baseball glove: something that will wear in rather than wear out, getting better with every day of use.

On our other Dualtrons, we’ve found that the cartridge suspension gets softer after several hundred miles and on warmer days. So we may like the Thunder 2’s suspension even more when Summer comes back around.

One of the Thunder 2’s signature features is the new rear footrest-taillight. It’s even more striking in person than in photos, but to be honest, it kind of sucks as a footrest. The top is a little too high and too narrow front-to-back, while the incline section is a little too steep and has a foot-sized hole in the middle of it.

Removing the footrest altogether gives you 2.2 in more deck to stand on (same deck size as the Thunder). The good news is that it’s straightforward to remove and takes less than 5 minutes. For super sporty, aggressive riding, the footrest is still nice to have, but for long hauls, having the extra deck space is better.

We don’t usually spend much time on scooters in lower performance modes, but ECO mode on the Thunder 2 is still super fun (and certainly less stressful) yet still allows front wheel spins on demand.

Like the 2020 Thunder, the Thunder 2 is an excellent Grand Touring scooter. Neither are born corner carvers like the Dualtron Victor, but both are great for beating cars across town and arriving feeling comfortable and refreshed.

Despite premium folding handlebars and a folding stem that latches to the deck, the Thunder 2 is not very portable. At 104.2 lb, it’s too heavy to lift by the stem. You also can't have the handlebars folded and the stem latched to the deck at the same time, because the two interfere with each other.

That said, the rear foot-ret/grab handle is a big plus if you need to lift it up a few stairs or onto a workbench without folding. 

Realistically, you should avoid lifting this scooter or any heavyweight scooter on your own.

The Thunder 2 gets a stunning new control box for turn signals (rear-only), swag lights, hazard lights, riding mode, and horn (a feature the 2020 Thunder lacked!) 

The beautifully back-lit stainless steel switches give the scooter a next-generation feel, despite retaining the classic EY3 throttle. 

Our favorite feature on the control panel is the ECO mode button, which stays pressed in for ECO mode and out for OMG mode, so you can always tell what mode you’re in before you squeeze the throttle. 

The cables look very tidy but are oddly not plug and play. So if you ever need to change out your throttle, you’re going to end up digging deep into the scooter to plug it in.

The swag lights are outstanding. There is no mistaking when a Dualtron is approaching at night. The Thunder 2 takes swag to another level adding synchronized RGB lights to the side of the deck and swingarms, so the light patterns flow from one into the other. Very nice indeed. 

A scooter this fast deserves a bright high-mounted headlight, though. So if you’re planning to ride at night, definitely plan to add an aftermarket rechargeable light to your shopping list. They’re not expensive and can be used for all of your scooters, present, and future.

We don’t usually get this excited about tires, but the new flat-proof tires may be our favorite feature of the Thunder 2. 

Aside from being flat-proof, they’re also the first load-rated and speed-rated scooter tires we’ve seen.

They prevent flats with an incredibly flexible soft rubber coating bonded to the inside surface of the tire.

We tested it and found that the material was nearly puncture-proof during slow punctures. Still, even when we managed to penetrate it with a quick jab, it sealed wholly and instantly, losing zero air pressure over the next 24 hours. 

Unlike tire slime, this method of flat-proofing doesn’t make a gooey mess when you remove the tires from the wheel.

The awesome-looking ultra-modern rubber deck is a signature feature of the Thunder 2. It is easy to clean but has a minor flaw: it has 31% less grip than the original grip-tape-covered Thunder deck (yeah, we measure everything).  

If you find yourself missing the extra grip, though, it’s easy to get it back by adding strips of grip tape in any shape or location you like—best of both worlds.

The deck itself is enormous, though the footrest makes it feel smaller than ideal for long rides. If you want the extra room, it only takes 5 minutes to remove or install. I did this for the range rest and was happy to have the space to move around.

The build quality of the Thunder 2 is impressive, starting at the core with its enormous 72V 2,880 Wh battery, the largest we’ve ever encountered. Aside from being huge, it’s also very high quality, made with LG’s larger, power-dense 21700 automotive-grade cells.  

Underneath, you can see that the controllers are thermally coupled to the deck. Even after a 0.5 mi top speed run pushing 120 total amps, the heatsink was still cool to the touch.

Even if you aren’t exploring its stratospheric speed or testing your own range endurance, the combination of flat-resistant tires and seemingly bottomless range give you a feeling of being unstoppable.

It’s not perfect, though. Just like our 2020 Thunder, the Thunder 2’s rear fender began to rattle a little during the first 50 mi. You’ll need a short Allen wrench to correct this. We recommend adding some blue Loctite to the fender bolts while you’re at it. 

The solid rims are easy to separate from the motors, so you won’t have to wrestle with motor cables while changing tires. We love split rims, but this is a nice compromise since split rims aren’t compatible with tubeless tires.

We’re still perplexed at Minimotors for not correcting the stem squeak that every single Dualtron scooter has. Loosening the lower stem bolts, working in some Lithium spray grease, and then tightening them back down sorts this out in 5 minutes. It’s become standard procedure for us when we receive a Dualtron.

Finally, the Thunder 2 gets a beefy and adjustable side stand. Hooray! 

Your side-stand is the last part of the scooter you interact with each day, so it feels good to walk away from your scooter with one final reminder of quality.

The Thunder 2 takes the base design of the loved and legendary 2020 Thunder, then gives you more of everything: head-turning good looks, build quality, top speed, and of course: world record range.

Even without the double-click throttle, the Thunder 2’s performance picks up well beyond where the Thunder leaves off.

And with the double click? 

Just be sure you’re ready.

Realistically, you should avoid lifting this scooter or any heavyweight scooter on your own.