YUME Raptor 2 Review: Fastest Electric Scooter Under $1,600

The YUME Raptor 2 is a budget hyper scooter, and the more we tested it, the more we liked it.

We do not just ride a scooter around the block for half an hour and read the spec sheet back to you. We timed the unboxing, weighed it on an industrial scale, measured motor noise with a decibel meter, checked the headlights with a lux meter, and ran the pack down to nothing on a real range loop. After all of it, here is the honest take: for $1,500, the Raptor 2 punches way above its price on the numbers that actually matter, which are range, acceleration, top speed, and turning.

Affiliate & sponsorship disclosure: YUME sent us this scooter for free and this is a sponsored review, but 100% of the feedback here is genuine and we do not hold back. This article also contains affiliate links, so if you buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Ride safe: the Raptor 2 will do 50-plus mph. Wear a DOT-rated helmet (we ride in a full-face), use protective gear, obey local traffic laws, and stay within your skill level.

At a glance

YUME Raptor 2 specs

Out of the box

What you get in the box

We time every unboxing, cleanup included. Most scooters take about 30 minutes. The Raptor 2 took us about 44, mostly because YUME wraps it in a lot of packaging. The upside: it uses high-quality, non-flaking foam with no chemical odor, and the scooter shows up genuinely well protected.

The accessory pile is where it starts to feel like a deal. You get an air pump, a tool kit, mirrors, a phone holder, a stem bag, a spare-parts harness, and this is the part that surprised us, two chargers by default. Each one is about 2 amps, so if you plug in both you charge at 4 amps and cut the wait roughly in half. Most scooters make you pay extra for a second charger. Here it is just in the box.

A few build notes from our measurements. YUME lists it at 102 lb; our industrial scale said 101.65 lb, so it is honest, but there is no getting around it, this is a heavy scooter. The handlebars are very wide at 29 inches and adjustable up and down. The deck is 22.5 inches, or 29 with the very comfortable kicktail, and the wheelbase is a long 42 inches, which is a big part of why it feels so stable. It uses a half-twist throttle. We would have preferred a thumb throttle, but you get used to it quickly. The suspension is soft enough that a heavier rider can one-foot bottom it out, so it is tuned for city riding rather than jumps.

Two things did bug us. First, the settings reset every time you power on: the speed mode and the dual-drive mode both go back to default, so you click through a few buttons at the start of every ride. Second, the scooter uses an NFC key to turn on and off, and there is no PIN pad to fall back on. Lose the key and you are stuck, though there is a physical backup key under the deck that gets you into a limited limp-home mode.

Off the line

Acceleration

We ran the acceleration test in turbo mode with dual drive on, over a completely flat eighth-mile. It is freaky how fast this thing pulls, and it stays stable while it does it. Here are our best numbers:

Flat out

Top speed

YUME quotes 40 mph, but that is conservative. On our top-speed run the dash climbed to 49, then 50, then 52, and the scooter will hit 53 mph without much drama. That is genuinely fast for the category, and it is one of the very few scooters at this price that can actually do it. Just as important, it stays composed up there, which brings us to the next test.

In the corners

Handling and low-speed balance

After putting real miles on it, the carve is the part that won us over. The geometry and the tires let you lean at a sharp angle and just hold it there. On this scooter, leaning hard feels effortless, almost like it wants to keep leaning harder. It takes a little getting used to, once you are in a deep lean you have to pull the handlebar back, but once it clicks, turning is excellent, especially at roundabouts where you can stand up straight, tip the scooter over, and let it hold the arc.

The peculiar lean geometry also makes it shockingly good at low speed. We made a full U-turn inside about half the width of a sidewalk without stepping off. If you ride crowded areas and need to dodge pedestrians at a crawl, the Raptor 2 stays balanced without dropping out of dual drive or turbo. That mix of high-speed stability and low-speed balance is rare, and it is a big reason this scooter is more usable than its size suggests.

The tire that matters

Off-road vs street tires: pick right

This is the most important thing in the whole review, so do not skip it. YUME offers the Raptor 2 with two tire options: knobby off-road tires and slick street tires. We rode both, and the difference is night and day.

The knobby tires carry a bit of vibration. The slicks are the polar opposite. We have rarely felt a scooter this smooth at speed. Free-spinning close to 60 mph the wheels showed almost no vibration, and out on real rides at 40-plus mph it is buttery smooth, zero vibration, zero wobbles, all the way up to 46 or 47 mph. Paired with the soft suspension and the built-in steering damper, cruising at 40 feels like child’s play. If most of your commute is on city streets, get the slicks and you will thank us later. Getting the right tire for the ride matters more than almost any spec on the sheet.

Uphill, no drama

Hill climb

Our test hill is short but aggressive, the kind of grade that bogs most scooters down. The Raptor 2 saw no slowdown at all. It pulled from 24 to 25 to 30, then 34, 36, 37 mph and was still climbing when we reached the top. For a dual-motor hyper scooter, that is exactly what you want: the hill simply does not register.

Stopping power

Brakes

The Raptor 2 runs two-piston hydraulic disc brakes on 160 mm rotors. We do our deceleration test from 15 mph to a dead stop. Once the pads were bedded in, our best stop was 0.88 seconds in 10.81 feet, with repeat runs around 1.01 seconds and 11.81 feet. Call it roughly 1.1 to 1.2 seconds from 15 mph to zero. That is a very impressive, confident stop, and it is more than enough for everyday riding and even spirited riding on a scooter this fast.

Going the distance

Real-world range

This is the number that sells the Raptor 2. We ran it down to nothing on a real loop: a 210 lb rider, a cool 50 to 60 degree day with basically no wind, about 400 feet of elevation change, and a hard pace of 35 to 40 mph the whole way, basically keeping up with suburban traffic. The battery has six bars, and early on the math looked wildly optimistic. By the end we called it at 29.1 miles when the scooter was just crawling.

Getting 29 miles while riding 35 to 40 mph the entire time is really good, and it comes from a 30Ah battery on a $1,500 scooter. Most scooters in this speed range last about 20 miles or less. If you ride a little slower, use single-wheel drive, or weigh less than our tester, 40 to 50 miles of range is realistic. One more note: we ran a low-battery acceleration test at 50.4 volts with only two bars left, and it was still punchy, pulling from a standstill up to 40 mph. The Raptor 2 does not turn into a scooter-shaped brick as the pack drains.

The balance sheet

Pros and cons

Decision guide

Who should buy the YUME Raptor 2?

Final word

RiderGuide verdict

So after all the testing, is the YUME Raptor 2 actually worth it? For us, yes.

It really stands out in range, acceleration, and turning. The Raptor 2 goes up to 53 mph easily, and it is one of the few scooters in this price range that can actually do it. On top of that you get app control, four front headlights, a super comfortable kicktail, adjustable handlebar height, backup-key ignition, and a full-color LCD display, plus very good low-speed balance and powerful, snappy hydraulic brakes.

It is not perfect. The suspension is soft enough to bottom out, the settings reset every time you turn it on, and at 101.65 lb it is a beast to carry. But none of that changes the core story: what you get for $1,500 is pretty darn good.

Bottom line: if you want the most speed, range, and features per dollar and you mostly ride the street, the Raptor 2 is one of the easiest budget hyper scooters to recommend right now.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

Ride safe

The Raptor 2 is capable of over 50 mph. Always wear a DOT-rated helmet (we ride in a full-face), use appropriate protective gear, follow your local traffic laws, and never ride beyond your abilities.

Affiliate disclosure

YUME sent us this scooter free of charge and this is a sponsored review, but our testing data and opinions remain 100% honest and our own. This post contains affiliate links, meaning we may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.