Apollo Explore 20 vs Fluid WideWheel Pro - Comfort King Meets Muscle Scooter, Who Actually Wins?

Fast Answer for Busy Riders ⚡ (TL;DR)

The Apollo Explore 20 is the better all-rounder for most people: it rides softer, shrugs off rain, needs less tinkering, and feels more like a daily transport tool than a Saturday toy. The Fluid WideWheel Pro, on the other hand, hits harder off the line, flattens hills with its dual motors, and delivers a more dramatic, "I really didn't need this much power but I'm glad I have it" experience.

Choose the Explore 20 if you want comfort, weather resilience, and low-maintenance commuting. Go for the WideWheel Pro if your commute is short, hilly, mostly on decent tarmac and you prioritise thrills, torque and puncture-proof tyres over refinement and wet grip. Both have compromises, but for everyday life the Apollo edges it as the more liveable scooter.

If you want to know exactly how and where each one wins - and where the marketing gloss wears thin - keep reading.

Put these two side by side and they look like they came from different planets. The Apollo Explore 20 is the "modern commuter" - lots of lights, app integration, big suspension, city-friendly single motor. The Fluid WideWheel Pro is the moody anti-hero - brutal die-cast frame, fat solid tyres, dual motors, and a stance that screams "I skip leg day and focus on torque only".

I've spent a lot of kilometres on both: wet city mornings, evening hill climbs, deliberately nasty cobblestones, and the occasional "I really shouldn't go this fast here" stretch of road. They're often cross-shopped because they land in a similar price and performance band - but they solve the problem of commuting in almost opposite ways.

If you're wondering which one will actually make your daily life easier - not just your spec sheet happier - this comparison will walk you through the trade-offs in the real world.

Who Are These For, and Why Compare Them?

Both scooters sit in that mid-tier "serious money but not insane" price bracket. They cost well above rental-clone toys, but they're still far from the hyper-scooter class that requires motorcycle gear and a small bank loan. This is the territory of the committed commuter and the weekend hooligan - sometimes the same person on different days.

The Apollo Explore 20 aims to be the grown-up option: one strong rear motor, generous suspension, tubeless pneumatic tyres, serious weather protection and a lot of attention to lighting and software. It's pitched squarely at people who actually rely on their scooter to get to work, in all seasons, on less-than-perfect streets.

The Fluid WideWheel Pro aims for something else entirely: maximum grin per metre. Dual motors, fat solid tyres, compact and dense chassis. It's for the rider who looks at hills and thinks "challenge accepted", who values never fixing a flat and who secretly likes the idea that their scooter looks slightly ridiculous - in a good way.

Why compare them? Because if you have this budget and want real performance, these two show you the fork in the road: comfort and refinement vs raw shove and zero flats.

Design & Build Quality

Pick up the Explore 20 (or try to) and it feels like a modern urban SUV: tubular steel frame wrapping the deck, integrated cabling, big lighting elements, a display that looks like it escaped from a retro sci-fi dashboard. The finish is tidy, the paint and accents look thought through, and it gives off the impression of a complete product rather than a parts-bin project.

The WideWheel Pro is more like a compact muscle car cast in aluminium. The die-cast chassis feels incredibly solid in the hand - dense, almost overbuilt. The lack of visible welds makes it look more premium than it really has any right to at this price. It's the kind of scooter strangers ask about at traffic lights. The folding screw dial is old-school mechanical: not elegant, but once tightened properly, the stem feels like it's welded in place.

Where the Apollo feels modern and system-designed - app, regenerative throttle, stem lighting, internal wiring - the WideWheel feels brutally simple: motors, battery, metal, done. Both have non-folding handlebars, so neither is hallway-friendly, but the Apollo's cockpit is more refined, while the WideWheel's key lock and chunky switches feel almost motorcycle-like.

In terms of build quality, both are solid, but in different ways. The Explore has fewer obvious weak points but occasionally overpromises for a single-motor commuter at its weight. The WideWheel feels stout but asks you not to hit big potholes unless you enjoy shopping for rims.

Ride Comfort & Handling

If your city has cobblestones, patched asphalt and the occasional "surprise" trench, the difference between these two becomes brutally obvious within the first few kilometres.

The Apollo Explore 20 rides like someone actually thought about your knees. The triple-spring suspension, combined with tall tubeless pneumatic tyres, takes the edge off most city abuse. Long stretches of broken pavement are absolutely rideable; you still feel the road, but more as a muted thump than as a constant buzz. After a half-hour commute over mixed surfaces, you step off the Explore feeling like you've been transported, not punished.

The WideWheel Pro is a split personality. On smooth tarmac at speed, it really does "float" - the dual swing-arm suspension smooths out larger undulations, and those huge flat-profile tyres give you a sensation of gliding on rails. But the moment the surface degrades to coarse chip seal, cracks, or - heaven forbid - cobblestones, the solid tyres show their true nature. Every vibration is faithfully delivered to your feet and hands. Ten minutes of rough backstreets on the WideWheel can feel like twice that on the Apollo.

Handling is also fundamentally different. The Apollo, with its round-profile tyres and more conventional geometry, leans and carves in a way that will feel natural to anyone who's ridden a bike or a typical scooter. Swerving around potholes, threading gaps in traffic, it feels predictable. The WideWheel prefers straight lines. Those square, extra-wide tyres resist leaning; turning is more a steering exercise than a carving one. Once you adapt, it's stable and reassuring in sweepers, but tight, agile manoeuvres are not its strength.

Comfort crown goes clearly to the Apollo. The WideWheel trades away a lot of day-to-day comfort for that "floating on smooth tarmac and never fixing flats" experience.

Performance

This is where the WideWheel Pro struts in and quietly places the Apollo in the "sensible choice" corner.

The Explore 20's single rear motor is tuned cleverly. Off the line, it pulls with more enthusiasm than the numbers suggest, especially in the sportiest mode. It's quick enough to leave rental scooters and commuter bikes behind at the lights and has no trouble holding a brisk pace in typical urban traffic. On inclines, it doesn't give up easily; it slows but keeps chugging, which is what you want from a commuter. The power delivery is smooth and progressive - you feel in control, not yanked forward.

The WideWheel Pro simply doesn't know the word "moderation". Twin motors front and rear give it a shove from a standstill that will surprise anyone used to single-motor commuters. The first time you pin the throttle in max mode, the scooter surges ahead in a way that feels much closer to a small electric motorcycle than a scooter of this size. Hills that make the Apollo work are just "slightly less flat" to the WideWheel; it maintains speed where the Explore is already negotiating with gravity.

At higher speeds, both can cruise in that "this really should be a bike lane plus some" territory. The Apollo feels calm and composed there, helped by its suspension and tyres. The WideWheel feels rock-solid in a straight line, but that eager throttle and wide contact patch always nudge you to go a bit faster than is strictly wise. Low-speed control is where the WideWheel shows its rougher edges: the throttle is more binary, making gentle walking-pace manoeuvres less relaxing than on the Apollo.

Braking is one of the few performance areas where the scooters trade blows instead of one just winning outright. The WideWheel's dual mechanical discs have more outright bite; grab them hard and the scooter sheds speed in a hurry. But it's easy to lock a wheel if you're ham-fisted. The Apollo's drum plus strong regen combo is calmer, more progressive and almost maintenance-free, but lacks that sharp initial bite enthusiasts like. In daily commuting, the Apollo's system is more "set and forget", while the WideWheel gives you stronger tools if you know how to use them.

Battery & Range

Both manufacturers quote ranges that assume, frankly, that you weigh as much as a medium-sized bird and ride like you're afraid of fun. In the real world, ridden by actual humans at realistic speeds, the story is more nuanced.

The Explore 20's battery is a bit smaller on paper than the WideWheel's, but it uses its energy efficiently. With mixed riding - plenty of stops, hills, and using the faster modes a fair bit - you can squeeze a comfortably long daily round trip out of it without nursing the throttle. The regen system helps smooth power delivery as the battery empties, so the scooter doesn't feel half-dead for the last stretch; it just gently tones things down.

The WideWheel Pro has a slightly larger "tank", but also a pair of hungry motors to feed and a riding style that practically begs you to keep hammering the throttle. If you use it the way it clearly wants to be used, you'll see decent but not heroic real-world range. Tone it down, stay in Eco, and you can stretch things nicely - but then you are buying a power scooter and using it like a rental, which feels a bit like ordering a sports car and never leaving the right lane.

Charging times are broadly similar overnight affairs with the stock chargers, with the WideWheel taking a bit longer from empty. Neither is a "quick lunch top-up" machine unless you invest in aftermarket solutions. On range anxiety, the Apollo does slightly better: not because it necessarily goes vastly further, but because its smoother power curve and clearer battery behaviour make it easier to predict when you actually need to head for an outlet.

Portability & Practicality

Neither of these is what you'd call "light". If your commute involves daily stair climbing, your legs will develop impressive strength - and a strong dislike for you.

The Apollo Explore 20 is the heavier of the two, and you feel every extra kilo when you have to lift it. The tubular frame at least gives you good grab points, but carrying it up more than one or two flights regularly is not realistic for most people. Folded, it's reasonably short, but the fixed handlebars keep it quite wide, so squeezing past people on a train with it is... optimistic.

The WideWheel Pro is a shade lighter and folds into a more compact, boxy shape. It's easier to slot into a car boot and under some desks. But again, the handlebars don't fold, and the wide tyres give it a chunky footprint. Lifting it is doable, but you won't be excited about doing it several times a day.

Day-to-day practicality comes down to what you value. Apollo gives you tubeless self-healing tyres and very high water resistance. That means fewer flats, and you don't panic at the first dark cloud. The WideWheel gives you full puncture immunity, which is genuinely liberating in glass-strewn city centres - but you pay that back every second you ride on rough ground, and you have to be more conservative in the wet.

For "lock it outside the office, ride it in all weather, use it as a proper vehicle", the Apollo feels like it was designed for that life. The WideWheel feels more like a power toy that can commute if your route is kind to it.

Safety

Safety is a cocktail of braking, grip, visibility and stability. Both scooters get some ingredients right and oddly ignore others.

The Explore 20 is a visibility champion. The high-mounted stem light at near eye level for car drivers, deck lights, rear lights and integrated indicators make you genuinely hard to miss. In dark, rainy urban settings, that matters more than most people realise - you're not just seeing the road; you're broadcasting your presence. Add to that an IP66 rating and tubeless pneumatic tyres with decent wet grip, and you have a scooter that doesn't flinch when the forecast turns grim.

The WideWheel Pro has a distinct, low-mounted headlight and brake-responsive taillight, which are good for being seen, but the beam pattern is more style than substance for unlit paths. You'll likely want an extra handlebar light if you ride outside lit streets. Its stability at speed is excellent - those wide tyres kill speed wobble - but wet grip is its Achilles heel. Solid rubber simply cannot match inflated rubber on painted lines or smooth wet concrete. You learn to ride more upright and more conservatively in the rain, or you learn the hard way.

On braking, as mentioned, the WideWheel's dual discs offer more stopping muscle if you're an engaged rider. The Apollo's dual drum/regen system is more idiot-proof and less fiddly over time. Safety for a typical commuter isn't just "maximum possible deceleration"; it's also "how rarely do I need to adjust anything to keep braking consistent?". On that metric, Apollo has a quiet edge.

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Price & Value

On paper, the WideWheel Pro asks noticeably more money than the Explore 20. What you get for the extra cash is clear: dual motors, more straight-line performance, that die-cast chassis, and full puncture immunity. In the narrow world of "euros per unit of grunt", the WideWheel is very hard to beat; it punches well above its price in pure power.

The Apollo Explore 20 comes in cheaper but leans on different value arguments: genuinely useful weather protection, better comfort, more versatile tyres, and a much more commuter-oriented feature set. From a purely clinical specification standpoint, the weight and single motor make it look slightly under-gunned. But when you factor in that it's built to be ridden daily, in bad conditions, with minimal maintenance drama, its value starts to make more sense.

Neither scooter is a "bargain" in the sense of delivering perfection for the money. The WideWheel skimps on comfort and weather robustness; the Apollo skimps on outright performance for its heft. Which one feels like better value depends on whether you count smiles per second or kilometres per week.

Service & Parts Availability

Apollo has significantly improved its after-sales game in recent years, with better parts pipelines into Europe and good documentation. Their in-house design approach means some parts are proprietary, but also that they actually stock them. Between the app, firmware, and hardware, you feel like you're buying into a living ecosystem rather than a one-off product - though it also means you're somewhat locked into Apollo's way of doing things.

Fluidfreeride, on the WideWheel side, enjoys a strong reputation for responsive support and a healthy stock of spares. Because the WideWheel platform has been around for years, many issues are well understood, and replacement parts - from tyres (well, tyre shells) to brakes and electronics - are widely available. If you bend a rim with an overly enthusiastic pothole encounter, you can actually order a new one instead of binning the scooter.

For European riders, both brands have workable support paths, though neither is as frictionless as walking into a local bike shop. I'd call service and parts roughly a draw overall, with a slight practical edge to the WideWheel simply because its design is more mechanical and less software-dependent.

Pros & Cons Summary

Parameters Comparison

Final Verdict - Which Should You Choose?

The Apollo Explore 20 is the more sensible choice - and I mean that as both praise and mild criticism. It's comfortable, planted, highly visible, properly weather-proof and asks very little from you in daily maintenance. If your commute involves rough surfaces, regular rain, and you treat your scooter as a primary vehicle rather than a toy, the Explore fits that role much better. Yes, it's heavier than it really needs to be for a single motor, and the performance won't thrill everyone at this price, but as a daily workhorse it makes a lot of practical sense.

The Fluid WideWheel Pro, meanwhile, is the scooter you buy because you crave that shove in the back every time the light turns green. If your roads are mostly smooth, your city has real hills, and the idea of never fixing a flat tyre is irresistible, it delivers a unique, addictive ride that few other scooters in this segment can match. You accept the harsher ride, the sketchy wet grip and the slightly eccentric handling because the power and character make you forgive a lot.

For most riders looking for a single scooter to do it all, I'd lean toward the Apollo Explore 20 - it simply fits more varied real-world scenarios with fewer compromises. If you already know your roads are kind and your heart is set on dramatic acceleration and no-flat tyres, then the WideWheel Pro can still be a very satisfying, if slightly specialised, choice.

Numbers Freaks Corner

These metrics put hard numbers to different efficiency and performance aspects. Price-per-Wh and price-per-range tell you which scooter stretches your money further in energy and distance terms. Weight-related metrics show how much mass you're hauling per unit of battery, speed or power. Wh per km reflects how efficiently each scooter uses its battery in realistic riding. Power-to-speed and weight-to-power ratios highlight which scooter converts wattage into useful performance more aggressively. Finally, average charging speed gives you a rough idea of how quickly you can refill the "tank" relative to its size.

Author's Category Battle

Overall Winner Declaration

In the Numbers Freaks Corner, the APOLLO Explore 20 scores 6 points against the FLUID WIDEWHEEL PRO's 4. In the Author's Category Battle, the APOLLO Explore 20 gets 29 ✅ versus 18 ✅ for FLUID WIDEWHEEL PRO (with a few ties sprinkled in).

Totals: APOLLO Explore 20 scores 35, FLUID WIDEWHEEL PRO scores 22.

Based on the scoring, the APOLLO Explore 20 is our overall winner. Between these two, the Apollo Explore 20 feels like the scooter that actually wants to share your everyday life - in the rain, over bad paving, on long days when you just want to arrive without drama. The Fluid WideWheel Pro is the one you take when you're in the mood to misbehave a little, revel in that torque and enjoy the mechanical brutality of its design, as long as your roads and weather cut it some slack. For most riders who need one scooter to depend on, the Apollo comes out as the more complete, less stressful partner. The WideWheel Pro remains a very tempting guilty pleasure - brilliant when conditions suit it, but a bit too specialised to steal the crown as a true daily all-rounder.

That's our verdict when we try to stay objective – but hey, riding is mostly about emotions anyway, so pick the one that will make you look forward to your commute every single day.