VX-1 Stock Battery Replacement

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Thu, 04/19/2012 - 19:58

tallgirl

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Greets,

I think the batteries in my VX-1 have finally croaked. They were a victim of some bad firmware a year or two back and haven't been the same since. I considered making a warranty claim, before the deadline, but the batteries weren't dead yet and I thought for sure there'd be new firmware to prevent the batteries from over-heating. But alas, didn't happen, batteries died anyway.

Now I'm thinking about replacing the battery pack with a STOCK NiMH battery pack. I'd love to have all the spare time some of you guys have to replace the pack with Li-chemistry batteries, but I'm done messing around with such things.

So, on to the questions.

Does anyone know the =actual= cost of replacing the battery pack with a stock battery pack? And does the current (whatever level it is ...) firmware treat the batteries with respect, or is it still screwy?

Fri, 04/20/2012 - 03:40

antiscab

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Re: VX-1 Stock Battery Replacement

If you can't find a replacement nimh battery, I suggest shunting out the worst cells in your present battery

ride to red battery light

pull the battery apart, and shunt out any cell that is bulged or measures 0v, when you put a load on it (like a 12v car headlight across an 8 or 9 cell block)

I highly recommend loading The Laird's firmware

Matt

Fri, 04/20/2012 - 04:52

CO2

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Re: VX-1 Stock Battery Replacement

I agree!

Sun, 04/22/2012 - 07:39

tallgirl

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Re: VX-1 Stock Battery Replacement

I should be able to purchase new individual cells or packs of cells direct from the manufacturer of the batteries, but what I'm looking to do is purchase an entire STOCK REPLACEMENT pack.

As I wrote, I'm not interested in spending a bunch of my time screwing around with the bike. I'd rather just pay someone to do all the screwing around using STOCK REPLACEMENT parts. I work with batteries of various chemistries and sizes all the time. I have better things to do with my life than fiddle with my motorcycle's batteries!

Or is it the case that there are no stock battery packs available?

Sat, 05/05/2012 - 15:34

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Re: VX-1 Stock Battery Replacement

Or is it the case that there are no stock battery packs available?

You can buy a battery replacement from vectrix. Ask the price, and tell us if you are going to buy the replacement.

Sun, 05/06/2012 - 19:39

tallgirl

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Re: VX-1 Stock Battery Replacement

Tell me what the warranty is on either doing it myself or getting some shade tree mechanic to do it.

I'm able to buy the batteries direct from the manufacturer, so it isn't like I can't buy them. I'm just at a point in my life where I'd rather screw around with things less.

Sat, 03/30/2013 - 22:14

tallgirl

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Re: VX-1 Stock Battery Replacement

I contacted the local dealer (Alien Scooters) last year for a quote -- it was $6,000. I tried getting an answer out of Vectix to find out if there was a less expensive "correct" price -- no response.

At this point, I think I'm going to throw in the towel. The battery voltage has now fallen too low to get the charger to recharge the batteries. I can't get straight answers about pricing or anything from the manufacturer. There are a lot of people who don't work for Vectrix doing interesting things, but I have better things to do with my life than work on the bike. Time to move on.

Fri, 04/12/2013 - 05:36

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Re: VX-1 Stock Battery Replacement

Tallgirl, I'm sorry for this misleading situation.
The should sell battery replacements at cost, like Govecs.
It's not fair to spend 6000 Dollars every 15.000-25.000km to keep going a Nimh vectrix.

Fri, 04/12/2013 - 06:32

tallgirl

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Re: VX-1 Stock Battery Replacement

I wouldn't have a problem with making a reasonable profit, but the cells are priced at around $36 in small quantities.

Apparently the price was for a full, complete, total, etc. assembly. I'm all for replacing broken parts, but for many of these packs there are only a few dead cells before the bike becomes unrideable. Spending $6,000 to replace 5 or 10 bad cells isn't just excessive, it's wasteful of the batteries that didn't go bad.