Australian Vectrix Questions
Anyone bought tyres for their Vectrix in Melbourne? Need a rear at 12,000km. No idea where to go. I assume removing the wheel is quite different to a normal scooter, so someone who's already had the experience would be nice.
Hi Aircon
The Pirelli tyres are quite available, I just asked my local bike shop and Juppy had them in within a week. Your tyre lasted well, I usually get about 6000km from a back tyre.
To remove the back tyre/rim:
1. Before you lift the bike, crack the 13mm nuts around the hub on the brake-disk side(RHS) of the back wheel.
2. If you don't have a centre-stand, jack up the bike with a car jack and then use a sturdy full-width block to rest the bottom of the bike on, as close to the back wheel as possible. You may need someone else to help balance the bike as you jack up and chock the bike.
3. Remove the two bolts and lift the brake calliper away.
4. Undo and remove the bolt at the bottom of the RHS shockie.
5. Remove the chrome plastic cover at the axle. 3mm? Allen key required for grub screw below and to the right of the cap.
6. You will need a large socket (30mm) to remove the nut on the RHS of the axle. Remove the spring and flat washer behind the big nut.
7. Undo the four 13mm nylock nuts and washers which hold the RHS of the swing arm on.
8. You should be able to swing the shockie and brake calliper away to enable the removal of the RHS of the swing arm. You will find a small saddle which retains the brake line to the swing arm, leave this on, the whole lot will hang no problem.
9. Fully undo the nuts which retain the wheel rim onto the hub. Make sure you mark the position of the rim to keep balancing as good as it can be.
10. You should be able to move the rim/tyre out from the bike now.
Reverse the process to put the bike back together.
Cheers
step 6 is 27mm nut on my bike.
I happened to remove the wheel yesterday for a tyre change :-)
when you put it back together please note 2 things:
1) its all aluminium so use a torque wrench!
2) the wheel nuts need to go on with the round side first. dont mix them with the nuts of the swingarm!
before step 1 remove the 2 (gray) plastic covers which cover up to the swingarm. it is only 2 screws and it makes it much easier to jack up the bike and work on it.
Aircon, are micheli Tyres avaiable?
I use
front: Michelin gold standard (discontinued), 26.000 km on it.
Rear: Michelin City Grip, 11.000km on it.
http://www.michelin.es/moto/michelin-city-grip
I have two Vs, one has Michelins and one has Pirellis.
The one with Pirelli's rolls into corners like a fighter jet comapred with the one with the Michelins, but the Michelins last a lot longer.
I would be very carefull letting a Bike shop near it.
I did it once and when I had to take the the back wheel off a few weeks later all the fasteners were torqued up way too tight(rattle gun I suspect)..
So I just take the wheel in now days, get them to fit the tyre and balance it, and refit it myself.
Once you get the big socket to fit the rear axle, its easy and its a good time to give the area a good clean.
Question is, why is every charge resulting in a lower and lower final voltage, which doesn't 'reset' until it's ridden to red light? After that, all is normal again....until next time.
I think it is due to under-estimation of the self-discharge-rate.
Question is, why is every charge resulting in a lower and lower final voltage, which doesn't 'reset' until it's ridden to red light? After that, all is normal again....until next time.
I think it is due to under-estimation of the self-discharge-rate.
The Laird's firmware fixes that
btw - I'm renting out my usb-CAN adapter for $10/week plus postage to Australian customers
on another note,
I've used Pirelli's for every one of my 4 rear changes and 3 front changes.
My normal bike tyre place were happy enough to fit them.
I think there is a video on youtube showing mostly how its done
Matt
Hi Aircon
Juppy is the proprietor of my local bike shop.
My bad, 27mm it is.
Cheers
Why can't it just charge until the battery reaches whatever its full charge voltage is, or 30ah, whichever comes first? Why add all the other variables?
That's what it does, and thats the problem.
The charger puts back in what came out when you were riding plus some to account for self discharge, unless pack voltage reaches target before then (which sets the fuel guage to full) or the pack temperature goes too high.
The problem is, the extra bit of charge put in to cover the self discharge, isn't enough.
With the official Vectrix firmware, you can't use voltage as a reliable fully charged indicator as the charge rate is too high.
The Laird's version of firm can and does though, which is one of the reasons so many use it.
Matt
Yes, sometimes it is simply necessary to get your hands dirty and DO it in order to loose the fear of fiddling with your ride :-)
Hi, I'm not a Vectrix owner but I do like the look of the bike. I'm new to motorbikes, I have an Erider 8000w in Canberra, I currently have 7000km and both tires look fine. Paul above said he usually gets 6000km out of a rear tire?
Sorry to be a pain, but could you upload a photo of the *old* tire tread so I can compare, because my tire treads still look and feel pretty deep and I just have cheap no-name chinese tires. I've never had a road registered bike before and thought tires would last 50,000km like a car tire? Whoops. I guess not.
E-Rider has a new outlet in Victoria st North Melbourne.....there's a new model coming out at the end of the month. I'm going to check it out and either buy one OR do a Li conversion. I'm down to a range of just under 40km now.
Would that new model be THIS one?

Ah, so nothing really new, just the Thunder, in pdt spec. They have been advertising Thunder for years already, so "new" is pretty relative in this case...
They certainly claimed it was all new. American design/made. Not chinese like the previous versions. Proper BMS and based on a Sachs chassis or something.
Time will tell.
Oh my - American-made... Let me guess: Sachs rear dampers is what it will be. But Sachs is a German company. PDT is a company from Israel, not the US.
ABOUT THE COMPANY
Plug in Drive Tech was founded in 2009 by Tzahi Ziv who set out to develop affordable quality electric vehicles with the latest technology.Tzahi Ziv
Managing Partner and Chief Operations & Service Officer Owner of DZ Systems and IFI Motors since 1988, the largest franchise of electric vehicles in Israel.
Yes, time will tell...
Also, can someone please tell me if this is the charger than can be programmed with the laird's software or not?
yes that's the one that can be re-programmed
Anyway, many thanks again to LithiumVectrix and The Laird, because between the two of them, they've give my scooter a 140km range and still plug and play charging
140km!! Really?!
My eRider 8kw scooter now has 9750km and both tires still look and feel brand new. Over 8mm of tread easily. Still capable of 60km flat out and 80km "eco" driving. My CHL batteries are going great! 72v 50Ah (24 cells). Last range test showed 50.98Ah so that's still 102% capacity after 9000km+. That was BMS shutdown 2.5v though.
I think I would need around 72v 100Ah to get 140km. You said you got 60Ah cells. How many cells did you stuff inside that bike! I'd love to see some photo's :)







Thanks for the tips guys. I found this from Oobs...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1ID3qUTYBU
Paul, What is Juppys?