I thought that you may be interested to know that I've just come sailing out of a wee problem with my new Vectrix with a smile on my face - even after the motor controller went pop on me after the first 600 miles. Symptoms were a) nasty PCB burning smell when charging or driving, b) reduced acceleration, c) strange range readings and finally d) spanner symbol illuminating and then rolling gently to a full stop at the edge of the road half way from home...
I'm pleased to say though that those clever people at Vectrix have designed some robustness into the bike. I switched it off, waited ten minutes for it to cool down (after I had convinced myself it wasn't on fire!) and then limped it home gently. Burning smells-a-plenty it still got me home. I let it cool again and then put it on charge later that evening. The following morning I limped it into work (20miles). One call to Vectrix UK and I had a replacement (loan) bike delivered the same day. That is impressive.
My point?
I'm an experienced engineer and hence I understand that any product may have early failures - what I am pleased to say however is how Vectrix UK went about dealing with my fault when it occurred. All to often you hear about people's bad experiences - well, I just wanted to say that they had my bike fixed and returned to me within a week. Full marks to Vectrix UK for support and service. They kept me up-to-date with progress and were very happy to help.
The problem was traced to one of the motor controller's output phase nuts not being torqued-up correctly at the factory. You don't need a lot of resistance to creep in at one of those terminals to create a heating effect - and when the terminal is carrying lots of amps at 125-150v, a few loose watts means it gets hot quite quickly...
I like the whole 'I have a solution' approach rather than 'I have a problem'. This is the way I think and try to work. Vectrix UK seem to be the same. I've had a good experience out of what could have been a bad one. My thanks goes to the team at Vectrix UK.
I've covered another 400 miles since then just to make sure that the bike is ok - I thought that was wise before I started telling my story, just in case!
It hasn't missed a beat since then - 1000 miles in total now and counting...
That's very conforting news, a loan bike delivered the same day!
I do wish however that they delivered newly bought bikes at a similar speed.
;-)
Maybe you should ask for a loaner while you're waiting on your already paid for new bike to arrive? :-)
I agree. The customer support is very good. When my battery fan wasn't working, they sent an engineer from Poland to fix my issue. No dealer and repair shop is currently in my country and I'm glad I didn't have to tow my bike 350km away to Verona or to Vienna.
That's a very good idea, I just hope I'm not going to be laughed at in the face (over the phone).
Will be ringing "the" number again tomorrow...... and at the same time prepare a few wax dolls and pins... LOL
No, no, the real reason for the burning motor controller contacts is this:
http://visforvoltage.org/forum/3462-vectrix-warranty-voided
But jokes aside, this seems to be a relatively common problem, caused by over-tightening the connectors from the IGBT to the motor. This squishes the PCB flat and cracks the connection between the copper plate and the copper sleeve through the board. The 2.5 - 3.5Nm can be exceeded easily by careless technicians.
But the smouldering problem can be fixed relatively easily by removal of the offending part of the PCB.
Once the warranty period is over, the fix described here will be a real money saver for quite a few Vectrix riders!
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!