New to me. "Lotaphones" on eBay was putting up one XB-600 per day. I "won" one, and it arrived last Friday.
Packing whas light, but the trip from China must have been calm. There was some "foxing" on the edges of the "crate":
but nothing that had penetrated the second inner box:
Inside, the packing was, um, "casual." I can see how a scoot that was less fortunate could get damaged in shipping. Putting a block of styrofoam across the saddle would have been so easy...
In the event, the only shipping (or factory) damage was a crack in the floorboard:
Setup was easy. With all the "Won't go up hills" talk on the board, my expectations were low, but we were pleasantly surprised. It will be everything we need. Here's an "EV Grin":
On looking at the drive, I saw that the controller had been bolted down hard against the drive chain:
That was pretty easy to fix. There was another problem. The drive chain was bar-taught. On removing the rear wheel, the outer slotted washer was bent, without a buffering washer. The swing arm slot was hand cut with an angle grinder, but they hadn't ground the slot deep enough. All that was cleaned up easily enough.
I've had good luck with series / parallel pack, so I switched it over to my preferred system, partly because I suspected the charger's float level; 54.8 / 4 is 13.7V. It'll probably drop back after further time, though :
The new wiring came out fairly neat:
And I'll be able to monitor the batteries as I've done for the last couple of years on "Hummer," the old YonKang Crown.
AH, on to the next turn of the cards...
First riding impression:
Better speed than "Hummer."
Speed control is less proportional than I expected. In addition to the much lamented maximum speed, there is a minimum speed as well. This makes inching forward a matter of small lurches rather than the smooth creep I enjoyed on the old scoot. Walking the scoot uphill requires steady small pulses.
There is an incipient shimmy as well. I'll recheck the steering head bearings.
I know the photo of you riding your new scooter was "staged". however, shoes, gloves, helmet and eye protection is highly recommended if not required by local statute/ordinance.
Ben - Modesto
I received my own new XB-600 last week, and I'm extremely pleased with it. It arrived in excellent condition, with a very minor scrape on one side of the bolt-on storage container. One small spacer was missing on the front axle, which was sent within a couple of days. I also needed to reposition the front fender (rotate it backward about a quarter inch) and redrill two top mounting holes in the fender so the fender wouldn't rest on the front tire. I use the bike to commute to work 3 miles each way, because I can no longer pedal my bicycle up hills because of my knees. I live and work on opposite sides of a river, and the XB-600 has been fine going up the moderate hills on each side of the river. Yes, it slows down somewhat, but not a lot. I bought extra tubes, tires and an extra controller at the same time I bought the bike. I still may try the "shunt mod" on the extra controller to see what the difference is, but the bike exceeds my expectations right out of the box. In addition to commuting, I love just riding it around town to relax! My wife loves it as well, and my coworkers and people who see it on the street are also very impressed with it as a low-powered bike with lots of "high end" features. Admittedly, it's not for everyone, but for short commutes and errands around town (or just for pleasure riding in the neighborhood), it seems to be a great bike for the price. Cheaper than the last round of repairs on my Honda Accord. Obviously, people should take care of the bike and ride it gently, and learning how to repair and maintain it through this forum will be essential unless you have a "fix-it" person you know. But the mechanics seem relatively simple, and the electronics seem to be a matter of looking for and testing the circuits for bad parts and swapping them out, if needed. Certainly, that's a heck of a lot easier than a person trying to do their own car repairs.
Buzzer
There are three kinds of people: Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.
You're right. I'd say "impromptu."
Well, there are some subtleties in EV's that are the precise opposite of IC's, but sticking around here will alert you to where those "gotcha's" are. (#1 on my list: battery balance) The XB-600's are pretty impressive for matching what they promise to what they deliver. It sounds like you have the sort of attitude that will lead to a happy owner.
At first, I had trouble with the "inching forward in small lurches" rather than a "smooth creep", but with a little practice and barely touching the "throttle", I was able to master the "smooth creep", even while walking the bike up a hill (from our back shed up to our driveway). As for shimmy, another possible cause is to make sure your tires are seated properly on the rims and are inflated to their correct pressure. To me, tires not seated properly or inflated properly is more of a "wump-wump-wump" feel, but other people describe it as a shimmy.
Buzzer
There are three kinds of people: Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.
Most likely any "shimmy" on an xb-600 is from a loose front fork assembly. Make sure all of the bolts on the wheel and fork are tight. The whole front fork in general is not all that sturdy and some "wobble" especially at low speeds is to be expected.
Dave ; Tennessee
XB-600.
I think you're closest to the mark on this. The design uses a single triple clamp rather than the upper and lower triple clamp practice on motorcycles, so the telescopic legs depend on the stiffness of the fairly small casting for rigidity.
I checked tire pressure before riding, and recently checked the tightness of the four 10mm machine screws that hold the legs in position. There is still enough "flex" in the system to lead to shimmy at times.
I'm not too worried at bicycle speeds, but I think I'd want more metal in the steering assembly before I tried it at 35 MPH!