ERider 8000W scooter - Australia (similar to xm5000li)

Hi all,

I have been busy riding my scooter and having fun. I have now passed 1,700km, that's now passed the 1,000 mile mark still without a problem.

The only thing I am not happy with is the lighting on this scooter, as you can all understand. So I have decided to upgrade from crummy 35w halogen bulbs to a street LEGAL HID system. To be legal in Australia, the HID must be housed in a projector lens and NOT the normal reflector. The projector gives better light spread and stops the spread from the HID and gives it a nice clean cutoff so you don't blind on-coming drivers.

With the stock head lights on these scooters, I ride on high beam all the time and still don't get flashed. Even high beam is too dull to ride safely.

To make this all happen I have bought a new 72v DC/DC Converter with a 300W to handle the high power demands. The HID lights draw 35w once ignited but they can draw up to 120W EACH for a period of 5 seconds during the igniting stage. By the looks of it, The standard DC/DC converter looks to be a non-isolated 150w model and I think it would burn out after a few attempts to ignite a HID.

Here is my replacement DC/DC converter.56-97v Input and 13.5V output, Isolated and regulated.

Here is a HID Bulb in the stock reflector and the average spread it produces. This is an ILLEGAL installation in Australia.

Here is a HID housed inside the Projector with lens. The whole thing is then mounted inside the reflector housing. This is what is required to be LEGAL in Australia.

So not only does the projector make it LEGAL, it actually gives a MUCH better spread of light with the sharp cutoff for low beam.

I have ordered my DC/DC converter and I am now in the process of measuring my scooter headlamp reflectors to decide which HID kit will fit. Once I get going, I will take photo's of my actual bike being converted.

Hi Meroller.

I found out tonight after pulling apart the bike that it actually has H4 sockets so I can install a normal H4 car bulb but at 55w/60w I'd need the bigger dc/dc anyway but I still think hid would be the way to go. I'm a litt,e worried if I put I. A 55w halogen it would melt the reflector.

Edit: yes I have tried adjusting the lights, but it's like moving a candle up and down, either way it's still only a candle.

Well after seeing the quality of the plastic reflectors I don't think H4 55/60w bulbs would be a good idea. I am committed to installing HID. I have been in contact with an eBay seller and found a kit that will fit (i hope) in the H4 socket so I can still adjust the light up/down with the screw.

Here are some photo's

Here is the headlight housing on my scooter....still loving the red :-)

This is the 2" HID Projector with lens with a H4 socket to plug directly into existing housing.

This shows the internal "shutter" that goes up and down to produce that low beam cut-off. So the bulb stay on at all times and only the shutter moves up or down via a relay.

Ok, so I have been able to find the perfect HID kit for my scooter but they only sell american low beam modules. They expect to have an Australian version around November 13th. Grrr. The waiting game... Ah well it will be worth the wait if it works.

I will be ordering a set of 4300k (white) HID's with a white angel eye (white ccfl circle around the HID for parking lights).

I've seen that my 300W DC/DC converter has been posted. This looks like a fun project to do on my Christmas holidays.

Hi Jason,

The relay is only activated for High beam to pull the shutter down. I don't understand how a light can be immoral? Is that something I quoted?

The HID stays turned on at all times and the shutter just blocks the top part of the beam to stop glare to oncoming traffic.

--

I bit the bullet today and replaced one of the headlight bulbs with a H4 headlight, a 60/55w halogen. I went for a test ride and now low beam is a lot better than before, I just need to aim it a bit higher, but high beam is still just as bad. So it looks like the reflectors are not designed that well. An interesting fact is that the stock DC/DC Converter is only supplying 11.1v to the headlight bulbs.

On the dark road in a 90 zone, I was still only comfortable going around 70km/h. It is an improvement over 60km/h with the original bulbs. I am hoping the HID bulbs will create enough light so I can ride safely and watch out for kangaroos because they are all over the place on the dark stretch of road.

The digital trip meter and odometer on the Thunder appear to read ever so slightly too little. Pcarlson, how is it with your digital odo / trip meter?

Hi all.

Ok so today I rode the the dentist and back home. I reset all trip meters and here is what I found.

Cycle Analyst: 9.544km
Digital Trip meter: 10.4km
Analogue Odometer: 9.4km

On another note. I got an email today saying my HID projector headlights have been made to meet Australian standards for low beam. They are being sent express so hopefully they will be here in 1 week. They are from "auto retrofitters". They are 2" projectors but small enough to fit inside the original headlight buckets. Hopefully. They surely will be brighter and better than the stock lights.

Today I hit 1990km without a problem. But the lightning bolt sticker has fallen off. But that's about it. I'm very happy with the bikes so far.

UH-OH!

1,997km and I may have just come across my first problem.

For the last week or so, starting the motor from still sometimes produced a "bang" like the hall effect sensors were not lined up correctly, but nothing to worry about as it didn't happen all the time.

Today as I just had a left hand turn to turn into the work car park (slightly uphill) when the light went green I slowly rolled on the throttle as normal and the bike gave a full 1 second of "grinding" noise and then proceeded to drive with a very low torque, but sped up fine after 10km/h.

I tried to reproduce the fault but can only get the normal single "clang". It was raining this morning, so I can't be sure if my rear wheel lost traction at the lights (I doubt it) or whether the hall sensors have been wet.

Anyone else had these clunking noises when trying to start from dead still? I've worked with hub motors in the past on eBikes and it is definetily a hall sensor problem. I noticed the motor has 2 hall sensor cables so I may try swapping the hall sensor plugs and see what happens.

Here is the YouTube link so you can see and hear the clunk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?nomobile=1&v=_zzal-mixC4

Edit: I have swapped the hall sensor cables and problem remains.

I have even disabled regen as a test and it still does it when you apply power. It seems to go clunk when you apply power ot when you apply regen. I may try swapping my motor out with my wife's motor this weekend and if the problem goes away then I'll know 100% it's the motor.

Hi all,

Well I sent an email off to Erider in Melbourne and I am still super impressed with their after sales service. First I will test with my wife's hub motor and if the problem goes away then Erider will simply send me a new motor?! Wow. So if anyone in Australia is worried after sales service from Erider, you have nothing to worry about. My wife's scooter suffered a broken front fender during transport and the dealer sent a new one express post so we had that fixed in just 2 days!! Holden are not even that quick to fix something on my car!

I will keep you updated as to whether it was the Motor or something else playing up.

edit: Oh, I am still riding my scooter into work so it's not broken, just a 'clunk' when you accelerate or regen. It sounds like the drive shaft is moving about 5mm but I checked the axle bolts and they are as tight as can be.

Update: I got home today and pulled off the swing arm covers and found both of the axle nuts to be very loose. So I tightened them and the problem has gone! Just to make sure I went for a 54km test drive. The test drive went well and there is no more "clunks".

So if you have a clunk on acceleration or regen then check your axle nuts!

Edit: in my last post I said I checked the axle bolts. But I only checked the 3 torque arm bolts. Not the big 27mm bolt.

I would reckon that the obligatory check of the tightness of ALL nuts and bolts on the bike prior to delivery to the customer was not done by Erider Australia.

The bike was fine for the first 1997km maybe it just vibrated loose?

A loose rear axle can easily end in a fiasco with damaged wiring!

I know! That's what happened to my 500w eBike hub motor. It torque rolled and bent the STEEL forks. I know use torque arms to stop this from happening again. I'm glad to see eRider had 4mm steel torque arms held with three 12mm bolts as standard!!

But I also second Klas' notion that maybe this motor is being driven slightly beyond it' s original design intent with the Sevcons

No? Mine seems to be held back quite a bit.

with just 115A maximum current.

If I'm lucky! Usually around 107 to 110A is normal. 115A on rare occasions.

That big Sevcon is good for far more than that

It's a monster being held down by software. But they've done that for a reason I guess. I wonder if they use field weakening?

I was so happy to have my silky smooth scooter back I went for a ride at 10pm last night. 70km later I come back home and happy to report all is well again. Next time a service schedule comes up, I'll check the axle nuts.

So I now have 2,230km

This is a photo of the big axle nut that was loose. Both this side and the other side were loose. There is no locking pin or locktite used at all. This is my first motorbike/scooter so I didn't even know bikes had locking pins. At least if the sound comes back then I know what to look for. There is a spring washer inbetween the nut and the hub motor.