End of the Road?
I still have my original 2008 VX1 and it has a crippled battery pack only allowing 4 miles of travel between full and empty, it has only done 7,500m and I'm horrified t learn the official view is I need to spend almost £5k on a new battery pack. Such a waste (as don't have the tools or knowledge to do a cell swap). Even the Vectrix Corp website denies there is any presence in the UK, is my only satisfaction to push it into a quarry and move on?
I'm really sad my commitment and advocacy has hit me in the wallet, with no chance of actually seeing out the twilight years of the VX1 with careful usage - in the 5 years of ownership NO servicing ever involved looking under he seat at the battery pack, just firmware updates, brakes and the odd tyre.
Are you sure you don't just have a bad cell? Shunting a single cell is not terribly difficult. Click here for details.
Its bad news when the battery fails in your bike. These NiMh batteries di not last long in the Vectrix due to the charging and software design. Why don't you sell the bike and someone else can fit it. There are plenty of people upgrading these bikes to lithium batteries. In Australia we fit Li-Ion 90 Amp/Hr battery packs that are a dropin replacement. No elctronic modifcations required. The bikes have a 300 Km range and this costs Aus$3,600. The life is also longer than NiMh. You could find someone in the UK who upgrades these bikes.
Its bad news when the battery fails in your bike. These NiMh batteries di not last long in the Vectrix due to the charging and software design. Why don't you sell the bike and someone else can fit it. There are plenty of people upgrading these bikes to lithium batteries. In Australia we fit Li-Ion 90 Amp/Hr battery packs that are a dropin replacement. No elctronic modifcations required. The bikes have a 300 Km range and this costs Aus$3,600. The life is also longer than NiMh. You could find someone in the UK who upgrades these bikes.
Hi Raymond, I recently had my Vectrix repaired ( the fuse blew) here in the UK by Emissions Free Solutions. David from EFS was most helpful when i contacted him and the whole repair was sorted out in les than a week. I'm quite sure EFS will also be able to check for and replace faulty cells in a NiMH pack.
Good luck!
Hi Raymond, I recently had my Vectrix repaired ( the fuse blew) here in the UK by Emissions Free Solutions. David from EFS was most helpful when i contacted him and the whole repair was sorted out in les than a week. I'm quite sure EFS will also be able to check for and replace faulty cells in a NiMH pack.
Good luck!
A 10 mm socket and a Philips screwdriver are the two tools you need to dismantle most of the vectrix.
Many people are willing and able to give advice here and know their stuff.
Also there are a few videos from antiscab on Youtube on how to dismantle things.
Feel free to PM me to chat further. You do NOT need to be very mechanically minded to fix your current issues.
In Australia we fit Li-Ion 90 Amp/Hr battery packs that are a dropin replacement. No elctronic modifcations required. The bikes have a 300 Km range and this costs Aus$3,600. The life is also longer than NiMh. You could find someone in the UK who upgrades these bikes.
Lithium Vectrix, can you give some more details about your conversion, my research and discussions with Antiscab for instance indicate a bit more cost and less range than you quote. I am working up to a conversion as my range slowly sinks. PM me if you like.
Cheers
Michael
That is exactly what I want ! Where can I get more information ? Do you really get 300km (186 miles) - at what speed ? Is it really a matter of swapping the batteries and use all the existing hardware (charger, etc) ? I would be very interested in doing this in the UK and hopefully help other riders out too (for free !). Allan
Electric traction is the future.
Yes, a Li-Ion conversion with 90 Ah battery packs would yield a much more compelling range than the 40Ah or 50Ah cells that I've seen used with Antiscab's conversion kit. This should triple the range of your original 30 Ah NiMH VX-1, right? I don't know if that gets you to 186 miles, but it's a much better return on investment than the modest 33% to 66% range increase from those other kits.
Ah I see, in that case then 300km is not achievable :-( Or do you know differently ? Do you know someone who has done it ? I would love to have that range in my Vectrix so please tell me more :-)
As a guide, my original 2008 NiMH battery pack still easily achieves 35miles (56km) or at a push 40miles (64km). Using the guide of tripling the original range then - at best - I could only see a range of 105miles (169km) or 120miles (193km). That's still acceptable in my eyes but if someone out there did achieve 300Km (186miles) then I want that instead !
Electric traction is the future.
Anyone in the UK contemplating a 90 Amp/Hr Li-Ion conversion ? Am non-techie but might have a go if there was a techie chum to help me through.
Hi,
The 90 Amp/Hr Li-Ion Vectrix with 300 Km range is shown here. http://www.evalbum.com/4465
The conversion was done in 2011. Bike has 28,000 km on the clock with no issues. The battery compartment is not full and there is room for a larger conversion than this. Antiscab quoted a maximum of 110 Amp/hr which I would agree with. The weight of Li-Ion is 28% less than Li-FePO4 allowing for a larger conversion without exceeding the original battery weight. Cells used are Panasonic 18650 as used in Tesla roadster of the time and now the Model S.