Replacing XB-500 controller

Pertains to AztecFem. You should see her service ticket. :(

Holy cow! I read the novel, and sadly it wasn't the first one I read like this. I asked them for a replacement disk for my breaks a week ago, they have no word yet on when it will be in stock.

OMG!!!!! I knew there might be some damage upon arrival, but that is ridiculous! HORRIBLE customer service! What good is the warranty? They definitely should have shipped you a new scooter! WOW! I'm really scared now to get my XXB-600. I did soooo much research before I settled on THIS scooter...

Laurie(rocs)

Should anything be amiss with your order, contact me immediately. Please also post any information about your delivery and/or customer service experiences with X-Treme here on the forums.

Aztec-FemBone, I'd say start over. Hopefully if you order(I'd get an XB-600) from Arcticfox, an authorized dealer, I would think you would be allowed to send yours back in the newly shipped bike packaging. I don't know where you would find packing to send yours back first. You truely got screwed with a lemon and I would hope X-treme would finally give you customer satisfaction with a NEW XB-600! (Customer satisfaction in my book goes a long way) X-treme being the "Hot topic"[if they only knew they were sitting atop a gold mine!!!] as it is on these boards, they should send you the 600 with no upcharge! I've noticed many new members and lots of visitors here on a daily basis. I think it would help their sales even more if they did this for you.

Good luck!
Laurie(rocs)

AztecFemBone... it's hard for anyone to give you advice, to say the least. I would be ticked if I had gone through what you are going through. That being said, I got an XB-600 and found it lacking for my hill climbing needs (I weigh 225), so I sold it to a friend. This was before I found out about all the nifty mods that would probably have let me keep it. I am now strongly considering an XB-700li because I need the lightweight batteries for removal and lugging upstairs for charging. Getting one of these models keeps me from having to insure and license it as a moped.

I think these machines have only a mediocre quality control, but then again, it is hard to top their inexpensive price, as well as a width and breadth of features. You could get a gas moped for about $2K, but that isn't really the same thing, as you have to insure and license it, not to mention it is far more complex and needs 'that' kind of maintenance. I like the electric because it is a far simpler system to maintain, as well as being easy to modify, if I choose; okay, I've always liked the idea of EV motoring, in that it is clean, quiet, and simple.

If I were you, I would probably get the XB-700li, if I could afford it (although it does not yet have a track record), or an XB-600 which is a more known quantity.

Good luck!

Yeah, that's the sort of thing that keeps me from really 'recommending' these to anyone. Still, I would do it all over again. I sincerely hope reputable dealers will salvage this industry while it is in its infancy, though it may be financially costly to them (maybe even impossibly so).

Some people were mad at me for bad mouthing Xtreme last month,(from my experience with them that wasn't even as bad as what is described in this post) and the way they make you work your butt of to fix a broken piece of junk they sent you, terrible communication, customer pays return shipping cost on DOA parts, etc. My belief is still that unless people stop putting up with this kind of service, it will not improve. Well it has been 1 year since I went through this, and it doesn't seem like they are doing any better of a job. When they send out an item that goes bad on the first ride or so, they need to send a prepaid call tag for the bad scooter and send out a replacement. Your bike was so messed up, they should have just let you keep it for parts and shipped another one out ASAP. You would have been happy and singing their praises, and the company would be a out a few bucks that they can afford to spend on goodwill advertising.

In my opinion, consumers in the US are too willing to put up with terrible customer service in order to get items at a low cost. I am including myself here as well, although I am learning to spend a bit more and get something better. Unfortunately,Xtreme has been very successful to the point they have basically put many of their competitors (who had better but more pricey products) out of business, not leaving many choices for people looking for a small 2 wheel EV.

Hey Aztec,

Every time I read your latest post, its like watching the news....I get more and more depressed.

Hang tough and hopefully this whole saga will turn into a lovely human interest story about perseverance....:)

I've had a couple of issues with X-Treme regarding parts and stuff and I can see how you could fall into the black hole of customer service. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed for you.

Cheers

I looked back at some of your entries that included pictures, and I noticed something that seems to confirm that your XB-500 was assembled incorrectly, possibly with some parts left out.
I have a fairly new XB-500 which I received only about a month ago, and I took some pictures of my rear wheel mounting. Upon comparing them to your pictures from your posts on Wed, 06/18/2008, and a second post on the same day, there is a definite difference. My bike seems to have some sort of torque washer installed inside the dropout on both sides, as shown on the two photos I'm including here:

This first one is a view of the right side of the hub motor mount. Note that there seems to be a washer inside the dropout with big tabs that are bent so as to keep the washer from rotating because the tabs fit nicely in the dropout slot.

The same arrangement seems to hold true on the left side. None of your photos seem to have this washer installed, so there was a significant difference between the way your bike was assembled and the way mine was assembled.
Since I am not having any troubles with my bike, I hesitate to disassemble my rear hub just to find out exactly what's there. But those washers with tabs on them are definitely not included on your bike, and I would think that is the root cause of your original problem... Those washers most definitely were meant to keep your rear axle from spinning, and when they were left off, the torque from your hub motor twisted your axle, causing it to loosen, which allowed it to spin within the mount, thus twisting and damaging the wires going through the axle to your motor.
I also noticed that on your post of Thu, 07/10/2008 - 17:29, your picture does show something that looks like a washer with tabs on it, and that in your next post of Thu, 07/10/2008 - 22:29, you said that the "inside ring of the old locking washers was damaged by the spinout and I'm reluctant to reuse them." I assume you mean the washer with tabs to fit the slot in which they are mounted. If you don't have new washers whose inside flats fit very snugly around the flats of the axle, don't re-assemble your unit till you have received new ones.
Upon further reading, you seem to have received new tab washers.
Good luck.
Dick B.

Well, if you cross your fingers you might have a hard time playing that trombone. But sounds good.

Hope you finally get the right parts and get your scooter going. I have had mine now for just over a month, and have enjoyed using it around town, and on my commute to work (about 10 miles each way) I read in another thread about doing the shunt mod on the controller. The thread was for the XB-600, but can be done also on the XB500, which is a different controller. At this time, I have done that mod, and am enjoying the extra power to get up some of the hills near my home. I will eventually post a blog on how to do this, as I have taken pictures of each step, and am currently in the process of testing to determine the results.
I would like to also modify my scooter to get higher speed. In Michigan, the Moped law allows a top speed of up to 30MPH, and a maximum of 2 horsepower (about 1500 watts). I would feel a lot less self-conscious of using the roads if I could come a little closer to keeping up with traffic, yet stay within the legal limit for a Moped. I believe there must be a way of modifying the controller to allow additional speed without adding extra batteries, as most people believe is the case.

Yaaah!!!!

Very exciting!

Tom

Good to know that another XB-500 rider is up and running. Now that you have gotten through your problems working with warranty issues with X-treme, I hope you have fun with your bike. I have been having quite a good time with mine. Ride it to work every day (10 miles). I have put up a group of pages on my website at:
http://www.bergerweb.net/xb500
Some notes there on assembly, modifications, things like that.
Dick B.