Hi, I just finished my first week riding my Vectrix. I purchased a used Red 2008 model, the original owner wanted a blue one and was waiting for it to be delivered. It's a good bike, I can do a round trip from my home to my work place but I just barely make it the last 500 feet home. I was a little disappointed that it doesn't have enough power to reliably make the trip without charging at work. My commute is only 13.6 miles one way and 13.2 miles on the return trip; however, there's a nice combination of hills and some highway driving. What is deceiving is that the tank will show about 60% power level when I arrive at work. So that first half of the power is much greater then the second half. I've just decided to plug-in at work instead of worrying about making it the entire trip home. I almost didn't make it home the first time I tried todo the round trip. But I was able to pull into my driver way even if only at 2 mph with the battery light blinking for the last 500 feet. Either way, I would be draining the battery all the way to the reserve which would most likely wear it out faster then doing 2 50% charges in a day. I am not sure if the 40 degree weather is also hurting the battery capacity right now. The bike has about 1,500 mile on it, I am not sure how fast the battery capacity will degrade.
My commute (round trip) breaks down to ~13 miles @50-60 MPH and ~13 miles at <35 MPH (w/ traffic lights), with rolling hills on and off the highway.
I have found a place where I can park my bike and plug it in but it was actually hard to find an outlet. I guess the developers that made the Office park where I work didn't want any places where people could plug anything.
Despite those two quirks I really like the bike. It handles very nicely, feels really solid and seems to be very well thought out. The part of the bike I don't care for is the glove box but the under seat storage is awesome. I am going to try to find some hard (of soft) luggage for the bike so that I can bring home some groceries and run some errands. I feel good in traffic and its awesome on hills because I don't have to worry about stalling. The bike climbs nicely and is nice and quiet yet make enough noise that motorist and pedestrian can hear something.
I really like the fact that I have less expensive maintenance (virtually none) and even with insurance it's much less expensive then a car. I was looking at a Smart Car and when I considered the HOV highway access, fuel costs, and everything else I just had to go with the Vectrix. That was also weighing in the fact that I have a 2.5 year old daughter and I was in a motorcycle crash 7 years ago...
Anyway... that's a pretty long hello/bike review. ;) My Vectrix looks nice next to our 2004 Prius. We look like Mr and Mrs Treehugger, which I think is a good thing.
-H
Welcome aboard, Infinite!
Not to mention the biggest factor...the Vectrix is FUN! :-)
Your bike will prefer to be half charged twice a day over full charging once a day. Toyota's secret to longevity for that Prius battery is that the car never lets the battery discharge more than 80%, and never fully charges it either. Your Vectrix software does not charge the battery to full capacity (so I've read, I'm no expert), but consistantly riding it down to crawl speed is going well below the 80% discharge point, so if you have the ability to charge at work, take advantage of that.
As for groceries, since my Vectrix costs me virtually nothing to ride, I hit the grocery store every other day when commuting back and forth to work. This way the grocery stack isn't so much that I can't load it into the seat compartment plus a large collapsable gym bag that I bungie onto the back seat, and store under the seat when not in use.
I was in Seattle last summer, and on one of our motorcycle tour rides, we headed south out of the city during rush hour, and the site of the incoming traffic sitting virtually still for miles was gut wrenching! Some of those people could probably have WALKED to work in less time, and the thought of all those vehicles sitting there idling for such long periods every single day makes one stop and think. Congrats on your new Vectrix! At least when you're sitting still, nothing's running! ;-)
Hey there Mr. Treehugger, welcome to V and to EV ownership.
I think a general rule of thumb is it's a good idea to charge up the batteries when you can do so. Fortunately your bike doesn't use SLA batteries which are easy to damage if left partly discharged, NiMH are not so finicky. Still given your situation what if you had to run an extra errand on the way home such as if Mrs. Treehugger calls you up to pick up a gallon of Hemp Milk on the way home? Wouldn't it be nice to have a full charge and the capability to handle out of the ordinary rides?
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
Thanks for the advice. I agree that charging at work is a good idea. I hope that the batteries last some time so I want to help them last as long as possible. I hope that someday there will be a A123 battery upgrade for the Vectrix :D
My commute is similar in distance. I do about 30 miles roundtrip at 40-45mph but with 2400 feet of elevation and some steep parts. I make the roundtrip with about 3-4 miles to spare. If I push the bike to 50mph on the sections where I can, it gets more iffy. In light of this I too have elected to charge the bike at work to reduce the wear and tear on the battery. I do a full discharge only once a month. The benefit is more enjoyment and less worry about the range. Clearly a fully charged bike handles accelerations and hills much better.
Welcome to the forums.
I myself have not been on here very long having purchased my Vectrix end of September 2008 - I've already done over 1700 miles. When I took the test ride, I knew I wanted one within about 10 seconds of riding it!
My daily commute is about 22 miles each way of mixed A roads 50-60mph (it won't go past 103km/h!) and town work 30-40mph. I arrive normally with between 2-5 bars remaining depending on how I ride. Lowest I can remember seeing is est. 2 miles remaining at 126V upon plugging in. The weather also seems to affect the range slightly too.
A full recharge to 150V until automatic switch off (constant current, transition mode, equalisation of the cells) is 4-4.5 hours although the energy gauge will show full in about 2.5 hours.