Hey there Everyone. I'm considering buying a XB600 and had a few questions.
first off, i've seen them advertised on the internet for around $1000. some are in the 800's but charge about a buck fifty for shipping, and then some are in the 900's but shipping is free. some people posted in this thread about getting one for about 750 or so. was that including shipping? and where can i find one for this price?
Secondly, how hard are the mods that you guys post? could someone such as myself who's never even held a soldering gun pull of that shunt mod thingie? it looks a bit intimidating, but if i get one of these bikes, i know i'm gonna want to do this to it.
and third, there seems to be a bunch of posts about people running into johnny law and having problems. I already have my license suspended and don't need anymore encounters with the local PD. Would you say that the look of this bike makes it a magnet for situations with the law?
and i guess last but not least, how do i convince girls that i meet that i'm totally that environmentalist guy instead of the guy who lost his license and has to get around on a bike? please tell me i don't need to wear sandles, i really don't like sandles. haha.
anyway, you all seem very knowledgeable and i appreciate any responses to this post
cheers,
DeD
Well, If you DONT have a license I would suggest NOT adding a 5th or 6th battery, as depending on the state u live in it would make it legally a MOPED!!!! I too have no license and it took a long time until someone stopped me. He was quite ignorant and would not listen or read the documents i showed him.... Needless to say I go to court in a few weeks. I live in Florida.
The shunt mod is REALLY not very hard to do, but again, adding any voltage makes it illegal in most states!!!!
A side note......
I DO have a 5th battery, but I also have the gray limiting wires hooked up to limit the bike to 20mph. That is why my bike is still legal.
Dave ; Tennessee
XB-600.
Check it out! Right by my house is the perkiomen trail. it follows a river by my house, and goes all over the place here in SE pennsylvania. I could take this trail all the way to the art museum in Philly (which is about 35 miles away) among other really cool spots. anyway, i just talked to a park ranger who told me that as long as the bike is not over 800 watts i can ride on these trails!
so anyway, I'm getting really excited about getting one of these 600's. I have about 300 saved up so far and I can't wait to gather the rest of the moneys together!
I've been looking into the laws here in PA and it looks like i can't ride it on the roads, so i'll have to be all ninja.
anyway, i'm really excited.
dave
Dave:
I ordered an XB-600 last week and it should arrive here on Tuesday. I was going to get one last year, but spent the summer talking with local police departments and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles here in tropical southern Maine. By the time I got the legal questions settled, it was too cold to ride, so I'm just getting the XB-600 now.
The final decision is that in Maine, the XB-600 is a MOPED. There are two reasons why it does NOT meet the definition of an "electric bicycle" as described in the Federal law, according to the police and Bureau of Motor Vehicles. The first reason is that the importer's own specifications state that the top speed is 20+, which means MORE THAN 20 miles per hour. The second reason is that a "bicycle" means that the PRIMARY method of propulsion is the use of PEDALS. On the XB-600, the primary method of propulsion is the ELECTRIC MOTOR, and the use of pedals is OPTIONAL, as stated on the importer's specifications sheet. And no police officer is going to believe that anyone is going to pedal around a bike this heavy most of the time. Plus, as a moped, I can legally go faster than 20 miles per hour, so I expect to do some modifications to get the speed up some (mostly for better performance on hills).
All of this is no big deal to me. I will register it as a moped (which will also be helpful to the police in case it's stolen), I don't need to insure it unless I want to, and any kind of valid motor vehicle license lets me drive this thing on city streets, as long as I keep as far to the right as possible (like a bicycle) and stay off the sidewalks.
I am aware of the bad rep the importer has, but most of the negative feedback about them seems to be relating to their customer service (or lack thereof), and usually it's regarding the lower cost scooters. I decided to go ahead and get the XB-600 because of the majority of the users who have talked about the bike seem to be happy with it.
One final thing: I'll be using the XB-600 to commute 3 miles to work. My house and my job are on opposite sides of a river, so there are some moderate hills in between. I'll let everyone here know how I do on the hills, and what modifications I may end up making to th bike.
Buzzer
There are three kinds of people: Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.
Last week I bid on an XB-600 on ebay. The vendor was "lotaphones". Final terms were $695.00 freight to terminal included. That's one extra battery pack on down the line saved. They had one -per day on ebay last week.
You can see their feedback by clicking on the "number of transactions" link on any of their pages. I imported the list of feedback into Excel and sorted by price: they're selling at least 10/1 gas scooter to electric (and 50/1 American flags to scooters). Some XB-600's were sold @ $630, but, hey, I wanted it and I got it.
I don't have it yet, but UPS is tracking ~something~ coming from Iowa... Interestingly, it was shown as coming from API Inc, the holding company (?) of X-Treme Scooters. Drop-ship? Retail arm of X-Treme? I don't know...