Received my Vectrix

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kingcharles
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Received my Vectrix

Hi,

I just wanted to introduce myself as a new Vectrix owner in the Netherlands.
I received my Vectrix yesterday evening. The roads were (and are still) covered in snow and ice so all I have done is drive it onto our driveway so far :-(

I bought a discounted Vectrix because it was a stock item. Turns out it is already over 2 years old looking at the VIN number: SZCAAGNW4WAA01567. I am not to bothered about this though as I have full warranty.

Anyway I plan to use the bike for commuting to work (about 30KM one way) so will do between 10,000 and 12,000 KM annually.

First job is to get the batteries back to full capacity as this thing has been stored for over 2 years!
The dealer put the latest firmware in and gave me the following advice:
1) drive the bike until it does no more than 20KM/H on full throttle
2) let the batteries cool down(should be easy in this weather)
3) fully charge it (should take extra long)
4) let the batteries cool down again
5) repeat step 1 to 4 without any other charging (also no regen braking)for at least 5 times

I will start this as soon as the roads are safe again and post here what the results are.

happy holidays!
kc

oobflyer
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Re: Received my Vectrix

Congratulations!
Vctrx.jpg

R
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Re: Received my Vectrix

Congratulations!

01567 is a September 2007 unit. Quite old, but if the bike was properly maintained, the battery must be ok. I recommend you read as many posts as you can from this forum, as it will help you understand how your V's battery works, and you will know what can you do to extend its useful life.
I suggest you also have a look at this: http://www.voltforum.cat/voltforum/YaBB.pl?num=1257336941

In my opinion, driving the bike until it does no more than 20KM/H on full throttle will stress unnecessarily the battery.
I suggest you only drive it until you see the red battery light on the dashboard.
Let us know how it performs,
R

turok
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Re: Received my Vectrix

welcome to the forum,

congrats with your bike, you'll love it.
Good to have someone in the neighbourhood too :-)

"doing nothin = doing nothing wrong" is invalid when the subject is environment

kingcharles
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Re: Received my Vectrix

Thanks for the replies and advice!
I have not been able to ride it yet due to the snow in the Netherlands (http://www.twitpic.com/ubfz1) but am using the time to read all about battery care.
This may turn out to be a good thing, as they are the most crucial part of the bike and need the right care as I have learned.
As soon as I get to drive it, I will share my results on the batteries.
Cheers

Once you go EV, Gas is history!

Paul
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Re: Received my Vectrix

Hi Kingcharles and welcome.
Others may have also mentioned, but the information and opinions on the Visforvoltage are invaluable to a new user.
Take my advice and seek out Mik's posts as he has done the most indipendant investigation and has the best learnings about the Vectrix.
Another valuable resourse is Xvectrix who seems to be an old Vectrix insider and he knows a great deal about the software and how it relates to living with a Vectrix.
If you haven't heard this already, a Vectrix is like a pet, and not a mechanical thing. So you need to do your research and learn to live with it and care for it as a member of the family.
By the way, it is coming in to summer in the land of OZ, so it is fun for me to rear of the cold, snowy weather at this time of year.
Cheers

Paul

R
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Re: Received my Vectrix

Nice wall-plug in the the http://www.twitpic.com/ubfz1. Do you park your vectrix outside? It may be ok in winter, but you should not park the vectrix in the sun during summer, the battery compartment would get very hot... maybe you'll have to park in a north-side wall with plenty shadow, or build a small shelter.
Just an idea: if you are reading many posts, maybe you can write a brief post with some vectrix,s care recomendaions for newbies. It would be very helpful...

kingcharles
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Re: Received my Vectrix

The wall plug is on a north wall and this is where I want to park the Vectrix so this should be cool enough. By the way it is never extremely hot in the Netherlands anyway.
I also plan to make a small roof on this wall to shelter the Vectrix a bit.

I will try to record as much info as possible in my efforts to resurrect the batteries. When I believe it is worth while posting I will surely do so here.
As it was delivered the range showed 16KM so I am anxious to see what it will show after its first charge!
It will indicate how well the batteries cope with long storage at least...
Cheers

Once you go EV, Gas is history!

RaDy
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Re: Received my Vectrix

Congratulations Kingcharles, and welcome.
Those conditions look very hard for a ride with the Vectrix, but i dont know if i could be able to wait without driving it, even if it was in a snowy road!!! Its just so much fun and so different that when you ride it , you will get addicted!
RaDy

X Vectrix
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Re: Received my Vectrix

Xvectrix who seems to be an old Vectrix insider

Hey, who you calling "old"?

Paul
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Re: Received my Vectrix

Old as in 'Old Vectrix' not to be confused with 'New Vectrix'
What we realy need is a New Vectrix insider.

Hey old X, any chance you could get your old old job back at new new Vectrix?

By the way Kingcharles, look out for The Laird's posts as he seems to be a battery/electronics guru.

23C fine and sunny in my part of the land of OZ

Cheers

Paul

kingcharles
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First drive, finally

Well today it was finally time for the first ride.
As I switched on the bike the estimated range showed 11KM. So 5KM gone just by standing still for a week...
Anyway I expected a short ride but already after 1KM the batt light came on. I continued and did 4.3KM in total.
As I was in the city I never exceeded 50KM/h. And where I live there are no hills :-)
After the drive the estimated range was 0KM.

So now it is doing its first charge!
I am using these instructions to get the battery pack back to full capacity as the vectrix has been stored for over two years.
I skipped the charge delay timing bit as it is still quite cold here. The temperature reading in the display said 5C at the start of the charge!
Tomorrow I will use it to ride to work and depending on the estimated range I will either ride until the batt light comes on or do that on the way back. This way I will have discharged it within 24 hours of the first charge as required in step 4 (from above link)

No snow expected so it should be OK :-)

Once you go EV, Gas is history!

jmap
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Re: Received my Vectrix

Congratulations!

01567 is a September 2007 unit. Quite old, but if the bike was properly maintained, the battery must be ok. I recommend you read as many posts as you can from this forum, as it will help you understand how your V's battery works, and you will know what can you do to extend its useful life.
I suggest you also have a look at this: http://www.voltforum.cat/voltforum/YaBB.pl?num=1257336941

In my opinion, driving the bike until it does no more than 20KM/H on full throttle will stress unnecessarily the battery.
I suggest you only drive it until you see the red battery light on the dashboard.
Let us know how it performs,
R

That means a deep discharge and it is necessary for recovering from memory effect. Of course that are other issues here but it is recommended by Vectrix to do it every month.

kingcharles
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Re: Received my Vectrix

Yesterday morning after its first charge it showed 40KM est range and all bars full.
I did 45KM to work (via scenic route) to fully discharge (batt light on and all but the bottom bar gone). The route was mainly 50 and 80KM/h roads and the final KM´s I did some motorway. It did not manage to reach top speed but "only" 95KM/h later dropping to 80KM/h as the batteries depleted more. I noticed that the speed indicator needle is a bit choppy, as you are accelerating or decelerating it does not follow smoothly but jumps a bit from one position to the next. Is this normal behaviour for the Vectrix?

At work I plugged it in and battery temperature was 30C
Let it charge fully and on my way home it showed est range of 67KM!
My trip home is 33KM and the est range when I came home was still 24KM with little under half bars (forgot to count). So I need a little bit more range and then I could make it both ways on one charge. Maybe see if there is a shorter route could also do the trick:-) I have not done the 20KM/h discharge yet, will do that after a few more normal discharges.

But it looks like the batteries have survived the 2 years storage quite well. Lets hope this lasts!

It is expected to snow again today so not using the Vectrix today. I really enjoyed the rides though and I am also very happy with my muffs and scud to keep me warm!

Once you go EV, Gas is history!

procrastination inc
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Re: Received my Vectrix

"I noticed that the speed indicator needle is a bit choppy, as you are accelerating or decelerating it does not follow smoothly but jumps a bit from one position to the next. Is this normal behaviour for the Vectrix?"

Mine is like that, discrete 1km/h steps.

I don't think we are meant to be staring at the speedo long enough to notice, eyes front!

procrastination inc
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Re: Received my Vectrix

"My trip home is 33KM and the est range when I came home was still 24KM with little under half bars (forgot to count)"

Mine too. Best to charge both ends of your trip, the last half of the bars seems to go much quicker than the first. I tried both ways a couple of times. I couldn't make it without keeping under 40km/h. I tried at 60km/hr once. 9km short of home at 2am, 4km push to the nearest power point...

RaDy
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Re: Received my Vectrix

"My trip home is 33KM and the est range when I came home was still 24KM with little under half bars (forgot to count)"

Mine too. Best to charge both ends of your trip, the last half of the bars seems to go much quicker than the first. I tried both ways a couple of times. I couldn't make it without keeping under 40km/h. I tried at 60km/hr once. 9km short of home at 2am, 4km push to the nearest power point...

I totaly agree on this point , the second half of the bars will never give you the range of the first half.

kingcharles
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Re: Received my Vectrix

Yesterday I reached the 1000KM mark on my Vectrix! Took me exactly 1 month after I started to ride it :-)
http://twitpic.com/zz2mg

So far it is performing fine, all the KM's were done in temperatures around but mainly below 0C and the bike has no real problems. I charge immediately after my rides so the batteries still have some heat in them (usually between 6 and 14C).
My route to the office has changed and is now 40% motorway and 55% 80KM/h roads and 5% city. It turns out to be faster than the "scenic route" as I can drive between the traffic jams on the motorway.
With this trip (31.5KM) I use 13 bars each time and charging to full uses 4KWh each time.

I am really glad that I have the thermoscud and handlebar muffs though because rideing in these temperatures is not only hard for the batteries but also for humans!

I will contact the dealer to see if I need to have some maintenance at this point. I also have a bad tyre (or both) because at speeds between 40 and 50KM/h the bike has a bad vibration.
Other than that a happy Vectrix customer looking forward to some warmer weather!

Once you go EV, Gas is history!

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