Hey there,
I 'm back with my 1600 km report:
Motor going strong, battery range diminished if I let the charge sag for more than 2-3 days and don't refresh. Currently about 10 - 12 miles on hard terrain and permanent turbo use...without these conditions probably 17-19 miles.
Looks and feel of scooter excellent, it feels a bit harder to balance these days, and this maybe because:
The front shocks, when exposed, showed the classic torn rubber boots and displayed signs of some "grooving" and rawness of the metal tubes which move up and down in the cylinders.
When I stand at a traffic light, I can feel that the E-MAX is sorta "arrested" in one position on these front shocks. When I push it down a bit, it follows easily, but it is not "floating" smoothly up and down as I believe a good suspension should.
Feel a lot of small shocks in my wrists as a result of this.
Anyone ever replaced/modified these things?
Best 2 y'all.....
PS can't wait to make my own LiIon mod some day...;-)
GC,
Good to hear from you - it's been a while.
On my two e-max's the front strut boots likewise decomposed after only a few months use. I replaced them with segments of scooter inner tube secured with wire ties.
As far as modifying the shock struts themselves, I found early on that they were too soft and bottomed out on hard braking. They aren't really "shocks" at all. They are just air-springs without damping. They can be made firmer by removing the struts, removing the Allen-screw plugs from the ends of the strut, and adding carefully measured equal amounts of oil to each strut - start with 1/4 cup (30 ml) each. I used SAE 10W40 motor oil, although I think motorcycle fork oil is really the stuff to use.
One of mine has 6400 km without any further suspension problems.
It sounds like your shocks are gone. I'd look around for similar shocks made for other two-wheelers. Provided the bolts line up, they should be interchangeable.
MarkF