My R Martin EVD LFP arrived yesterday. I'm starting this thread to describe my experience.
Fedex Freight did a nice job on the delivery, and the box had minimal external damage. The box lifted off to reveal a well-padded scooter sitting on a metal pallet. The top of the pallet unbolted, and then several wire tie-downs needed to be removed. The hard part was lifting the scooter off the pallet to the side, front first then rear. It's a 2-man job, at a minimum. (I don't want to think about the people who didn't get the lithium batteries, since that is supposed to make the bike about 100lbs heavier.)
Assembly was pretty easy, there were only 3 parts not already in place: the windshield, the throttle assembly, and the rear side panel. Both tires were seriously overinflated, I dropped them from ~47 psi to the recommended 33. Batteries were charged, as best I can tell. I noticed 3 minor blemishes on the plastic pieces due to shipping damage, but I'm not sure it's even worth asking for replacement parts.
(I've got pictures, they'll get posted later today.)
I took my first ride last night, a couple quick loops around the neighborhood. I'm used to riding a Honda Silverwing 600cc scooter, so most of my impressions are relative to it. The EVD is much quieter, but not completely silent: there is a bit of a whirring noise. I do get much more wind noise than I'm used to, but I have a large windshield on the Silverwing. I easily hit speeds in the 45-50mph range, I'll check the top speed with a GPS in the next couple of days. The EVD is rated at 4hp, which is much less than the Silverwing's 50hp, but it's also a much lighter bike. The brakes on the EVD are good, quickly bringing me to a stop with minimal fuss.
I need to adjust the headlights down a bit, the low beams are about 5 degrees too high, and the high beams mostly illuminate the trees. I couldn't feel an adjustment screw when I stuck my hand inside the fairing, but I'll open it up this afternoon and look closer. Good lighting is important to me, so I'll be looking at these more closely later.
Pictures:
EVD LFP
My electric vehicle: CuMoCo C130 scooter.
Mikeb , Hi, there is a adjusting screw beneath the big rubber cup that covers the lamp plug . Low and to the right on the left lamp at about 5:00 it is impossible to see and you need small hands to reach the screw with out the headlamp module loose PS the headlamp bulbs have yet to be found, without the module, 16-18W 12V halogin no.HS1 have "fun" with your byke ! LaTeR
thank GOD I wake up above ground !!!!
Hi MikeB,
Congratulations; just in time for some beatific Fall rides.
Thanks for the photos.
The damage you experienced is very similar to what I got on my 3500; the nicked and scraped luggage rack; I'm over it now.
I like the silver capped grips, red springs and the mirrors, nice.
That controller is...honkin' man.
Are your batteries laid out 4x5 or another configuration?
How's the lighting on your dash?
Personally, I think these bikes look fine without the side covers on the swing-arms.
May your cells always remain balanced...and you too!
Ross
ross, I haven't pulled the body apart yet, so I'm not sure what the battery layout is yet. I'll probably get to that this weekend. I can see at least one block of batteries are just below the seat, in front of the underseat luggage compartment.
The dash is pretty well lit, and it's not hard to see the speedo. The MPH digits are dominant. I haven't verified if the odometer is in miles or km yet. The bottom of the dash is harder to see, since you have to look over the handlebar assembly, but there isn't much I'm missing. I might play with removing the plastic housing on the handlebars, that could be a good place to mount a BMS monitor display.
One tiny annoyance is that one of the diagnostic leds turns on when the motor is disabled due to kickstand or brakes (a reasonable plan). That means that every time I hit the brakes, I get a blue glow popping up from the dash. At night, it's mildly distracting, but I don't notice in the day. My preference would be to change it to a different color, but that's probably more work than it's worth.
The 'fuel gauge' voltmeter appears nicely sensitive, it drops way down when I accelerate hard or climb a hill, then comes back to the top when I release the throttle. However, I'm not sure how well it'll do at telling me how much juice I actually have left, since it looks like the voltage curve of the batteries is pretty flat. I hope Sparc5 gets his GreenBMS working soon, I'm looking forward to it's smarts.
I have noticed that there is absolutely no 'engine braking', when I release the throttle I just keep gliding along. My driving habits are pretty good, so I often rely on engine braking to slow me down when approaching a stop. Now my judgment of how soon to release the throttle is off, and I'm using the real brakes more often.
I've ordered a universal mounting plate for Givi Monokey trunk boxes, so the luggage rack will soon be covered. The underseat storage area isn't all that large, but a big Givi trunk box will handle most of my hauling needs nicely.
My electric vehicle: CuMoCo C130 scooter.
I tried to get the tag & title from the state of GA today, looks like I'm going to need an inspection from a police officer before I can go any further.
The good news is that my Givi Monokey Universal Adapter Plate arrived today, and I got it installed. It's great to have a waterproof, locking trunk on the back of the bike, especially one that's big enough for helmet and jacket when parked, or laptop when moving.
My electric vehicle: CuMoCo C130 scooter.
The GPS verdict is in:
Top Speed: 52.3mph.
Speedo Error: around 5-7%
Test conditions:
'medium' sized rider, 170lbs, 5'8", sitting upright, full face helmet.
Freshly charged batteries, driven ~4 miles to reach test course.
Tires at 'recommended' pressure: 33psi.
Flat ground, 75 degree outdoor temp, slight tailwind (gusty).
Test instrument: Garmin Zumo 550, duct taped to handlebars.
I'm pretty pleased, I was expecting 10% speedo error, which is pretty much standard for most motorcycles & scooters, so this one is closer to accurate than I expected. Randall claimed 60mph on a slight downhill, 55mph expected on the flat, and I was reasonably close to that. With a slightly shorter rider, and slightly overinflated tires, 55 would be reachable.
I do think I'm keeping up with most traffic around here (Atlanta suburbs), even on the 45mph speed limit roads. For my neighborhood, I think this bike is a better choice than the XM3500.
My electric vehicle: CuMoCo C130 scooter.
I got registered today with the State of GA.
I had no problems getting State Farm to insure the bike, and the State of GA insists on collecting sales tax before you can title a vehicle, even when purchased via internet. I did have to get the bike inspected by a Police Officer, and he signed a form that says essentially 'yea, NHTSA sticker was found, it's road legal'. Fortunately, I rode the scooter to the local county government office, so both police and tag office were in the same building. So I'll be putting on a license plate tonight, and title will arrive by mail shortly.
My electric vehicle: CuMoCo C130 scooter.
Hello all. We have some new 12v LED lights that will fit the rear lights (3) and some small LEDs for the instrument panel for our EVD product. They come in a set of 3 rear and 3 instrument LEDs.
They use barely any power from your batteries so they will help you run more efficently. They will fit many standard 12v sockets on scooters and motorcycles. They will fit the x-treme.
If you are interested in these, please email us at parts [at] rmartinbikes.com. They are in stock and ready to go. We haven't advertised these yet so we thought we would offer them to the forum folks first.
Randall
www.rmartinbikes.com
www.electricbikedistributor.com
PS - thanks for all of the nice comments.....
Aarrggg, your timing is impeccable. :)
The LED tail-lights that I had already ordered arrived Saturday, and are now installed. The EVD uses a standard 1157 bayonet mount, with a 1" hole, for the tail lights, so I ordered a set of 3 "Eagle Eye Towers" from Autolumination. These use a single 3 watt led forward, and 10 smaller leds on the side. They fit fine, and brightness seems to be pretty close to the original bulbs.
Randall, do you know how much power the DC-DC converter puts out at 12v on the EVD? (Or can you find out?)
A standard tail-light is a 5/25w bulb, and I figure the new LEDs are around 1/5w. That means I saved about 60w when the brake lights are on, giving me some room for additional lighting. Hyperlights are probably next, since they have a nice flashing feature when you first hit the brakes, and I've already got a set on my Silverwing.
My electric vehicle: CuMoCo C130 scooter.
An update:
With the cold weather arriving, I'm starting to get low-voltage warnings at full throttle. The bike seems to be running just fine, but the warning light on the dash is flashing. I'm going to continue to ride it with temps as low as the mid 30s.
My Hyperlights arrived yesterday, and I got them installed this evening. I got a pair of 8-LED clusters, and set them up as extra brake lights. They flash for about 5 seconds and then go steady. They are massively bright, and nobody behind me will have any excuse for not knowing that I'm slowing down. I mounted them on the underside of the cargo rack, pointed directly to the rear.
In case anyone needs to know this in the future:
Brown - Tail Light
Green - Ground
Green/Yellow stripe - Brake Light
My electric vehicle: CuMoCo C130 scooter.
My EVD LFP just arrived yesterday and given how much I relied upon this site, specifically MikeB's experiences and photos, I'll contribute my experience.
I'll echo the comments on shipping. As soon as it left RMartin the local dock called to arrange for a time for me to pick it up with my borrowed truck. The pallet it ships in is a metal skeleton box with a half-dozen small wheels that make it maneuverable. It is difficult to remove the scooter from the frame as MikeB says. I agree with him and the manual it's a two person job; however, for me several hours had passed since my neighbors had helped me lift it off the truck and I was too impatient to wait until the next day so I rigged up some ramps with spare lumber and things worked out.
Once you've freed the bike from the confines of the ample bubble-wrap, the keys are attached to the handlebar and function in three places: 1) Under the seat, space is about a square foot in the shape of an oval and the depth is about six inches. This is where the the info-packet is and where the circuit breaker is. 2) In the middle-floor between the seat and handlebar, there's an access panel for the charger plug 3) The actual ignition has three positions: wheel lock, off, and on and also has a cover the reverse end of the key can engage.
MikeB mentions tire pressure; I need to check that but they're definitely not under-inflated. He also mentions the minor blemishes and I'll admit my black model shows two or three tiny scuffs in one section, it's something that two minutes with some rubbing compound would fix if you're super-detail oriented but I'll never notice it again and the first rock will do worse damage.
I'll have to check out the headlights again with MikeB's comments in mind; my two nights of tests have been in the dark but my neighborhood is well illuminated.
Now, my own comments:
This is my first motorized two-wheel, so I can't really offer direct comparisons but when I say that it's "fast" and "quiet" my reference base is my own software-chipped VW MkV GTI (no, it's not that fast) and someone's RAV4 EV (of course it's not quite that quiet when you're not enclosed). When I stop accelerating, the scooter coasts for far longer than I expect and so far I'm still braking way too much as I learn the machine. (And of course, there's all the basic benefits of it being electric.)
So what's in the info-packet under the seat? There's an invoice, a three page quick-start guide to get the scooter going, a one page warning lights reference, the eighteen page manual which even has a wiring and circuit diagram included, and the certificate of origin (make/model Huari EVD, Motor Driven Cycle, 4.0 HP). There's also a well-stocked little tool bag that I didn't even open but it'll be convenient to keep with the bike for any quick repairs.
My appointment with the DMV to register it is Friday, hopefully all goes smoothly. I am going to try to work out insurance tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to offering up the 7.75% sales tax.
I ordered the LEDs to replace the bulbs and I hope I can drop those in before this time next week. My own experience behind cars with LED taillights convinced me to replace in my GTI the stock bulbs with OEM LEDs so I have high expectations. The Hyperlites look interesting; I've been behind flashing taillights before and they are certainly conspicuous.
Something that's probably unique to my situation here at the beach in San Diego are a few exposed screwheads that you can't really notice in photos. Since my commute pretty much follows the Pacific from Mission Beach to Torrey Pines (about ten miles), exposed unpainted exterior screws wouldn't survive long. So shortly I'll be coating the heads of the screws with some Rustoleum just in case, everything else like the wheels and handlebars looks safe for the sea breeze.
So, what's the word at the end? So far this EVD is fun to ride on brief circuits around the block. Once I've got the insurance and registration taken care of, if it can make it up one mildly steep zigzagging hill this should be a great ride.
Hiya ptudor, welcome to the EVD club. Glad my info helped ya, and I hope to see more from you like the above. :)
I think I've adequately handled the tail/brake lights, now to move to the front of the bike. It's getting darker earlier now, and a pair of 35W bulbs just seems pretty weak. I'm going to look at some LED driving lights next, and also a headlight modulator.
My electric vehicle: CuMoCo C130 scooter.
I started a new thread to discuss lighting, hope to get some XM3500 owners in on the discussion:
http://visforvoltage.org/forum/5247-better-lighting-evd-amp-xm3500
My electric vehicle: CuMoCo C130 scooter.
An update: I snagged a Kill-o-watt from a coworker.
My daily commute is almost precisely 10 miles, mostly on a 45mph road, with a number of traffic lights and suburban traffic. I've also got about 3 significant hills each way. I tend to push the motor pretty aggressively, keeping my speed up with traffic as much as possible. I'm a medium sized guy, probably 170lbs in winter gear. So, this is very much a real-world number.
So, given all of that, a recharge after a single day commute consumed 0.93kWh. Assuming I've calculated the battery capacity right, that would give me a theoretical total range of about 50 miles, but the last 10 would probably suck. So 40 miles in practice. Also, my daily electrical cost is going to be around 8.4 cents, or .84 cents per mile.
My electric vehicle: CuMoCo C130 scooter.