motorcycle shopping

After looking through the bike ranges of every company that sells motorcycles in Canada, there are three bikes on my short-list: Honda NC700, Suzuki V-Strom 650 and Triumph Tiger 800.

Yesterday I drove four hours to North Bay Cycle & Sports to take part in an official "Ride With Us" event put on by Honda. I spent 45 minutes riding the NC700X in a group of about a dozen other test riders, all on different bikes, including my friend & room mate who rode an Aero Shadow. Then another four hours drive back home.

It was worth it! Bombing around the hills and lakes around North Bay on a beautiful, strong bike with a great riding position. So very, very much more comfortable and fun than my CBR125. To get up to 115kph on my current bike I have to crouch very low, my chin up between the handle bars, and thrash the engine in sixth gear. On the NC700X I was sitting up comfortably, in fourth gear, and it was purring along.. and it's a six speed, so there's plenty more power and gearing for high efficiency cruising.

Only thing I would change is giving it a taller wind screen, which is one of the available options. I also had a look at and sit on the "S" model, which has a lower seat and is more sporty in how it's set up, so I prefer the "X".

With the taller windscreen, shipping, tax, etc. it would cost me $11,039 If I financed for 60 months through Honda it'd be another $2,707. Might get a bit for my CBR125 as a trade-in, or if I sell it privately, but I only paid $2,300 for it two years ago so I'm not expecting much.

I would still like to ride the V-Strom - it has a bit less grunt than the Honda and costs a teeny bit more. I went to the Niagara Falls Motorcycle Show last weekend, but even though it was only noon on Sunday, the Suzuki crew were packing up the bikes to leave. So I didn't get a test ride. The rest of the show was nothing of interest to me; it was a waste of a 3 hour drive, $40 admission for me and my husband and another 3 hours back. Not a great potential customer experience. Looking at their events page on the Suzuki website, looks like the only remaining test ride this year is not until the end of August and I'd have to pay for admission to the Canadian Superbike Championship event to get my hands on a V-Strom. Nope.

I'm all but decided against the Tiger as it costs significantly more and - from the reviews I've read - has more grunt than I need and is less fuel efficient. Two weeks ago I filled out the forms on the Triumph Canada website to "Request a Test Ride" and I have not heard anything back. I doubt I'll be getting onto a Tiger any day soon...

e-bike: late night first ride

Finally took my bike out for a quick spin around the neighbourhood.  Just kind of threw it together, bits of wire hanging out here and there, no lights or signals, bungee cords making sure the battery pack doesn't tumble out. *heh*

It was FUN!

The motor certainly has a lot of zip to it and quite a pleasingly electric sound.  Vzzzzzzzzzzzziiimmmmmmmmmmmm........... :D

There are however a few problems that I've noticed which I will need to work on:

• the frame weights a SHIT TONNE.  A metric Shit Tonne.  Not certain how I'll address that other than perhaps making a new one.  I really like the style of the bike so I would likely copy some of the frame concept that's already there.. though in a lighter material.  Not certain what or how.  I don't weld and have no where to do welding even if I did.
• the steering is quite dangerous.  The first 10 degrees or so, left and right of center, are ok but then the weight of the bike tries to press down on the wheel and make it flop over abruptly.  I think it's because the wheel forks are completely straight, with just the angle of the steering column providing any rake at all.
• the brakes are a bit intense.. but.. better too strong than weak.
• trying to pedal at anything faster than, say, 1/3rd of the motor's speed is futile and pedalling from a stop is very difficult.  Some kind of adjustable gearing system might be worth looking into.  The current gear set is laughably terrible in how it's put together.  The transfer shaft doesn't have -any- bearings at all for example.  Quality manufacturing. -.-

So, that's about it for now.  I like it, but it could use some work before I'll love it.

Somewhat related to this post:  Last weekend I passed my M2-Exit motorcycle riding test, so I now have a full M class licence. \o/  Shopping for a new set of wheels has begun...

e-bike: updated battery & wiring diagrams

Here are updated battery and wiring diagrams, based on things I've figured out since I posted the first set.  Please delete or ignore any previous versions, thanks. :)

Battery Wiring Diagram v3

Download a large copy here: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B2ihJ04Ijch5NGkzZ2pMVllMNVk

Switch 100 Wiring Diagram v1

Download a PDF here: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B2ihJ04Ijch5U21MSE9uWVJUbDA

e-bike: whoops part 2

I have determined why my Switch 100's motor running in reverse. Messing around with the wiring, battery and pouring over various diagrams and photos was getting me nowhere, until I spotted something in this photo:

I took this when I was disassembling the wheel hub motor - not because it needed fixing, I just wanted to poke around inside and see what was in there.  The photo is of the wire order for the socket that connects the Hall Effect sensors to the controller, which I took because I had to remove the wires from the socket in order to take the wheel apart.

The important bit is that the wires coming out of the motor pass through the brake side of the wheel, and I've gone and reassembled the wheel backwards, so that the wires are coming out of the gear side instead.  No wonder it's running in reverse, I've put the stator in backwards. >.<

I've taken the wheel apart and rebuilt it, and it's now running perfectly. \o/

Next I'll temporarily install the batteries into the bike frame - bungee cords and duct tape go! - and take it for a test spin, then maybe an endurance ride to determine the battery capacity.

...

In other news, I passed my M2 Exit test today, so I now have a full M class license.  YAHOO! ^_^

Time to start shopping for a new motorcycle.

e-bike: whoops!

During the last week I've been re-assembling my Switch 100, getting it ready for a test run to ensure that everything still runs and to determine the battery pack capacity.  I'd like to know roughly how far it will get me on a charge before I try to go anywhere.

It's less-than-more together - I'm leaving a lot of cosmetic bits off - and I was test fitting the battery pack when disaster struck.  Twice.  Both times my own foolish fault. :(

The first incident happened when the BMS board brushed across the ends of a couple of the batteries and shorted for a millisecond.  Yeep!  I think (hope) that the board is all right.  It stank of overheated PCB board, but I believe it was just dumping the current from one ground post to another, rather than through any of the components.

To test if it works still I put the pack onto the floor next to the assembled bike and plugged it in.

BLEEP!

Power.  Lights.  Woo!  The pack still seems to be alive.. though I have yet to try charging it yet...

This is where the second accident happened.  I gingerly tried the throttle and suddenly the bike was leaping and crashing around, sparks were flying from the battery pack, my brain nearly leapt out of my ears in shock. 0.0

It appears I have the positive and negative inverted on the pack, and this caused the bike's motor to run in reverse.  When that happened the chain drive connected to the pedals caused them to start spinning and one of the pedals began "walking" along the battery pack on the floor.

Net damage to the pack is minimal.  A few broken plastic bits on the orange battery frames, two of the battery sensor wires were damaged and one of the batteries had a bit of it's blue plastic sleeve torn.  None of them are leaking or otherwise appear to be damaged.

So.. still feeling kind of frazzled I'm repairing the damaged sensor wires.  Then I'm going to invest some time into making sure the battery ends are covered so that there won't be any more shorts.  I'm also going to redo the positive and negative coming out of the battery.  It looks like I had that correct in the first place.. earlier I believed that I must have had it inverted, which is why the bike wouldn't run during an earlier test.

At that time I tried flipping the battery's polarity.  Still wouldn't run.  Many hours later I figured out that it was because some sensor switches in the handlebar controls were fixed in the on position - they're normally off unless the rider uses the brakes - and it ran fine once I tested it with them in the off position.

Unfortunately I didn't think to check if the original polarity of the battery was correct.

Oh well.  This too is a learning experience.  Perhaps reading about it here will help someone else avoid a similar mistake. :)

Back to work.  I'd like to do a test ride tomorrow.