First Impressions

I rode the bike around my neighborhood all evening yesterday. The odometer and speedometer are primarily in kilometers, so I'm still deciding what unit of measurement to work in. I'd like to keep a pretty close log of rides and data to try and track the health of the system for a few months.

Ride 1	Start	Stop	Max
Odometer (km)	12	37
Voltage	76	69
Batt. Amps			100?
Speed (mph)			40

25 km is 15.5 miles, so I'm really happy about the range so far, even if I averaged only 20 or 25 mph. It's certainly no worse than my worst-case scenario. It will interesting to see what range I can get at an average speed of 40 or 50 mph though.

I tried to keep an eye on the PakTrakr:

I could easily accelerate and keep the battery-side amperage at or under 10 amps.

I could maintain 25 mph at about 4 amps.

The PakTrakr seems a bit confused about my battery State of Charge (SoC) at the moment. I followed the instructions and changed the chemistry setting to AGM, which I know to be accurate. Still although it can accurately report the pack voltage, it shows the SoC as being 72% when the pack is at 77 volts. The fuel gauge mode shows a mostly empty tank even though the pack is still around 71 volts. It could be user error - I've reset the display by unplugging the remote several times. As far as I know, everything else is working fine. I love the thing already, but I need to try and correct the issue.

My chargers are not working like I expected either. I'm not sure why, but they don't seem to shut-off, or rather, go into float mode when I think they should. Then again, I'm still a bit unsure what voltage my pack should have when "fully charged". If a fully charged AGM 12 volt battery actually reads 12.8 or 12.9 volts, then my batteries are spot on. The charges just seem to stay on full-blast (and stay hot), even once the pack has reach 77 volts (according to the PakTrakr). It might be that the two, 36 volt chargers are wired in series practically, and so they're interfering with each other's monitoring logic. I guess I could try charging the pack in halves to see if their behavior changes.

The controller only threw one error message while I was actually out riding. This too was probably my fault. After coming to a stop, I went to make a sharp right, which led to a down slope. There was a chug-a-chug feeling that may be mechanical on the bike between the motor, chain, wheel and swing-arm. I felt for a moment that the bike was trying to go sporadically, although not with full-power like a run-away. Somewhere in the chugs and whatever strange throttle inputs I gave it, the controller detected a problem. I only wish I had written the error code down, in case it occurs again or was something I haven't seen yet. A simple re-boot allowed me to keep going. I checked for damage or heat but found nothing. That was mid-way through the ride and it didn't hiccup, so to speak, any more.

In the end, it was super cool cruising around and turning some heads last night. Next thing to do is solve the few remaining mysteries and start people-proofing it so I can leave it in public with confidence.

-Colby