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Post by lurker on May 12, 2022 12:56:17 GMT -7
ecotric vortex, shimano 7 speed, selle saddle, 26", front and rear disk, vortex w/ 36v 350w hub motor and removable battery. originally listed at $625, and another 50-some for taxes, shipping, whatever. i was originally a bit concerned because although they hit the credit card immediately, no order confirmation or shipping notifications, but the vendor gets pretty good reviews, sooo... delivery expected by the 17th.
today, the 12th it shows up on the front porch unannounced, so i dragged it thru the house and out to the back yard
lots of foam packing it's all there, and no obvious issues. as usual, they only include a 15mm wrench(for the pedals), but 3 hex wrenches (2 of which i used) so bring your own 10mm and phillips screwdriver, and i found vise-grips useful. and as usual, assembly instructions are rudimentary.
so i got it all together in 2-3 hours, and it's out charging by the shed. i did mess up the finish on the seat post clamp, a little paint should hide that.
we'll see how it rides tomorrow. note that the prices on these things vary daily, i've seen 3 different prices for this exact same listing in the past week.
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Post by lurker on May 13, 2022 12:00:32 GMT -7
vortex rides just fine once i got everything adjusted and tightened up, only 1 pratfall. goes up the hill without breaking a sweat. steering geometry is a little different from the peugeot, will take a day or so to adjust. had some trouble mounting the front wheel. i think i may have bent the brake disk out of true. is there an easy way to fix it?
5/16 eta: rode it up to the transportation museum (about a mile each way, 1 hill) yesterday where it got lots of attention and questions. "hey, nice bike! is that electric?" why yes, yes it is.
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Post by lurker on May 27, 2022 8:55:20 GMT -7
still riding this thing, added head and tail lights, raised the seat a bit. this thing is a blast, i highly recommend if you like near-silently, near-effortlessly gliding along. have (mostly) straightened the front disc, still need to tweak it a bit. and the seat (selle shadow) is a bit on the hard side for my bony butt, might replace it. i've run out of room on the handlebars for accessories.
despite the fact that i'm doing very little pedaling, i've lost 6 lbs since getting this, i think just getting out and balancing on it uses calories(fat) and builds muscle. i ride nearly every day now for an hour or more.
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Post by lurker on Jun 21, 2022 13:47:13 GMT -7
today i rode vortex to the fancy bicycle shop in the next town to pay the pros to straighten the front brake disc. 3.1 miles each way, in 15 minutes. that's avg 12 mph, there and back 6 miles, gauge says 3/4 charge left. google says it would take 8 mins to drive it. i notice the battery charge seems to recover a bit if i let it stand for a couple of minutes.
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Post by lurker on Jul 2, 2022 6:58:32 GMT -7
we have a wooded park with trails here on the edge of town, and i took vortex back through and it handled the bumps and tree roots pretty well considering my inexperience. it's not a trail bike, more power would help, maybe some suspension, and i don't know squat about how to configure a bike for off-roading. maybe i need to raise the handlebars and/or lower the seat?
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Post by lurker on Jul 7, 2022 7:26:36 GMT -7
i've raised the handlebars a bit and swapped on the luggage rack from violet(seat is about as low as it can go), but it's been rainy so i haven't ridden since.
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Admin Czar
Administrator 
Mentally Exhausted & Socially Indifferent
Posts: 275
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Post by Admin Czar on Aug 17, 2022 20:05:38 GMT -7
Very cool, amigo. A nice step up from the initial Wally offerings. Very interested in actual power consumption vs published specs. I went the other way & bought parts. Will start a thread soon. Looking at a road warrior style solar yard contraption & a bike. Have both a front motor hub & geared rear wheel & BABs (big ass batteries) I'm practicing my arc welding again so who knows what might spring forth.
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Post by lurker on Aug 18, 2022 17:08:51 GMT -7
this i'd like to see. was initially planning to buy the hilltopper add-on kit (starts at $550 and goes up, Up, UP) but by the time you factor in a complete bicycle and higher power ratings the kit just didn't make sense for me. maybe if i knew my way around an electron...
meanwhile, i dumped the bike while nearly at a standstill, got a couple of scrapes and bruises but nothing serious. laid low for a week and then other business intervened, so last night was the first outing for a couple of weeks. still pleasant to ride, glad i had my helmet on, loud THWACK! when it hit the pavement, surprised it didn't break. i;m fine, i'll be fine.
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Post by lurker on Feb 9, 2023 17:37:41 GMT -7
took vortex out for a ride to stanback (yes, the headache powder guy) park, then down to the edge of town and back. daffodils are up. might freeze this weekend. vortex is competent though heavy on the trails here.   |
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Post by lurker on Feb 9, 2023 17:44:40 GMT -7
also saw my racing buddy, tucker. if he's out and hears me coming up the street, he comes out to meet me, then we run/ride up and down the fenceline a couple of times. he always wins because he's faster off the line.  |
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Post by desertbikes on Feb 10, 2023 6:20:44 GMT -7
Great stuff. Looks like the groundhog was wrong from the flowers.
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Post by lurker on Feb 10, 2023 12:50:05 GMT -7
i've been seeing some interesting wire welding rigs on youtube, my minimal experience was with stick welders, and i never got good with them.
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Post by lurker on May 14, 2023 7:22:55 GMT -7
i'm aloner, dottie, a rebel.  |
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Post by lurker on Sept 6, 2023 14:10:47 GMT -7
i happened to click the link in the first post and lo! behold! wally still sells these, and for less than $500. i like this trend. i suspect the low end of the market is responding to competition from the high end where the 2-and $3000 bikes reside. about time. lately the trend seems to be inflation outrunning competition, not sure capitalism is supposed to work this way?
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Admin Czar
Administrator
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Post by Admin Czar on Sept 6, 2023 21:47:55 GMT -7
Guess yours is still running ok. I see Hyper has one at $396 again too. Only 250 watts but gets people on 2 wheels anyway.
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Post by lurker on Sept 7, 2023 14:40:41 GMT -7
who is this person pretending to be Great Leader?
yes, still runs just fine, i ride it 6 or 8 miles just about every other evening, usually down to about 3/4 charge when i park it and plug it back in. been thinking about upgrading to something more powerful, but i probably won't.
did you ever start your project? if i had the skilz...
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Admin Czar
Administrator
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Post by Admin Czar on Sept 7, 2023 16:53:00 GMT -7
Yes I did! I've charged both batteries & changed the tarp covering the wheel boxes! Wheres the rolling eyes emoji again?...
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Post by lurker on Sept 9, 2023 11:25:04 GMT -7
looking at the pics it seems ecotric is uncertain whether the vortex has front suspension or not...
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Admin Czar
Administrator
Mentally Exhausted & Socially Indifferent
Posts: 275
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Post by Admin Czar on Sept 10, 2023 9:57:44 GMT -7
That is odd. Pics with & without. And yours doesnt. Not atypical for 3rd party wally vendors.
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Post by lurker on Sept 11, 2023 19:00:19 GMT -7
i'm guessing the latest model has springs but no one has updated all the pics.
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Post by lurker on Sept 15, 2023 14:32:24 GMT -7
yesterday i noticed the bike would suddenly lose power, like the juice to the motor suddenly cuts off, and the illumination to the control panel goes dark. if i mash the power button a couple of times, it MAY come back to life, for a while, until it dies again. seems to do it more at lower throttle settings. i'm wondering if this is a loose wire, or maybe the battery is starting to die. i'll fiddle with it, maybe figure something out., i've emailed ecotric asking if they have a troubleshooting flowchart. worst case is i haul it in to the fancy bike shop and pay them to look at it. haven't priced new batteries. in a pinch i can ride Peacedove, or even (the horror!) violet the peugeot. and i posted a pic of vortex at my credit union's atm on FB's "look at my bike leaning on things" group and stirred up a hornet's nest of divisive controversy about whether an e-bike is, or is not, an actual bicycle. the purists are aghast. my take is that if i can still ride it home with no charge on the battery, then yes, it's a bicycle.  |
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Post by lurker on Sept 19, 2023 15:57:16 GMT -7
heard back from ecotric, they want a video of it misbehaving. i MIGHT have a cheap video camera around here somewhere, not sure how to video while riding. meanwhile i took the vortex to my local bike shop to see if they could test the battery, and it appears good, nominal 36v capacity, actual reading 41v. fiddled with the contact pins in hopes of accidentally fixing it. have re-installed the battery, will take it out tonight to see if it's any better. new batteries from ecotric are $259 ea. power off power on.
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Admin Czar
Administrator
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Post by Admin Czar on Sept 20, 2023 11:44:23 GMT -7
It could still be the battery since load testing lithium based units is normally not advised. Those batteries are usually bricks of 18650 li batteries or something similar. Each individual battery has a cut-off voltage chip meaning they just shut off below 4vdc or whatever it may be. So it can be possible to charge the brick to full but if a couple (or more) die prematurely I'm not sure the effect that has on the brick, other than guaranteed degraded performance.
It sounds more like a controller problem though. In the olden days a rheostat type of affair would have been used for throttle control. Something repairable. New ones are are chips with heat sinks on an integrated board & not repairable. Probably costs the company about $20 for those controllers. Tell the cheap bastards to send you a new one. If they say they've never seen this before they're either lying or incompetent.
I'm sure you've done it already but double check every wire connection point. As in pull it apart & put it back together checking for corrosion along the way. Note any that stink like hot rubber or have signs of melting. Both the battery & controller can cause this without making a dead short.
Shooting a video - Shit, man! Even flip phones have that capability ;-)
Purists - can all, in every field & hobby, kiss my skinny white hind end. Except baseball which is now fkt up beyond all recognition.
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Post by lurker on Sept 26, 2023 16:31:59 GMT -7
looked over the bike for loose plugs and bare wires today, found neither. much of the wiring goes thru the frame tubes. i did find my old video camera, a Jazz hdv140 which gets pretty good reviews for a camera that sells at ww for under 20 bux, so there may be video of malfunction tomorrow, though there's really nothing to see. if i press the power button, the panel lights up momentarily, then goes dark, and the bike lurches a bit like the motor is engaging, again momentarily. whole thing takes a fraction of a second, then goes dark again.
hmmm, i wonder if there's a way to swap over the battery from/to the peacedove, both are 36v, 350 watts. might play with that tonight.
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Admin Czar
Administrator
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Post by Admin Czar on Sept 26, 2023 17:53:20 GMT -7
If the plugs arent the same just cut & spice a few inches back, although that would void the warranty for sure. If you do, double check the polarity  Did you say you did check the charger? |
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A bit warm. yes. Had to do another 2100 mile round trip on short notice. My back was/is in a real bad way & came home to a dead AC unit. Other than that its been just peachy! 
It's interfering with my bike & shooting time
Great for some things. Vans are such a bitch to work on. But what car isn't anymore...