Bike Blog

• Ride Blogs
• Dirt rides every few days
• Lots of Kinkglake Trips
• Kinglake
• Healesville
• First Dirt
• First Night Ride
• September 19th
• Next few days
• First ride
• Maintenance
• Rear Wheel
• 1000kmm
• First
• Windscreen
• Review Key Issue

Ride Blogs

Dirt rides every few days

I have been riding my Honda 125 on dirt roads every few days. Done almost 400km all up. It is just so much fun riding on little back dirt roads. I notice I’m going around corners a lot faster now I’m used to riding fast on the EV5.

It isn’t fast up the hills, and I develop some bad habbits like pretty much keeping throttle open all the time. I get to experience drifting sideways when on loose dirt, and even occasionally needing my foot down. Comming out onto the bitumen once there was a heap of loose gravel, and as I turned the back end went out miles, and I kept good control.

I’ve been practicing heaps for my test ride and license on this bike. I need to spend a lot more time in suburbs with it.

Going to book my test ride in the next week. Soon to be on Ps

Lots of Kinkglake Trips

I have now done many trips around the Kinkglake area. It has been such a delight.

Battery

Most of the trips range between 72 and 80km and I am usually down to between 68 and 71 volts.

Issues

Wheel Alignment

This issue is now fully fixed. My brakes do not make any more noise

Power Failure

One trip around I had a power failure. After about 25km power just failed and I watched the voltage drop down and down until it went off. On pulling over, I could not turn on the bike first time. Second time I turned it off then on, it would constantly power cycle. Finally I found resetting the whole system by turning off the circuit breaker and back on fixed the problem, and I rode home the next 40km no issue. It has not happened again since, but keeping an eye on it.

Kinglake

The ride I’ve been looking forward to.

Kinglake, Toolangi, Yarra Glena and home.

This ride is something I have been looking forward to for some time.

The day

Sunny, 21 degrees, absolutely perfect weather. Met a few lovely people. Had a nice coffee. The most amazing scenery. WOW.

I have had the most amazing day. The bike ran beaifully (well mostly, see end).

Performance of my EV5

The bike performance was lovely. I am just a beginner, so I am not a great judge. Even in the last few weeks I have really improved my speed. I am riding a lot faster around corners, and braking a lot less and generally increased my speeds.

Braking is lovely. Biggest thing I say against this version (the EV5) is the lack of ABS brakes. That said, I found the brakes and handling around the corners really lovely.

The ride

• My place to Kinglake - about 20km, then coffee
• Kinglake to Chocolate fatory in Yarra Glen - about 25km, then chocolate
• Yarra Glen to Sugarloaf - about 15km
• Sugarloaf to home - about 10km. Probably, if I had have made it

I love electric. I love the feel and lack of vibration. I had a greaat day.

Range!

About 3km from my house I lost power. Turning it off then on gave me about another 500m and then it lost power again, with no ability to turn back on.

The total ride was about 70km, or a little less. This is a lot less than I have had in the past however it was a very hilly ride and I am definitely riding more aggressively than I have in the past.

What I noticed was the voltage regularly dropping into the 60s and lowest to 66.

Fully charged 72V battery is 84V. 66V is 25% so not unreasonable flat rate. Totally flat (0%) is 60V which is not great for the battery.

In the past I have done 80km+ and voltage has dropped only to 72V. I think when I got it going the second time it was 68V.

None of this is a major concern for me. What is an issue is below in sudden stop and battery indicator.

Weight

This is a heavy bike. Considering that the battery is only 30kg, the bike being 190kg is a lot, and trying to push it even up a very gentle grade road is VERY difficult. I can’t even imaging what the really big bike owners deal with.

I’m going to look into Weight.

Issue - sudden stop

I felt very uncomfortable, even in quit a dangerous space, to what happens when the battery stops. I’m riding along, 2 bars but can see voltage down and feeling the acceleration a little lower.

Then BAM! Complete power off. No dash, one quick beep, and no lights, NOTHING. This means up hill and in the dark - I go completely dark, no lights, no rear lights, no emergency blinkers, and almost sudden stop since I’m heading up hill.

Issues:

• No lights - stopping the motor is one thign, turning off the whole bike is NOT OK!
• No ability to turn on emergency indicators - no power, NO LIGHTS, no emergency blinkers.
• No warning - doesn’t slow down or limp mode just goes dead flat after a beep and in about 2 seconds.

I felt quite unsafe.

See Sudden Stop

Issue - battery indicator

I never noticed it go below 2 bars, even after I restarted it on the way home. I think under load it did drop to 1 bar very briefly.

My feeling is that it drops from 5 to 3 bars is no time at all. Less than 20km range. Then it drops from 3 to 2 more slowly. But then 2 was also actually flat.

Battery indicators are HARD WORK! Very hard to get right. Very hard to make accurate. But I think this is a particularly bad one and I think we can work on better.

Delightsful end of the day

I stopped close by to a house and the owner came out and helped me not only push it off the road, but into his place and near his shed, so I could go get the charger and charge the bike up. Then to top off his generosity he drove me home to get my car. What a delight to meet another neighbour on our road.

Healesville

Longer Ride

Rode to Healesville for breakfast. I reliaed I need to do these rides, but maybe without the food, as the cost is starting to add up.

Healsville trip was amazing. Lovely twisties, I got to experience more lean and more speed.

The views ! Not been, go.

Trip each way was approximately 36km. Just over 70km all up. Bike down to 70 volts, and 3 bars. I want to do 100 then more, but I need first to organise a trailer in case I need to get home, but I think over 100km will not be an issue.

Issues

Food is expensive

Well, eggs benedict is!

Speedometer

Reads almost exacltly 5km under actual speed. This is pretty standard for vehicles but I also notice you can change it - see documents.

https://support.braaapmotorcycles.com/hc/en-au/articles/5666679535513-MotoE-Changing-Speedometer-from-Miles-to-KMs

Indicator Wire

The right hand front indicator wire was getting slightly fowled on the forks. It was easy to reach in and move it, and when I got home add a cable tie. Check your cables !

First Dirt

There is a theme here…. “first”… I’ll get over it…

Took the Honda CB125E out today on dirt roads around my house. Amazing fun. There is a really steep hill I used to love racing up on horses 35 years ago, and hated riding my bicycle up, but loved down. Today I rode up it and although I was in 2nd most of the way up, it was a total blast !

First Night Ride

Wasn’t too wet this evening, so I did a short 12km ride to buy some milk.

Issues

Lights

I really don’t know if they are good or bad. It is hard to see enough in a car, and on a bike it felt kind of worse. I do know that these lights are WAY brighter than the Honda.

Horn

I think it should be louder, might put this on my upgrade list.

September 19th

Honday CB125

Rode the Honda CB125E again today, getting my practice up to get my license.

Interesting note. This is a 124CC, 10.2HP, 7.6kW motor. And yet my 5kW electric motorbike literally smokes this for speed, acceleration up hills and top speed.

Back on the Moto EV5 (ODO ~ 200k)

Did another big block on Moto EV5 lots of twisties, starting to finally do some leaning. Very wet on the roads, debree, and some pot holes from the big rain yesterday, so I took it easy.

Issues

Mystery Buttons 1 or 2

There is a set of buttons on the left handlebar, just inside the grip, with 4 buttons. Power, +, - and something. No idea what it is for, can’t find it on the web site. When you press power button, it makes a sounds, like Windows turning on. Press again it clicks off. But when it is on, it doesn’t do anything. I suspect it is the unused cruise control. If so, why is it there? What can I do with it? Why does it make noise.

Myster Button 2 - and the trip meter

There is three bits of information on the trip meter. Odometer - only shown at power on, Battery Volts and Trip meter.

The trip meter automatically resets at the start of each power on of the bike. So this means for multi stop trips, you need to keep an eye on it. In some ways kind of annoying, in others it is pretty cool.

There are two buttons on the left of the dash, I would have thought these would be perfect for things like showing odometer, but they don’t seem to do anything. Again, I want to look if I can make them work.

Next few days

The Rides

I am having the most wonderful morning rides. Getting out there on the bike each morning has kept me more alert and awake for my work day. It was fantastic decision to start riding, and with such a cool and interesting bike.

Starting to get experiment with the cornering. I live in a wonderful part of Melbourne with amazing, albeit dangerous roads, and get to experience and practice so many types of riding.

Issues

Mirrors

Maybe just because I am a beginner, but I am struggling with the mirrors. The mirrors on my Honda CB125 allow me to see easily behind me. The Moto EV5 mirrors are much lower, and no matter where I place them, I only see my hands with a very narrow window behind me. If I move them further out, I see wide but no behind me. I need to look at this more.

Noise over bumps

There is a small knock noise over bumps. It maybe nothing. It maybe because I have never ridden a bike like this. It may be because I have been riding for less than a week. But I want to make sure specifically that there is nothing loose.

Hill Start

Hill starts? The bike has a feature, where when you are still, with the brakes on, then the accelerator will not work. Seems logical to start with. But then you want to take off up a hill. At this point I would normally just drag my back brake, but I have to release both brakes to take off. This means I can only use my feet to stop rolling back.

Similarly, slow speed turns with back brake dragging can’t be done.

See the issues doc Hill Start

Parking

Related to the above, parking on a hill without gears to stop it rolling?

See the issues doc Parking

First ride

Delightful

My first ride of this bike was a delight. I live in a very hilly part of Melbourne, and my CB125 will barely keep up to 60 up a couple of the hills, and it is about a 7kW motor. This 5kW motor will happily keep acacelerating past 90 before I stopped. And it is a heavier bike too.

I am a total noob, riding only 2 days on the roads, never ridden a sports bike, never something so big, so I am taking it slow, cornering slow etc. Already I notice just how it sticks to the road, how much faster I can turn, how the front forks compress nicely with some brake. I feel very safe.

Trying to think about every turns as if I am going faster, entry, exit, trail braking.

Issues

Some issue during first ride

Power failure when handle bars hard left

I discovered if I jerk the handle bars hard left the power cycled. After a quick call to the manufacturer, we discovered a loose connector from the key. I have to remove the a few things to get to it to reseat it. However, for now I discovered that using the remote key to start intead, then does not have this issue. For now, safetly wise, I will use the key, until the 500km initial service.

Maintenance

Rear Wheel

I’ve noticed the squeek other have in the rear brake. And I checked it well with the 1000km/safety inspection. Today however I noticed that the rear wheel is not quite aligned. I’ve not removed it, so it is how it came.

To remove the nuts on the right side took a big leaver - damn they were nice and tight. Removing those, and the extra twist nut, I was able to align the wheel better, re-tighten, and of course most importantly test the brake.

Then re-tension, and apply the lock nut, and the extra nut to screw. Be careful of the 10mm screw, it can not cope with a full strength tighten and will strip the thread if not careful.

Once I got it back together, tested it on the stand, I took it for a test ride. The rear wheel is not making anywhere near as much noise.

Wheels

1000kmm

Technically done at 901km - should be done between 800 and 1000.

Plan on maintenance

I will be keeping track of all maintenance including all costs.

Initial Steps

Isolate battery

Stands

Mounted the bike on stands - not only giving more secure base, but allowing the wheels to move freely, keep it flat, and less likely to fall.

Initial once over

• Front wheel - doesn’t roll very smoothly, has a lot of friction, far more than I would expect. Would it make a difference, probably not. But I need to look up some manuals and check.
• Rear wheel - probably the brake, has a loud noise. I think this is just an issue with brakes, and I need to watch some you tube videso to see.
• Running the motor (yay standas) up to ab out 50k/h I notice quite a wobble at the back. It is very likely this wheel has not been balanced.
• CBS - got to experiment with the CBS, where using the rear brake activates about 20% of the front brake. I played with that, and can feel the front wheel almost lock as I gently apply the rear. But if I gently apply the front, the front wheel locks up nice and solid. So it works as expected, but I just don’t get the purpose - unless it is about older style teaching tequiques that used lots of rear brake.

Remove plastics and tanks

The bolts are pretty obvious. Keep track of the bolts, lengths, which have rubber grommits, and most importantly - that the little metal clips on the plastic, as they easily fall off.

One other note, is that some of the plastic is held down with plastic clips, be careful not to break them off.

Fix Key issue

The key connector was easy to find. As I left the key on, I could move the cables and hear the connect/disconnect spark. There was nothing shorted. I disconnected the connector, checked each cable, made sure everhything was secure, well inserted etc. I then pushed the connector in smoothly and it clicked nicely. I then tested it very carefully, and no matter where I moved it, it continued to work well. So very easy fix.

Added cable tie to these and other connectors

Install new charging point

Complete and looks awesome. So much nicer to use than opening back seat.

Cable Ties

To fix the key issue, and change charging point, I had to remove cable ties. Reinstall these. Note that also there was quite a few loose cables, some even that could reach moving parts such as suspension and steering - cable tie all of these.

Mount Battery Monitor on Dash

Move the battery monitor to dash instead of tank. Longer term location. Run battery cable for power and CAN bus connector for longer term monitoring options. Look at other USB connection options for 5V. Only got this partially done, will finish off in the future.

Other connectors

Check every other connector, and cable tie, or tape. A couple of connectors were a bit risky for shorting, so I tapped/heat shrink and cable ties.

Schedule

• Throttle
  • Done - Make sure throttle is free and always resets to zero
• Brake fluid (dot 3 or 4)
  • Done - Photograph now
  • Done - check levels, replace every few years
  • Done - Measure brake movement
• Batten
  • WTF is this?
• Brake Pad
  • Done - check, photograph, and clean disk
• Cables and hoses
  • Done - check brake hoses, photograph
  • Done - review all other cables - no wear, no movement that shouldn’t be
• Brake light switch
  • Done - Back and Front brake operate light
• Headlight aim
  • Done: Measure at about 5-7m. Should be about 5-10cm below for low beam
  • Done - Headlights both work, including high beam
  • Done - Tail light works
  • Done - Number plate light
• Suspension
  • Done
• Nuts, bolts, fasteners
  • Done - Check bolts on brakes
• Wheels / Tyres
  • Done - Tyres - photograh and measure tread depth
  • Done - Tyres - check pressure
  • Done - Wheels - visual inspection - paying attention to any cracks in the aluminium
  • Check bolts on front and rear wheel
  • Done - Bearings - check spinning free
• Steering head bearing
  • Done - Move steering, make sure no free play, check bolt tight on steering. Check handlebars are tight.

My own additions:

• Battery Mounting
  • Done check the battery is not moving

Space

There is heaps of space either side of the existing main battery to add further batteries. This would require adding metal bracket for safety. There is enough space where the old 12 volt battery would have been, and above the rear suspension for probably 2x20Ah batteries. Finally there is above and to the side of the rear seat.

There is more space than I though there would be. Certainly I need to yet mount my charger.

Costs

• $250 - for life time warranty
• $34 - 2 months of self service fee ($17/month)
• $10 - black spray paint
• $12 - Anderson Plug flush dash mount for charging

Not couting life time warranty, this service therefore cost me $56.

First

The manual has been released indicating that most of what we need to do is tightening, inspection, wheels, brakes, shocks and steering (usual bike stuff)

Purchased

• Some basic stands front and back. I found some with rubber mounts for the swing arm, so they work on bikes without first inserting the bolts. Not quite as stable, be aware.
• New set of good handled round head hex/allen keys. I note that the short end, with leverage is straight cut for good torque, and the other end has the rounded head, to allow better angles. There is a lot of hex heads on the bike, so this will save me a lot of time
• Better tyre pressure gauge - the one built into my compressor isn’t accurate enough. Decided to get a dial gauge rather than the pen like ones, as it is easier to read for only a little more weight.
• New Anderson Plus - especially a dash mount one. This is going to replace the EC13 plug on the side. The new one I have is panel mount, so will just need a slight cut out of the existing welded tab holding the EC13. Then I need to just use some good uv related heat shrink on the inside side to protect it from water. Unfortunately there is no external cover. Looking at options. See Battery Plug.

Learning

TODO - watch lots of you tube videos.

Plans

• Follow Schedule.
• External Charger replace with Anderson Plug
  • Consider thicker gauge wires from battery to external charger
  • This would allow another place to extend the battery
  • Even possibly a sidecar !
• Fix Key (lock) issue - loose connection.
  • Photograph
  • Make sure won’t happen again
  • Report to manufacturer
• Check ALL wiring
  • Connections
  • Quality of wires - note of any that may need replacing
  • Connectors - find all connectors, lavel and document
  • Add more cable ties to at risk wires
  • Look at risks for water comming in, which wires are at risk (e.g. existing external charge port needs some work)
• Check lights - look at what the rules are and make a stencil for next time
• See if software can be connected, possibly even the Bluetooth dongle
• Investigate what is involved in removing the rear wheel to replace the tyre
• Check space in battery housing, and meausre well for upgrades / additions
• Measure and look at charger mounting options
• Tank - I have a feeling the tank could be cut down to a fraction of the size, and allow a heap of storage/battery - check it out and review.

Windscreen

Tinted

Tinted the windscreen. See Docs Windscreen

Review Key Issue

Issue

My first issue on the bike has been to do with the key and moving the handlebars, will sometimes reset power. Turns out it is a loose connection at the end of the key wiring, which is only accessible under the (fake) petrol tank.

Temporary solution

For now, I have discovered using the remote to start the bike, does not cause any issues and is safe to ride until I do the 500km service and fix it properly.

Support

Received phone call, offering alternatives

Removed sides

Removed the plastic fearings below the tank to see if I could get access, and also inserted the camera to see where the problem was. It was too difficult to see. I reinstalled the fearings and will pull off everything, including the tank at the first service (500km)

I notice a little bit of rust on some of the screws. I’m looking into what to put on them before next install. I would normally juse use Marine grease but I’m concerned that will make them come loose with vibration.