This is the multi-page printable view of this section. Click here to print.

Return to the regular view of this page.

Issues

There are always issues. Lets find solutions.

Issues TODO

1 - TODO

TODO: What I would like to check

A curated list of things I need to check if are an issue or not.

Battery Connections

There is an external charge port, and an Anderson plug under the rear seat. Are these protected? Are these fused?

Cable routing

I’ve noticed some of the cables come close to moving parts. I am going to review all of these during the service and see if any further cable ties need adding. Also some of the cavities allow mud/water in, I’ll check all the connectors are safe.

Fuse Box

Where is it? What does it control? Does it have spares?

Manual

All training online for maintenance, removing the wheel, checking ABS, etc is all talking about general information and pointing you to the specific shop manual for your bike. Where is the manual for this bike?

Update: A manual has been released, but does not yet have information needed such as removing rear wheel.

Mystery Buttons

Two on the dash, 4 on the left side. None seem to do anything except one makes a noise. Also a “maintenance” button on the right handlebar that doesn’t seem to do anything.

Update: The 4 buttons left side is bluetooth speaker system

Quiescent current

Check the quiescent current of the stock charger to see if it can be left on long term, or needs a timer. ie. It should draw almost nothing when the bike is charged.

Display Brightness

TODO

Kill Switch

During a crash, the throttle may stay hard open with the bike on its side. I think a kill switch would still be useful safety. The controller already had support for it.

Update: The kick stand is the kill switch, but will outside people know? Might be not an issue.

Indicator Switch

Is switch back to middle common? Other motorbikes I have ridden press in to cancel - which is very easy to do. The slide back to the middle requires me to look down and check - as instead of switching left off to centre, I may have turned on right from centre - impossible to tell.

Horn

Seems pretty quiet, consider upgrading.

Lights

Review brightness and width etc

2 - Alarm

Alarm and Remote control

Volume

The volume of the alarm is a lot. However, I have no issue when the alarm goes off, my issue comes from pressing the button on the key - lock/unlock. Scares the hell out of people around me.

The alarm should be loud, the lock/unlock sound should not be !

3 - Back Brake

Back Brake is normally on the right foot of a motorbike, but left hand for bikes and scooters. Which is better?

Motorbikes

Almost all motorbikes have a clutch, therefore the back brake is down at the right foot.

Bikes and Scooters

Bikes and scooters do not have a clutch and therefore have the back brake left hand

Front Brake

Is right hand, and should be on everything. But be aware, some countries use the left side for front brake on bicycles.

What are you used to?

If you are used to clutched bikes, you don’t want to accidentally grab the rear brake thinking it is the clutch. This hasn’t been a problem for me, but I don’t have the years on motorbikes others do.

Case for foot

Consistent with motorbikes. This one is tricky, since it isn’t consistent with bicycles or scooters. We switch between cars and bikes and motorbikes.

The rolling on a hill argument is interesting. The idea there is that you keep right foot on the brake, and won’t roll, thus releasing your hands. Where as with hand brakes, you can’t use both hands. However, the opposite is true, you can use both feet. This doesn’t stop the roll, but can present you with a more stable ground, especially as a beginner.

Case for hand

Finesse. I find the gentle tacktle response far better control that using my foot. And it means I can wear chunkier boots when riding as I don’t need feet finesse to control gears and brake.

Conclusion

For me, no question, hand back brake on the left handlebars is FAR superior to a foot brake. I also totally understand people who have ridden for years tripping up on this.

4 - Balance

Balancing tyres is important

Checing balance

Put bike on rear stand, and spin up wheel. Do not over spin, check speedo, keep it around max of 100km.

Watch the vibration over the bike.

See Also

5 - CBS

No ABS, but does have CBS, so what is CBS

AWS and CBS and the rules in Australia

TODO. I have not reviewed this yet. I can say for certain that the front brake has no effect on the back wheel. Not played enough on the stands, using the rear brake.

Mainly my issue with CBS on this motorbike is that most of the new training etc talks about putting more emphasis on the front brake, which has no ABS, therefore no protection.

What is CBS

The front brake is not effected - this is where we really want ABS since 80% of braking is done on this wheel.

The CBS is basically a rear wheel brake which then adds in about 20% on the front wheel.

The concept of this is that people tend to be taught not to slam on the front brake, and fear of going over the handles, so that emergency braking has a large rear wheel input.

The problem is, this is VERY old advice. Using the front brake, well, is far more effective at braking.

6 - Charging Plug

Location and Type

See Battery Plug for more detailed information.

Type

The external plug on the bike is an EC13, which is clearly problematic, as in Australia someone may plugin a 240 volt cord from a computer or kettle. I remember a CB radio I had with USB charge cable, only it was 12 volts. Plugged that into my phone - but USB is supposed to be 5 volts !!!

Location

The external location one is great but wrong plug. The other cable (desired probably for extended battery) is under the rear seat.

7 - Hill Start

Hill starts - when your brake stops the accelerator?

Hill Starts

I’m finding hill starts very difficult. Initially I thought dragging my back brake during slow turns would not work, but once I am moving, I can add back brake without much concern, and move fairly slowly. Being a sport bike (I think) I am fidning it harder to move slow.

However, taking off up a hill (even a small one) is VERY difficult. The soft start on the accelerator means that I can not help but roll backwards before going fowards - as the accelerator does nothing until the brakes are both released.

General Uphill corners

Trail braking and similar suggesting putting 1-5% load on the front forks. I have found that heading uphill even a bit, I can’t touch either brake without completely disengaging the motor. This means that I get a very odd behaviour.

  • Small amount of brake is the same as completely removing all power
  • This, uphill, is very twitchy, since even engaging the brake light a tiny amount (<1% braking) instantly removes all power and gravity really slows you down. Down hill I don’t notice this much.

8 - Key

Key sometimes turns off bike

Isn’t it supposed to

Yes, I couldn’t resist. Yes it is supposed to. But when using the key, sometimes moving the handle bars turns off the bike. This is caused by a loose connection.

Fixing

TODO - not yet done, will be first service.

9 - Manual

Reviewing the manual

Version from 25th October 2022 - MotoE 5000W

https://support.braaapmotorcycles.com/hc/en-au/articles/10682311179289-MotoE-User-Manuals

Errors

  • Page 11 - Talks about the Potentiometer being the position of the throttle. It isn’t. It is current speed, it is a copy of the Speedo. It would be awesome if it it was throttle position!
  • Page 16 - Park function disengages throttle yes - but it does NOT stop it rolling forward and back.
  • Page 24 - says to park the bike, use clutch leaver and put it in neutral
  • Page 24 - Safety parking MotoE 5000W said to put it into 1st gear so it won’t roll.
  • Page 28 - Rest of manual is Australian, using km/h etc. But here it uses the American spelling of Tire, should be Tyre.
  • Page 29 - This states that the front brakes of the 5000W is ABS Front Twin. Where as pages up higher says the 5000W does not have ABS.

Missing

The main one here is removing the rear wheel. Obviously if there is a tyre needing to be replaced, it needs to be removed, either by owner or tyre repair. However, due to the hub motor having wire in place, what is the process of removing that wheel? Also as it is a hub motor, it doesn’t use more common axle. And of course it is important to include which bolts must be in place and tension.

10 - Mirrors

Mirrors, how are they, upgrades etc.

Compared to my CB 125

On the CB125 I have mirrors attached to the handlebar, and I can easily see behind me. On the EV5 I can not see directly behind me, no matter where I put the mirrors, I’m just always in the way - I’m just too wide.

Options to fix

  • Add / Replace with handlebar mirrors. There is already holes ready for them
  • Add extensions to existing mirrors - just moves them out a little
  • Handlebar end mirrors - not sure legality in Victoria/Australia and I would do them as addition, not replacment, would that then offer more confusion? To be considered.

Discussion

On facebook the discussion recommended either to try and adjust the arm (no luck for me, but might help others), add curved mirrors, add bar end mirrors, replace with mirrors similar to moto3

I have ordered some bar end mirrors to try.

11 - Parking

Parking, when you can’t leave it in gear?

Geared bike

Parking on a bit of a hill? In my geared bike I can leave it in first, and it wont roll.

P is for Park

But is it? As far as I can tell, P for park stops the bike from accidentally going, same as the kick stand down.

I am surprised there is no way to park, effectively short out the motor, so it won’t turn. Be worth looking at the controller to see if this feature is programmable.

The manual says P will stop the bike rolling back and forwards, but it does not work!

12 - Quiet

It’s quiet out there…. too quiet

Myth

There is a long standing myth in motorbikes that loud pipes save lives. This has now been studied so many times and every one of those studies has concluded that it is not true.

Now if you want to justify your loud pipes - go for it.

Studies

Anecdotal

Think about a vehicle comming towards you, vs going past you. They are SOOO much quieter until they pass you. When we talk about loud pipes, we are wanting vehicles in front of us to see us.

13 - Range

Range

This document is more about logging information about the range, rather than actually an issue.

Advertised

Apparently about 80 to 120km

Initial testing

I’m not really in a posiotion to ride without concern. I don’t have a trailer, and I don’t always have someone to come and get me.

Real world

Kinglake trip was 66 to 70km and the battery went completely flat. Planning on now doing this 3 times.

  • Kinglake (70km) - heavy on the throttle, very fast in a few places - 66V, 3km short, flat.
  • Kinglake (70km) - Average and sticking to speed limits - TODO
  • Kinglake (70km) - Keep to about 60k/h, slower in the 80 and 100km sections - TODO

Range vs Voltage

Since we only have voltage, here is a rough guide.

14 - Stand

Stand

Purchase

For now I have purchased some eBay stands. Cheap but limited.

DIY - See Also

15 - Sudden Stop

Sudden stop on flat battery

Regular reviews

Almost every review I’ve seen of electric motorbikes, even cheap ones, has shown how when people do range testing on the battery, they all end up in a limp mode to allow you to get home or somewhere safe a little slower.

No limp mode

The lack of limp mode is painful! And also a little dangerous. I got stuck, with my first flat battery, on a very twisty bituman side road with nowhere to pull over and impossibly difficult to push up the hill

Restart

After restart I got another 500m, but was not able to move much in mode 1, had to use mode 3.

Battery Indicator wrong

It showed 2 bars and suddenly stopped

NO LIGHTS!

My battery power failure was almost instant. One beep and it switched off.

This feels insanely dangerous to me. Imagine riding at 100km on twisty roads in the pitch dark and loosing all power suddenly, including lights.

I am actually quite dissapointed that this isn’t a requirement of safety in Australia.

Cutting the power to the wheel is acceptable. Not fantastic, I really want limp mode, also for safetly. But FFS do NOT turn off the whole bike.

Not only is this clearly dangerous without lights but then you have no way of using your emergecy blinkers and no way to check the voltage of the battery.

16 - Weight

Bike Weight

Technically the manual says 190kg. Since the battery is only 30kg (Again, acooding to the manual) I am surprised.

However, there is a lot of information missing on this bike, so I am planning on doing some weighing and seeing what it actually is and where it is.

Regular Bike Weights

Since I have no clue, and therefore others won’t either, here is a rough idea of bike weights according to the internet.

  • Braaap EV5 (not tested, in manual) = 190kg
  • Honda CB125E = 137kg dry = 152kg approx
  • KTM 390 Duke = 149kg dry = 168kg approx
  • Average Adventure Bike = 250kg
  • Average Sports Bike = 180kg