Brammo Owners Forum

My 2013 Empulse is showing her age again. The problem this time has to do with detecting the state of charge. The bike shows a 0% charge (B3 recharge error), but works fine. I take it out on short rides and it clearly has a full tank of juice, but the dash reads it as empty with blinking lights and all. I've charged it up a few cycles now. The only time it shows a full charge now is when i charge it up full, remove the plug, and then plug it immediately back in; It'll briefly show an empty battery and then jump back to 100%, as if it sensed it didn't need to draw any more power and thusly readjusted the reading. When I remove the plug and turn it on again, though, it goes back to showing an empty battery.

The bike moves, so it's obviously a software error. Still, it's not great to ride around without knowing what my actual state of charge is or when it might give out. Is there a method of recalibration or sensor reset I can do? I've done enough work on it myself to be familiar with the manuals and wiring but not software problems.

So!  Bit of a pickle here. I live in Los Angeles and there isn’t a garage for miles around that’ll touch my bike - a 2013 Empulse R - for anything beyond basic repairs, so I’m DIYing it here.

A few weeks ago I left the Empulse parked outside during a dramatic and sudden LA rainstorm, sheets of it coming sideways. When I got back to it, the turn signals were acting funky - namely they would only turn on with the high beams engaged. When I got home, they were out completely. Everything on the bike is working fine besides the turn signals.

So I got started investigating and took the bike apart. I ordered and installed a new left hand switch. Checked the fuses, none were blown. I broke out the multimeter and started testing every pin and wire for continuity, and eventually noticed no voltage in the flasher power pin. I found the relay, checked it for continuity, and it was busted. The replacement came today, I tested it and plugged it in... And still nothing.

Unsure what to do from here. Everything in the switch and the left hand harness seems fine, the only constant is that I’m still not detecting any voltage for the flasher coming through at the left harness. Everything else is working fine, including the hi-beam and brake light. I’ve stuck the multimeter everywhere and found nothing else suspicious besides that, and I’m wondering if I’m out of options. Can’t figure out where to look from here and there’s no one around who seems to be able to figure it out. Any ideas would be appreciated!

I have a 2013 Empulse and live in an apartment complex. That should begin to align my charging woes.

There are no outlets in the complex garage, so I'm forced instead to run a 100-foot extension cable to plug my Clipper Creek 110v into a rickety old outlet used for the garage gate. My problem is that it's a crappy outdoor circuit that can't handle an additional 10 amp load so 90% of the time it just trips the breaker. The only time charging works is when I stand at the outlet resetting it constantly and hoping the bike will finally wise up and try something more like a 6 amp pull, which it'll do sometimes for no reason I can discern.

What options do I have for choking the amp draw? The charge cables that allow me to select the draw all seem to be designed for 240v EU outlets and circuits. I was hoping there might be a setting I could tweak in the Brammo firmware or something but I'm just looking for a solution to charge my bike reliably on older circuits.