1
Brammo Empulse / Re: Evolution of the Empulse
« on: October 16, 2017, 11:48:44 AM »
One final update, as Cummins acquires what's left of Brammo.
pours one out
pours one out
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
2
Brammo News And Views / Cummins acquires remaining Brammo assets
« on: October 16, 2017, 11:43:18 AM »
http://www.mailtribune.com/news/20171016/brammo-assets-acquired-by-diesel-and-natural-gas-corporation
$70m for the remaining bits. I hope they can make good use of them - Cummins has been making some interesting plays recently in the electric powertrains space.
$70m for the remaining bits. I hope they can make good use of them - Cummins has been making some interesting plays recently in the electric powertrains space.
3
Brammo Racing / Re: Victory shuttered, fate of TT race bikes?
« on: February 17, 2017, 07:39:39 PM »
Wow. Great picture.. would love to visit Brammo HQ some day 
Glad they're not sitting in some Polaris / Victory warehouse gathering dust.
Glad they're not sitting in some Polaris / Victory warehouse gathering dust.
4
Brammo Racing / Victory shuttered, fate of TT race bikes?
« on: February 16, 2017, 09:13:38 AM »
No, sorry. It was one bike.
5
Brammo Racing / Victory shuttered, fate of TT race bikes?
« on: February 16, 2017, 08:29:32 AM »
I wonder what happened to the race bikes with Victory gone.
One bike was converted to a steel trellis frame and a higher capacity battery for the 2016 IOM TT race.
One bike was left largely as-is and raced in the 2016 Pikes Peak race.
In 2015 [one of]these bikes were stolen from Brammo HQ.
I wonder if they returned to Brammo after the 2016 races? And what their fate is, now that Victory's race program is gone?
It'd be neat for them to some day make it to a museum. Perhaps the Smithsonian, or the Barber Motorsports museum.
Better still if a way is found to continue to race them, of course.
One bike was converted to a steel trellis frame and a higher capacity battery for the 2016 IOM TT race.
One bike was left largely as-is and raced in the 2016 Pikes Peak race.
In 2015 [one of]these bikes were stolen from Brammo HQ.
I wonder if they returned to Brammo after the 2016 races? And what their fate is, now that Victory's race program is gone?
It'd be neat for them to some day make it to a museum. Perhaps the Smithsonian, or the Barber Motorsports museum.
Better still if a way is found to continue to race them, of course.
6
Brammo News And Views / Re: Brian Wismann with Zero Motorcycles
« on: January 26, 2017, 01:02:44 AM »Zero with a gearbox
My impression has always been that the direct drive Enertia and Empulse concept were Brian's, and the IET gearbox was Craig's. The race bikes were certainly Brian's lovechild.
There are some valid engineering (and non-engineering) reasons for a gearbox, which Brian did tout when given the opportunity. And costs as well.
Regarding the motor - should be relatively easy to rebuild the motor for a higher or lower voltage. Harder issue will be going higher voltage on the battery pack - though the "long brick" design should allow 56S1P instead of 28S2P for 196V - 235V.. that's maybe worthy of separate discussion.
7
Brammo Empulse / Evolution of the Empulse
« on: January 25, 2017, 09:12:27 AM »
Wrapping this up - with Victory shutting down and Brian moving to Zero, I don't believe we'll see any more movement from the Empulse.
It's been a great ride. And the rides will continue, just under different names
It's been a great ride. And the rides will continue, just under different names
8
Brammo Empulse / Blown a Fuse
« on: January 25, 2017, 09:07:21 AM »
Fingers crossed. Good test of Polaris's parts supply commitment.
9
Brammo Enertia Servicing / super dead battery.
« on: January 23, 2017, 07:44:05 AM »
The 12V side is likely powered by a DC to DC converter from the main battery. The BMS and main bike computer probably don't run off of this system - so you might get lights by applying a 12V source but you probably won't start the bike.
10
Brammo Enertia / Re: 110v to J1772 Charging
« on: January 15, 2017, 03:42:49 PM »
Two different things.
1. http://300mpg.org/2015/03/31/the-diy-j1772-charging-adapter/
This is a J1772 inlet to allow you to connect an non-J1772 charging equipment to a J1772 supply, like most commercial car charging stations. Assuming that your charging equipment is compatible with 240V.
This should work fine to let you plug the Enertia charger into a J1772 EVSE. Note that this WILL NOT increase the speed that you charge at, and depending on the station may be quite expensive. Blink charges $0.04/minute for members, you're using approximately $0.0016 of electricity per minute. 2500% markup!
2. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VIKM62Q/
This is portable J1772 EVSE to allow you to connect a J1772 charger to a non-J1772 supply.
You're adding a lot of weight and cost for flexibility; in effect these two things together do the same thing as a $5 IEC C19 cable (connect 120V wall plug to vehicle for charging), but also give you more flexibility to plug into a J1772 supply or later to connect another type of J1772 EV to a 120V or 240V wall supply.
1. http://300mpg.org/2015/03/31/the-diy-j1772-charging-adapter/
This is a J1772 inlet to allow you to connect an non-J1772 charging equipment to a J1772 supply, like most commercial car charging stations. Assuming that your charging equipment is compatible with 240V.
This should work fine to let you plug the Enertia charger into a J1772 EVSE. Note that this WILL NOT increase the speed that you charge at, and depending on the station may be quite expensive. Blink charges $0.04/minute for members, you're using approximately $0.0016 of electricity per minute. 2500% markup!
2. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VIKM62Q/
This is portable J1772 EVSE to allow you to connect a J1772 charger to a non-J1772 supply.
You're adding a lot of weight and cost for flexibility; in effect these two things together do the same thing as a $5 IEC C19 cable (connect 120V wall plug to vehicle for charging), but also give you more flexibility to plug into a J1772 supply or later to connect another type of J1772 EV to a 120V or 240V wall supply.
11
Brammo News And Views / Re: Victory Motorcycles winding down
« on: January 09, 2017, 06:19:08 PM »
Wonder if Victory was eaten by the success of the Slingshot. Having both Victory and Indian providing cruiser models was always a little weird. Given Victory's big push at Isle of Man TT and Pikes Peak, I wonder if this was a pet project of someone in Victory (in which case it will no doubt die) or supported by Polaris management, in which case it and the electrics might live on in some form.
12
Brammo Empulse / Re: Charging rate at 2.5kW
« on: November 09, 2016, 10:08:25 PM »
Most chargers have an inflection point. Below that point they are current-limited. Above that point they are power-limited, and will derate current to maintain a fixed power level.
A 24A current limit (DC) means that the actual charge power varies from 2.2 kW (@ 90V, nearly dead) up to about 2.8 kW (@ 115V, nearly full) - that is, the current remains fixed but the voltage rises.
A 24A current limit (DC) means that the actual charge power varies from 2.2 kW (@ 90V, nearly dead) up to about 2.8 kW (@ 115V, nearly full) - that is, the current remains fixed but the voltage rises.
14
Brammo Enertia / Woman passes basic riding course on an Enertia
« on: August 08, 2016, 06:27:22 AM »
A friend took a basic riders course this weekend and ended up dumping the bike in a 2nd gear turn due to being flustered by the controls (throttle, brake, shifter, clutch).
She's going to take a step back, do some practice, go back for a private lesson, then finish the course later.
An electric bike would have been easier to learn on - could isolate certain skills and controls. I think it's useful to learn how to operate a manual gearbox gas bike, but it's intimidating to a non-trivial number of new riders.
She's going to take a step back, do some practice, go back for a private lesson, then finish the course later.
An electric bike would have been easier to learn on - could isolate certain skills and controls. I think it's useful to learn how to operate a manual gearbox gas bike, but it's intimidating to a non-trivial number of new riders.
15
Off Topic / Re: Karmic Koben eBike on Kickstarter
« on: June 22, 2016, 07:09:31 PM »
Btw - my Koben S was delivered last Thursday. I didn't have a chance to unbox it until Saturday evening, due to travel.
Build quality seems good, though it's clear that a significant amount of the build cost went into the electric components. Disc brake rotors get some chatter on high-speed turns, but that may just be a process of breaking in.
I've put a little over a hundred miles on it so far. Range seems to be 25-50 miles depending on amount of assist. It weighs significantly more than the kickstarter indicated - around 45 pounds. Still pretty easy to pedal without assist, certainly much easier than pushing a motorcycle!
Battery pack is a 44V unit using 2600 mAh samsung cells (12s4p). It charges in about 3 hours from the wall charger, and weighs 3.04 kg / 6.7 pounds. That's 152 Wh/kg including enclosure.
I've been doing a lot more bike riding recently than motorcycling - last month I rode the Natchez Trace with some friends, ~450 miles over a week. We trained 300-500 miles per month for several months beforehand to get ready. I've learned a lot about bikes since I placed the Koben order last year, and might not do it again now. But, there's hindsight.
My commute on a road bike is about 19 minutes to go 4.7 miles. The Koben shaves about 5 minutes off that time on moderate assist .. although I'm having trouble convincing myself to use the assist to go easier rather than faster. It can actually be as fast or faster to commute by bike than on the motorcycle...
Build quality seems good, though it's clear that a significant amount of the build cost went into the electric components. Disc brake rotors get some chatter on high-speed turns, but that may just be a process of breaking in.
I've put a little over a hundred miles on it so far. Range seems to be 25-50 miles depending on amount of assist. It weighs significantly more than the kickstarter indicated - around 45 pounds. Still pretty easy to pedal without assist, certainly much easier than pushing a motorcycle!
Battery pack is a 44V unit using 2600 mAh samsung cells (12s4p). It charges in about 3 hours from the wall charger, and weighs 3.04 kg / 6.7 pounds. That's 152 Wh/kg including enclosure.
I've been doing a lot more bike riding recently than motorcycling - last month I rode the Natchez Trace with some friends, ~450 miles over a week. We trained 300-500 miles per month for several months beforehand to get ready. I've learned a lot about bikes since I placed the Koben order last year, and might not do it again now. But, there's hindsight.
My commute on a road bike is about 19 minutes to go 4.7 miles. The Koben shaves about 5 minutes off that time on moderate assist .. although I'm having trouble convincing myself to use the assist to go easier rather than faster. It can actually be as fast or faster to commute by bike than on the motorcycle...