General > Victory Empulse
Mine is Dead now too
Shinysideup:
Congratulations for hanging in there!
I've put 40K miles on my 2013 without major electrical issues (other than water in the "throttle" switch), if that helps any. ::)
siai47:
It's starting to become obvious that Polaris is not going to stand behind the Empulse they manufactured let alone the Brammo machines. I have been unable to get any parts except a couple of clips from Polaris. If anything major or minor should fail, the motorcycle would be a write off. A minor crash or just a tip over could not be repaired without parts. I think Polaris will handle complaints on a case by case basis and resolve it as an exchange or a buy back---whatever is cheaper to them. They are already setting a precedent and will be hard pressed to change course in the future.
For us as owners, it would be great if we could find a list of the parts suppliers to Brammo. Many of the parts are off other motorcycles, it's just a problem of identifying who made some of them. It's a real shame that Polaris has taken this (I assume) position about how to respond to customers who supported their venture into electric motorcycles. I, like others, thought that with the resources of Polaris that the Empluse would be refined and eventually superseded by a better replacement. Just the opposite happened which leaves us with Zero (no pun intended) for other options.
Ultratoad:
On the parts front, has anyone tried Victory Parts and Accessories Outlet (www.victoryparts.net)? They are showing virtually all Empulse TT parts as available. You can add a part to the basket for purchase and it loads. I have not actually tried to make a purchase though....
Shinysideup:
Yes, I've tried. While it appears that most parts are available for purchase, the particular part I needed (the front drive sprocket) is not. "Pinion for chain 520 14T" and it's retaining circlip have dashes for the part number and no button to place it in the cart for purchase.
My best guess, after talking with the head of a major sprocket distributor, is that Brammo had this sprocket custom made for the Empulse, maybe in Italy?. Another thread shows an alternative, but it is not a perfect match, leaving more slop in the spline interface, which can't be a good thing.
I know that this is just one example, but I wonder how many other "missing parts" there are in the whole inventory. I also wonder how to get a major electrical failure diagnosed and repaired, should that happen in the future.
I'm thinking of selling my bike now for a huge loss, but with 40K miles on it, I probably will have to give it away! :'(
I guess it's time to test ride the new Zero and hope they stay in business.
I really don't like the idea of going back to gas. I have an FJ-09 and ride it only for long distance trips, always wondering why it's trying to shake itself apart between my legs and why it insists on running at stop lights. ;)
siai47:
Don't get your hopes up by looking at a web page with parts illustrations. There aren't many (if any) parts. If you go to the Victory website and pull up the parts books, most parts will say "see dealer". For example, for the transmission, there were all the illustrations but only two part numbers. One for the complete transmission assembly and one for a gasket kit. Everything else says "see dealer". Well, the dealer can't order something without a part number and when the dealer calls Polaris everything is back ordered. Out of frustration, I tried to order a part that had a part number. In this case it was the transmission gasket kit with a dealer cost around $145 (the only other part was the complete transmission assembly). Anyway, I paid in full for the kit over a month ago and no part, or any timeline for getting it ever occurred. Polaris doesn't respond to the dealer (who was a Victory dealer only and has nothing to sell). They don't respond to a customer (see the dealer). It is what it is---Polaris doesn't want to have these bikes out there and the quicker they die from lack of parts and service, the quicker their headache is over.
I am happy with the bike, I hope it continues to run but without any parts or service its a crap shoot. I got burned on my last EV bike which was a Vectrix. Fortunately I bought the Empulse for a low enough price that I wont be burned for more then the price of a new IC motorcycle. It's not good enough that Polaris might be justifying throwing the owners under the bus because they sold some of us the bike for below their cost. The problem is there are others that paid a much higher price along with the fact that Polaris stated that Victory purchasers would have service available for five years and parts for ten. I see a lawyer or two on the horizon who is going to want to talk to Polaris. From the PR standpoint, I have owned many Polaris products over the years--but the Empulse will be the last. They make some decent products but with a corporate culture like they must have and the fact that you can buy similar products from other companies I can only hope their business dries up and they blow away.
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