To Fix or to Junk?

[FreepZ]

As I reported some time ago:

A few days ago, my bike stopped charging. I finally opened the bike up a bit and discovered that there was a blown fuse.

After a fairly long discussion with the bike dealership, they admitted that Polaris is no longer willing to stand by their electric bikes.

I don't believe that I did anything in particular to cause the original problem with the bike. I would ride it and recharge it every day. Then one day, preforming the normal recharge cycle destroyed the pretty much all of the recharging system. This is equivalent to having your bike catch fire while you refuel it.

Now I'm left with a dilemma. I could pay $4000 and get the bike repaired, or I could pay a lot less and tow the bike to a scrap yard.

If I get the bike repaired, the dealership is not prepared to offer any guarantee that the original problem won't happen again, so I may end up with another $4000 repair bill in the near future. If I get it repaired, I could try to trade it in for a Zero.

The alternative is to tow it to a scrap yard.

What would you do?

It should be fairly obvious that I'm rather disappointed in Brammo. Either their design wasn't built with sufficient fail safes to prevent this catastrophic outcome, or they didn't build the recharge system to specifications. Since they sold their bikes to Victory, there is nothing that Brammo can legally do to help me, and since Victory itself if going out of business, my Brammo Empulse pretty much has no future.

(Note that the dealership is going to start charging me storage fees because they are tired of seeing that bike on their lot, so I can't think about this for too long.)

[Ultratoad]

Are you saying that your bike is under warranty and Victory is refusing to stand behind it? 

[FreepZ]

No. It's out of warranty, but the dealership is not willing to offer any warranty on the fix.

My concern is that after I get the bike fixed, it will fail again in the same way.

Perhaps I've become too used to things being reliable. My old Ninja 500 cost me less than the repair cost of the Empulse, it has been very reliable, and cheap to fix when it did have a problem. I was hoping that I would have a similar experience with the Empulse. When I pay $20k for a vehicle, I expect it to last more than 4 years. While the bikes were still owned by Brammo, they had been very helpful with teething issues that the bike experienced. Now that it belongs to Polaris, and I have doubts about their commitment.

I guess those are the risks you take when you buy something new.

Right now, I'm leaning towards not fixing the bike, and selling it for parts. Why throw bad money after good?

[Ultratoad]

Even if Polaris had not given up the ghost on Victory....  I would have expected about the same answer from a dealer absent warranty....  I would think that the parts would have a basic electronics parts guaranty though...  AND the dealership would guaranty there workmanship and installation as they do with non-electric motorcycles.....

[Chocula]

Since you are out of warranty anyway, you might consider an aftermarket charger such as the Diginow Super Charger v2.  It would be less expensive and have a faster charging rate, though mounting it would not be as elegant as the OEM.  Brandon's website indicates this will work for the Victory electric motorcycles (ie Empulse).


http://diginow.it/super-charger-for-zero-motorcycle.php

[FreepZ]

That's an interesting idea, but I don't really feel too confident with messing with the power supply of the bike. Also, its not just the recharging system that's fried, but also the the part that connects the charging system to the battery.

Perhaps I'll get it fixed after all, and then start looking at eventually replacing the charging system myself, so the next time it fails, I would have more options on what I can do.

[Ultratoad]

BRAMMO....  Must be saved !!!!

[Consultec]

You have 5yr warranty on the battery and related charging..


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[FreepZ]

More and more, the answer to my question is leaning towards:

Junk

I originally got a quote from the dealership for fixing the bike at about $4,000. This included 4.5 hours of labor at $90 per hour. The dealership has been very fair about this and before they accepted my down payment for the parts that they needed to order, they wanted to double check the price for this repair. After waiting a couple of weeks, I finally called them up to ask them how things were going and the person working on my case said that after having this kind of problem, he was told that repairs often took 9 - 12 hours of labor and that they repairs often revealed other problems. In short, my $20,000 bike is turning into a money pit.

Estimated cost went from $4000 to $4700 with an unknown amount of extra work beyond that.

One thing about this story that has been an eye opener is that the dealership was able to find at least one more case where this kind of thing has happened. That is rather a big concern which points to a design flaw.

At this point of the story, I could not in good conscience recommend that anybody by an Empulse. Can anybody point out why I should? That's too bad, since I really have a very high opinion of Brammo. Now that the bikes are owned by... Victory? Polaris? I can't say I have as much faith.

[Virtually Yours]

So I'm sitting here thinking about what to do with my Empulse R and got to thinking about how hard parts are going to be hard to come by in the future. So as I'm surfing on the forum and skipping through some old posts, I thought if anyone's bike is beyond repair and looking to scrap the bike that we should have a thread for that... I need some body panels and wouldn't mind getting some other parts too.

[CAT in HAWAII]

Ok,, my dealer has had my bike more than 4 months,, (I have previous post)
I just picked up a bike from my dealer that they swapped out for me,,

I don't want to get anybody all excited, but when I had my bike at the local dealer here in hawaii, they had a hard time ordering parts ,(nothing appeared on line) so I called up Polaris directly,, and asked what they could do to help,, they said just have my dealer order on line,,

I said ,, they can't! No parts show up,, well,, they have to use the printed catalog, and enter part numbers online,,
Ok,, so that helped my bike get back on the road,,
In January,, my dealer received my bike,, and haven't had any chance of getting it to start, run, or even charge!
They tried checking the fuses, VCU, and other things,, I had suggested re-setting the software, or better yet re-installing it,,
But I don't  think they have he equipment to do it,, long story short, my genius wife suggested that I ask Polaris about maybe a swap out for another bike,, and they came back a few days later and said I could!

I just picked up a new Indian bike yesterday!! So happy! It's. It electric, but it should run for a long time, and still be supported locally and by Polaris!
I have been waiting more than 4 months, so I don't think a one day call will net anyone a new bike,, but they really came through for me!

[CAT in HAWAII]

Ok,, my dealer has had my bike more than 4 months,, (I have previous post)
I just picked up a bike from my dealer that they swapped out for me,,

I don't want to get anybody all excited, but when I had my bike at the local dealer here in hawaii, they had a hard time ordering parts ,(nothing appeared on line) so I called up Polaris directly,, and asked what they could do to help,, they said just have my dealer order on line,,

I said ,, they can't! No parts show up,, well,, they have to use the printed catalog, and enter part numbers online,,
Ok,, so that helped my bike get back on the road,,
In January,, my dealer received my bike,, and haven't had any chance of getting it to start, run, or even charge!
They tried checking the fuses, VCU, and other things,, I had suggested re-setting the software, or better yet re-installing it,,
But I don't  think they have he equipment to do it,, long story short, my genius wife suggested that I ask Polaris about maybe a swap out for another bike,, and they came back a few days later and said I could!

I just picked up a new Indian bike yesterday!! So happy! It's NOT electric, but it should run for a long time, and still be supported locally and by Polaris!
I have been waiting more than 4 months, so I don't think a one day call will net anyone a new bike,, but they really came through for me!

The replacement bike is NOT electric,, but is is nice has lots of power,,,

[EmpulseRider]

CAT's experience makes me wonder if they would swap or at least discount a Victory Empulse for you, Freepz. Heck, I have heard of them going new for around 6500 IIRC. That would get you into a new 5 year 100k warranty too... and still electric! Although the new Indian bikes are pretty sweet!

BTW, congrats on the new bike CAT!

[CAT in HAWAII]

Thanks! Loved riding my Empulse,, loved not having to get gas!!
Made up for having extra capacity on my solar panels!!!

But also like the now bike too!! Different,, still good!!!