Mine is Dead now too

[PaulHMartinez]

Purchased (new) in February with 161 demo miles on it
At 1200 miles developed what seemed to be a coolant leak from the motor
Still ran well but at 1500 I decided to take it for "service" after draining a small amount on the garage floor each day I thought maybe the coolant level was getting low.
 This was over 2 weeks ago. The fix was to replace the motor.
Now it will no longer run. Being told it needs software and coding.
  I think the dealer will make good somehow and in the mean time have a loaner bike (gas).
Any suggestions?
Thanks

[Ultratoad]

Purchased (new) in February with 161 demo miles on it
At 1200 miles developed what seemed to be a coolant leak from the motor
Still ran well but at 1500 I decided to take it for "service" after draining a small amount on the garage floor each day I thought maybe the coolant level was getting low.
 This was over 2 weeks ago. The fix was to replace the motor.
Now it will no longer run. Being told it needs software and coding.
  I think the dealer will make good somehow and in the mean time have a loaner bike (gas).
Any suggestions?
Thanks

Mine is 169....  At least it sounds like you have a "real" dealer willing to help....  Who might that be ?  We all need to know who the good ones are !!!!

[siai47]

You shouldn't need software if just the motor was changed.  The new motor encoder position needs to be fed into the motor controller.  Victory/Polaris or Brammo diagnostic software (which any dealer that sold these things should have) can be used to set the "encoder alignment".  The reason the motor doesn't run is the adjustment.  If it is far enough out of adjustment the motor may not run or run poorly.  The controller needs to know the exact position of the rotor in relation to the stator.  The encoder position when your replacement motor was assembled is a little bit different from your original motor.  If you did install a firmware update than the encoder alignment might need to be done.  Find someone that has the Polaris motor diagnostic software and connecting cables to get this done.  The service manual gives you a step by step walk through and it shouldn't be too hard to do even if the mechanic isn't trained on the Empulse.

I believe that if Polaris doesn't start addressing these service issues soon there will be a class action lawsuit that will probably start a buyback of all of the Victory Empluse bikes.  There are too few of them out there to warrant them stepping up to the plate to honor their obligations under the warranty program and/or to provide parts and service for the period of time required.  With many of the Victory only dealers gone and the multi vehicle Polaris dealers not giving a crap about Victory owners its only a matter of time.  Brammo owners are most likely in deeper s**t than Polaris owners as all of Victory's are still in the two year warranty window which would allow a buy back of any vehicle that cannot be serviced in a specific period of time.  Few of the Brammos are still under the initial warranty period.   

[frodus]

Push the dealer hard to resolve. Be a pain. You might be surprised what you can do.

[PaulHMartinez]

Thanks for the input.
There is really no way to find anyone else for the repair.
It's in the possession of the selling dealer and only authorized repair facility any where near here.
Honestly, I really wouldn't know where else to look or find anyone else. That and it doesn't run to actually get it anywhere else. Who else would honor the Victory warranty?
I don't know if there was ever a Brammo dealer in the Chicago area that might still have a tech with some working knowledge. Anybody?
  It will be 3 weeks tomorrow and I feel like somebody needs to make a move. It's the longest I've ever waited for a repair of anything.
 

[Ultratoad]

This is bad....  If I were you (and I certainly could be) I would start calling the Mother Ship (Polaris), painful I know, and beat them into submission....  I would call them everyday in an attempt to make their lives as miserable as mine !!!!  There is no excuse for how corporate treats their customers sometimes....  I used this technique with GM a few years back, got as high on the food chain as I could and finally prevailed....  Best of luck....

[CAT in HAWAII]

Good luck,, don't give up,, I wish my dealer had fixed my bike,, but I'm happy about my swap they let me do,,,

See my post in the label of,, dealer had my bike since 2/16,,,

[PaulHMartinez]

Update
It's 5 weeks today.
Many calls to dealer and Victory Cust service
Dealer still unable to correct programming issues. Bike still not working.
Not getting the support from victory that they say they need.
Made initial contact with an attorney and they have the details if and when litigation is necessary.
After leaving several messages for the cust serv rep assigned to this case I finally got a call back yesterday.
He tells me the dealer should have offered me another bike already.  Unfortunately no more Empulse models and they want to offer a gas bike. I've told them I have no interest and bought the Ebike so I didn't have to burn gas   
So now I'm waiting again with the hope the may find another dealer willing to trade one for another bike the dealer has in inventory
  This entire issue has left me terribly disappointed with Victory/Polaris and frustrated by the dealer
My worry is I will get it replaced and I will run into another problem and go through this again.
I need to hear from someone that's owned one for a good while with lots of trouble free miles
Thanks

[Ultratoad]

Sorry to hear about your situation....  Thanks for posting....  Some great information there....  Sounds like you are on top of things....  Can't wait to read the final chapter !!!!

[PaulHMartinez]

I like to think I'm staying on top of it.
As of this afternoon I've been promised a replacement bike as in a new
Empulse.
  Won't rejoice until I'm actually on it.
Thanks again.

[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.