Brammo Empulse - tipps before buying

[JonathanK]

Hello everybody, 

I just signed up because I'm currently thinking about buying a 2014 Brammo Empulse. I was offered a good deal, however I am unsure whether the Empulse is the right bike for me.

I have read that there is little to no service or help if critical components fail. How reliable is the Empulse? Do you have any tipps regarding known faults/what I should check before buying?

What's your experience with the Brammos range? According to the seller it's "way more than 100km" (60miles) for normal countryside cruising, but I've read that it's more like 75km (45miles).

The bike only has a few hundred km on the clock although it's several years old. How can I check that the battery hasn't been damaged by discharge or something?

last but not least:
please excuse my english. I'm from Germany 

Thank you very much in advance for your responses. 
Jonathan

[nunux59]

I JonathanK and welcome here.

Hard to tell how reliable it as, there is not much bike in circulation and few have a lot of kilometers. Mine has ~18000 km and I had to change the battery bus bars that where oxidized (now stainless steal), the rear wheel bearing, the front suspensions o-ring, the chain and normal maintenance.

I would say that my battery suffered from the problem I had with the bus bar because it was deeply discharge for several months . When I am at around 60% of battery, if I accelerate fully for several seconds in sport mode, I get a battery low warning (voltage drop). Beside that the range is still the same, around 100km of cool driving, 75km when driving hard but no more than 110km (I am 1m79 for 95kg, I think it matters).

Also I have a oil/coolant leak at the motor, it's not a big deal, but not convenient. If the one you are looking at do not have the leaking, its a good find

If I were you I would check for this leak and do an almost full discharge of the battery to check the range approximately and good acceleration around 50%, 60% to see if you still have all power from the batteries.

Everything else could be done by classic mechanic and should not worry you too much. The electronic would be the main failure point but except for error code on the dashboard you will never know if its going to fail.

[Leander]

ask for a copy of the log files and you will have a lot of info on the internal condition of the bike.
the usb that logs it is under the seat protected by a red cover.

[JonathanK]

Thank you very much for the suggestions!
I took a look at the Bike today and it turns out it only has 30km (20miles) on the clock. Which means it was never actually used despite being 5 years old. Could that have had a negativ effect on the battery?

Please excuse my questions if they are silly, but I don't have much experience with electric vehicles.

Thank you very much
Jonathan

[Brammofan]

Low mileage could be a big problem. Does it start up? Have you ridden it? If it's been sitting for a long time without being charged, it may have a totally dead battery.

[JonathanK]

Yes it does Start up and I have riden it, although only for a few meters because it is not registered.
I'm currently trying to gwt hold of a temporary license plate in order to test it further.

The battery is currently at 70% and it hasn't been charged in about half a year according to the seller.
Is there any way I can test that the battery hasn't been damaged?

Is there anything I should keep in mind whem using the Bike for the first time after such a long period? I've read something about balancing the batterys.

Best regards
Jonathan

[Brammofan]

The bike should be charged to full and left plugged in overnight to balance the battery cells. Ideally, the seller should do this before you buy it. And remember that if anything is wrong with this bike's electrical systems, you are on your own. No real factory support. Good luck.

[nunux59]

If the bike has been stored with about 70% of battery its a good new. It is better for long term storage to have a not full battery, obviously empty battery is worse but 70% is ideal I think !

Like Brammofan said ask the seller to charge the bike and plugged for 24h minimum, 48h would be better to charge and balance the cells. While the bike is charging you can push the two buttons on the dash board simultaneously and you will have the "balance menu". You will see the highest voltage cell and the lowest. The values should be close, take a picture and post it here ideally.

[JonathanK]

thank you everyone for your advice!
edit:
I already managed to open the logs thanks to a tool I found in th forum.

This is what the Graphs look like. Can someone help me interprete the data? I could also upload the files if that helps.

Thank you very much in advance!

Jonathan

[Brammofan]

There was a discussion about log files here:
https://brammoforum.com/index.php?topic=2944.msg21714#msg21714

Hope that can get you started.

[Leander]

looks like it has been left standing for a long time and when empty fully recharched.
as long it hasn't dropped below 3,6 volt per cell it should be ok.

[JonathanK]

I just loaded the logs into an excel file using the tool from the post that Brammofan mentioned (thanks for that!) and it looks like the bike did discharge to 0% once. It wasn't charged between the 09th of february 2016 and the 11th of december 2017...

The lowest Voltage the cells ever got to was 3.39V. Which is a lot lower than the 3.6V that Leander mentioned...

I couldn't attach the charge Logs because the file is to big, but you can download it from the link below, if somebody with more experience than me would like to take a look at them.

https://ittuberlin-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/3752473516710454_msopseudo_tu-berlin_de/ERsc6aG9zUJMqcFVdH9pXXUBiivfDVkTLse_h2boF70OPA?e=czwL7n

The seller also has a basically identical bike. I hope that that one has been charged more often although my hopes are very small...
I'll try to get it's log files and will report back.

Thank you guys!
Jonathan

[Leander]

the cells start to get really damaged below 3,2V


if it will charge to 100% and balanced and the difference between te cells isn't bigger than 15mV after that.
they I would go for it.