Enertia starting in cold / tech support on East Coast?

[wakanaman]

Greetings,

DC area rider here, thinking about making my commute (7 miles each way) green AND fun with an Enertia. Since I live in a historic area, we don't have any garages around here, so the bike would spend the nights on the street or in my backyard, under cover. Now the one thing that makes fall/winter morning rides on a non-garaged "regular" bike a major PITA is the cold start, resulting in a drained battery more often than not... I wonder how the Enertia handles cold startup situations, not having any engine to crank? Manual doesn't say anything about operating temps, only when it comes to charging ie 32F would be the low-end of the desirable temp range for charging an Enertia.

Also, I wonder how outside parking in potentially sub-freezing temps would affect battery life.   

Another question is mechanics/tech support in this area - anyone has any experience? What is the timeline on extending the Geek Squad coverage to the East Coast?

thanks   

[Brammofan]

Welcome to the forum, wakanaman.  All good questions.  I think that someone from Brammo might drop in and provide an answer, but until they do, I think it's safe to say that the cold will not have an effect on the startup procedures.  Nothing to "crank" and the motor's one moving part doesn't have any oil to warm up before it starts moving.  The cold, however, might have an affect on your range.  For that answer, I'll have to defer to the battery experts. 

[SocalTech]

Good question, im not sure , but ill find out for you from the Guru's at Ashland!

[wakanaman]

Brammofan, SocalTech, thanks for the quick responses.... btw I think if cold start is not an issue, this could be an extra-attractive feature of the bike for riders who don't want to smoke out the neighbors at 7AM, or don't feel like riding a wild pony with the choke on into traffic.

range is not so much of a concern as I can easily charge the bike at work (they're really progressive about green commute options). tech support, on the other hand, could really be an issue around here (even though the lack of a traditional engine seems to eliminate a good portion of the "classical" high-maintenance issues).

[Gavin]

I have a couple similar questions I will piggyback here.

I garage keep my bikes, so not a huge issue for cranking over in the morning, but my Jan/Feb commute will have me riding some mornings in single digits...other than freezing my tush off, is this much of an issue with the Enertia or Empulse? Will it increase or decrease range?

Also, is altitude an issue at all with the Brammo powercycles. I ride everyday at 5 to 6 thousand feet...but I will often ride much higher...this weekend at over 10,000 feet...this summer higher than that.

this is over 9 thousand, but then we go off road to the top...



Now I won't likely take the Brammo off roading (or not much ), but I will go to the top of Sandia Mountain-paved all the way--somedays...and that is 10,364 feet above sea level.

Which also raises my last question...strong electrical fields...at the top of Sandia are radio towers...my remote keyfob for my scooter won't open the seat...the field messes with remote keys. for cars you have to lock your doors the old fashioned way, by hand.

Will the powercycles have any issue with that...I would hate to get to the top of the mountain and find my Enertia or Empulse won't start...though I guess it would be easy enough to coast downhill till you are past the electrical field.

Gavin

[Phantom]

I am still riding my Enertia into work. My latest rides in have been in the mid 30's in the morning. Last winter I charged and practiced riding the Enertia during February in the 20's.

I have noticed less battery charge available in colder weather. For example, when I rode to work in the warmer weather, I average 74% charge left. Now, that same ride leaves me with 70% charge left. In theory, there is a slight decrease in range in the colder weather based on my experience. There may be other factors at play, but generally I think the cold does decrease the range slightly.

I have not had any issues with it charging or starting up in any temperature range.

[Brammofan]

Total conjecture on my part, but I wonder if some of the cold weather range decrease (if there really is such a decrease) might be due to the temperature of chain. 

On another tangent (maybe it should be on another post), what is your gear of choice during the cold weather months?

[Gavin]

mmmm, Layers and more layers. Always gloves, always jacket, always jeans..ALWAYS helmet.

Summer, fingerless leather gloves, Putty colored leather jacket, jeans
Spring and Fall, full leather gloves, Black leather jacket, jeans
Winter--Ski gloves every day, sometimes liner gloves and ski gloves for morning in single digits. Usually back to full leather gloves for ride home...much warmer at 5:30 pm than 7 am. Winter riding coat with 2 zip-in layers, jeans with either thermals under or rain pants over jeans (rain pants are good at cut wind cold). This is for my commute...if highway riding in winter, always liner gloves and ski gloves, and then many many layers of tshirt, shirt, sweater, coat....thermal legs, jeans and rain pants.

Helmet...in winter I add the neck shield and usually wear a scarf too. Your neck gets COLD fast if any air hits it.

Which is why, at 49, I am finally thinking of getting a car for winter . Well that and I can finally order an Electric car.

Gavin

[BrammoBrian]

wakanaman,

Cold start should not be an issue for you.  The lower operating temperature range for the batteries is -10 degrees C, which is 14 degrees F.  Storage temperatures can be as low as -40 degrees C.  

The only issue I can imagine is if it exceeded the low end of the operating temperature range during the night and the batteries, which have significant thermal mass, were not able to warm up to operating temperature when you wanted to ride.  Also... although the bike uses sealed components, connectors, etc... exposing it to the moisture condensation that might occur as the sun comes up may introduce other issues.  Fogging in the dash is one I can think of right away.  I'd recommend your backyard under some kind of cover if this is your best option.  

Range will be affected by temperature due to increased impedance in the cells.  The effect will be relatively minor though and about on the scale as Phantom has noted.

No problem with altitude!  

[Gavin]

Mmmm, so if I buy an Enertia (or Enertia Plus ) and I have a 9 degree Fahrenheit morning (only a couple a year here) I should take the gas scooter instead of the Enertia?

Gavin

[wakanaman]

Thanks BrammoBrian, and also to everyone else for all the useful infos - we usually don't get that cold around here, February averaging slightly below freezing or so (except this past winter which featured a couple of cold spells and three massive snowstorms).

On the other note... how is Brammo's current tech support over here, ie. what happens if one morning I walk out to the bike and it just won't start up? do you have any subcontractors in the area for maintenance work - if not, when do you envisage the Geek Squad coverage extension?

[Gavin]

Ok....so the temperature at my morning commute is going to be 9 degrees tomorrow...came here to see if I could take the Enertia...looks like a no go....

Cage riding or maybe I take my scooter....

Gavin

[Shinysideup]

Hey Gavin -

Into my personal reference computer model, I keyed in:

              "9F/motorcycle?"

After 0.1 milliseconds of elapsed computation, this answer was returned:

             "Cage, definitely. fool!!!"

[Gavin]

Ha....

This past Feb we had a crazy cold spell

I rode to work one morning in negative 5 degrees on my scooter

NEGATIVE 5!!!

Though it is not something I recommend highly

Gavin

[EmpulseRider]

Ha....

This past Feb we had a crazy cold spell

I rode to work one morning in negative 5 degrees on my scooter

NEGATIVE 5!!!

Though it is not something I recommend highly

Gavin

About the same temps here in Denver... ugg. Luckily I can work from home on days like this. All I need is my laptop . I plan to commute with the Empulse on fairly cold days, but nothing like -5, that's nuts! This may help though: http://store1950.storeserver-2.com/store/products/category103.inetstore
My round trip is only 18 miles...