I have to admit that I really learned a lot from the School of EV Hard Knocks. It cost me about $15 to get this education, but now I am much better informed - and a lot more cautious regarding the EV business. I had previously purchased 40 IC production motorcycles from all of the major manufacturers (even Puch, sold by Sears Roebuck) over the past 49 years. They were all reasonably reliable and if they were not, you could take them back to the dealer for repair or for parts.
So I purchased my first GPR-S from an electric motorcycle dealer who had recently gone into business (and a year later went out of business), hoping to support both his shop as well as this new industry. Naturally, based upon my IC M/C experience, I expected few problems with this apparently simple electric motorcycle. I really had no idea how complicated failures could be to resolve and how one problem could lead to failure of another part. I also didn't realize how expensive it was to replace things like batteries, motors and controllers. Basically, what I did was to close my eyes, without doing any real research, and jump off the EV cliff.
When my first bike failed, I assumed that it was a fluke. After the manufacturer seemed to have no interest in repairing my bike under their "warranty", giving me excuses such as they were too busy racing or were visiting the chassis factory in Thailand and had no time to attend to my problem, I decided to sell it back to them in the hopes that the new version would have the bugs worked out. (Big mistake!)
When the bugs returned on that bike, I spent a lot of time trying to solve the problems myself and after researching EV technology on-line, I finally realized that it was a lot more complicated than I had imagined. I also discovered that I was not able to really understand EV systems adequately to find faults, nor did I have the skills necessary to effect repairs. Bodging just doesn't work on EVs, the way it can on IC motorcycles.
I know when to throw in the towel on self-help. I still want to support the emerging EV business and I really do enjoy riding electric motorcycles due to their lack of noise, smooth operation and lack of having to visit a stinking gas station every few days. But now I will only purchase an electric motorcycle from a recognized manufacturer who has a track record with a demonstrated ability to solve their customers vehicle problems.
To my knowledge, only Brammo has shown this type of service record. While Brammo has only sold the Enertia, as near as I can tell, the bike has had few problems and when they have occurred, they have been resolved without the owner having to return the vehicle to the factory, or perform repairs themselves (such as the owners of the Zero products sometimes have to do).
As much as I hate to wait, I have learned enough to realize that I would rather own a fully-developed Empulse and not ever have to experience what I went through with my GPR-S.
