The China one above is a Boom!-like clone of the Grom. Motor is built in the rear wheel, battery don't come out the side, parts aren't sitting in a US warehouse in the picturesque foothills of southern Cali. May or may not be DOT compliant too? Are those differences worth the $500 difference in price? This reminds me of the CSC TT250 vs. Hawk 250 debate a few years back.
Dang that is awesome - now its really becoming interesting. I want to see part 2 with the high power settings!
Had a good run on my ride home yesterday. Same garbage traffic as coming into work except the open spaces were more open so I was able to go a little faster at times. Arrived back home at 49% remaining. By far my best run yet. I think Slick does really well in the creepy crawly type riding and if you hit the ReGen just right you don't really loose much capacity. I doubt it works this way but I wonder if the range would almost be forever if you are going 5 MPH then stopping and getting that ReGen going? Again I doubt it but that percentage meter does not drop when you ride like that! Almost took it out to the mall food court for a RTE (Ride To Eat) and with 49% remaining I think I would have made the 12 mile RT. However it would be slightly questionable and I think I would be on limp home mode the last mile or so was my prediction. Range anxiety is unfortunately a real thing and this is why I would like an auxiliary batter pack. If you can squeeze another 12 or 13ah in the faux tank I believe it would really open up the opportunity for more then just point to point missions!
I went on a 29 mile ride this weekend and had 28% left when I pulled into the garage. Was over 80 degrees the whole ride so the battery did pretty good, considering i used power mode 25% of the time. Seems like I haven't had any battery sleep issues in the warm weather. was able to leave it overnight with only 1-2% loss and rode it yesterday for a few miles. I'm always still a bit hesitant going somewhere on it where i know it'll be a few hours before i get back and turn it on, but hasn't been a problem since the spring. Whatever my next model is, I'd really like a L2 CCS plug so i can charge while i'm out eating/at stores since charging stations are becoming more commonplace here in SoCal. The Fonzarelli NKD looks good spec wise (9.6kw peak power and 3.3 Kwhr battery with a CCS plug and optional onboard charger), but it makes more sense to get a Zero here in the US at 10k USD, plus seems like it's only available in australia and new zealand. This battery pack claims to put out a continuous 500w AC, and our charger peak wattage draw is 500 (499) according to my outlet meter when i'm charging. I may test this out as a portable jumpstart charger and gain a few extra miles, and can also use this for my e-bicycles: AC Output : 110V/500 Watts Continuous, Peak 1000 Watts https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MA4YVN...colid=QV71EKBYHKRD&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
Had a good run last evening. My folks invited me out for some Mexican food so I road Slick 7 miles away to the restaurant. Because of time constraints I took a different route that involved riding it over one of the steepest hills imaginable. Slick maintained 21 MPH up it. Not as fast as traffic around me but luckily the car behind me had patience. In situations like this I wish it had a bit more torque but luckily the hill is only briefly steep and honestly a Grom or Monkey at least in stock form will go no faster. In the slightly more shallow parts I was able to maintain the speed limit of 30 MPH. After the restaurant I stopped by a bubble tea place for desert 7 miles in the opposite direction. It was now 14 miles back home but made it with 52% power remaining. So I consumed roughly half the battery in 24 miles and I was not exactly going slow all the time! Only oddity I noticed is slightly more lag now that its getting crisp when the sun goes down now but still nothing like it used to be on the old controller. Just nature of the beast with a Lithium Ion battery. When it cools off the molecules get a little lazy apparently. It takes some fancy power management to overcome it and beyond the City Slicker's price point at this time I am sure!
I reconfigured my original shitty slicker. .wait.. City slacker. ..ughh CITY SLICKER battery today. Replaced their POS module, I mean BMS module! Dear God... That thing looks like it was designed 5 years ago. I especially like how they used paper tape to insulate power wires! A good section of the battery case was empty just filled with foam. On a positive note now I got another 25ah capacity totaling about 90ah now! It fits great in the glove box. With the factory charger it would take 18 hours to fully charge . With my dual charger at 11.5 amps it only takes about 8. I should be able to get near 80 miles of range now at a constant 60 mph, with a top speed of around 80 mph. Whooo hooo. She's a little heavy now but fair trade! The cruise control is awesome when on hilly terrain. It activates variable regen breaking to hold the same speed down hills!
Honestly I'm into it about an extra 1300 bucks. But I built my huge battery myself out of 18650 cells. So I saved about 1k right there. 250 for the controller, 300 for the stronger motor, 200 for a real Bluetooth 150a bms module, 25 for a cheap 50a bms for the original battery, and 500 on lithium cells ( Chinese knock off LG cells). And I'm not even counting the countless hours of design and labor. Either way, it's a hobby to me and I'm certain I have the fastest and longest range slicker in the world right now. It's just like modifying an rc car but way more expensive. Lol
Noob. Just received mine in black a couple of days ago and thought I would share a couple pics. Any recommendations for riding/maintaining this bike?
Don't just let off the throttle when going downhill - gently reduce it instead :) Regen kicks in and can be startling the first time it does that. Keep an eye on your tires- I tore a chunk out of the back one somehow but got a new one at a local bike shop for $40 so not a big deal. Other then that maintenance has been way easier then any of my other bikes. I've ridden over 2000 miles on it but of course my other bikes have a lot more so we'll see how it goes.
Thanks for the tips. This thing is fun! A question for the user group. I have not heard from back from CSC. 1) The license plate light is not illuminating. Is there supposed to be a tail light other than the plate light? 2) The headlight high and low beam switch does not change the light intensity. The only headlight that is on is the "halo" light around the sides of the assembly. The high beam light works when holding the finger switch. In order to see anything at night I have had to hold the high beams on. What am I missing?
Light switch on right hand grip has three position s the one that is inward toward the bike turns on the headlight. The other two position are off and driving lights
Once that I paid attention to it, after that though I was having so much fun riding it that I ran it below 30% before charging it fully several times.