Let's talk brakes
I had heard a lot of complaints about the brakes on the Surron LiteBee X before buying it. People on NewPipe were saying how they needed to be upgraded, but nobody said why.
*front brakes*
I decided to take my chances. Unlike other countries, there is exactly one company bringing these things into the country (and paying the 80% tax on them). So, beggars cannot be choosers. They must accept what they can get.
I have no complaints about the functionality of the brakes. They are slightly heavier than bicycle brakes and they do the job. I have never been unable to stop fast. There is also heavy regenerative braking which is on by default. I also took a chance on that being programmable before buying. The regen. slows the bike to a near stop while charging the battery at the same time. It works really well.
*rear brakes*
It was not until I turned off the regenerative braking that I noticed a problem.
I had wanted to be able to coast to the upcoming traffic light instead of applying power the whole way up to the line were you stop. The way it was set up from the factory, you were either gaining speed or braking (regeneratively). It gets to be a bit jerky.
Yes, this is totally legal to ride on the streets of Buenos Aires!
The brakes are programmable in all respects, and so are the safety features like power cut off when the hand brake is pulled. There are many tutorials on how to hack up the bike and remove sensors, but that is completely unnecessary. To be covered in an upcoming post.
As I was saying, I had programmed the throttle not to regenerate power back into the battery and the bike was able to coast to a stop. What I then noticed is that I sometimes needed to stop on short notice, like when I car pulls out in front of you, and it those cases there were heavy loads on the disk brakes. Therein lies the problem.
I am approaching a thousand kilometers on the odometer and the brakes are wearing thin. I have asked about brake pads for it as of yet. My son works for the importer now so I would know if they were getting brake pad for the Surron in or not. When the weather gets cooler, I will pull the brakes apart, and take the brake pads to a couple of shops to see if anyone has anything close (or exact) that would work.
In the mean time, I did learn something else. I had never played much with riding in '***sport mode***' because it likes to do wheelies when activated. But one day I had parked it and gone into a store. When I came out and rode away, I though I had a flat tire. It was sluggish - I mean - not coasting.
Someone had played with the switches and buttons while it was parked.
As it turns out, you can have two different settings for regenerative braking. I had never changed the regen. settings for sport mode and therefore, it was still set on heavy regen. when letting off the throttle. As soon as I switched off sport mode, the bike went back to coasting.
I am using that button for when I have time to stop and charging the battery, but regen. is off normally so I can coast. Still lots to learn and many undocumented features.
I will leave you with another one of the few photos I have, taken before this bicycle every got dirty.
To see more image of Surron ePower-Bikes click these links :
Surron Light Bee X
Surron Storm https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=surron+light+bee+x&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=surron+storm&t=ffab&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images
The start of something beautiful
First Photo
This is the first one of the new "bicycle" out of the box.
.
This is the one that I took my profile picture from. Some of you may have watched the unboxing video last post. The post for today is all about the maiden ride where my youngest finally got his "mini-bike".
*random 70s ad* https://www.vintagekarts.com/indian.jpg
There is no smoke and no winding noise like the one I worked so hard for when I was just a kid, pictured to the right. The one I had was not new, had no brakes, leaked oil constantly, and threw the chain off every nineteen minutes on a good day. Forty five dollars used.
This one has a lot more power that my old minibike. I am not sure if we will ever endeavor to use the "sport mode" which lifts the front wheel at quarter throttle when on pavement.
I wanted you to see this big read button on this big photo because it makes me sweat every time I think of pushing it. The guys at the shop rolled this bike out and I got on it for the first time. They said, "It is yours now so we are not responsible if you crash it." and the salesman proceeded to click this red button as I turned the key.
This is Argentina and he may have been hoping for one of those 'man buys Lambo and looses it while pulling out of the dealership' moments. It did not happen. Yes, they would do that and you could expect that from anyone here because the culture is like that.
**Back to our first ride.** To my surprise, police here have said nothing to me about riding this on the streets in traffic, on the grass, or on any of the countries many bike paths. I have pulled up next to the police at stop lights - nothing!
What I am describing is is very strange indeed because anyone on a gas powered 'moto' is constantly hassled for mirrors, lights, helmet usage, and can have their 'moto' impounded for the slightest infraction of said choke points.
This little gem is considered to be a bike. I get no tickets and could go right through red lights if I wanted to.
Taken twenty feet away from the helipad that the President comes in on every day. The bike path is nearby so we are not that far outside of the law - ***but still outlaws.***
My son just arrived for **the weekend** and he is getting his first look at this creature. I hand him the keys and he will soon be on his first ride.
He is stoked. I gave him the electric ten-speed so he can get used to riding a less powerful machine but now, he will be able to beat anything out there - off the line that is.
"Inspection complete, Dad. When we gonna ride?"
There is a lot of confusion on features, configuration and safety of the Surron floating around out there. I will be clearing some of that up along with tips and tricks so bookmark this blog.
To see more image of Surron ePower-Bikes click these links :
Surron Light Bee X
Surron Storm https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=surron+light+bee+x&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=surron+storm&t=ffab&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images
https://hive.blog/trending/biking
Gnarly E-Bike Build - Introduction - Unboxing Video
▶️ Watch on 3Speak https://3speak.tv/watch?v=surron/pguoyxqy
Watch on BitChute.com https://www.bitchute.com/video/hhSSG2gDuCdN/
An intro post should be something special. I did the best I could to make this one just that. Presenting the Surron Light Bee X
My kids have never driven any motorized vehicles except for electric unicycles, and if I could, I would have motocross bikes for them to learn on - the law here would have them in their thirties before that would be possible.
I had a mini-bike when I was fourteen and I wanted them to learn how to ride something with a bit of power. This bike has it - lots of it.
Unboxing Video
My kids talk to me in English and so do most salespeople who want to sell me a product. I put enough English into this video so that you would be able to understand what is happening. Only three of the people present spoke English, including me.
I mentioned in this video that my son got the job working at this place. He has been there for several weeks now, and he builds these bikes and many other kinds of electric vehicles on a daily basis.
The Surron is very similar to the Segway but beggars can't be choosers here in South America. I will take the first brand to enter the country.
**Some stats...**
Top speed: 52kmh (35mph)
Time to charge: 3-4 hours
Range: Consistant 70kms (45miles)
(that may vary when we start pushing it)
I am surprised that we are permitted to drive this **anywhere in the city** with zero complaints from police officers. If we every ride on sidewalks, I would expect to be stopped. Police here see things as black or white. It is either perfectly legal or not legal at all.
Up until now, it has been perfectly legal to ride without a helmet or glasses, though we choose to wear glasses to keep things out of our eyes.
My step son bought a 125cc motorcycle more than a year ago. He is still jumping through hoops to get a license, fill out paperwork, do his vaccinations, registration, taxes, fees, and much much more.
I refuse to be a trained seal - so I don't drive.
EUC's work well to get me from point A to B.
▶️ 3Speak https://3speak.tv/watch?v=surron/pguoyxqy
There will be more on our progress learning to push this bike to its limits. Stay tuned - Thanks for watching and subscribing. @sponge-bob
*Copyright free music track from MrSnooze* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91zI7RttA4c
To see more image of Surron ePower-Bikes click these links :
Surron Light Bee X https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=surron+light+bee+x&iax=images&ia=images
Surron Storm https://duckduckgo.com/?q=surron+storm&t=ffab&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images
@surron
