AlphaGeek
Member
Forgive me for stating the obvious, but the throttle and kill button (not even a kill switch) supplied by Golden Eagle are less than impressive. Please note that I love my GEBE kit overall -- I just think that the overall value is undermined by the low quality of the kill button and throttle parts. (My kit: GEBE w/Tanaka PF-3300 2-stroke, upgraded E/V 14ga rear wheel)
First, the throttle:
* spring-steel attachment strap does not firmly affix throttle in desired orientation
* aforementioned strap causes significant scratching to alloy handlebars
* difficult to find non-interference mount position in relation to Shimano v-brake combo shifter/brake lever assembly (aggressive downshifting pushes lower lever past throttle, where it gets hung up and fails to return)
* flexing of throttle cable, even at a relatively large bend radius, causes motor to rev (potentially dangerous)
Since I want to mount my motor further back to accommodate a standard cargo rack (rotated towards rear of bike, pivoting on axis of rear axle) I ordered a longer 74in throttle cable and a better quality control lever from MonsterScooterParts.com:
http://www.monsterscooterparts.com/74thca.html
http://www.monsterscooterparts.com/brleblpllsi.html
The kill button. Oh, the kill button. Where to start?
* Counting on a bike handlebars/headset/frame as a chassis ground back to the engine is not, IMHO, a great starting assumption. Bike != car/motorcycle/etc.
* This thing scratched the heck out of my previously black-anodized handlebars during installation -- now I've got zig-zag scratches covering 5-6 inches of the upper surface. Not impressed.
* Worked for the first day. Failed for several days after that, despite moving it to different spots (more scratches!) and trying different levels of tension on screw. Got a couple of electric shocks from it. Mysteriously started working again in the exact same position/orientation as when it failed.
Would it really be too expensive to provide a *two* wire kill button that attached the second wire to, say, the lower mounting bracket supporting the engine? That way the user would, generally speaking, never be the preferred path to ground. I would think that would be preferable over intermittent operation and occasional shocks.
I'm going to try for a nice, clean solution which will wire into the controller on my eBay-sourced brake/turn-signal/horn widget *and* serve as a two-wire kill button for the GEBE motor:
http://www.monsterscooterparts.com/litusiandhos.html
I don't know yet how much I'll have to modify the above part to get it to (a) fit on my handlebars and (b) wire into everything, but at $10 plus shipping it's a cheap experiment.
Augi, or anyone else from GEBE reading this: the kill button should be replaced altogether, and the throttle desperately needs a better attachment system. These are not expensive parts, but they're the user interface to a $600 product and should reflect that. An additional $5-10 added to the selling price to cover upgraded controls would not have affected my decision on a $600 purchase. It would, however, have made a HUGE difference in my first-week experience. Until these things are fixed I'm going to have to qualify my recommendations to others with "Well, you'll need to immediately upgrade a few things that come with the kit..."
As I said at the start of this post, love the kit (GEBE with Tanaka 33cc) but having to replace trivial parts to make it work properly is annoying.
-AG
PS: I *did* greatly appreciate the "secret bonus" of having my drive ring preinstalled on the rear wheel I ordered with my kit. That almost makes up for the other stuff.
First, the throttle:
* spring-steel attachment strap does not firmly affix throttle in desired orientation
* aforementioned strap causes significant scratching to alloy handlebars
* difficult to find non-interference mount position in relation to Shimano v-brake combo shifter/brake lever assembly (aggressive downshifting pushes lower lever past throttle, where it gets hung up and fails to return)
* flexing of throttle cable, even at a relatively large bend radius, causes motor to rev (potentially dangerous)
Since I want to mount my motor further back to accommodate a standard cargo rack (rotated towards rear of bike, pivoting on axis of rear axle) I ordered a longer 74in throttle cable and a better quality control lever from MonsterScooterParts.com:
http://www.monsterscooterparts.com/74thca.html
http://www.monsterscooterparts.com/brleblpllsi.html
The kill button. Oh, the kill button. Where to start?
* Counting on a bike handlebars/headset/frame as a chassis ground back to the engine is not, IMHO, a great starting assumption. Bike != car/motorcycle/etc.
* This thing scratched the heck out of my previously black-anodized handlebars during installation -- now I've got zig-zag scratches covering 5-6 inches of the upper surface. Not impressed.
* Worked for the first day. Failed for several days after that, despite moving it to different spots (more scratches!) and trying different levels of tension on screw. Got a couple of electric shocks from it. Mysteriously started working again in the exact same position/orientation as when it failed.
Would it really be too expensive to provide a *two* wire kill button that attached the second wire to, say, the lower mounting bracket supporting the engine? That way the user would, generally speaking, never be the preferred path to ground. I would think that would be preferable over intermittent operation and occasional shocks.
I'm going to try for a nice, clean solution which will wire into the controller on my eBay-sourced brake/turn-signal/horn widget *and* serve as a two-wire kill button for the GEBE motor:
http://www.monsterscooterparts.com/litusiandhos.html
I don't know yet how much I'll have to modify the above part to get it to (a) fit on my handlebars and (b) wire into everything, but at $10 plus shipping it's a cheap experiment.
Augi, or anyone else from GEBE reading this: the kill button should be replaced altogether, and the throttle desperately needs a better attachment system. These are not expensive parts, but they're the user interface to a $600 product and should reflect that. An additional $5-10 added to the selling price to cover upgraded controls would not have affected my decision on a $600 purchase. It would, however, have made a HUGE difference in my first-week experience. Until these things are fixed I'm going to have to qualify my recommendations to others with "Well, you'll need to immediately upgrade a few things that come with the kit..."
As I said at the start of this post, love the kit (GEBE with Tanaka 33cc) but having to replace trivial parts to make it work properly is annoying.
-AG
PS: I *did* greatly appreciate the "secret bonus" of having my drive ring preinstalled on the rear wheel I ordered with my kit. That almost makes up for the other stuff.