We pick up with me having gotten a first estimate from Andreas from Ksenotek for the repairs resulting from my recent accident. As one of the first steps, I had to register my accident with my insurance. Usually, there comes the moment where they ask which type of vehicle I own, how many kilometres I’ve already driven and how old it is. (TWIKE, ~250,000, 18 years) The agent on the other end of the line audibly exhaled as I told her that this was an accident that came about because I had swerved to avoid an animal. Probably she assumed […]
TW560 accident damage assessment
My accident was on a late evening driving back home from an event. I flipped TW560 whilst avoiding a neighbor’s cat, then crossed my neighbor’s front garden suspended in a flipped-over TWIKE and came to a shuddering stop at her house’s wall – all whilst suspended at 130° sideways. Since the distance back home wasn’t too far, after performing some basic self-checks and extracting myself from the vehicle, I put TW560 back on its wheels and just pushed it back the last few 100 metres. Back home, feeling shaken and slightly under shock, I initially didn’t care too much about […]
Repairs: No recuperation, take II
One of the most important features of a TWIKE is it’s ability to charge its batteries when breaking instead of wasting the kinetic energy on heating brake-pads. This is why TW560 proudly sports the bumper sticker below… to tickle ICE-driver’s brains 🙂 TW560’s recuperation has been patchy lately. When pressing the recuperation-button the inverter now usually nothing happens – a major source of frustration for a TWIKE pilot 🙂 Before we just either call our TWIKE mechanic to schedule a repair or do it ourselves, it is always a good idea to see what the exact problem might be. In […]
Repairs: After 234’000km, a few things needed attention – Part 4
TW560’s marathon problem fixing session finally over, Andi could get back to checking the rest of the chassis and changing the tyres. Smiling even after a full days’ worth of work on my TWIKE. I usually get about 7000-8000km out of a set of tyres. If I would change them when they are technically illegal in Switzerland it would be less than 5000km! Overall, I really like driving my TWIKE with slicks as they offer a lot of grip in dry conditions and are super-fun when roads are wet… As a hyper-miler, every option of reducing drag, […]
Repairs: After 234’000km, a few things needed attention – Part 3
Fixing a broken/disintegrated clamp Whilst searching for the source of an annoying squeak, Andi, however, found a much more serious problem: A clamp holding the chassis and frame together hat all but disintegrated! This might come from the fact that from time to time I’m driving my TWIKE slightly outside of its design envelope… For example here in Poland for hours on end.. And here in India… Fortunately, there is a simple solution to this problem that doesn’t take long to implement and will definitely last for a long time. A second clamp goes around the previous one and […]
Repairs: After 234’000km, a few things needed attention – Part 2
Fixing an annoying squeak TWIKE pilots always have a keen ear with regards to any new sound their TWIKE makes. Taking care of any problem as soon as possible not only saves money but can help preserve parts that might prove very hard to source if left to break/wear down. Following problem crept up just a week ago… A loud squeaking sound from somewhere around the right hand tyre/axle. Asking the usual suspects yielded answers from ‘No problem, might just be a piece of metal scraping somewhere’ to ‘gears scraping due to worn-down ball-bearings … this will be expensive!’ […]
Repairs: After 234’000km, a few things needed attention – Part 1
Prior to any TWIKE adventure, I usually take my TWIKE to an official TWIKE service centre to have a general check-up. This ensures that the chance of being left stranded somewhere far away is low. After discovering a slight problem with my steering swing assembly, I had an urgent reason to go to Andi from Ksenotek and have the assembly replaced besides my usual check-up and getting some new tyres. Furthermore, TW560 had started to develop a very annoying squeak when recuperating – not breaking – leading me to suspect some damage to the gear drive assembly. And, as always, […]
Repairs: Console LCD LED back-light
As if my TWIKE wants to be ready for TDST2017, one little thing after the other starts to manifest itself in the last few weeks (spoiler alert: another entry after this one is already lined-up…) This time it’s the central displays back-light. Unlike previous display problems, which popped-up the first time in India and which originated at Dreifels’ controller (DFC 3.0), this problem is directly linked to the 2×16 character LCD back-light. (yet another spoiler alert: I’m currently writing-up an entry outlining what makes this controller a must-have addition to any TWIKE out there.) See for yourself how this problem […]
Repairs: Reclaiming lost recuperation
One of the most important features of an electric car is its ability to capture kinetic energy by converting it back to electric energy via recuperation. (Why many electric scooters being sold still lack this feature remains a mystery to me) Only with recuperation can a TWIKE be one of the most economical electric vehicles world-wide! Therefore, as TW560 started to refuse to recuperate intermittently I immediately started asking the usual suspects what their take was. Interestingly enough, I wasn’t the only one with this problem. Feedbacks, however, weren’t too encouraging: The problem usually originates from a solder pad with […]
Every 191000 km…you’d better have a spare ready!
Last week I was driving at 90 km/h on the A1 motorway on my way from and to a next meeting as suddenly TW560 started losing speed. No noise, no grinding, no error messages – just no acceleration. Eventually, after changing the controller display to show raw inverter messages the inverter showed me a F06 error and rebooted gracefully just to show the same error when attempting to accelerate again. As TWIKEs in general roll very well, I didn’t have to leave the right lane immediately. After 3 reboots, I knew that something was definitely wrong. A few hundred metres […]