Ryvid Outset

The Ryvid Outset I ordered early July arrived this morning, and after charging I took it for a 30 mile test ride:


It has the ASI controller upgrade. In sport mode it has 334 ft-lbs torque at the wheel.

I've been putting some miles on the Outset. One thing for certain is that the seat sucks. I'll figure some sort of fix, but other than that the bike is great. On sport mode I got it up to the low 70's and was drawing 224a at 72 nominal volts. Driving hard I figure 30 miles on a charge, which might not seem to be enough but I've been riding a Grom pretty much daily (that is until I had a capable ebike) and racked up suprisingly few miles. This was my use of the 2014 Grom: 10 years, 8000 miles.
Geesh, I live in a small town!

The disadvantage of the gasser was that I never rode it long enough to get rid of the moisture in the crankcase. Emoto's would seem to be the solution to that problem. Back then I was shopping for a new bike when I saw and fell in love with the Grom. I had been looking at 250cc equivalent emotos and they were like $15,000! The Grom was $3,200, but at 125cc had only a 53mph top speed. It suited me well, but I never got the oil hot enough. Still runs great, due to modern metallurgy and lube oil, I guess.

The Outset is a Grom equivalent on eco mode, but on sport mode it is a Honda Elsinor.

I've been riding the Ouset, probing the edges of my realm to see if it has sufficent battery range for what it needs to do for me.
Did a 20 mile round trip highway journey, 40 to 50+mph, and that took about 30% of battery capacity. Rode around another 14 miles to 25% of battery, and played with the sport mode. Drew up to 250a, about 18kw. Boy, that sucks battery.
So far the bike looks like it will do what I want. I was a bit concerned yesterday.

Still testing this bike. I did 33 miles today, and it consumed 78% of the battery capacity. Speed ranged between 60 and 40 mph. My guess is mid-to-upper 40's for average speed, with a fair bit of up and down. It works for me.
In sport mode, with the ASI controller, this thing is a beast! I have only done burst of power in sport mode. The most I saw was 225a at 74v. At that rate of draw you'd probably drain the battery before you fry all that other stuff.
They sell the intergrated motor and swing arm for $1,250, which might be a good deal for someone. I've pulled 18 kws through it.
A replacement battery is $4,000, which I'd never pay, but they are sold out anyway. I would sure like to take one apart and see what is in there.
As is, I'll probably ride this thing until it or I die. The only thing I'll add is a top case for the rear to carry a lock, charge cords, and power adapters.
Range anxiety on an ebike is one thing -- you can always pedal it, but on an emoto?

Running chores:

Having adventures with the Outset, even as the season turns.
I was out doing errands on it yesterday, and was leaving the Post Office. I had noticed before that the throttle is active before the display lights up. So I press the start button and twist the throttle before the display is active, just to see what would happen.
200 ft up the road the bike dies, and won't restart. At this, I found out that it truly sucks to push an Outest up a hill. After about 1,500 ft of torture I could finally roll down hill to home.
At home I pulled and disconected the battery and then put it back together. It still would not turn on. But after about of an hour of sitting, when I checked, it turned on. So it was back to the P.O. to pick up a package. On leaving I powered it up, had the display light up, hit the throttle and 200 ft later it was dead once again at the exact same spot. Pushed it home once again, but this time I took a diagonal path, much less suffering.
When I got back to the bike shed I disconnected the battery and this time I waited. Finally I heard a light clunk from the battery and put it back together. It is now working.
Ran errands on the Outset again today. I now push the start button and wait for the display to light up, and then wait some more before hitting the wick. No problems so far.

An emoto is a strange beast. It is so trancelike to ride, and you need to remind yourself to be careful (kind of like riding a bicycle on LSD).
On a gasser you use both of your hands and feet to operate the vehicle. With this bike you only use one hand: throttle and front brake lever (and it has cruise control too). The regen is very well intergrated.

Presume the clunk was an analog contactor? Do you know how many contactors the Ryvid (or other emoto) bikes typically have? A lot of EV with traction pack >60v have three, one for each battery pole, and a third for precharge. I saw a recent post here for internals of the V. Stark emoto, and there were (at least) two contactors, one in each half of the traction pack case presumably (?) one for each battery pole.

All that to say as I work on my own (mini) emoto, it seems like startup sequence is vital and tricky to get right for diverse rider behavoir. Sounds like the Ryvid's startup could use some design improvements. I wonder why the throttle would be available prior to what sounds like a precharge sequence delay?

It's a black box to me. Eventually I'll take things apart and look.
The bike has been working well, outside of the other day. I understand the challenges Ryvid has in selling bikes and making money. I think they have made a great bike for the money. Just wish there was more technical information available

I know some of the Suv's that are EV's have issues if you don't wait for it to fully "boot up" - owners would have problems with false errors and some getting stranded but when they waited the minute or so for the system to fully start up those problems were not happening. Software issues for sure.

Not sure how the Outset works and may not be a similar issue but who knows.

I put a top box on the Outset yesterday:



There is no storage on the bike, so I bought a small equipment case and mounted it. It seems smart to me to carry at least these things. Now I can, no backpack needed.

Went Ryvid riding once again today:


Just a bit on wet gravel roads but that gritty slime went everywhere including the battery. Cleaned the bike, removed the battery and cleaned that too. Not an ideal design for dirt roads.

Otherwise, the bike is literally a dream to ride. Though, I think this bike is going to need more love and care than my Grom ever got.

I've become concerned about all the stuff thrown up on top of the battery when riding in wet and dirty road conditions.
So I went out to take a look at the bike and figure out a fix. Duh! There's no front fender:


Kind of obvious, but I'm a slow learner.
If I can find a fender that fits that fork it should be an easy fix. Wish me luck.

I am glad to see this. It's kind of a weird looking bike but small bikes have a place in my heart.

where are you @gromike

Yeah, it's kind of wierd as the frame is folded stainless steel. It'll go over 80mph, but at that, it won't go far.

Nice bike gromike! How did you clean off the gritty slime after the wet ride?

A gentle wash down with fresh water, and wiped with a rag.

It was so dreamlike to cruise around on the Outset. So dreamlike. Just the other day, in a state of bliss, as I rode down the street I saw a warship coming into port. I pulled over, parked the bike to watch the ship go by. After that I went back to the bike and as I swung my leg over the bike fell over. WTF! Must of not had the kickstand all the way down, I thought. Started to go but heard a clanking sound. I stopped, looked down, and hanging by the spring was this:

The tab molded into the swingarm to attach the kickstand broke off! Can't say it sheared off, as it looks like it was only hanging by a thread when it finally failed. Big problem, no easy fix. I'll probably MacGyver a fix, but await Ryvid's response. If this is the problem I think it is, Ryvid doesn't have deep enough pockets to deal with it.

It looks like some corrosion around the hinge point. That seems progressive for such a relatively new horse, ya? The grain structure of the cast aluminum along the sheer face doesn't look to developed either, like a lower quality casting.

Man, thats a bummer this happened. I sure hope you can figure a patch or ideally, get some manuf assistance.

gromike said:

The tab molded into the swingarm to attach the kickstand broke off! Can't say it sheared off, as it looks like it was only hanging by a thread when it finally failed. Big problem, no easy fix. I'll probably MacGyver a fix, but await Ryvid's response. If this is the problem I think it is, Ryvid doesn't have deep enough pockets to deal with it.

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Sorry to hear. What do you think was the cause of the failure? What do you mean Ryvid does not have deep enough pockets to deal with it? Is it that serious?

I assume metallurgical failure due to design or production issues. I do wonder if the bike shipped resting on the kickstand, and that accelerated failure. The only easy way is to replace the swingarm assembly, but if it is an inherent flaw in design it would just reoccur sometime again. I don't think Ryvid can afford that across it's production line of bikes.
This failure leads me to question the long term strength of the cast aluminum swingarm assembly in toto.

Has Ryvid responded?
Later floyd

An initial response on 12/9 asking for more details and an image, which I did send that day, but nothing since.

gromike said:

I do wonder if the bike shipped resting on the kickstand, and that accelerated failure.

Click to expand...

It didn't come in a box that require some assembly? Or was it delivered by rolling it off the ramp of a truck, ready to ride?

Rolled off the truck ready to go.