Doug's Sounding Board

Occasionally when I go over a bump I feel the power cut out on the scooter for a second. I thought it might be where the splice in the line to the motor is from when changing tires on these was an unknown. I just checked that yesterday and all those splices are solid, not even a wiggle. I also thought it might be in the throttle and to test that I had the back wheel off the ground with the throttle on and whacked it. The motor cut out for a split second.

I talked to Ricky at the Volks Cafe about it and he said he didn’t have any others in stock and explained that it is a hall-effect sensor which basically means it’s a magnet and a magnetic field sensor Not likely to have a problem unless the sensor or the magnet is loose. I took it apart and found the sensor a little loose so I bought some epoxy and really glued it in. I also got it positioned better so the final position will be closer to the sensor than before (slightly but we aren’t talking about major distances in any case and the magnetic field drops off as 1 over r squared so every little bit helps). The power in the throttle starts a little earlier now which is good but still there is the drop-out.

I got it home from the test ride and put it back on the center stand. I got the back wheel off the ground and turned it on. Then for some reason I turned the handle bars. When it was at either side it would work perfectly, but when I turned it through the center position sometimes it would cut out. Finally a concrete way to reproduce it without me having to be riding! I’m guessing that something is getting pinched sometimes in the forward position or something. I’m not really sure what I’m looking for but I with the better reproduction I can play around until I find it better.