Sherman tire change...my first tire change on an EUC

[travsformation]

A few weeks ago I was going around a roundabout in a deserted residential area when the tire suddenly went soft, the wheel pivoted, the pedal scraped against the asphalt and I was ejected from the wheel. Luckily, I was riding slowly and was able to run it off. The wheel has its first battle scars though...

When I picked it up the tire was completely flat.

I couldn't find any puncture marks and the tire hadn't been getting softer over time; I was riding at 28 PSI, so not too low, not too high (max. pressure stated on the tire is 33 PSI), I was riding on smooth asphalt and hadn't jumped any curbs or anything of that sort.

Feeling a little puzzled as to how this could have happened, I suddenly spotted this:

Whether it was a defective tube with a valve-connection issue, or the tire wasn't properly seated and was causing movement and wear and tear on the valve, I don't know, but I've got confirmation from another Sherman user who had the same exact problem. 🤔

So...long story short...I've been without the Sherman for nearly 3 weeks (this happened before I'd even hit the 100 km mark on the Sherman 😭 ). I've finally received my replacement tubes (ordered a couple to be on the safe side) and now it's time to replace it, which I have to admit, I've been dreading.

Checking out @Marty Backe's Sherman reconstruction videos, there's nothing on the board wiring (since it was all fried 😂), so the only video I have to go by is Kuji's fast-motion tire replacement video, which honestly, isn't of much help:

My main concerns are:

- The wiring: I hope everything has neat little connectors I can unplug and plug back in and I don't have to solder anything back to the board, that would be a pain in the ass

- Reconnecting the batteries: I'd just charged the Sherman and had only put a handful of kms on it before this happened, so the battery is at 100% charge. Are there any special precautions I need to take when reconnecting the batteries? Anything I should do to prevent them from sparking when connected?

Any tips or pointers would be much appreciated, I don't fancy messing up the wheel or setting it on fire 😅

 

Edited December 16, 2020 by travsformation

[null]

Aw thats too bad. It isn't a pleasure to change, I'm just back from it.

Wiring: yes but there are goobs of kafuter silicone, you have to be careful not to tear anything, especially the hal cables. Also have some (or equivalent) to glue it back down..
For the motor cables I removed the whole shrink wrap (and redid it) but it would have been easier to make a little hole for the screwdriver on top. (no soldering luckily)

Batteries: Its only the first connector, the time it takes to fill the capacitors. Mine was at around 85-90V, and wasn't that violent.

My two cents. Good luck!

[travsformation]

Thanks @null! Am off to the DIY store to buy some goop! 

[travsformation]

Man is this a pain in the ass! The roll bar is a nightmare to remove. I'm finally at the stage where I should be able to remove the wheel/motor but the bastard won't come out. Looks like I'm going to have to remove the white shrink wrap from all the wires...

Or could I be missing something? It's 6 hex screws per side right?

How tedious was is to get the wires back in when reassembling?

Edit: got it. I was being too gentle... 😅

Whoever designed this should be forced to do everyone's tire changes...

Edited December 17, 2020 by travsformation

[travsformation]

Finished the tube change without setting anything on fire!!!

Man was that a pain in the ass...especially getting the roll bars off, but getting the motor cables back in was pretty tedious too. Must have taken me 3h in total (took more than 1/2h to get the roll bars off, also spent quite a while making sure the tire was seated properly).

A few observations:

- There was no long large slit or snake bites on the tire, so it was the valve. I'm not sure if it was a defective valve or an incorrectly seated tire, but "hurrah" for Chinese QC... 😓

- On that note, Veteran's assembly line rigor and QC is CRAP:

          - The hex screws that join the pedal hangers to the shell weren't as tight as they ought to be (I know this from my previous disassembly)

          - The shrink wrap meant to protect the motor wires is just for show, since the HAL and motor wires go straight into the motor, touching one another, at the motor end.

          - There were two screws on the roll bar (2 of 4...) that were held in place by nothing but silicone.

          - I don't know where they source their rims or how they store them, but a rim on a wheel with less than 100 km on it shouldn't look like this:

          - The LCD screen wires should be longer so to allow users to work on the board without having to remove the wires.

          - The way the roll bars are held in place party by the outer shell isn't too confidence-inspiring.

 

I love this wheel, but overall, the quality honestly isn't great IMO....

BUT, now I can ride it again so screw all of my gripes!

[fbhb]

6 hours ago, travsformation said:

BUT, now I can ride it again so screw all of my gripes!

Every single brand of EUC out there has very poor QC IMHO, as evidenced by Every New wheel released in 2020. They have All had numerous Known issues, some have been addressed, some are still to be resolved. All any of us can do is cross our fingers and hope for the minimum of issues with Whatever wheel we buy!  I bought an S18 knowing Full well what I was getting into, but stripped & rebuilt it straight out of the box. It is a fantastic wheel to ride now, but should have come from the factory that way! In the meantime, I've Only been able to ride my Sherman 4 times, before the original Veteran 5amp charger went pop & damaged the Sherman's control board too! Fortunately, after some long drawn out communications between myself, my seller and Veteran, replacements for both the 5amp charger & the control board are now on a very slow boat to me as I write this. The torture of Only having dipped my toe very briefly into the Sherman's vast pool of superlatives is beyond what I can bear! I WANT MY SHERMAN BACK UP & RUNNING ASAP!!! LIKE, YESTERDAY WOULD BE GOOD!!!!????

Edited December 18, 2020 by fbhb

[travsformation]

13 hours ago, fbhb said:

Every single brand of EUC out there has very poor QC IMHO, as evidenced by Every New wheel released in 2020. They have All had numerous Known issues, some have been addressed, some are still to be resolved. All any of us can do is cross our fingers and hope for the minimum of issues with Whatever wheel we buy!  I bought an S18 knowing Full well what I was getting into, but stripped & rebuilt it straight out of the box. It is a fantastic wheel to ride now, but should have come from the factory that way! In the meantime, I've Only been able to ride my Sherman 4 times, before the original Veteran 5amp charger went pop & damaged the Sherman's control board too! Fortunately, after some long drawn out communications between myself, my seller and Veteran, replacements for both the 5amp charger & the control board are now on a very slow boat to me as I write this. The torture of Only having dipped my toe very briefly into the Sherman's vast pool of superlatives is beyond what I can bear! I WANT MY SHERMAN BACK UP & RUNNING ASAP!!! LIKE, YESTERDAY WOULD BE GOOD!!!!????

Ah man, that sucks! Hope your Sherman is up and running soon!

Honestly, I agree that we knowingly get ourselves into this (except first-time buyers) and have to own that and also take responsibility for the fact that if they keep pulling this crap on us it's because we keep buying their products--we do bring it onto ourselves...

On the other hand, I've only been riding for a little over two years and in that time I've seen a steep fall in quality. I started with a V8 which is a quality wheel, then upgraded to a KS18XL, which in IMHO is the last quality wheel KS made, up the their former standards. I still love my 16X, but I know it wouldn't withstand even half of the tumbles the 18XL was subjected to. It's a much more delicate wheel, the weatherproofing is worse, it was riddled with safety issues on release, etc. And the S18...I don't need to tell you about its issues. The V11 was supposed to be the wheel with the best production values out there but turned out to be very delicate and to prove that hype and marketing don't make up for proper testing (pre-release, that is...). GW/Begode continue to do things their way and ignore users' complaints/requests...

I dunno, I think I'm at a point where I'm going to (try to) be coherent, settle/be happy with the wheels I have and quit throwing money into this hoping that in the meantime, MFs straighten their act a little and up their quality. We'll see how long my determination lasts... 😂

I hope your new board arrives soon and you can finally enjoy your Sherman!

[fbhb]

14 hours ago, travsformation said:

I hope your new board arrives soon and you can finally enjoy your Sherman!

@travsformation Thanks for your post and well wishes, regarding my Sherman.  I'm trying in vain to be patient, but fear it is most likely Not going to turn up before the Christmas/New Years Holidays now! (I really do hope I'm wrong though) 

Although I Only got to ride it 4 times before the 5amp charger fried things up, they were 4 good long rides and more than double what I have ever been used to in the past!  With the Sherman offering an amazing lack of range anxiety, on All 4 initial rides I could not help myself but clock up around 100kms on each of those 4 outings! 

So even though it has sat forlornly on it's stand since the middle of November, waiting for a conclusion and now the long wait for the replacement parts, I have at least managed to reach a total of 420kms so far!  The Only problem with that fact though, is that having now had a nice little taster of what the Sherman is capable of makes me even more sad I can't ride it at the moment! 

We All know what it's like having the long wait for your New wheel to Finally arrive and that's bad enough, but to have it sitting there on it's stand after that initial long wait and still unable to be ridden is TORMENT of the cruellest kind 

Edited December 20, 2020 by fbhb

[DrBytes]

Im about to do this. Only 200km and it seems the valve stem sheared off. Unlucky, I've always kept it between 20-25 psi.

[Daley1]

Someone needs to video/photograph this for the rest of us who have never pulled a wheel apart!

[DrBytes]

It wasn't too bad. There's a vid somewhere where a guy gets access to the tube by undoing one side of the wheel. I'll try that next time.

[Unventor]

On 12/19/2020 at 10:48 PM, fbhb said:

We All know what it's like having the long wait for your New wheel to Finally arrive and that's bad enough, but to have it sitting there on it's stand after that initial long wait and still unable to be ridden is TORMENT of the cruellest kind 

Well I have 2x V11 I can't ride because I manage to do silly things while doing tire change from stock tires.

Now I am waiting 3 week still for parts to come. And the 2nd V11 I bought just to avoid this situation all together. 

Today I got news both orders has been sent off...I hope the 450$ for shipping is well spend.  But 1 parcel had been lost for 2 weeks already. 

That's life it just never go smoothly. 

[fbhb]

2 hours ago, Unventor said:

That's life it just never go smoothly. 

I feel your pain 

[mrelwood]

On 12/19/2020 at 1:33 PM, travsformation said:

if they keep pulling this crap on us it's because we keep buying their products

Replying to an old post, but while the above statement is absolutely correct, we don’t really have a choice. They already got us hooked, and it’s not like we could fight the urge to buy the latest and greatest. Or at least the second latest.

 Another issue is that while GW has long been the bottom of the pack in quality, they keep selling well because so many riders are speed junkies. We’re only now getting over the threshold of other manufacturers getting into the ridiculously fast territory as well. That should be a huge warning sign for GW.

Inmotion had so many first-offs in the V11 (and KS in the S18) that a few hiccups was near unavoidable. But since at least Inmotion seem eager to learn about them, they have great chances of getting a true killer of their next suspension wheel. I’m hooked deep into the suspension game, so I’m eagerly looking forward to the V13!