No dead battery failsafe's...

[Vega]

Crazy event happened this weekend. On Friday, I took the EX for a ride. Came back, put EX in garage at about 50% battery, locked the bike in phone app, press the red start/stop button to turn it off, then left for my trip.

That night, I remotely happened to check my security camera and I find my EX ON, headlights and taillights blasting in my garage! I'm like WTF I am like 99% sure I powered it off properly...

I'm like 4 hours away camping.. I'm like surely it will turn itself off from inactivity at some point. Come the next morning, NOPE, bike STILL ON. I'm like well it was charged 50% so how much energy can headlights and taillights draw, maybe it will still be ON until I get home on Sunday or some low voltage condition trips it..

Bike lights turned off (dead main battery apparently) at around 3PM Saturday, so it lasted about one full day with bike in the "ON" state at 50% battery. So I though I should be good, maybe some low voltage condition tripped. So now I'm worried, I cut my trip short and got home early and plugged the charger in at around 10AM Sunday, so the bike was "dead" for around 19 hours.

Plugging in the charger, the bike did nothing, unlike when it normally starts charging. But (luckily) the bike DID turn on with the button and start charging from 0%. I understand there is an ancillary battery to turn the bike electronics on that wasn't dead yet?

I guess a few questions:

1. How long does that ancillary battery normally last if the main battery is dead?
2. 19 hours at a 0% charge state in a 70 degree garage, is my battery damaged or degraded?
3. What kind of idiot company designs a bike that stays on with no timer or low voltage features for a bike sitting doing nothing for 24 hours?
4. Why was the bike in an "unlocked" state upon initiation of charging?

 

[markhamr]

The electronics on these bikes is shit
Just like a lot of the rest of the bike.

 

[woodstocktimes]

In the Varg app under settings, there is an inactivity setting for bike shutdown. Mine came from the factory set at 10 minutes.

 

[Marshall G]

The electronics on these bikes is shit
Just like a lot of the rest of the bike.

Dude, you need to sell your Stark and stick with the 450.

 

[Erwin P]

Indeed, but the only time it doesn't shut off is when you leave it in crawl mode. Or at least that was the case about half a year ago. Then it will stay in place and drain the battery to 0%.

 

[markhamr]

Thanks for the tech erwin.
Making sure your stark is powered off correctly is important .
As for me selling my stark.
Put your money where your mouth is and buy it off me.
I ride a multitude of bikes.

 

[Erwin P]

Thanks for the tech erwin.
Making sure your stark is powered off correctly is important .
As for me selling my stark.
Put your money where your mouth is and buy it off me.
I ride a multitude of bikes.

I drained/killed my battery like that once. Had it on a centrestand and used the crawl mode to wash the rear wheel but forgot to turn it of (battery was allready at 6% after the racing day) Stark did admit it should protect itself and contacted the local dealer to give me the battery of a showroom bike so i could race that weekend.

Since i life on almost the exact opposite of the world that would be a very hard buy. But since every post incluides something about how much you dislike the bike i would also advise to sell it. The price is only going down from here so i would sell it yesterday if i hated it as much.

 

[markhamr]

I am using it as a training aid.
It is like getting off a xr650 and then riding a 250 2 stroke.
There is no resale value on these bikes.
But as i say if the bikes that great buy it off me.(anyone)
Mine is well setup with most of the bugs worked out
clean with no damage.
As for hating the bike i do not.
I will point out any problems and performance issues.

 

[Vega]

Not shutting down in crawl mode is idiotic. There should always be some default voltage protection from the battery draining to zero and getting damaged. Total amateur company.

And this worthless shit arkenstone phone, slow laggy cheap POS that can't even communicate with the bike half the time. I've had to completely stop using the "lock" feature as I'm tired of spending 20 minute every time I want to go ride resetting Bluetooth setting and rebooting shit just to get the bike to function. Like some $2/hour Indian programmer made this shit.

Turned off the bike at 90% and went on a 4 day road trip, came back and the phone was warm with a black screen and 77% bike charge. Even turning on the bike wouldn't get the phone to turn on.. having a POS buggy phone as the instrument panel is the stupidest idea ever. And losing 13% power with the bike "off".

 

[AL_V]

Not shutting down in crawl mode is idiotic. There should always be some default voltage protection from the battery draining to zero and getting damaged. Total amateur company.

And this worthless shit arkenstone phone, slow laggy cheap POS that can't even communicate with the bike half the time. I've had to completely stop using the "lock" feature as I'm tired of spending 20 minute every time I want to go ride resetting Bluetooth setting and rebooting shit just to get the bike to function. Like some $2/hour Indian programmer made this shit.

Turned off the bike at 90% and went on a 4 day road trip, came back and the phone was warm with a black screen and 77% bike charge. Even turning on the bike wouldn't get the phone to turn on.. having a POS buggy phone as the instrument panel is the stupidest idea ever. And losing 13% power with the bike "off".

The idea of using a wireless phone sounds great in theory, but in hindsight, was a mistake.
I have had my MX about 14 months, and while I admit, the phone/bike connection is much more stable now than it originally was, and also easier and quicker to re-establish the connection, a hard-wired solution would be a major improvement. A cord to plug into the phone would be an improvement, but I think a dedicated hard-wired display would be so much better.

 

[Erwin P]

Agreed, even if the phone was just hardwired it would have been much better. No one i know ever uses the phone as a phone. Could very well have been a normal unit. Would have saved them 1 SIM card per bike as well.

But well an existing phone is very cheap, cheaper then designing a dash so i get it for the MX (wich was a Blackview phone). But if you design your own like the Arkenstone you might as well skip all the complications involved with a phone.

Edit:
On the draining with crawl mode. That happened to me when that feature just came out. Maybe they fixed that, i'm not going to find out!

 

[drehwurm68]

Not shutting down in crawl mode is idiotic

Just imagine you are using crawl mode to hold the bike (no freewheeling) on a steep incline/descent and it turns off unexpectedly

Michael

 

[Chaconne]

Just imagine you are using crawl mode to hold the bike (no freewheeling) on a steep incline/descent and it turns off unexpectedly

Michael

Right. You are headed home after a brutal day of hard enduro low on battery and you have one last brutal ledgey hill climb with tight fall offs till done... and you crash and you are using crawl to save your ass... And right at the precarious point bike shuts down. That is my luck at least.

 

[Vega]

Well if the battery is low enough to turn the bike off, you already know the battery is low and it could turn off if your actively using crawl mode.

 

[Erwin P]

Yeah the bike is going to stop anyways so it should stop right before battery damage is done.

Once again, it might be it does now and that it was overlooked the first update.
I work in a very established industry that never has to hurry and with very deep pockets... But still this kind of (software) mistakes happen often enough.