flypigs

We washed ours on a regular basis and never had an issue. The batteries and relay definitely aren't issues, nor should the key or potentiometer. If anything, the throttle or controller could be sensitive to it, but ours got wet many times w/o harm. Pete

Good feedback. One we bought new that is still on the original tires and is very clean. One I bought used (the black one) and upgraded to a newer spec. Both have had at least 1 (and 2, IIRC) sets of batteries). http://s190.photobucket.com/user/pafnorvale/slideshow/OSET%20for%20sale I will do ebay if necessary, but I don't look forward to packaging these things up. Again, more than anything, I'm amazed that in a metro area of 4 million people there is so little interest. Thanks for letting me vent. Pete

Our boys have been spending way more focus and time on their gas machines, and we decided to sell the pair of 36v 16's. I expected that they would go super quickly, but there has been almost no interest here on craiglist and a couple of the local MC (not trials) forums. Is $800 and $900 out of line for 3 year old machines? Or is it just that trials is out of the US mainstream? Pete

We went to 36's, and I don't see a reason not to. If there is a downside, it is that dialing down the potentiometer can cause a little jerkiness in the throttle (and potentially {pun intended} you may have to dial down a 36 more than a 24). If your boy has decent throttle control on the 12.5, it's a non-issue. Good luck, Pete

I recommend that you just move up now. When both my boys transitioned from 12.5 to 16's, it was about a 7 minute process. The bigger wheels help significantly with stability, the brakes are more progressive, and the weight difference is insignificant. IIRC, by the end of the afternoon, they were asking for more speed. Pete

I would recommend that you find a rim lock from a ktm 65 or similar. It would be easy enough to drill a hole through the rim and install the rim lock, and then you could run any pressure w/ no worries of spinning the valve stem off. You should be able to find one on ebay for a couple of quid. Pete

2 years is probably going to work, our oldest started at 3, and his younger brother rode a pedal bike and the Oset at 24 months. Like your son, both started on balance bikes which I believe to be the key to confidence and success. I'm not a fan of stabilizers/training wheels, but there are plenty of success stories from families that used them. To teach the throttle, we put the bike up on a stand with the wheels off the ground and let them turn it on and off to feel the engine spool up. Two 1 minute sessions of that, and just let them go. We didn't bother teaching brakes in those first months, we just kept the potentiometer low enough that I could run faster than the bike. (and didn't ride near any real hills) It won't take long until you will be turning up the potentiometer and wishing for a 36v. Enjoy, Pete

The Oset batteries charge while they remain mounted in the bikes. The 3 batteries are wired in series and the chargers that come with the bikes are labeled as 36v (or 24v for the smaller bikes). Both the Oset brand charger and the aftermarket charger are labled as 36v's, but both were almost identical in output at 41v. IIRC, those chargers start at a higher voltage and drop down to trickle, but I don't know what the threshold is for the dropdown, or how I could measure the trickle rate. Pete

I recently had yet another set of off-the-shelf batteries blow up (overheat and swell, not explode). This time was a set of three 10.5ah SLA batteries, that I believe are PowerSonic brand. But this is the 3rd set in about 3 years: First a set of 8ah's on our 12.5 model (w/ a stock Oset charger). Then a set of 10.5's on a 36v model (I then replaced the Oset charger with an ebay 36v charger) Then this set of 10.5s on one of our two 36v models. To the best of my knowledge, I haven't left these things on charge more than overnight, or 24 hours. I tested both of the two chargers we have (1 Oset and the one I bought on ebay) and both are putting out about 41v. There aren't many things in common with these events: 3 different bikes 2 or 3 different chargers A couple of different brands of batteries Do I need to rig up a timer so these never charge more than a couple hours? Pete

Welcome Sergio, They really are great bikes, and I hope you enjoy them. My boys have been through one 12.5, and now have two 36v's. Somehow when the 20" model comes out, I'm guessing that we will have one or two of them. While you are greasing things, make sure to check the tightness of the swingarm bolts. Most of the bikes I've seen are too tight, which makes the rear suspension very stiff. Enjoy, Pete

Fingerless gloves - That's a pretty good idea to give some protection, but give good function (and if any of you have tried to put gloves on a 3 year old, it is a VERY frustrating venture!). And JonnyB, yes, I think that was the model of HJC that we got. They are pretty basic, but again for the speeds and potential impacts of this age (3 and 5), they work. Looking forward to outfitting older kids in better gear is going to be a very expensive avocation. Pete

We bought a few HJC kids helmets on closeout in xs, s, and m, and mixed up the cheekpads along the way to try to keep the best fit. On the 12.5, I really would have been ok w/ a bicycle helmet - in our case, both boys were going faster on bikes than on the 12.5's. It did work well to get them used to full-face, and they will happily wear the moto helmets on their bikes if they're going to a skate park. The first son started out with just ordinary kids boots, but soon we ended up w/ some Fox PeeWee comp5's for about $70us. They are well worth it, and the sole pad removes to make them significantly bigger as the kids feet grow. When the younger son started riding, we quickly got some Shift Speedsters, which were similarly cheap. Neither of these boots has adult style protection, but they are light and comfortable and give reasonable protection. We tried gloves, but with hands that small, they just made it harder to manipulate the throttle and brakes, so we are usually not wearing them. Any elbow pads are good to prevent scrapes, but kids (I can only speak for 5 and under) are so darn flexible and resilient that I think only boots and helmets are absolute necessities. (but the boys have requested and received chest protectors because they think they're cool) I don't know if age 6 will become time for neck protection for our oldest. Pete

Here are the boys in our new riding spot, hidden between an elementary school and a hiker bike path: And a quick disclaimer - I didn't make the movie or choose the music Pete

Today when we loaded up to go to a nearby park, I noticed that the black plastic cap was missing from the left fork tube on my older son's 16" 36v. I looked down in, and saw that the inside of the tube was threaded, but the fork seemed to be secured in the triple clamp. We had only ridden for 5 minutes when Owen crashed going through some mulch... "Daddy! My moto is broken!" Sure enough that fork tube had fallen out of the triple clamp and the wheel had spun around like the front wheel on a shopping cart. He was fine, and the bike was OK except for the fork. I discovered that on these RST forks, the right tube has a spring in it, but the left tube is only for stability, no spring, no dampening. I hadn't brought any tools with me, so I zipped home to make a temporary fix. I'm embarrassed to say that I used a hose clamp, a piece of inner tube, and duct tape. It wasn't pretty, but it doesn't carry much of a load, it only has to make sure the fork tube doesn't fall out of the triple. The last place we had ridden was our yard, so when we got home we made a search of the lawn. I expected to find a metal threaded cap that would pinch the top of the tube into the triple. My wife found the black plastic cap, but nothing threaded. I checked our 3 year old's 16, and found that it also only has a cap. I can't figure out if the tube is supposed to be pressed into the triple, or maybe glued. Does anyone have any idea? I didn't want to have to wait until Monday to check with RST to see if there is a part that will thread in, so I started looking around the garage. I didn't pull the axle cap from my KTM250, but I think it would have been really close. The RST fork tubes are 25mm outside, and 22mm inside. The thread pitch matched a few bolts I had around, I think it was either 1 or 1.25, so I figured I could find something. I looked in the steering tube of an old set of forks and saw a "star nut" which is what most bicycles use to secure the top handle bar clamp onto the fork assembly. I hacksawed the old tube and pulled out the star nut That star nut was 25mm across, so I used a grinder to get it to about 22-23mm and pushed it down into the fork tube with a screwdriver and a mallet. Then I just used the cap that was originally mounted on the star nut, locktited it, and it almost looks like it belongs there. Again, I don't know how these forks tubes are usually secured into the triple. The top of the triple has a flange that will prevent the tube from pushing through it, but I don't know what prevents the tube from pulling out. Pete

If you're still waiting, here is a few things to try (see a post of mine a few months back): If no lights are on the throttle, I'm going to guess that the relay isn't sending power. My 3 year old 12.5 was arranged so that one circuit of power went from the batteries > key switch > relay (square black box above the battery area) > controller. When the key was switched on, it told the relay to make a connection of the bigger red wires to send power to the motor. If you don't hear a "click" when the switch is on, the relay isn't sending power. If you can open the relay and you're brave: Reconnect all the wires and with an insulated tool, move the paddle to make contact. The lights should be on now. If that does work, you probably have a bad relay, or the batteries aren't sending enough juice (even if they test 24v on your meter) The relay is available commercially, and you should be able to get one online, or from a truck supply store. Batteries like the originals should be available locally, and it is worth spending $US70 for a pair of fresh ones anyway. If you go up a size to 10.5ah, they will fit, but will make getting to the charging port a little harder because they are taller. I hope that helps, Pete

There are several things you can do to lower the bike to suit your child. If is the first generation with upper and lower triple clamps, you could slide the fork tubes up by an inch. In the rear, you can at least take some of the preload off the spring, or even unwind the collar and let the spring press against the upper mounting point (but that could do some long-term damage - but the whole shock is cheap to replace if that happens), or you could get a softer spring which would allow more sag. Just by softening up the rear of our 16, we had our 3 year old riding and he could put both feet down. Pete

I'm pretty sure it is a #25 chain (1/4" between pins, 3.1mm between the inner plates), and you're right, it's industrial only, not bicycle. I was hoping to find it locally to avoid $10 shipping for a $3 part (for just the master link), but there is very little in the way of industrial supply nearby. I did end up ordering from OSET, and the prices were reasonable. Thanks, Pete

Today we had one of the first part failures on our well used 36v 16. One of the pins of the masterlink sheared off. Over the last two years, the chain has derailed a few times, so it's tough to tell if it failed on its own or if it was pinched btwn one of the sprockets and the swingarm. Regardless, I need to get a replacement masterlink or maybe an entire chain, which I hope to get locally. Does anyone know the size of the chain, and if it is likely to be found at a bicycle shop? Thanks, Pete

98% resolved. After several calls to Mike B at tech support, we were pretty confident that the relay was bad. He had me pull the cover off the relay and move the copper "flapper" to make contact, and when I did, the lights came on and the motor would turn w/ the throttle. I was pretty happy, and I buttoned it up with a piece of plastic wedged to keep the contacts connected so my boy could ride in the front yard. As soon as I announced "I think it's fixed enough to ride", I demonstrated by twisting the throttle while the bike was on a stand. After 10 seconds, the motor slowed down and stopped. The lights remained on, but no power. Pretty disappointing, and I was starting to have that feeling that I would need to buy an entire set of electrics for some weird gremlin. Later in the day I called Steve (current US distributer) to ask about an entire wiring harness. They don't sell the whole kit, but he offerred to sell me all the parts I wanted, and said he would accept any parts back that I didn't need. That's good service. Finally, before I ordered everything, he asked me what the tech support guy had done for me, and I repeated the steps. He asked about the potentiometer, which I had not done any testing of - 10 minutes later, I disconnected it, and had success! The throttle was live, lights were on, and bike had full power! So somehow, I had the relay and the potentiometer go bad at the same time, OR, while diagnosing the relay, I did something that affected the potentiometer. While I wait for the parts to arrive, I wired in a heavy duty on-off switch in place of the relay, and have Ty riding around at full power, which by the way seems a lot faster than when the potentiometer is dialed to full speed. I think that even at full speed, it does something to cut down the power. Thanks for being a sounding board, Pete

Thanks Dom. This thing is beating me up (but I am definitely not an electrical engineer). I pulled the cover off my other son's 36v model to compare and diagnose, but they have more dissimilar parts than identical. I tried swapping out throttle assemblies, but neither assembly would show power on either bike, so I think they are wired differently. (I also know that was probably a bad idea) I'm starting to suspect either the relay box or the controller. Is it a bad idea to "jump" the 12v power that passes through the relay? I think that would just power the throttle, and not send the motor turning at full throttle. But, if jumping it works, I still don't know if the relay is bad, or the controller isn't sending the message for the relay to connect (turn on?). Parts are cheap enough, that if I have to, I can order several, but still a $100 is a $100. Any other ideas? And again, thanks in advance. Pete

Hi all, Ty rode his 12.5 about a week ago with no issues. Today we went to ride, and I found no lights on the throttle, and no power. I thought maybe the charger hadn't been fully seated, and reconnected it, but the charger remained green, and no power came to the throttle. Things I've done: Checked the main fuse above the battery which was good Checked voltage across both batteries (~12v) and the two together ~24 Tried to check resistance across the key switch,( which I was suspect of) I expected to find no current with switch off, and no resistance with switch on, but I couldn't get any current in either position. I then tried jumping the two connectors (eliminating the switch), but still had no power. Next target was the throttle assmby. When I traced those wires, they branched to two black connectors that did not want to come apart. Then I noticed some white goo on both pairs of connectors. After fiddling with both of them I got them apart, and both were filled with more of the soft white stuff. Questions: Is that corrosion, or something that was put in to keep water out? If it's corrosion, what can I do to clean it out of the female side of each connector? Thanks in advance, and please let me know if you have other ideas. Pete

Thanks Gwhy - I meant using the supplied 36v Oset charger for 3 batteries in series. That would only require me to source a connector like the one on the frame of the bike, and build a little charging station. Would that work? Pete

We have a 12.5 and a 36v in the house, and the boys are at the point of having more endurance than the batteries do (even w/ fresh 10.5ah batteries). What would be the easiest way of charging 2 or 3 12v lead acid batteries off the bike? Do the Oset chargers have the brain in them that monitors the output of the charger, or is that control part of the bike? If that's the case, would I simply need to set the batteries up in series (right voltage to the right charger), and buy a connector that will attach to the Oset chargers? Thanks in advance, Pete

I also put 10ah batteries in our 12.5 model. They are taller, and they make it tough to plug the charger in. It may have given us just a bit more run time, but not 25% more. I asked the guy at the battery store about different technology, or any higher quality lead acid batteries, but even though he was the owner, he didn't seem to engage me in the conversation. Somewhere, some company has got to be making higher end batteries that would be an easy swap. I'll keep looking. Pete

It didn't take long to realize that we needed handguards for the 16. Our four year old was riding just outside of the homerun fence at a baseball field, and all I could think about was his hand hitting one of the fence posts. I found the Moose "mini" aluminum guards for $35 shipped, that are made for 1 1/8" fatbars. As expected, they took a lot of persuading to get them to mount up: A fair bit of bending in a vise w/ a big adjustable wrench, I had to add some electrical tape to the bar-end inserts, cutting off about 3" from each guard and drilling a new hole for the bar-clamp mount, and adding a segment of old inner tube to the bar clamps so they will resist sliding from the fat part of the bar to the thin part. I couldn't stand the clang-clang of the chain against the chain guard, so I dremmeled out the horizontal surface of the guard where the loosest part of the chain flaps around. I know that I could run the chain tighter since the CS sprocket moves with the swingarm, but I just can't bring myself to have a tight chain. The guard still prevents a finger or foot from getting pulled between the chain and sprocket, but a shoelace might find a way in. Finally, since the Owen only weighs 42 pounds, we got a 400lb shock spring from Oset. While swapping springs, we found that the swingarm bolts were overtorqued and had a lot of friction. With the new spring and re-torqued swingarm bolts, he now uses the full range of travel, and we will probably switch back to the stock spring fairly soon. Pete