Getting started with an OSET 36v

[ninefives]

I find these forums a great source of valuable information, and wanted to add with my review of the first 6 months of my OSET knowledge. I have a girl (5yo) and a boy (8yo). They both started riding the OSET at 4 and 7. I struggled a little with the price but with apparent good resale value and good reviews I overcame this. I bought a new 36V in Mar this year. I live in town, a quiet street with a back yard. Had I bought a 2T gas motor this story would have lasted about a day, but the whirr of the tires is the only sound so no neighbour issues.

Getting my kids started with a twist grip and huge torque was a major challenge, it will dump every kid on their behind and try to attack the nearest tree if not approached with some thought and training. OSET suggest (and are absolutely right) putting the bike on a box and letting the kid practice throttle control, we did this in the house the day it arrived. No move forward until they could control the backwheel speed as you direct.

Stage 2 - I adjusted the overall speed control with a screwdriver. Its not very sophisticated, seems to go from zero to full power in about 5 degrees so quite a challenge if you want to continually adjust. I set it on crawl to begin, but that doesn't control the torque (but it did give me a chance to catch my kid and lift them off before hitting the bushes).

Stage 3 - I found some open space with poor traction as grabbing a handful of throttle results in stationary wheelspin not a launch into space (have I mentioned the torque). I made them practice pulling away without wheelspin, until I was happy they had got the throttle control. I cranked up the speed to full after a couple of sessions and when they could clearly start smoothly. (BTW The throttles are pretty good - these bikes can crawl along).

My 5 year old just loves blasting up and down the street, and we get to a short grass field where I struggle to keep up on my bike as we weave between those conical fir trees (a softer ending). That said, we have had very few "incidents" but I do supervise them all the time.

My 8 year old is "trials" focussed. He has started pulling some serious wheelies and competed in a local "veteran" trial. The sections included small logs, rocks and hill climbs, the climbing ability was quite remarkable. There is still a lot of potential yet to discover, in both him and the bike. What I appreciated at the event was that I didn't need to start or restart the bike, get on switch on, go.

I would like to improve (we are competitive right),

1. The batteries with Lipo conversion (for weight and duration) although the cost again is making me struggle.

2. The rear suspension. The front I feel is fine, but the stock spring on softest setting still rides too hard for his 50lbs.

3. Handlebar position - perfect for the 5 year old, but low for the 8 year old.

All these have answers in the threads on this forum, I just need to get to them!

Lesson - Batteries - I was very diligent with the charging instructions on the first set of batts. They have now had many cycles and are useful for about 90 minutes, then power drops. A second set were not fully charged before I first used them - they quickly go to useless after about 20 minutes - read the instructions.

I think that next year we will progress to an 80 for the older guy, but the OSET has proved to be so valuable in giving them seat time for confidence and skills on our street and in our backyard, and "man enough" to compete. I hope this helps anyone looking for information, the more kids we get into trials, the better for our sport!