Another Empulse rider's experience...
I've put 15K miles on since 12/2012, riding the 3rd Empulse delivered to San Francisco.
As an Early Adopter, here's my service history:
After a big rain, early on, there was a fault code. Brammo asked me to email them the data recorded on the onboard memory stick. They determined there was moisture in a battery case that should not be there. Response: They sent a truck to pick up my bike on a Monday, returning it to the factory. They had the dealer give me a demo Empulse to ride. They made changes to the battery case design, replaced all 7 of my batteries and had my bike back in my hands by Friday, same week. No problem with the new batteries.
After riding daily over San Francisco's infamous potholes, I noticed a crack in the steel taillight mounting bracket and suggested to them that it needed to be redesigned to prevent metal fatigue. They had their dealer give me an instant replacement and ship mine back to the factory. After a short study, they recalled the existing brackets and had their dealers replace with a new design under warranty. No problem with the new tailpiece.
I had a small amount of oil seeping from a seal around the transmission shifter shaft. Brammo wanted to examine the entire transmission, so, under warranty, they had my local dealer replace it with a new one and ship mine back to the factory. No leaks since.
After a heavy rainstorm, my throttle grip stopped functioning properly: no go until twisted quite a bit, and then sudden high torque. I rode the bike (VERY CAREFULLY!) to my dealer who called Brammo. They had no instances of this, even in Oregon, which is pretty much under water most of the time! Solution: open the grip switch, blow it out, spray it with WD40. On my own, I later put a piece of black electrical tape over the top of the switch where there's a seam. No problem since.
There's been an occasional fault code that shuts down the bike when accelerating very hard over a series of quick bumps. Apparently the bike's brain senses that the rear wheel is spinning freely and shuts things down. Solution: turn key off, back on to reset. This has happened to me 3 times in 15K miles.
The motor, controller, BMS, charger, brakes, chain, and 12V electrical components have all functioned perfectly.
I change the tranny oil every 3K miles, just enough to remind me that I enjoy "wrenching," at least for the 15 minutes it takes me. Gotta get SOME use out of my fancy torque wrench!
In summary: I'd buy another in a New York second. Most fun I've had with my clothes on.
