FOBO - you're a life-saver.

General Honda PCX chat, questions about the PCX, or questions about riding.

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TheMaverick
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FOBO - you're a life-saver.

Post by TheMaverick »

Back in the office after doing a few errands on the bike when all of a sudden my iPhone went nuts - started showing dozens of tyre pressure alerts from the FOBO TPMS.

Rear tyre pressure was dropping about 8 PSI per hour.

Put the bike on the centre stand and quickly found a small nail. Friday 5:30PM (all shops closed). Great (not).

Luckily I was still at work - pumped it up and did some tests to work out if I could get home safely (not a problem).

Will probably have to wait until Tuesday for a new tyre to arrive now (this one was 2/3 through it's life anyway) - will get the front one changed at the same time - and they can change both sets of pads and change the brake fluid whilst the wheels are off (almost exactly on 33333km - so seems like a good time).

I'm very impressed with the FOBO tyre pressure monitoring system though - if it hadn't of picked up the dropping pressure and alerted me I would probably have had it go flat completely with my daughter on the back - had that happen once before, never want to have it happen again.

That's my FIFTH rear tyre issue in 2 1/2 years. *sigh*.
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Re: FOBO - you're a life-saver.

Post by iceman »

Great news it helped alert you. Must be rough roads around your parts to have so many tyre problems - why always the rear getting puncture issues?
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Gil
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Re: FOBO - you're a life-saver.

Post by Gil »

Good to hear that you have good experience with the FOBO tyre pressure monitor. It's now on my list of accessories for my scoot. How much did you buy your for?

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Re: FOBO - you're a life-saver.

Post by TheMaverick »

iceman wrote:Great news it helped alert you. Must be rough roads around your parts to have so many tyre problems - why always the rear getting puncture issues?
Thanks.

No - not "rough" as such - just picking up things on the road most of the time.

Don't know why it's always the rear. You'd think it's more likely to be the front since 99% of the time the bike is going straight so the front tyre must go over the same stretch of road first.
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Re: FOBO - you're a life-saver.

Post by TheMaverick »

Gil wrote:Good to hear that you have good experience with the FOBO tyre pressure monitor. It's now on my list of accessories for my scoot. How much did you buy your for?

Gil
Hi Gil,

They're currently listed at $99 USD, which is also what I paid. They've exceeded expectations at every turn though ...

1. Prompt reply to my enquiry (a little test I often like to do)

2. When I went to checkout I was expecting a freight charge to be added (since I'm in New Zealand) but was VERY surprised to find that international courier costs were included in the $99 USD.

3. The unit arrived with a button battery fitted and ready to go - but also with a spare pair of batteries (I've been using the system for about 6 months and the battery in the rear sensor was down to 2 bars out of 4 - so a battery would probably last a year).

4. Although the unit has been fine screwed onto the rubber valve stem, the recommend metal stems be fitted - and also included a set of these at no charge.

So all in all, I'm seriously impressed (and few things do that to me). All of the above wouldn't count for squat if the product turned out to be cr*p, but ... the hardware and software has been 100% flawless as well - really can't fault a thing. If I had to be picky about something the only thing I can think of is that it generally takes about 10 seconds for the tyre pressure from the front screen to update each time I go into the app - and then about another 10 sec for the rear sensor to report. The app shades the previous figures and then updates them (along with the timestamp) and removes the shading.

They're quite smart too - they're registered to my app so if someone nicks them they won't work unless I release them. I think that considering the danger that a slow puncture presents to us riders, they're real cheap life insurance.
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Re: FOBO - you're a life-saver.

Post by Jge64 »

I’ve had the fobo system for two years now, it works every time, the batteries in the sensors lasted me a year exactly , with my battery app, I like being able to throw my leg over the scooter and see both my battery status and my tire pressure. But more importantly than that, I like the notifications that both programs give me thru my smartwatch if they are low.
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Re: FOBO - you're a life-saver.

Post by springer1 »

That's my FIFTH rear tyre issue in 2 1/2 years. *sigh*.
Sheeeesh, that's awful. What's causing these, is there some sort of landfill or transfer station near you that debris is falling out of the trucks or new development construction or ?????

When I haul debris to the transfer site in my pickup I have a piece of canvas stuffed in the bed- tailgate gap, but I see a lot of other guys just hauling stuff ..... not good, nails and small stuff can easily fallout thru that gap.
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Re: FOBO - you're a life-saver.

Post by you you »

TheMaverick wrote:
Gil wrote:Good to hear that you have good experience with the FOBO tyre pressure monitor. It's now on my list of accessories for my scoot. How much did you buy your for?

Gil
Hi Gil,

They're currently listed at $99 USD, which is also what I paid. They've exceeded expectations at every turn though ...

1. Prompt reply to my enquiry (a little test I often like to do)

2. When I went to checkout I was expecting a freight charge to be added (since I'm in New Zealand) but was VERY surprised to find that international courier costs were included in the $99 USD.

3. The unit arrived with a button battery fitted and ready to go - but also with a spare pair of batteries (I've been using the system for about 6 months and the battery in the rear sensor was down to 2 bars out of 4 - so a battery would probably last a year).

4. Although the unit has been fine screwed onto the rubber valve stem, the recommend metal stems be fitted - and also included a set of these at no charge.

So all in all, I'm seriously impressed (and few things do that to me). All of the above wouldn't count for squat if the product turned out to be cr*p, but ... the hardware and software has been 100% flawless as well - really can't fault a thing. If I had to be picky about something the only thing I can think of is that it generally takes about 10 seconds for the tyre pressure from the front screen to update each time I go into the app - and then about another 10 sec for the rear sensor to report. The app shades the previous figures and then updates them (along with the timestamp) and removes the shading.

They're quite smart too - they're registered to my app so if someone nicks them they won't work unless I release them. I think that considering the danger that a slow puncture presents to us riders, they're real cheap life insurance.

You should have mentioned this before..
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Re: FOBO - you're a life-saver.

Post by TheMaverick »

Jge64 wrote:I’ve had the fobo system for two years now, it works every time, the batteries in the sensors lasted me a year exactly , with my battery app, I like being able to throw my leg over the scooter and see both my battery status and my tire pressure. But more importantly than that, I like the notifications that both programs give me thru my smartwatch if they are low.
Thanks for that - good to know they keep working too.
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Re: FOBO - you're a life-saver.

Post by TheMaverick »

springer1 wrote:
That's my FIFTH rear tyre issue in 2 1/2 years. *sigh*.
Sheeeesh, that's awful. What's causing these, is there some sort of landfill or transfer station near you that debris is falling out of the trucks or new development construction or ?????

When I haul debris to the transfer site in my pickup I have a piece of canvas stuffed in the bed- tailgate gap, but I see a lot of other guys just hauling stuff ..... not good, nails and small stuff can easily fallout thru that gap.
It's been a combination of things;

First one was an undetected slow leak that resulted in a complete deflation at night in heavy rain, wind, and with my daughter on the back ("delivery" to friend's house for sleep-over) - the only good thing is that it was only at 50 km/hr (I try to stick to city routes if someone is on the back). The slow deflation was probably caused by an object, but I made it more susceptible to that by running the tyre too long (14,000km; I have a 10,000km hard limit on rears now).

Second one let go suddenly - again, I'd run it too long (hadn't "connected the dots" yet) - again at only 50km/hr, but expensive to have dealer come and take away on truck.

Third one - good tyre (almost new), but picked up something. Picked it up before I went riding. Was able to pump it up long enough to ride to dealer who put an "umbrella" plug in - quick and easy.

Forth one - was same day when the plug let go - tyre went flat turning a corner at the lights (luckily they'd been red so I was still accelerating).

Fifth - yesterday - nail.

So 3 things I've learned:

1. Be conservative with tyre life. 10,000km max for a rear, 15,000km for a front for me from now on. The more km they do the thinner the rubber gets and the more easily they pick up stuff - and the greater the chance that they just let go anyway. The few $$$ saved trying for the extra km are lost many times over with (if lucky) pickup charges and (if unlucky) skin grafts and plates screwed into bones.

2. If one is going to get a tyre fixed with an umbrella plug, INSIST that the tyre is taken off the wheel so the tyre can be roughed up from the inside and the quality of the repair verified.

3. Strongly consider a tyre pressure monitoring system (seriously, slow leaks are probably the most likely scenario for us - it's REAL "hit and miss" as to whether or not we detect them before a ride (and more so during a ride) - and the consequences of a tyre letting so at full speed in a turn are likely to be very serious.

Just my 10c worth. I'm probably going to get more punctures than most simply because I ride more km than most (about 14,000km per year).
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