June 05, 2022  

4 min 8 s  

Gear Travel

My Surron - The ultimate mobility machine.

The Surron is a complete hack for urban and rural mobility - Fly through the woods and nip between streets - Here’s how I made my street-legal and off-road capable Surron.

Part List ⚙️

Mounted:

• Surron L1E
• Seat riser, SeatRiser
• Handlebars, Ergotech 70mm
• Single rear mirror, Gazzini
• Indicators, Devil Eyes
• Numberplate braket, GruberParts
• Front Headlight, OSRAM VX80-WD
• LED Switches, Wires & Misc
• Tyres, MITAS-Terra-Force-MX-SM-70-100-19
• 56T Sprocket & Chain Extension
• Foot-pegs, YCF Pegs

Extras:

• Lock, Kryptonite 1090
• Vibration Alarm, ABUS Alertbox RC
• Multi-tool, TOM-18

Size Adjustments 📏

A big priority was a comfortable ride and the stock Surron is quite a small bike - The very first thing I did was increase the height of the seat by 50mm with a Seat Riser.

The next thing I noticed was how forward my standing position was, so for a more upright ride, I swapped out the stock bars for a Ergotech 70mm Riser Bar.

Street Mods / Electrics 🔌

From the factory, the L1E (Street Edition) is not a particularly pretty bike, I mean.. look at it.

With a flimsy rear mud-guard hosting the rear tail light and indicators, plus an ugly-as-fuck headlight & blinker bundle - Things had to change.

The only limiting factor here, was keeping this road worthy - I made sure every component I used is “E-Approved” and legal for Mopeds in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE). What is E-Approved?

Headlight / Front Indicators

I searched far and wide for a suitable headlight: road legal, bright and mountable! I was stoked to get a reply from Osram confirming the legality and including dimensions of the Osram VX80-WD.

Amazingly, This headlight fits perfectly inside the sport headlight bracket.

Paired with a waterproof LED switch, the solution is really functional and BRIGHT.

Installation was straight-forward - I removed stock headlight and indicator housing, cut the wires to length and mounted the VX80 with the sport bracket onto the forks. Next, I drilled a 20mm hole in the battery cover and placed the switch in, connected the three terminals to the headlight, power and ground respectively.

For the front indicators, I used two 3D printed brackets threaded with M6 holes - I mounted these onto the side of the forks and twisted them in.

Tail light / Rear Indicators

I got a steel bracket to mount underneath the seat, reused the stock Tail light and purchased another two indicators.

Wiring them up was easy enough, I also used a 5 pin waterproof plug to make it detachable.

# Rear Wiring Guide
Green = Ground
Cyan = Right Indicator
Orange = Left Indicator
Black = Tail Light, License Lamp
Green/Yellow = Brake Light

Rear view mirror

Not crazy interesting, but a mirror helps when driving on the street - I wanted a mirror that did not increase the width of the bike and was easy to move aside when riding off-road.

Performance 🚀

For tyres, I’m currently running two MITAS-Terra-Force-MX-SM-70-100-19 - The traction on muddy trails is incredible and they’re light enough as to not impede torque.

I’ve also swapped the stock 48T sprocket for a 56T - The extra torque is a major help on hill-climbs and the reduction of top speed is minimal. The 56T sprocket is perfect for my needs both on and off-road.

One really important upgrade I wish I had done sooner, was replacing the thin stock foot-pegs - I swapped them out for YCF FootPegs which fit the Surron without modification.

Security 🔒

The Surron comes with a built-in GPS tracker called a WeTrack2 - The tracker supposedly has a “Movement Alarm” which will SMS you when the bike is moved, but I did not get the feature to work - However, I do receive an SMS when the battery is disconnected and I can always SMS the tracker to get it’s current location.

# Common Commands

# Add your SOS number
sos,a,0000000000000#
# Get last known position
where#
# Get battery level, GSM Signal info, GPS Status
status#
# Get current configuration
param#
# Set motion alarm on / off (Does not work for me)
selalm,on#
selalm,off#

Somewhere on the bike, I added a Vibration Alarm to ward off interested parties when I’m not around. I highly recommend getting one, it’s a cheap but effective thief deterrent - Although, I must say the battery life on the ABUS Alarmbox is terrible and only lasts a month. I’m working on a mod to put this inline and run off the 60V battery - Stay tuned.

On top of these two measures, keeping it in one place is a Kryptonite 1090.

Extras

Being stuck in the forrest with a disabled Surron is not on my wish list - For this reason, I always take a Multi-tool with me.

I chose a Tom-18 and it lives under the battery cover so it’s always with the bike.

Livery 🎨

Finally, I felt the need to make my Surron more personal, I wrapped some parts in a Olive green PVC wrap.

Gear / Protection 🦺 (Coming soon)

• Helmet
• Visor
• Chest Protector
• Knee Guards
• Boots

Thoughts / Comments

Let me know what you think! surron@arran.nz