Kingsong S18 has been ridden for a bit over 1000km. But it was not just ordinary 1000 km. Check out the Ecodrift youtube channel for our two S18 videos: an overview and a test drive. This very wheel jumped many times down from more than a meter height, it was absolutely not spared. Frankly speaking, this S18 was tortured. This wheel has survived countless falls and rough landings.
Before disassembly, I had just ridden about 25 km on the wheel. I didn’t have any problems, except for the feeling that the suspension isn’t working smoothly enough compared to the new wheels, whose suspension has just been rebuilt.
First, some visual inspection. There is not much dust on the upper visible part of the pipes. Thanks to the mud protector.
But the rear part is all covered in dirt. The standard mudguard is not enough if you ride in the rain and through the mud. You can see clearly that the dirt constantly falls on the shock absorber rod. You can see typical dirt streaks on it. For reliable operation and long life, this unit shall be kept perfectly clean.
There is a lot of dirt on the frames.
And here is a nasty surprise. The connection of the frames is a little apart. The bearing and the axle have come out of the inner frame.
On the other side, everything is fine.
The bottom part of the pipes is all dirty. The mud protector does not cover this place.
You can see the condition of the engine: there is a layer of dirt on it.
Pedals. The lower part with the nameplate, as you remember, is made of plastic.
Scuff marks on the side panels from the falls.
On the other side.
The external glass of the headlights is covered with mud drops.
Let’s start disassembling.
First, we unscrew the pedals.
The base under the battery (“underpants”, “skirt”) has seen everything. But we will get back to it later.
We take off the white decorative panels.
Everything is in dust inside.
The back panel is the same.
This is what’s going on under the front panel.
Zoom in on the dirt between the mud protector and the panel. It flies off the tires here. The overhang of the mud protector is clearly short.
It’s also dusty under the panel in the back.
We remove the whole plastic part of the panel. The picture shows its inner part.
Dirt on the wheel side.
Besides the dirt, there are also deep scratches. The tail of the plastic is catching on the mud protector of the motor-wheel.
This is the place.
Traces of dirt on the rear battery.
And on the front battery.
But the wire doesn’t show any changes. Everything is in exactly the same condition as in the very first article about the S18. There are no signs of wear and tear and no new damage. And that’s despite the fact that the rider was jumping very actively with the wheel.
View of the shock absorber from below. Here, the amount of dirt is simply off the charts.
The problem is in the space between the tail of the wheel and the mud protector. Nothing prevents the mud from getting here. And everything flies straight to the shock absorber. I also talked about it in the first article. A piece of foam or an extra mudguard is very much required here.
We turn the wheel to the other side. A lot of dust and dirt is packing in the tail part through the gaps.
We remove the front plastic panel.
Dusty.
And now let’s focus on the “underpants”.
Very dirty.
The hits on the pipes are slightly expanding them, so it will be harder to remove the “underpants” later.
The hole for the lock of the trolley handle.
Here you can clearly see how the finger supporting the axle is pinching the boots on the pipes. Because of this, the boots may be crooked. In this case, the right boot has suffered. It is distorted, which creates an additional slit through which the dust partially gets inside the slider. The hardened screws are starting to corrode.
But unscrewing the parts was no problem.
When removing the “underpants”, we can immediately see the difference in the state of the pipes.
The amount of dirt in the tail of the panel.
The mud protector does not protect this area.
There is mud on the second half.
The battery is covered with dust.
But the front of the mud protector on this side doesn’t have any scratches. The panel is pinched only from one side.
There is dirt on the outer side of the mud protector.
Here you can clearly see where so much dirt is flying from and why.
The open wheel design contributes to total dustiness. Actually, all this dirt has no effect on anything, but you can’t just dust all this dirt off with a rag. You will have to remove all outer panels to clean or wash inside.
I would like to show the scratched rubbing part of the mud protector again. Obviously, the tail part is a bit shifted to the side after all the falls.
Fasteners on the top cover cracked on both sides. It didn’t compromise the rigidity of the structure, but still.
In the same place.
We go on to remove the cover.
Dry and clean inside.
The controller is clean and dry in front.
A little dust in the back.
But as for the headlight, it is a little more complicated. Mud is pasted over the internal glass, too.
We remove the battery.
Unexpectedly there was one broken cable duct fixture on the rear battery.
The front batteries can be removed easily and without any challenges.
“The dark side of the moon”. This is exactly what I expected. The dirt repeats the outline of the engine mud protector.
Zoom in on the front part.
And the rear battery.
Dents and beveled corners from falls and experiments with the wheel.
Because of the amount of dirt, it is not clear where the paint is stripped off, and where it is just dirty.
In one place, there is a clear mark from a strong impact.
It is very well seen at this angle. But it’s far away from the battery. No need to worry.
In the meantime, we have removed the batteries from the other side. Dirt and dust in the same places and in the same amount.
The forepart of the mud protector has scratches.
Zooming in. The outer part of the panel, which is attached to the front battery, slightly chafes here.
This area again.
Traces of chafing against the frames on the engine mud protector.
Another area which is hit really hard.
We remove the shock absorber.
The connection of the power and signal wires of the engine is buried here. No problems. Everything is dry.
By the outline of the dusty area, you can clearly see the places where the boot did not do its job. As a result, sand formed inside the slider and scratched the pipe. In this S18 the sand got only one of the pipes.
On other pipes, the boot worked, but even there you can see small scratches. Since the boot does not fit tightly enough.
On the pipe where the boot didn’t work, there was one particularly clear scratch. But despite this, the anodized layer is not too worn off. You can ride and ride on this wheel. You just need to clean everything first.
You can see the remaining Teflon grease in the sider sleeves.
This is how the engine covers look. Very dirty.
On the other side.
There are no build-ups of dirt on the mud protector like on V11. That’s because the mud protector does not have any inner ribs. There is no place for dirt to accumulate.
The typical traces on the side of the mud protector are the tire marks from removing the protector.
Going back to the frames. This is the same frame that left its trajectory. You can clearly see that the axis is not straight. The bearing has come out of its seat and is crooked. The seat is broken and you can’t use this frame further. It should be replaced with a new one. This was the very first wheel, which was rebuilt by our technicians. At that time, the method for cleaning the seats was not yet good enough. Therefore, most likely, we were overdoing it. The second problem is overloading the suspension during experiments and jumps. The distortion of the frame, by the way, did not have much effect on the functioning of the suspension. The only obvious undesirable outcome is the additional friction against the mud protector.
Here are the fluoroplastic washers and the bearings themselves.
The washers were all in place and were excellent. The bearings rotated freely.
But the sand that hit the slider left its mark here as well. After disconnecting the shock absorber, you can see that under its own motor weight, the suspension no longer moves easily and smoothly. After cleaning the pipes, the suspension starts to move better. And the complete disassembly shows that there is nothing wrong with the frames. Moving forward a little, I would like to note that after the reassembly and replacement of the frame, everything started to function just like a new wheel.
Inside the engine, everything is perfectly clean and does not raise any questions.
Kingsong S18, after reassembly, was sent to the “Couch Expert” project, where they would continue to torture it. I would add for myself, that despite the tougher torturing (as compared to V11), the rim of the S18 remained absolutely intact. The wheel is very prone to collect all the dirt and dust. That’s why you should either drive in dry weather or take additional measures to prevent dirt from getting on the shock absorber and pipes in the lower part. These two areas require attention and cleanliness. The service team is aware of the problem with the boots and has long been making sure that they stand straight during assembly. If you take good care of the wheel, it seems that it will serve no less than the classic unicycles. At least with this wheel, there are no typical Kingsong issues with pedal brackets and cracks in the panel.