e_bike batteries. (1 Viewer)

hilldweller

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The BIG nightmare, need battery for an electric bike. Cost, over half the cost of the bike or in my case as much as the bike because I got a bargain off ebay. With an old bike is it worth a battery or do you buy a new bike ?

To improve my capacity I was looking at £400 for a lithium from China and that's a lot of cash to a distant land.

Or.

£60 to the UK. £60 bought me a pair of 20Ah 12V lead acid mobility batteries. Same capacity as £400 of lithium. Double the capacity of the original NiMH battery. LA will charger straight off the leisure battery or with a standard charger when on hook up. So here is my solution. I've only done one run that I know would have flattened the old battery and this pair did not break into a sweat.
 

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Popeye

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The BIG nightmare, need battery for an electric bike. Cost, over half the cost of the bike or in my case as much as the bike because I got a bargain off ebay. With an old bike is it worth a battery or do you buy a new bike ?

To improve my capacity I was looking at £400 for a lithium from China and that's a lot of cash to a distant land.

Or.

£60 to the UK. £60 bought me a pair of 20Ah 12V lead acid mobility batteries. Same capacity as £400 of lithium. Double the capacity of the original NiMH battery. LA will charger straight off the leisure battery or with a standard charger when on hook up. So here is my solution. I've only done one run that I know would have flattened the old battery and this pair did not break into a sweat.

Crackin' job, not quite as aerodynamic as original, but for that money I think I would be chuffed were I you........Griff
 

Jim

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Looks good Brian. The first question people should ask when buying bikes is about battery availability and then not take the salespersons assurances that they are cheaply available. Some bikes I've noticed being sold at shows recently had odd shaped bespoke batteries which you know will cost an arm and a leg in three years time if you can get them at all.

Nice job, you could have a second career in the conversion business :thumb: there are a few that will need it sooner than they think, especially as their batteries are going to be on the bike in the shed for the next 6 months, come next summer they'll be searching for this post:Smile:

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chrisgreen

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Looks good Brian. The first question people should ask when buying bikes is about battery availability and then not take the salespersons assurances that they are cheaply available. Some bikes I've noticed being sold at shows recently had odd shaped bespoke batteries which you know will cost an arm and a leg in three years time if you can get them at all.

Nice job, you could have a second career in the conversion business :thumb: there are a few that will need it sooner than they think, especially as their batteries are going to be on the bike in the shed for the next 6 months, come next summer they'll be searching for this post:Smile:
to add to that! i would remove the batteries and store them indoors,and now and again put a maintainence charge into them if the bike is not going to be used for a while,to protect from frost and the like:thumb:
 

Snowbird

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Hi Brian, Good point about the price of batteries when choosing a bike. We went for the Powabike for this reason. I know they are old technology but they have 3 X 12volt motorcycle batteries in a case which although heavy can be replaced cheaply. One of the 12 volt batteries was not holding charge so put it on the desulfator for a week and its now perfect. Good bit of engineering by the way.
 
Feb 22, 2008
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They look a bit heavy Brian but heck of a lot cheaper. I wonder if some of the original units could be rebuilt using re chargeable battery cells from Maplins.

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hilldweller

hilldweller

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They look a bit heavy Brian but heck of a lot cheaper. I wonder if some of the original units could be rebuilt using re chargeable battery cells from Maplins.

Yes they are heavy I have to accept that and mount them where I did.

It's hard to impossible to get get cells when talking in the 10Ah region and these are 20Ah. Maplin don't do them.

It's impossible to buy individual LiPo cells because they are a pig to use safely.

The biggest RS cell is a D sized cell 6Ah and £6.25 so at 1.2V I'd need 20 ( £150 ) for only 6Ah so £300 for 12Ah. Then making a holder would have been really difficult.

Ebay 220878350813 is a solution I did not want to risk.

These batteries are ebay 110771078014
 

chrisboyo

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Not what you would call an elegant solution but a neat bit of thinking and engineering Brian

As you know I have been wrestling with the numbers as to whether it would be better to buy a new ebike at ASW, £699, there replacement batteries are £150, or a new battery for my Powercycle at £300 or just give up and use my old banger bike til I can peddle no more

I think I will have a good look at my ebike and see if it is possible to do the hilldweller conversion

Thanks Brian
PS Not a lot of vino left for Xmas :cry:

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Terry

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No idea how much they will charge but may be worth a call
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BTW nice one Brian :thumb:
terry
 

chrisboyo

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I sent my battery off to recycleyour battery but they could not do it as the cell sizes were impossible to get and it was a lithium battery that needs some sort of electro gizmos to make it work but I understand that they can do most batteries.

BTW
Nice chap to deal with
 
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hilldweller

hilldweller

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As you know I have been wrestling with the numbers as to whether it would be better to buy a new ebike at ASW, £699, there replacement batteries are £150, or a new battery for my Powercycle at £300

£150 for a LiPo battery is a bit too cheap it seems to me.

SWMBO's bike cost £400 and I think it's £300 for the LiPo battery.

As Jim said, we dash out and buy these things without looking at the long term problems.

Same can be said with electric cars and hybrids. They're Green aren't they ! What is a second hand electric going to be worth when a new battery is something like £10,000. Look out for thefts of them, the new career for catalyst thieves.

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hilldweller

hilldweller

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No idea how much they will charge but may be worth a call
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terry

Interesting site. Did you notice "no LiPo".

Traction batteries are developing rapidly, another few years will see a big improvement.
 
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hilldweller

hilldweller

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Nice conversion Brian, you been watching cowboy films and saddle bags !

Peter

Close. On our travels I did notice one or two ebikes which had the batteries in neat little panniers.

Another improvement I noticed was connectors in the motor cables. Both ours are wired direct, try mending a puncture like that. The campsite just outside Füssen was hiring ebikes. They oozed quality. Seriously engineered, quality controls, plugs on motor leads, I hate to think of the cost. I don't think we ever saw a German MH without bikes, usually just plain sit up and beg types. We saw a *lot* of German MHs.

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=47.597294,10.738074&spn=0.003002,0.006443&t=h&z=18&vpsrc=6

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Terry

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Interesting site. Did you notice "no LiPo".

Traction batteries are developing rapidly, another few years will see a big improvement.

Did not see that ::bigsmile: I found them when looking to replace some dead battery frill ones :thumb: Ended up leaving the drills on the shelf and buying another new drill with 2 3.5 amphr battery's cheaper than new batts
terry
 

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