Battery Case mod on the Giant Twist?

[prState]

On the Twist, you have the bottom of the case which fits nicely into its slot and and the top which locks into the bike.

So, in between, when you take out the old battery pack, I see no reason why the case couldn't be cut apart, modified (expanded with some additional plastic) to accomodate one of these newer 24 volt Lithium battery packs, put in even at different angle if necessary. There's still seems to be some room for your legs to get past an odd bulge if necessary.

But I'm forgetting how the electronics of the Twist would react to these packs and whether you could compensate. One assumes, you just keep recharging early, since these packs prefer that.

 

[flecc]

The only relevant difference is that a Lithium pack is nominally 26 volts, not 24 volts. It's highly unlikely this would stop it working, but there might be very slight change in some of the software characteristics, and the bike might be very slightly more powerful. The speed wouldn't change as it's controlled by sensing the drive output speed to limit it.
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[prState]

Thanks Flecc. One other thing. Would the Twist still intially be able to condition the battery -- in other words would it be safe to run it down to cut off the first couple times? Or would I have to figure something else out?

 

[flecc]

The Twist could do the discharging bit ok, though the cutoff point could be a bit wrong, so you could just operate on stopping use at one LED rather than let it get to flashing. Of course you'd need a suitable charger for the lithium battery to do that part of the conditioning.

I don't know of anyone who's tried this mod on a Lafree so you'd be in new territory, but I can't conceive a problem. The NiMh battery when new can almost touch 30 volts when fully charged and a lithium one would be very little different in that respect.
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