ezee sprint battery/motor cut out

[Jeanette Morgan]

Hi, I've been off the Forum for a couple of months due to work and health problems, however, today my husband took his Ezee sprint out for a spin but it seemed to cut out on him after a fairly short time, on a hill which he can normally climb with ower, three times, and thereafter did seem to work OK. However, he returned home as he was concerned he would be stranded. I tried the bike (without further charging) on a steepish hill and it seemed to work well, albeit a little noisy.

The battery is lithium and I ensure it is at least once a month if it is not used. Could this have been a motor problem due to lack of use for 2 months, because the battery obviously was not depleted as I was able to ride the bike after he returned home?

I'm concerned having read briefly some of the posts re lithium battery life - ours are now around a year old, but not used daily, but they always recharged after using the bike. Should we now be looking to replace with the other type (for which we'd need two chargers, one each). How much would this cost? no doubt only available from 50 cycles?

The greatest pity is that there is no way of knowing how much charge is left in Ezee batteries - if only there was a way, electric cycling would become less stressful in regard to lack of power.

Thanks for any replies
Jeanette

 

[flecc]

I think your battery is probably alright Jeanette.

As the bike had been standing for a while, it may just have been poor contact between the battery and the bike, and the fact you found it alright later seems to point to that.

The metal surfaces of the contacts can suffer contamination from contaminants in the air and affect the current transfer, greatly reducing the power, leading to cutout.

When that happens, unplugging and replugging the battery can remake the contact.

It's worth cleaning the contacts on both battery and bike from time to time. Ideally iso-propyl alcohol which you can get from a chemists used on a cotton bud can be used to rub the contacting areas. Alternatively methylated spirit, lighter fuel, switch cleaner or petrol can be used.

Try the contacts first before condemning the battery.
.

 

[Ian]

Hello Jeanette,

the cutting out problem is something that happens with lithium batteries, in effect they get tired when working hard and need a rest. It is more likely to happen as the battery gets older, and the problem will be worse at low temperatures. It is only a temporary fault and the battery will recover after a short rest without recharging so the risk of being stranded is minimal, it is however nessecsary to swich the key off and on to reset the bikes controller.

It is likely that the battery still has at least 66% of it's original capacity and possibly more so it is rather early to start thinking about a replacement.
If the cutting out continues to be a problem trying to use less power on hills should help, and it's worth putting the battery in a warm place for a couple of hours before use.

PS crossed with Fleccs good advice about cleaning the battery contacts, further to that those green plastic pan scouring pads are very good for removing the tarnish that affects the bronze contacts in the recesses on the underside of the battery.

 

[Jeanette Morgan]

Thanks Flecc and Ian, I'll try cleaning the contacts at the weekend and then we are going to go out for a ride, one on the bike and one in the car !! to see how the bike and battery perform on our usual hilly route. I'll let you know how we get on.

Kind regards
Jeanette