My Lafree Twist has died again for the fourth time. When I turn on the switch the red lights comes on for a few seconds then goes off again, indicating all is well, but as soon as I apply pressure to the pedals - nothing, no motor activity at all. This seems to happen when undue stress is applied to the motor - this time I was struggling in bottom gear up a very steep hill when suddenly the motor cut out. I got off and pushed it a few hundred yards, but it failed to start again and I ended up pedalling back manually for 8 miles. Turning the motor on and off again, removing the battery and swapping it for my wife's made no difference. At the time of failure I had three blobs left on the battery. When I got back there was only one blob flashing, despite the motor having failed to do any work.
Now this has happened before and the motor has recovered eventually - one time it wouldn't come on again for a week so I took it to the bike shop, who then phoned up and said "what's supposed to be wrong? its working normally!", as indeed it was after a trip in the car. When I phone Giant they said if the motor cut out, then pedalling backwards a few turns would reset it, but it doesn't. It implies there is some sort of internal cut out in the motor unit, but if so, where is it and how do I reset it? If it were a thermal cut-out it would come back within an hour, but this time it's been three weeks and it still doesn't work. If it were a loose contact then it would surely cut out at random over bumps, but it doesn't do that.
I have the technical manual but it doesn't go any further than exposing the motor unit and replacing it. I was surprised to see such a complicated circuit board hidden within the unit on flecc's stripdown page, which poses the question - what does the circuitry do?
So, I have dead bike -does anyone have any clues as to what's wrong?
Now this has happened before and the motor has recovered eventually - one time it wouldn't come on again for a week so I took it to the bike shop, who then phoned up and said "what's supposed to be wrong? its working normally!", as indeed it was after a trip in the car. When I phone Giant they said if the motor cut out, then pedalling backwards a few turns would reset it, but it doesn't. It implies there is some sort of internal cut out in the motor unit, but if so, where is it and how do I reset it? If it were a thermal cut-out it would come back within an hour, but this time it's been three weeks and it still doesn't work. If it were a loose contact then it would surely cut out at random over bumps, but it doesn't do that.
I have the technical manual but it doesn't go any further than exposing the motor unit and replacing it. I was surprised to see such a complicated circuit board hidden within the unit on flecc's stripdown page, which poses the question - what does the circuitry do?
So, I have dead bike -does anyone have any clues as to what's wrong?