January 1st - And a first for me!

[Danny-K]

Managed it at last - A January 1st bike ride! - It's only taken me all my life to accomplish.

Usually I'm either too hung over/too sluggish etc., (3:30am when I went to bed), but knocked off two 'errands' today - no more than 10 miles in total mind you - not on my e-bike but on my Dahon folder pushbike. Last week took it oop north for Christmas in the back of the car and enjoyed a Boxing Day ride too - yet another first for me, (had loads of time off this Christmas, usually every spare minute is swallowed up with family, in-laws and friends - but this year, loadsatime!

So, haven't been on my e-bike since the week before Christmas - suffered a double puncture on it, (yep! Another 1st!) - front and back at the same time - Pish! Pish! It went as if in dolby surroundsound. Totally dejected I left it as was; taking the opportunity to order new tyres of my choice and will fit those, plus a new Megarange sprocket I've had for a while all at the same time, (dreading having to cut the motor wires to fit the sprocket).

 

[Phil the drill]

(dreading having to cut the motor wires to fit the sprocket).

Hi Danny,

I'm not sure what bike you've got, but are you sure you need to cut the wires to fit the sprocket? I've not seen an electric bike yet where that is actually essential. In most cases if you follow the motor wires to the controller or controller housing you will find connectors that can be simply undone. Look carefully, as sometimes they are covered in shrink wrap or insulating tape to weatherproof them. It's a lot better to do this and wrap them up again later than to try and unnecessarily solder up or fit extra connectors just to rejoin the wiring.

Hope it goes well and have a good New Year!

Cheers, Phil.

 

[flecc]

Hi Danny,

I've not seen an electric bike yet where that is actually essential. In most cases if you follow the motor wires to the controller or controller housing you will find connectors that can be simply undone.

Cheers, Phil.

Unfortunately with rear motor bikes, some megarange multi-sprocket freewheels won't pass the connector used through the small sprocket end, the 13 to 34 tooth being like that on one of my bikes which has one five way connector and three bullet connectors.

Danny has a Powacycle Salisbury.
.

 

[Danny-K]

Hi Danny,

I'm not sure what bike you've got, but are you sure you need to cut the wires to fit the sprocket? I've not seen an electric bike yet where that is actually essential. In most cases if you follow the motor wires to the controller or controller housing you will find connectors that can be simply undone. Look carefully, as sometimes they are covered in shrink wrap or insulating tape to weatherproof them. It's a lot better to do this and wrap them up again later than to try and unnecessarily solder up or fit extra connectors just to rejoin the wiring.

Hope it goes well and have a good New Year!

Cheers, Phil.

It's a Salisbury LPX.
- Gosh, I hope the Salisbury is put together the same way Phil - I just assumed the wires would be soldered in; the controller is buried in complicated plastic housing, ( I just get the impression the manufacturer's don't like owners messing with their motor/controller construction). Thanks for the tip - and a happy new year, to you too!

P.S. Just missed Flecc's post - yes, so I may still end up having to snip the wires; hopefuly it's as Phil suggests and just those slim-fitting bullet connectors in the contoller housing, but with eight wires it sounds like I will face the same as Flecc did.

 

[Phil the drill]

Hi Danny, if you find a large multi-block connector on the end of the wire, as Flecc suggests may be the case, it is still not always necessary to cut the wires. In almost all multi-way connectors the pins can be removed from the block by careful use of a small flat bladed jewellers screwdriver. If you look carefully into the connector you will see that each pin is held in place by a small 'barb' towards the the back of the connector. Although a bit of a fiddle it is possible to press this barb down to disengage it and then push the pin gently back out of the rear of the connector (they nearly always come out of the back of these connectors). Obviously make a careful note of which wire went where in the block first, before removing the pins !. If you do this the pins can be easily pushed back into the connector when the job is done. In this form it should be possible to persuade all the wires to pass through the sprocket without difficulty (been there and done it, so I know its possible ).

Good Luck,

Phil.

 

[flecc]

Good advice from Phil which is true of many of these connectors. Sadly it wasn't the case on my bike, it having one of the cussed internally latched connecors with only end access.
.

 

[frank9755]

Danny,

To make you feel better, I managed to change the rear tyre on my wife's Powacycle (a Windsor, essentially the same as a Salisbury) by loosening the wheel nuts and easing the wheel out of the dropouts. I managed to work enough space to squeeze in a Marathon Plus - a bulky tyre.

I had called Powacycle beforehand and they said that, if that didn't work, it would be pretty straightforward to access the controller (below the battery) and unplug the motor wires, as Phil describes. I didn't need to look so can't confirm how easy it would have been.

Good luck!

 

[Alex728]

i practiced removing the rear wheel on my salisbury almost as soon as I got it "just in case". Whilst I didn't attend Scouts as a boy I do think the motto "be prepared" makes sense

if you do find you need to do this

1. remove chainguard (3 x screws fix this on)

2. remove plastic housing hiding controller (2 more screws one side, and plastic clips the other. NB: this is fiddly). This exposes the controller, you can them remove it from this housing and unplug one multi pin connector for the hall effect sensors, and 3 x bullet connectors for the motor "phases".

The controller is just a metal box with heatsink type fins and lots of writing in Chinese, but which wires go where are fairly straightforward.

On my machine none of this (thankfully) is soldered. you may need to free the motor cable from some clips holding it in (this can also be fiddly!). the hall effect sensors connector was like something you would find on a computer motherboard and was easy to remove and reconnect.

3. free "quick release" brakes (NB: the "quick release" bit didn't work very well on mine due to the odd angle the noodle enters the brakes, I had to undo the wire in the end and do some work on the brake later so the QR bit worked better).

4. undo 2 x 17mm nuts keeping rear wheel in place.

5. remove wheel from dropouts in the same fashion as any other push bike

6. fix puncture

7. to reasemble just do this in reverse order, making sure also that some anti rotation bits of metal are correctly fitted...

 

[Danny-K]

Thanks all - lots of useful info there for me to ponder before disconnecting the motor wires to the controller.