Likely to need a new eZee battery

[DBCohen]

I have been away from the forum for a long while, and not on my Ezee bike for a long while either. But I am keen to get back to both now that Spring is in the air...

What's the latest state of battery replacement for eZee? Last time I dipped in the storm over bad batteries was really raging, and 50Cycles had ceased to deal with eZee.

My Cadence battery has had relatively little use, and has been well stored, but nevertheless is old now and is unlikely to perform well - I'll see this week, hopefully. But I am expecting to have to replace it if I start biking seriously again. I have had a look around the web, and see that Onbike has replacements - but they seem to be pretty fiercely priced at around 35-45% of what I paid for my bike! Do they have gold in them or something?

Seriously, though, what are the characteristics of these new ones in terms of longevity, and how does the price reflect their value? I read in the forums that at one time people were getting replacements direct from eZee in China for around £160, which is much less than Onbike want. Is that route closed now?

Thanks in advance,

David.

 

[flecc]

All radically changed David. I know nothing of new eZee batteries for £160, a large number were given away free to owners who'd had a bad experience with the early Phylion batteries, but that was in early 2008.

The current 14 Ah battery content is exactly the same as the Wisper one, both made by the Advance company and as good as they can get. They are a revelation after the old batteries in performance terms. There's also a 10 Ah still available, but I'd strongly recommend the 14 Ah for the extra cost.
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[DBCohen]

All radically changed David. I know nothing of new eZee batteries for £160, a large number were given away free to owners who'd had a bad experience with the early Phylion batteries, but that was in early 2008.

I saw a post talking about customs charges, which mentioned £160. No matter - if you can't buy them direct anymore, then I'll have to go through the middleman of Onbike.

The current 14 Ah battery content is exactly the same as the Wisper one, both made by the Advance company and as good as they can get. They are a revelation after the old batteries in performance terms. There's also a 10 Ah still available, but I'd strongly recommend the 14 Ah for the extra cost.

Could you quantify that for me a bit further, Flecc? For better performance, does that mean I will get more range, less cutout on steep hills, or a longer operating life? Or all of the above?

Thanks in advance,

David.

 

[Cyclezee]

I saw a post talking about customs charges, which mentioned £160. No matter - if you can't buy them direct anymore, then I'll have to go through the middleman of Onbike.



Could you quantify that for me a bit further, Flecc? For better performance, does that mean I will get more range, less cutout on steep hills, or a longer operating life? Or all of the above?

Thanks in advance,

David.

Sorry to butt in here David, but you will get all of the above and due to the chemistry they are considerably lighter too. The 10Ah weighs 3.2 Kg. and the 14Ah 3.8 Kg.

I would also agree with Flecc that the 14 Ah is worth the extra money.

 

[flecc]

Adding to John, cut-outs are a thing of the past, the way the 14 Ah slogs on hills is quite something. The bikes just feel stronger all round with it, more willing in every respect.

I think that £160 must have been for a different battery from a different source. I only know of Wai Won Ching sending out 1000 of the free ones, followed by two new types for testing to some selected riders worldwide. I had one of those, but not one which was subsequently adopted.
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[DBCohen]

Thanks for that, guys. How long has the 14Ah model been around? I seem to remember the horror ones being OK initially and then all starting to fail en-masse...

 

[flecc]

A very long time now, for the Wisper examples it must be two years or more, a bit less for the eZee cased ones.

Charge capability is said to be 800, unlike the old claims of 500 which were never met to my knowledge.
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[DBCohen]

Thanks again. I will let you know how my old battery performs once I get everything up and running, and then I'll take it from there. My commute is around seven miles each way, and I can charge off-bike at work, so maybe I'll be lucky and still get some use out of the old one for a while yet.

 

[flecc]

If your battery was made from January 2008 on, you may get some further use from it, but it's likely to have chemically aged and may just cut out under load very quickly.

The new batteries are about the same price from both Onbike/eZee and Wisper, and commensurate with the prices of some other top batteries like those for the Panasonic unit. Some are much dearer, BionX notably.

I don't know about gold in them, much of the price content is today's terrible exchange rate for the pound sterling and the final multiplier of 20% VAT.
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[DBCohen]

I was only joking about the gold...

Alas, I bought my bike in the summer of 2007, so I guess I'd better start saving!

 

[flecc]

I was only joking about the gold...

Alas, I bought my bike in the summer of 2007, so I guess I'd better start saving!

I'd realised it was a joke.

I had a feeling it was that long ago when you bought your Cadence, am I right in my recollection that you managed to get one specially since they've been withdrawn from the current model listing in the UK at that time?
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[DBCohen]

I'd realised it was a joke.

I had a feeling it was that long ago when you bought your Cadence, am I right in my recollection that you managed to get one specially since they've been withdrawn from the current model listing in the UK at that time?
.

That's right, it came in as a late order. I expect it was one of the last that 50Cycles sold.

 

[Wisper Bikes]

I don't know about gold in them, much of the price content is today's terrible exchange rate for the pound sterling and the final multiplier of 20% VAT.
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As a matter of interest, we also pay a further 6% duty at the port of entry and of course that 6% attracts 20% VAT! By the time the battery (or bike) gets to our warehouse the cost has risen by 27.2% which has already gone to the exchequer!

Then of course you have to pay income tax and NI (as does your employer, NI that is) on the money you earn to pay the Duty and VAT on your bike/battery..... don't get me started!

Regards

David

 

[flecc]

Yes, batteries are beginning to look like petrol, given the amount of the purchase price that ends up in government coffers.
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[DBCohen]

Well, as the weather is so nice here, the battery is on charge and I am commuting in on the Cadence tomorrow. Let's see how she goes...

 

[DBCohen]

Beaten back after a mile by driving rain this morning (curse you, Met Office and your false promises!), but it didn't look good - full throttle while pedalling was immediately showing a red LED on the indicator, so it looks like Flecc's prediction of premature cutouts could be true.

 

[cyclefan]

Hi guys.

I bought a 14ah battery for my de-restricted Ezee Forza about a year ago and in that time I've ridden it hard. On average I manage around 35-40 miles or so using the throttle for moderate assistance. The battery doesn't cut-out, I just call it a day around this point to prevent overtaxing the battery in the long-run.

I think this is very impressive battery performance considering I'm 15 stone, though I do like to peddle a bit too. My average speed is 15-20mph, depending on terrain - the bike seems to have such torque with the more powerful battery. Its amazing that very few people seem to notice that occasionally you're freewheeling uphill - it's great to buck trends

Yesterday I did 35 miles on it and there was no major drop-off in battery performance compared to last year. I'm really impressed with it. £500 is certainly alot of money for a battery, but if I can manage another year 2 out of it I think it was money well spent - as long as the price doesn't go up again, then I'd have to think about it.

Happy e-biking everyone,

Steve.

 

[DBCohen]

Steve, thanks for sharing your experiences, that's good to know.

I think the thing for me is that, for a £500 spend, I could get a new battery from Onbike, or I could go back through Cyclescheme and get a whole new £1000 bike for the same money - with the advantage that I'll spread the cost interest free for a year. That would let me get something like a Juicy, naturally with a brand new battery. I could of course resell the Cadence to further offset my costs.

So a bit of a quandary right now. I don't know at this point if a Juicy is as good a bike as my Ezee.

 

[cyclefan]

Hi David. Yes, that certainly does make it more of a close decision for you. It would be very interesting to know how the Juicy bikes compare.

I'd also be really interested to hear if there are any further battery developments in the pipeline with Ezee ie. 1000 charge possbility or an 18ah would be fantastic - I don't fancy the double battery option.

As it is, if the current 14ah battery managed say 600 charges at just 20 miles a charge, that's still 12,000 miles for 500 quid. So I'm curious to see how the battery holds up over the next year and indeed if it can manage a full 3 years reasonably well. I've read Flecc's battery road tests, which are very encouraging over the medium term. Time will tell I suppose over a bit longer.

£500 for a battery does make you think twice though doesn't isn't it - especially when looking to save on motoring costs (indeed, I do hope soaring motoring costs don't tempt them into nudging the price up even more as a relatively cheap alternative to the car !). Every few days another Ezee appears on ebay with a dud battery (or more often than not they just don't mention it but the cyclepoint sticker on the casing gives the true age away ! ).

It is hard to make a decision when the true longevity (in years) of the battery is hard to ascertain. I'm guessing 3 years if it's really well looked after, but that's just a guess and by month 36 I don't want me to be doing all the peddling cos doesn't count

Cheers,

Steve.

 

[flecc]

I've read Flecc's battery road tests, which are very encouraging over the medium term. Time will tell I suppose over a bit longer

Steve.

The current battery is a different make and type Steve. I did have one of the latest in addition for a short while and in performance terms it was the best yet, but I've no idea of how long it will last. I passed it on the Nick from this forum but sadly his bike was stolen so we will have no idea how long that one will last.
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