Thank you all for your help with our Lafree motor problem. Now on to our other bike!!
This is a 5/6 year old Eco Ped which is an import from Austria with a front hub 36v Schachner motor. It has a NiCd battery pack with 30 1.2v 500mah cells which fits in the rear rack using a jack socket for connection.
This battery appears to need replacement. It only has a range of 2-3 miles (up hills) and power is substantially reduced. We can buy a new identical spec battery for about £200 but were wondering whether we should take to opportunity to upgrade it to NiMh, if this is possible. Obviously we would need a new charger as well, but would this affect any other components on the bike, such as the motor or controller?
We have also read some articles about resurrecting NiCd batteries by "zapping" them, but this sounds like a potentially dangerous pastime - does anyone know any more about the procedure? The battery reads 37.5V when newly charged which drops after a day's rest or some use to about 35.7V - does this indicate that the cells are all taking a charge, but perhaps not holding it?
The motor is quite whiny as well despite being re-packed with grease, so another alternative may be to buy up a damaged/unwanted 36v bike and plunder the bits. To buy new parts would be way beyond the value of the bike itself, but in the interest of being "green" (and mean!) we would like to preserve it if we can.
This is a 5/6 year old Eco Ped which is an import from Austria with a front hub 36v Schachner motor. It has a NiCd battery pack with 30 1.2v 500mah cells which fits in the rear rack using a jack socket for connection.
This battery appears to need replacement. It only has a range of 2-3 miles (up hills) and power is substantially reduced. We can buy a new identical spec battery for about £200 but were wondering whether we should take to opportunity to upgrade it to NiMh, if this is possible. Obviously we would need a new charger as well, but would this affect any other components on the bike, such as the motor or controller?
We have also read some articles about resurrecting NiCd batteries by "zapping" them, but this sounds like a potentially dangerous pastime - does anyone know any more about the procedure? The battery reads 37.5V when newly charged which drops after a day's rest or some use to about 35.7V - does this indicate that the cells are all taking a charge, but perhaps not holding it?
The motor is quite whiny as well despite being re-packed with grease, so another alternative may be to buy up a damaged/unwanted 36v bike and plunder the bits. To buy new parts would be way beyond the value of the bike itself, but in the interest of being "green" (and mean!) we would like to preserve it if we can.
). Alternatively suppliers such as RS components stock a wide range of tagged cells for building battery packs, including NiCads as originally fitted.
