alanterrill

Thanks -I'll chase the dealer again tomorrow. I left all the details with them over a week ago and they've not come back to me.

There's no rubber bung on the display, and I can't get the battery open -I had it re-celled a year ago o and they've had to glue the casing back together as there don't seem to be any screws that hold it shut. Its a rack mounted BL03 if that helps. There is a socket under a rubber flap, but not a USB type.

I've just taken the display apart and there's no usb socket, just three mini connectors, one of which is unused.

Thanks for that info. There's no visible socket on the display but there are three screws holding a cover at the back. I'll take it apart tomorrow and report back.

Its my Raleigh Forge which has the Tranzx system. Its the display that's playing up (PST DP08 - only two of the buttons now work and then I have to hold them down for several seconds before they respond. I can't change speeds while riding so the bike is stuck in the top range all the time. I have found I can get a new display from the Holland bike shop but it's going to cost over £100 and I'm not sure if it will then need recalibrating with a jig I don't have. I'd rather replace it with a better control unit which has moveable buttons but I can't get any advice from Tranzx or my local Rayleigh dealer as to whether that is possible.

My wife and I have had an electric bike each for around 20 years now and have had three bikes each in that timespan. I'm increasing worried about the short life of electric bikes and what to do with then once they malfunction. We've had two Giants each, plus one Raleigh and now one Gazelle. Parts for the Giants weren't available as soon as the warranties ran out; I'm currently trying to fix the electrics on the Rayleigh -it was new in 2015 but neither Rayleigh nor Tranzx will respond to my emails. Indeed Rayleigh say on their page "It's highly unlikely you'll ever need to replace your electric bike battery due to their durability. When your ebike battery begins to cause you trouble, it's likely going to be time for an upgrade! Batteries are expensive on their own and you're best to buy yourself a new bike". In my experience, a battery pack lasts about six years (and I'm a casual user, it may be a lot less if you use them every day), so they're implying you should throw the whole bike away every six years. Unlike non-electric bikes, there isn't a network of people willing to do them up and sell them on or give them to a charity. Even my new Gazelle only has a two years warranty on the electric and battery, and I can find nothing on their website about future availabilty of parts. For an 'eco' means of transport we seem to be contributing to an awful waste of materials by throwing away otherwise good bikes just becasue their electrical system has failed. (of course, I'm well aware the batteries can be recelled, even if the manufacturues don't tell you this). Any solutions to this?

And that one is out of stock of course, but thanks for the link.

Thanks -I've just sealed the original back up as I'm going on holiday next week and need the bike, so I was hoping to fit new cells before I went! However, I'll take it apart and photograph it when I get back. I certainly like to do things myself and have a soldering iron, multimeter etc, but I'm not willing to take the risk that I'll ruin the only battery I have for my wife's bike or I'll be in big trouble. I did look at buying a complete new battery before I sent off for the cell pack but couldn't find anyone selling one -one is listed on Amazon with 'currently unavailable' against it. I just looked on ebay.de and found a new there for 749 euros which is more than half the cost of the bike (£1250 five years ago).

Sorry - only found the separate batteries forum after I'd posted but then I couldn't find a 'delete' button to get rid of the original. Feel free to delete this post.

Thanks for all the help - I've obviously bitten off more than I can chew -I have replaced batteries in an older battery pack before but they were NiMH cells and there is a higher level of complexity here. What I wasn't sure about was all those little wires ending at a strip that wasn't connected to anything - I thought perhaps these just went to each individual cell and were for the manufacturer to test a faulty battery pack with, but if they also go to the BMS then I've obviously bought a cell pack that doesn't allow for this. I'll call one of the re-celling firms instead.

I have a Tranzx BL03 battery from a Rayleigh Forge that is showing reduced capacity, although its voltage is holding up at 41V. I want to replace the cells and I've bought a pack from China that says it is specifically for this battery pack. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/36V-12Ah-for-Tranz-X-PST-JD-PST-I2C-BL03-Battery-Li-Ion-E-Bike-electric-bicycle/333556846789?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 However, it has no instructions and no pre-soldered wires on it. I can identify the + and - terminals, but having dismantled the original I can see there are a whole strip of thin wires in addition to the main pair which go the length of the pack and go I assume to each individual cells for testing purposes. I have no way of connecting these. Has anybody done a rebuild on this pack and could advise whether these are critical or whether I could just ignore these extra wires?

I have a Tranzx BL03 battery from a Rayleigh Forge that is showing reduced capacity, although its voltage is holding up at 41V. I want to replace the cells and I've bought a pack from China that says it is specifically for this battery pack. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/36V-12Ah-for-Tranz-X-PST-JD-PST-I2C-BL03-Battery-Li-Ion-E-Bike-electric-bicycle/333556846789?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 However, it has no instructions and no pre-soldered wires on it. I can identify the + and - terminals, but having dismantled the original I can see there are a whole strip of thin wires in addition to the main pair which go the length of the pack and go I assume to each individual cells for testing purposes. I have no way of connecting these. Has anybody done a rebuild on this pack and could advise whether these are critical or whether I could just ignore these extra wires?

Thanks for that- will the original charger work with these newer battery packs?

I'm trying to help a friend who has an Ezee Torq which has been terribly unreliable since new. I persuaded her to take it to Onbike and they have duly fixed the electrical problems she's been having. However in the 18 months or so she's been unable to use it, both batteries have become useless. One will barely get her up a single hill and the other is completely dead. I offered to take a look to see if I could recell it, but I've only dealt with Nimh before and was a bit surprised at the shape of the cells in this Li one. This is a Phylion XH370-10J type. I can't find anyone selling individual cells of this type. As a last ditch attempt - can anyone tell me if its possible to obtain and fit new cells? Or is there any company that would do it for me? Onbike will sell her a complete pack for £500 but I suspect given all the trouble she's had with this bike, that will be the final straw that makes her cut her losses and revert to the car.

Bike no1 revived! Thanks for the motor - my original Giant has just flown up the drive in rude health after being hung on the shed wall for over two years! So that confirms it was a circuit board that failed on the first one, and a motor on the second. But, they can be repaired if you can get the bits. So now we have a spare electric for visitors -very civilised. Many thanks for your help. Alan

About three years ago, we noticed that my wife's MiMh battery on her Giant Lafree Twist seemed to be losing capacity. When we went out together, hers would fail at about 12 miles whereas mine would go for 15. Having read about the battery packs available from Powercycle which were available for £99 at the time, I bought one and fitted the cells into the Giant pack. Surprisingly there was no percivable difference in the mileage from the new battery. What is probably more pertinent is the fact that my wife is 13kg heavier than me, and when we swapped batteries, her bike still did less miles than mine! However -we continued to use the new one with the old cell pack abandoned in the garage. Also during this time I acquired an old spare battery from Flecc with the intention of using it as an emergency spare on longer journeys, recelling it eventually when it dies. Initially this one gave me about five or six miles at most. After about 15 months the recelled pack started to give noticeably less power. By this time, I'd acquired a new Giant lafree and so we had a spare battery, and my wife used my spare one instead and the recelled one sat idle for some months. As the powercycle pack hadn't proved great and the price had gone up in the meantime, the Flecc battery also stood idle for many months. Eventually one winter evening I decided to get all the old packs out of hibernation and I checked the voltage of the packs (the two complete ones plus the set without a case). The two Giants were giving around 21V if I remember correctly, but the Powercycle pack had dropped to about 15V. I checked each individual cell, and then found that around 4 of the Powercycle cells had dived to around 0.5V . So I replaced the original Giant cells into the casing they had originally come out of, and then tried to charge both this and the Flecc packs. Initially they started to charge but gave up at two or three lights on. I discharged them and tried again, and over about four recharges they both came up to full charge. I then took them out on the road -to my surprise the Flecc now now gave me 11 miles (and I'm talking about hilly country) and the original Giant gave around 14. So now my wife and I put one of these in our rack bags whenever we go on journeys of 12 miles or longer and they continue to give good service. Just thought you'd like to know in case anyone has an old battery lurking about which they've given up on. Alan

Bike working again! Flecc, I'd overlooked the fact that it could be the motor itself -I assumed that as it turned on and pulled away from a standing start nicely that it couldn't be the motor. However, I took the motor from my older unit and put it all back together and I now have a fully working bike again! Thanks for the advice. The fault on my first failed bike was a complete failure to even start and I'd tried replacing the two sensors then given up. So it could have been either the motor or circuit board at fault. However, now I've proved the motor works, it shows it must have been the circuit board at fault. So now I've got one bad circuit board and one good one, but only a bad motor. So if you have a spare motor left I'd love to hear from you, but if not, you can have the circuit board back to pass on to another needy Giant fan. Thanks:D for all your help, Alan

Andy, Thanks for that info - I've phoned my friend who was very pleased to hear you might be able to help her. I'm sure you'll be seeing her soon. Alan

Django, I know David Mellors but thought they only did Giants. Was it a mechanical fix to your Torq or can they cope with electrical problems? Alan

Thanks - I've bookmarked that link now. I've a feeling someone told me the Easy Rider shop in Shrewsbury had closed. I'll have a look next time I'm passing. Alan

Django - I just looked at that link but it seems to be a map of individual owners -is there a separate map for dealers and repairers? If there's anyone that could attempt a repair at an Ezee Torq locally, I have a friend in Bishops Castle who has a dead one that she's very upset about. Alan (not far from Shrewsbury)

Thanks for the board flecc! I spent most of yesterday fitting it then went out for a test ride -as before the light came on and the bike set off normally and went fine until I started to climb the steep drive frokm my house, and the motor cut out before the top. Starting again on the flat it was fine but before I'd got 100yards it had stopped again. At this point I have changed the motor sensor, pedal sensor and circuit board, but the fault has been consistent throughout. Very mystifying, so I thought - well it must be the handlebar control switch -so I removed it and replaced it with the one from my other bike and set off again. Result- exactly the same as before! So I've now changed 100% of the electrical parts, (and yes I have tried another battery long ago), and yet the fault is still the same as before I swapped anything over. I'm confused -all thats left is the gears and they don't appear to be slipping or jamming. As I'm now left with enough parts to rebuild a second motor, I'll try that and see if I can revive my original bike. But as to how a fault can stay the same as I gradually replace all the parts -it sounds like homepathy theory -you dilute the substance so many times not a single molecule of the original remains, yet the water still has the originals properties -or so they say...

The electrics have just failed on my wife's Giant Lafree Twist, just over two years since my own did the same. This time, it didn't fail completley - the motor still gave a kick at start up and continued to give power for a while until the speed increased to about 9 miles and hour then just cuts out. I thought I was in with a chance as I'd kept my old Giant for potential spares, so I set to work replacing both the sensors this morning with the help of Fleccs trusty notes. All back together and off up the road and the same thing happened again. As the motor turns on and it's not the sensors, then it has to be the circuit board again I guess. This bike is five years old but it's only used for weekend pleasure riding, plus the odd holiday, so its probably not done more than 4000 miles in its lifetime. Mine was only 3 to 4 years old so had probably done less. Its an expensive pleasure this electric bike lark. I'm loathe to spend out £1500 plus on a Kalkhof or Gazelle if there's no guarantee parts will be available beyond the warranty period (has anyone heard otherwise?). As I've now got four Giant batteries and three chargers, I have a certain vested interest in sticking with the lafree, so ebay here I come..

This is interesting: "it is impossible to insure for an illegal act" sounds like a basic supposition of insurance, but does it apply to motor vehicles - for example the maximum speed you can go anywhere in this country in 70mph. So if you're involved in a motorway crash at 80mph does your insurance refuse to pay out? It seems unlikely somehow!

I think elephants has a good point - the 'race' has now diverged into two factions, or maybe three -those that just want to bring their standard bike along and have a gentle race and have a look at other peoples bikes; those that want to dress up and have fun, and those that want to win on highly modified bikes, ridden by muscular types who would do well on a standard bike anyway. Having seen the three or so speed fiends rushing up past helpless folk on shopper bikes and tricycles, I can't help feeling there's an accident waiting to happen, and that sooner or later this event, if it continues, has got to split into a 'fun' race and a 'serious speed' event. It started as a fun event, whose purpose was to get a range of electric bike out in one place, and to see how many would last for an hour on one battery. We've rapidly passed that point, and decisions will have to be made as to where this event goes. With a narrow High St and a circuit that crosses through a churchyard on a footpath, I can't see how this will ever be safe for real races. Another site on the trading estate, or another separate event, maybe?