Phil,

 

If you are getting 14 miles from a 17ah battery then something is very wrong. I'm a big fat knacker and can get about 40 miles out of 20ah (2 miles per ah). I ride it like I knicked it, and always use the throttle.

 

Did you get any sort of warranty with that bike?

You can buy a new battery for your bike for about £250 including duty, which will take you both ways without charging half-way. Were you happy with the performance of you bike apart from the range?

 

Your present battery is knackered. It should easily do the return journey. Can you get anything back from the seller?

I bought it off gumtree and paid cash so not a great start to be honest.

I'm relatively happy with it but I would a little faster and more push up hills. I thought about getting another battery from life cycle and swapping half way but still going to be Low on help up the hills. This is why I end up asking 10.000 questions. Sorry if I p****d anyone off.

OK, I was only thinking of the cheapest and quickest way to get you going again. As you have a long way to go, I guess speed is fairly important. I used to commute 30 miles a day on a bikes with a 500w Bafang BPM and CST motors. They had top speeds of about 22mph on the road. With a 20ah battery, I had easily enough power to go both ways at about 18 mph. Average consumption was about 9 to 12ah. If I went for the maximum speed, I could empty the battery.

 

A 500w Bafang CST and S12S Sinewave controller is an awesome combination for that sort of commuting. With a 20aH battery, that would cost about £600 in total. A 500w BPM motor is nearly as good and a bit cheaper. You can get a basic 500w Bafang BPM kit with the 20ah battery for about £500.

 

Hills and wind become insignificant with that motor. You can get a less powerful version of it (2/3 power) in a kit from Woosh, which will have about 33% more power than your present bike. Ideally, you need a 20ah battery if you want to go over 15 mph.

Sorry for the delay in replying.

I got a bit snowed under with work. When you could empty the battery going max speed is this the return trip or just one way?

I take it It's better to stick to the bafang make rather than the Chinese kits on ebay?

There is an identical bike to mine on ebay but is faulty.

The hub motor has packed up.

This has the same battery as mine.

Is it worth me getting to use both batteries and spares off it to make mine right? I will post the link in a second.

This is the item number

 

291362473280

This is the item number

 

291362473280

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Life-Cycle-Electric-Bike-/291362473280?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item43d68e8540

 

Now at £227 you could end up with another duff battery it may be charging but how good does it hold it ? At least 227 towards a new battery or kit upgrade. To be honest as spares its not worth the money suntours on the front

£57 new ? I suppose you could open the hub and repair if it isn't working but what you want is a bit more grunt and a battery that works.

3 days to go it may even go higher ?

I have just looked through my watch list at the ended auctions and the bike d8veh was selling was in there that would have done perfect.

I will just keep looking for the bafang motor that d8veh mentioned.

If Im Looking good at a new battery.motor and controller I will see what I can get for my life cycle then get a lighter and better bike altogether.

For a bike that costs £1799 New it seems a bit of a let down even though it was 14 months old when I got it.

Rushed decisions. Always bad.

If I got my boss to join the bike to work scheme can you recommend a good place to get a new bike near Macclesfield or Manchester?

Also does credit rating make a difference to this?

Unlike the ebay one your bike works Phil albeit the battery isn't fantastic so see what you can get for it.

I came to work this morning and put it on the 15 mph limit.

I didn't pedal at all and it got me 16.6 miles

But that was just on electric.

I think the manual says it should get 20 -22 miles on a charge so with it being hilly I am assuming that it was not too bad. The down side is it too 1 hr and 40 mins and I was freezing because I didn't pedal.

So my bike must just drink the electric when I am going as fast as I can even when I

Pedal full too.

At least I know I can say it does 16 miles on one charge when I put it up for sale.

Are these bikes ok to jet wash as long as I miss the Controller and take off the battery?

Or will it screw up the motor or something?

I spent about 1/2 hr cleaning mine today as it got filthy I used a hand held type mister set on fine squirt with cleaner in it and a rag and a watering can for rinsing. Problem with high pressure washers is that water gets in where it isn't needed.

I'm glad I asked.

I ended up cleaning it at work and using a full blue roll to do so.

It just gets bad round where the battery sits.

Here is what it looks like if anyone is interested.

It looks quite respectable.

If you can fix the battery, it would be a nice bike. It's also possible to tweak the controller for better hill-climbing, but only with a good battery.

I came to work this morning and put it on the 15 mph limit.

I didn't pedal at all and it got me 16.6 miles

But that was just on electric.

 

With electric only at 'legal speed' you have managed to cover the full commute distance one way, so with some peddling you should be comfortably made the journey one way on a charge. I suspect you could get 20miles easily with peddling at this speed, although taking 1hr40 to get to work isn't ideal.

 

I have a S-pedelec Bosch 11Ah battery and if I use full power would drain the battery for a full commute of 38 miles with lots of peddling (albeit at slightly higher speed). Not sure whether your battery is that bad actually. Just IMHO of course.