I have a one year old Forza which has developed a power problem. With the battery fully charged (shows 41 volts on test) the power light is green. When the throttle is turned the light flicks to red and the power cuts off. The controller flashes to indicate a flat battery. Is this a battery problem(bike has only done 580 miles) or is a controller fault. I have cleaned and checked all the wiring and connections. Cyclepoint want £350-00 for a new battery, which works out at about 70P a mile!

I have a one year old Forza which has developed a power problem. With the battery fully charged (shows 41 volts on test) the power light is green. When the throttle is turned the light flicks to red and the power cuts off. The controller flashes to indicate a flat battery. Is this a battery problem(bike has only done 580 miles) or is a controller fault. I have cleaned and checked all the wiring and connections. Cyclepoint want £350-00 for a new battery, which works out at about 70P a mile!

 

Can you let me know the serial number of the battery, the one beginning with a "J", giving the entire alpha numeric set. That will let me know if your battery was one of those which might fail on the early side.

.

battery serial no

 

Many thanks for your prompt reply. The battery serial no is S/NJGJAD100143.

The bike runs if the front wheel is lifted off the ground but cuts out if any load is applied to the wheel.

Thanks

If it is not an early battery failure , then it sounds as if it could be a wiring fault between battery connections and the controller. The connections may look OK , but can sometimes produce a high resistance .

When you refer to the power light , do you mean the led on the charger

or the power meter on the handlebars?

I would suggest turning bike upside down and try to move the wiring connectors as you use the throttle, and try checking the volts drop on the battery when you use the throttle.

 

Cheaper than a new battery:D

Well the bad news is that it's one of the earlier batteries that were shorter lived.

 

It was made on 4th January 2007 and for all of 2006 and most of the first half of 2007 they failed well short of expectations. Coincidentally, I also received a new January 2007 battery following an earlier failure, and it only lasted 10 months before the cutting out was too frequent for it to be of any use, so you've done extremely well to get this far on one of that age.

 

You say you've only had the bike a year, so it or the battery must have been in stock for a long time. When exactly did you buy it?

.

bike age

 

the bike was bought from 50 cycles on 6th Nov 2007. Have had a stand fail, wiring connections fail and a charger fail. As you will guess I am not impressed at paying a premium price for a bike that has not been very reliable and for service that has been very poor.

50 cycles have washed their hands of bikes and previous e-mails to Ezee passed the buck back to 50 cycles. The poor customer seems to be the one stuck with a bike that will cost hundreds of pounds to repair. I do not even know if buying a new battery will solve the problem!

thanks again.

Hi Catpringle

 

I can tell you that 50cycles when they have a good product provide an excellent service. All the problems of the ezee bikes I have read on this forum I can see why they no longer sell them, it seems the only people that can stay on the road are those with surgeon fingers. It is a shame that ezee are not willing to provide back up for any ezee customers via 50cycles.

 

At the cycleshow when I asked about ezee one of the owners said they are still servicing many ezee bikes even without receiving any spare parts for a year, I think this show commitment to customer service. If you have to buy a new battery they are so expensive from ezee that it might be worth you selling the Forza on ebikebay and buying a wisper, powabyke or Kalkhoff that all seem to be very reliable and provide good back up.

 

ezee or squezee?

 

Tesco- John Smiths £10 for 12 Cans, yum!

 

thx

 

Bob

Edited November 19, 200817 yr by wotwozere

 

The poor customer seems to be the one stuck with a bike that will cost hundreds of pounds to repair. I do not even know if buying a new battery will solve the problem!

thanks again.

 

I understand because I've shared the battery experience more than most, having a 2006 one go at five months and a second 2006 one bought at the same time failing at six months, followed by the 207 one at 10 months.

 

It definitely is your problem though, and one of today's batteries you'll find very much different. The long term extreme testing I've been doing on one of them has proved that point, and you can read about that on this link.

 

All the early li-ion bike batteries failed to live up to their life claims, but eZee suffered very much more simply because their bikes were by far the most powerful, therefore giving their batteries a tougher time. For example, the majority of e-bikes have peak powers between 300 watts and 500 watts, but your bike's peak power is 700 watts. The guilty parties were not the e-bike manufacturers but the small handful of battery manufacturers who had relied on lab testing to base their life and performance promises.

 

However, there's a further factor in that the first generation Li-ion batteries using cobalt cathodes were better able to live up to the claims, but they were found to be prone to internal fires which did cause some accidents. The solution was to switch to manganese cathodes which were safe, but unfortunately less efficient, leading to shorter life and lower current delivery and in turn the cutouts. It's taken a huge effort and time to develop them enough to overcome that.

.

which battery

 

Thank you for all your help, I guess I just have to bite the bullet and buy a battery. I notice that cyclepoint sell two batteries, one the same make as the origonal and a slightly more expensive one which is a Kg lighter.

Can you advise which would be best to buy?

Thank you for all your help, I guess I just have to bite the bullet and buy a battery. I notice that cyclepoint sell two batteries, one the same make as the origonal and a slightly more expensive one which is a Kg lighter.

Can you advise which would be best to buy?

 

It's impossible to say at this stage since both were introduced at the same time and have been performing as well. The test one was the heavier Phylion one which is still working fine after nearly a year and nearly 4000 miles, though the range is beginning to drop more now, though that's normal of course. The use and abuse I've given it is easily equivalent to 18 months of more normal use.

 

That said, the trade consensus favours Li-poly now and that has been chosen by eZee as the main battery for the moment, so you might prefer it's lightness. I doubt if there would be a serious difference between them.

.

What bike to buy?

 

Captpringle

 

I purchased my ezee bike from 50Cycles and have had 13 months of trouble free cycling. In October I took it to CyclePoint in Brighton who gave it a service, including fitting a new chain. I am buying a charger from them this week. Whilst I have sympathy for those who have had problems, I hope adverse comments do not put you off Ezee bikes. If you check on this forum you wil see that there are many cyclists with these bikes who, like me, are not technical wizards and are still happily cycling. My original battery was manufactored in July 2007, is regularly used and, whilst it shows signs of deterioration, is similar to the batteries used by other suppliers. Last week my "worst" range was 11 miles on the hilly part of my route but the next day I achieved 25 miles from the same battery on the same route. I think I might haver got more once the cells had stabilised.

 

My advice is the same as given by many on this forum - try as many as possible and do as much research as possible before making a decision.

 

Conal

Edited November 19, 200817 yr by Conal

the bike was bought from 50 cycles on 6th Nov 2007. Have had a stand fail, wiring connections fail and a charger fail. As you will guess I am not impressed at paying a premium price for a bike that has not been very reliable and for service that has been very poor.

50 cycles have washed their hands of bikes and previous e-mails to Ezee passed the buck back to 50 cycles. The poor customer seems to be the one stuck with a bike that will cost hundreds of pounds to repair. I do not even know if buying a new battery will solve the problem!

thanks again.

 

Hi Captpringle,

 

Your claim/dispute/whatever, if any, is with who you bought the goods from, not the manufacturer, or any other distributor of the same goods. In practice, manufacturers will sometimes help directly, but its discretionary.

 

I can quite understand your annoyance at the apparent buck passing, but its clear where it belongs. Also, you will probably find that the battery is classed as a consumable and there was only a 6 month guarantee on it. If you think that's another bit of sloping shoulders going on, then I would agree with you.

 

A new battery will almost certainly solve the problem. I had to do it on my eZee Torq. Unfortunately it will be virtually impossible to determine who knew what at what time about these batteries.

 

Nick

thanks

 

Thank you to everyone for your help, I wiil buy a new battery and hopefully have many more happy miles cycling to work. i have enjoyed the forza but feel that the bike has been let down by weak electricals. Perhaps the technology is too new and the bike puts too much of a load on the system. will keep you up to date when I get the new battery.

Yes, please keep us informed. I'm confident you'll be much happier when the bike is running on the new battery, but condition it first with two full discharge and charge cycles before going to the more frequent normal charging.

.

The pain!!

 

Well I am £365-00 poorer but unfortunately no better off. New battery does the same as the old one. Contacted cyclepoint who are very helpful. I have sent all the info to them and they are going to try Ezee to see if they have an answer.

If that fails perhaps I should check the bus timetables or shave my legs and try to thumb a lift!

Allister

See my earlier post about the wiring as it sounds it may be a wiring fault between battery and controller.

These are the symptoms that a few of us have experienced before.

 

I have now made up a "mudguard" under the bottom bracket to protect the wiring and connectors , made up of an old piece of plastic.

Thanks for help. I have taken all connectors apart and cleaned them. I have also tested power going into controller and it shows 41V. I had connection problems earlier in the year so thought it might have been that as well.If I open the throttle very slightly and slowly the motor turns very slowly but under any load it cuts out.

Sorry to hear this. The battery post connections can also do this though that's usually brought to light when unplugging and replugging the battery.

 

As Mr E points out, the wiring connections also, though less commonly showing up as you described, more often as Cocoa experienced on another current thread on an eZee Quando.

.

Just seen your last post. Is it definitely six flashes on the controller LED indicating flat battery? They can be very difficult to read off accurately.

 

It's beginning to sound more like the wiring connections inside the controller or the controller itself failed.

.

It could possibly be a dodgy keyswitch.

 

At least its a consistent, repeatable problem, so by measuring the voltages at various places it should be fairly easy to identify which area the fault is in.

 

Nick

It definately flashes six times. I measured the voltage going into the controller after the switch, still 41V. When I twist throttle it dips to about 36V before bike cuts off and voltage returns to 41V. Will try tomorrow to clean all connections again and see if I can check voltages when the motor is turning slowly.

Allister

The controller flashing six times indicates that it is not seeing the full voltage and therefore "assumes" a flat battery. I would guess the problem could still the wiring between battery and controller , and as I have experienced before , the wiring and connections may still look ok , but can still be a problem.

Just by moving the connectors , may clear the fault.

 

Let us know how you get on.

Allister,

 

Do you live near any other forum members who own an Ezee bike? I'm sure you don't know the answer to that, but it might be worth letting people know the first part of your postcode. Alternatively have a look at the Pedelec Map on Google.

Then someone they could try your batteries to eliminate any fault with them. If you live anywhere near Milton Keynes let me know.

One other thing, is there any chance water could have got into the controller?

 

J:) hn

John

I live in South Lanarkshire in bonny Scotland, from the site my nearest member is about thirty miles away.

I cycle along country roads past local farms, Very wet roads, lots of puddles and since it is a big dairy farm not always full of just water! Liquid slurry is very hard on connections and chain, Like you I wonder if water has got into controller. Is it possible to open it up and is there any point ie if it is wet is it bust! What is cost of new controller ( my wife is starting to suggest thar a taxi would be cheaper(

Thanks for the input folks.

Allister

Allister,

Have a look at this thread it might help http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/3023-wet-torq-help-wanted.html

 

I don't think you can do much with a faulty controller if that is the problem. You would have to ask Cyclepoint about the cost of a new one, maybe they would take into consideration the fact that you just bought a new battery and give a bit of discount?

 

J:) hn