3 year guarantee on battery ....

[keithhazel]

out of the blue i recieved this in my PM box, maybe we all have them, but 3 year guarantee on the battery ect seeks amazing...have i overslept and its April 1st.....




sunrunner

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hello and good evening,i am the owner of sunrunner cycles uk. the reason for selling such bikes is to offer a differant type of unit into the uk,i have been selling electric bikes here for over 15 years and was fed up at what was being offered in the uk with battery and weight problems.alot of major companies in the uk did not want to sell this latest type of battery due to the poor aftersales numbers it will create. plus we offer a 3 year guarantee on the battery and life on the frame not many will offer that.24 hour nationwide assistance with a no quibble guarantee, free service for life. hope you like your bike and have a very happy new year.dave.

 

[flecc]

We've seen this before Keith.

This is the first bike to arrive here with a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery, very small battery and low powered bike.

In theory they will last for 1000 charges, they say 2000 or more, but that's an unknown as they are new.

Therefore that Yorkshire cycle shop dealer is being either brave or foolhardy, or both, in trusting the propaganda, considering how every new battery technology to date has failed to live up to the initial hype.
.

 

[keithhazel]

well if untested its a big risk as its in print so should be valid, except its not for me, i have seen the bike befor as its such an ugly folder that looks like a gust of wind will collapse it, but 3 years guarenteed pottering around to the shops or caravan park you cant copmplain how unsightly....he maybe thought i am the right person to send it to as i will withing seconds advertise to the world..lol..lol....

 

[giguana]

I have ordered a lithium iron phosphate battery from anna.0808 on eBay, it's from a company called cheer ocean, not sure if it's the same type but I will update on how it goes.

 

[keithhazel]

hope you ordered by paypal cos some of these sellers in china have horendous feedback, this one doesnt of course as they have a feedback of only 1.......................not into battery understanding so no idea what it is or value, you could put some more details on here with e-bay number ect and price and you may find some of the clever ones who play with batteries ect can tell you something....good luck with it.
keith

 

[giguana]

I checked out all the minor details that all seem present and correct, and they have listed about 15 batteries...and they have written back asking about all the details of custom battery sizing and all that's so it seems really good so far, certainly paid by paypal 48v 20ah 220 to the door, should be some weird kind of battery!

 

[keithhazel]

soon as you mentioned ah and volts it was weird to me...over my head..lol..good luck will be reading future posts with interest.

 

[alex]

Sunrunner

I was seriously considering buying one of the Sunrunner cycles (the gents 28" wheel one) though never managed to organize a test ride & eventually decided I needed more gears than the 3 speed Sunrunner so plumped for the Carerra Sparc from Halfords. I was attracted to the Sunrunner by its light weight, large wheel & outstanding battery performance (claimed), initially 5000 charge cycles were the stated life at a cost of 80 pounds for a battery. I suspect such performance is too good to be true so will wait for someone else to risk trialling LiFePo, I look forward to reading real life experiences of this technology on this forum.

 

[flecc]

The 5000 charge cycles is only based on theory and lab work, but they are certainly good for 1000, and possibly 2000 cycles. Either way that's a huge improvement on our present Li-ions.

The problem is getting high capacity with the high discharge rates our more powerful bikes need. Possibly ok on low powered bikes like the Sunrunner which uses a very low capacity pack anyway, but so far not on high powered ones like the eZee and some Wisper motors. eZee were trialling around a year ago now, but still nothing forthcoming, and it's only in this high power area where the problem is really acute, lower powered bikes managing quite well on present Li-ions.

Lithium iron phosphate has been successful in electric tools, but those packs are much too low capacity for our needs, so I'll be interested in how Giguana gets on.
.

 

[Jeremy]

Lithium iron phosphate has been successful in electric tools, but those packs are much too low capacity for our needs

Interestingly, the A123 LiFePo4 cells used in the very successful DeWalt powertools seem to be the cell of choice for high power electric vehicle use, including newer ebikes, at least in the US.

The Killacycle, for example, operates very well on them and many of the power-hungry types on Endless Sphere have been getting very good performance from them for ebike use. Being lithium based, calls can be simply paralleled up for increased capacity, so overcoming the small cell size problem.

As far as I know, there are currently only two types of well-proven LiFePo4 cell around, the A123 (DeWalt) and the EOne/Molicell (Milwaukee) ones. LifeBatt cells look promising, but don't have a track record yet. Several people are trying the "Ocean" brand Chinese LiFePo4 cells, but I don't think there is much to go on yet as to their life etc.

Jeremy

 

[flecc]

I agree, they can be paralleled of course, but that's when space available and cost comes into it.

To match an eZee battery's 37 volts 10 Ah @ £250 with A123 cells isn't possible, and though I haven't checked it, I very much doubt enough cells could be packed into the designed space anyway.

Of course that's why we're waiting, for the size and cost to become acceptable.
.