I've just taken delivery of one of the former (think only the branding differs between the two) and would be grateful for guidance on a couple of aspects to get it going. The instruction manual for all it's worth might as well have remained in the original Mandarin:
1. Where the handlebar swings up to join the frame, the locking mechanism involves a Toblerone-shaped piece of metal that has two small holes drilled through it. At the hinge are two little pins wrapped in springcoils, which seem intended to fit in that wedge, but in my case one of these points upward and the other down. So the unit doesn't lock together.
- The question is whether these pins, flimsy as they seem, are necessary for stability in steering. Would I be stupid just to snap them off?
2. Similarly though with no apparent pins involved, the hinge between the front and back ends of the frame itself doesn't lock securely. Pushing down on the silver lever points it to the ground but it drifts back up again.
- Any tips there, as I've read that these bikes can require an amount of fine-tuning before they're road-ready.
3. The battery doesn't charge beyond two green lights - the third remains red even after 12 hours plugged into the wall.
- Any sense of how much of a liability that would be? (I don't envisage anything beyond a 10km round trip, though hills will be involved.) And are replacements really still £200+?
Bottom line is that I got it at a steal of a price (eBay auction by a commercial vendor whose pictures on the ad were broken, but I knew by then what one looked like). It's been used barely if at all before and might've been a previous return.
I accept there's an element of you-get-what-you-pay-for, and I still have 10 days to send it back. But as sourcing another one from elsewhere is likely to cost double, I'd like to make it work if I can. Hence this Pedelec newbie's request for advice!
1. Where the handlebar swings up to join the frame, the locking mechanism involves a Toblerone-shaped piece of metal that has two small holes drilled through it. At the hinge are two little pins wrapped in springcoils, which seem intended to fit in that wedge, but in my case one of these points upward and the other down. So the unit doesn't lock together.
- The question is whether these pins, flimsy as they seem, are necessary for stability in steering. Would I be stupid just to snap them off?
2. Similarly though with no apparent pins involved, the hinge between the front and back ends of the frame itself doesn't lock securely. Pushing down on the silver lever points it to the ground but it drifts back up again.
- Any tips there, as I've read that these bikes can require an amount of fine-tuning before they're road-ready.
3. The battery doesn't charge beyond two green lights - the third remains red even after 12 hours plugged into the wall.
- Any sense of how much of a liability that would be? (I don't envisage anything beyond a 10km round trip, though hills will be involved.) And are replacements really still £200+?
Bottom line is that I got it at a steal of a price (eBay auction by a commercial vendor whose pictures on the ad were broken, but I knew by then what one looked like). It's been used barely if at all before and might've been a previous return.
I accept there's an element of you-get-what-you-pay-for, and I still have 10 days to send it back. But as sourcing another one from elsewhere is likely to cost double, I'd like to make it work if I can. Hence this Pedelec newbie's request for advice!
