Flog it or break it for spares?

[danfoto]

My wife and I each have a 2011-year Kalkhoff Agattu. Hers has done less mileage than mine, and is far better mechanically as well as cosmetically. Mine is well past its best-before, having had a much harder life, and I'm working up to replacing it.

Given that the only difference between mine and the wife's is frame size, and that coincidentally hers has suddenly developed a mysterious noise from the motor/drivetrain, am I better off stripping mine for spares to keep hers going indefinitely, or flogging it for whatever I can get for it?

If it helps to know, we're pensioners, we're certainly not well off, and if I flog my bike on Ebay or wherever, it'll have to be collection only from East Sussex which will obviously limit the number of potential punters.

 

[Michael Price]

I suspect that it would be better to keep on old one for spares - it would only need one or 2 bits to fail and you would spend more than you would get for the bike
The main consideration is that this gives you 2 batteries - hence more range potentially. Or - when the batteries start loosing a lot of range then you can get one recelled while still being able to use the bike with the other one. I did that some time ago and it worked out great

 

[Scorpio]

Hi. I'm not an expert but a quick look at the bike makes me think you should be OK to swap the working motor from your bike to your wifes.
Put the best battery onto hers, put her noisy motor onto yours then sell yours as a complete E-bike for spares or repairs? Or keep it yourself for spares?

How sure are you that the problem is the motor not something else?
Do you have the tools etc to do the work yourself?

 

[danfoto]

... Put the best battery onto hers, put her noisy motor onto yours then sell yours as a complete E-bike for spares or repairs? Or keep it yourself for spares?

That would be the plan, and your second question is exactly the dilemma I'm faced with. I do have all the necessary tools and the mechanical aptitude to do whatever work would be involved swopping bits 'twixt bikes, and TBH my own gut feeling is that I'd be better off stripping mine for spares.

That just seems a better bet than trying to flog mine for spares/repair then sooner or later facing a bill for bits for the wife's bike - and that assumes that whatever we needed for hers would actually be available at a price we were happy to pay!

 

[wheeliepete]

You could just flog them both and treat your wife to a new bike too.

 

[danfoto]

You could just flog them both and treat your wife to a new bike too.

That was my original plan, but milady says we couldn't justify the expense ...

 

[Nealh]

Definitely keep your one for spares esp the motor if it is the impulse drive.