Hellooo
Well, whilst waiting for my new Kalkhoff, I went and picked up a second hand Giant Lafree Lite. It was meant to be a tester for the missus to use as school run with a 4 yo on the back and the older on his own 20" bmx bike. The journey isn't far (about 0.7mile) but quite hilly.
After a full-ish service and some plastic mending, the bike looks quite presentable. Everything work as it should, although I snapped the bolt holding the AXA nurse lock as I need to remove it to fit the toddler seat. The bike still pull strongly although, like many Lafree, the battery is probably in need of some service. It did have 4 led on when pick up and earlier today done a 10 miles hilly trip so not too bad (I guess). I charge it once before since purchase and it came back to only 3 led, needing a further cycle before settling down at 4 led.
After the trip back I put the battery back into charge and the charging stops after only 1 led. I plug it back in and it rises to 2 led after a couple of hours. Repeat this again and it came up to 3 led. Not sure whether this is an issue with the battery or the charger.
So here's are my questions:
1) does anyone still have a copy of the manual for the charger? I am curious as to what I should expect and also not sure what the battery "refresh" option is for and how to start it.
2) does it sounds like the battery is on its way out, or is it the charger? Any way to check/confirm?
3) I read flecc did a recall of the Lafree's 24v battery (from forum searches) but the link seems to have died. Is the instruction still available?
4) the battery seems to have little circle stickers stating 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08, 09 on. This seems to be servicing stickers so it looks like the battery was well look after, but this has stopped a few years back. Any actions I should/could do at this stage to "service" the battery (apart from keep using it)?
As this is a "tester bike" a new ebike is likely to be on the card although it will be very sad to see this lovely Lafree going to the recycling centre - especially when it still works so well. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated. I got this week off work and is quite spanner-handy so can do most things - except probably getting too technical with electrics.
Thanks
Well, whilst waiting for my new Kalkhoff, I went and picked up a second hand Giant Lafree Lite. It was meant to be a tester for the missus to use as school run with a 4 yo on the back and the older on his own 20" bmx bike. The journey isn't far (about 0.7mile) but quite hilly.
After a full-ish service and some plastic mending, the bike looks quite presentable. Everything work as it should, although I snapped the bolt holding the AXA nurse lock as I need to remove it to fit the toddler seat. The bike still pull strongly although, like many Lafree, the battery is probably in need of some service. It did have 4 led on when pick up and earlier today done a 10 miles hilly trip so not too bad (I guess). I charge it once before since purchase and it came back to only 3 led, needing a further cycle before settling down at 4 led.
After the trip back I put the battery back into charge and the charging stops after only 1 led. I plug it back in and it rises to 2 led after a couple of hours. Repeat this again and it came up to 3 led. Not sure whether this is an issue with the battery or the charger.
So here's are my questions:
1) does anyone still have a copy of the manual for the charger? I am curious as to what I should expect and also not sure what the battery "refresh" option is for and how to start it.
2) does it sounds like the battery is on its way out, or is it the charger? Any way to check/confirm?
3) I read flecc did a recall of the Lafree's 24v battery (from forum searches) but the link seems to have died. Is the instruction still available?
4) the battery seems to have little circle stickers stating 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08, 09 on. This seems to be servicing stickers so it looks like the battery was well look after, but this has stopped a few years back. Any actions I should/could do at this stage to "service" the battery (apart from keep using it)?
As this is a "tester bike" a new ebike is likely to be on the card although it will be very sad to see this lovely Lafree going to the recycling centre - especially when it still works so well. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated. I got this week off work and is quite spanner-handy so can do most things - except probably getting too technical with electrics.
Thanks
