I need help in identifying my very second hand e-bike

[RRSnel]

Hi,

I am very much a newbie to the electric bike scene so please excuse any ignorance here. I picked up what I presume is a rather old electric folding bike from a facebook buy and sell page. The seller had, in turn, bought it from a car boot sale in poor condition, and tried to restore it. It has no brand/make written on it anywhere. I have googled and googled, and the closest I can find is the Woosh Gale (found on this site) but my bike has no gears and only a 24v controller. I have to find a matching battery that fits somehow.

Anyone recognise this bike?
Do you guys think it is worth investing in getting a new battery for it, or sell it on for parts? It's very heavy so not sure if a 24v battery is enough to get me up the hill from my work to home as I am not so lightweight myself.
Thanks in advance!
Rebecca

 

[flecc]

It looks like a model sold by Sustain Cycles around 2007 on for a couple of years, but there have been many similar. It would have originally have had a compact seatpost mounted battery, that rack being a later add-on.

Though only 24 volts, with it's small wheels and lowish pedal gearing it would have been a reasonable climber, though not matching the better 36 volt models for a heavy load.

It seems you probably don't know if the motor and controller are in working order, so splashing out well over £200 on a new seatpost battery is a risk for this old bike. Best tested first if you can beg or borrow a 24 volt battery to check it.
.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

A 36v battery will almost certainly work with your controller and motor.. It'll give more power and torque. You can find the batteries on Ebay. They come with the base connector plate and the retaining/lock strip. It looks like you'll have to fabricate a bracket to hold it at the top.

Personally, I'd upgrade the controller too to one with a LCD and several levels of assist.

 

[RRSnel]

Thank you! I couldn't find any trace of Sustain Cycles apart from a few mentions on this website so I presume they have long since closed down. The man who sold it to me assured me the motor was working, but he was running a lead battery on it which naturally didn't last long. Luckily I only paid £30 for it, and £30 for a first electric bike which is a restoration project - well at least it gives me a hobby
Looking at the motor I see it has 8 wires coming from it but 4 of those wires are not connected to anything at the moment, so I presume they have come lose?
My hubby usually builds his own (non-electric) bikes so he will help me try to get this one up and running.

 

[RRSnel]

A 36v battery will almost certainly work with your controller and motor.. It'll give more power and torque. You can find the batteries on Ebay. They come with the base connector plate and the retaining/lock strip. It looks like you'll have to fabricate a bracket to hold it at the top.

Personally, I'd upgrade the controller too to one with a LCD and several levels of assist.

Ah, I was wondering if that would be safe to do or not. Yes I have thought about replacing the controller too, but as the motor is 24v, is there a risk of it getting overheated? Do I presume correctly that it is brushless as it has 8 wires coming from it?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

There's no significant risk of the motor over-heating. You can make any motor over-heat if you run it too slow. it'll probably run cooler at 36v than at 24v because the extra power will keep it spinning nicely.

The motor has three thick wires, which are the three-phase power wires. The other five are for the hall sensors, which the controller uses for its timing. The red and black thin wires carry 5v to power the sensors and the other three, normally green, blue and yellow, bring back the timing signals to the controller. I doubt that it'll work without them being connected, though some controllers can work without hall sensors.

I haven't found a 24v controller yet that won't work at 36v, though I know that not all do. The only down-side is that the controller's low voltage cut-off will be too low for a 36v battery. That's no problem if you never flatten the battery, and the battery has its own low voltage cut-off, though it's best not to rely on it. Also, if you have those green orange red LEDs that show the battery charge, they'll be on all the time and won't show the battery charge. It's therefore best to have an independent battery voltage display, like a 36v throttle or panel with LEDs.

 

[RRSnel]

Great detailed information, thank you so much! What a lovely forum this is I may invest in a 36v battery then, and if it turns out it doesn't work then I will still have a decent battery for a better more decent bike!

 

[Woosh]

be careful. The battery is the most expensive component in an e-bike and they are not interchangeable.

 

[RRSnel]

Hello Woosh. I haven't managed to find a 24v battery that fits the 7.3 x 10.7 space needed - do you happen to know what size the Woosh Gale took, as it looks very similar to mine?

 

[Woosh]

The battery on the Gale is 36V 13AH.

 

[RRSnel]

Sorry, I meant the measurements, not the power, as available space seems to be 7.3 x 10.7 .

 

[Woosh]

Hello RRSnel,

The Gale battery measures 7.5cm x 10.7cm x 38cm but I can't help you unless you bring the bike to us to have it fixed. Otherwise I would have offered.

http://wooshbikes.co.uk/2017/batteries/gale-battery.jpg

 

[RRSnel]

Thank you, that is useful to know. I would love a trip to Southend on Sea but it's not practical, unfortunately. Just have to find a replacement battery!

 

[flecc]

Thank you! I couldn't find any trace of Sustain Cycles apart from a few mentions on this website so I presume they have long since closed down.

Yes, they failed some while ago. Most of the bikes they offered were rebadged Synergie models, another company that failed but is now trading differently.
.

 

[RRSnel]

A little update: I found a battery seller on eBay in London who makes up batteries to order. He convinced me I would do well with a 24v 15 AH battery with his superior Boston cells that he would weld together for me (he talked my ear off!).

Well, the battery arrived today, and after a bit of soldering in the controller and fixing one break lever that had been holding back the power - it worked! My first experience on an electric bike, oh my goodness what fun On this little bike, 24v is good enough for me, I don't like going fast anyway. And it gets me up my hills without me hardly having to pump a peddle - almost too easy really! Not bad for £30. (Well ok, and £230 for the battery..)

 

[Nealh]

You spoke to Jimmy then at Insat/BGA .

 

[Deleted member 4366]

be careful. The battery is the most expensive component in an e-bike and they are not interchangeable.

Thant's rubbish. All batteries are interchangeable as long as the new one can give enough power and is the right voltage except those with anti-swapping software.

 

[D8ve]

Thant's rubbish. All batteries are interchangeable as long as the new one can give enough power and is the right voltage except those with anti-swapping software.

You can interchange batteries but changing polarity mounts and connectors is a challenge for some.

 

[Woosh]

Thant's rubbish. All batteries are interchangeable as long as the new one can give enough power and is the right voltage except those with anti-swapping software.

I am sure you can guess the customer's reaction when he pays the full price for a new 13AH battery then messes up the battery in following our advice given over the phone.
A Gale battery looks typical enough, universal even, but there are quite a few catches. The location and size of the locking hole in the slider, the position of the battery connector, the dimension, the thickness of the battery connector pins and as D8ve said, the polarity. Not everyone has a Dremmel in his toolbox, that why I said earlier in the thread that we can only help if he brings his bike to Southend.

Sorry, she, not he.

 

[RRSnel]

You spoke to Jimmy then at Insat/BGA .

I certainly did He had me send over photos of the connector to make sure I got just the right battery/polarity etc - great service!

I do happen to have a Dremmel but it was not needed - though my husband did have to solder one of the motor hall wires back to its connector which is probably why it had stopped working for its previous owner.