New Member - advice welcome

[Bodg3r]

Hi All,

Very new to this and new to e-bike ownership.

I ended up purchasing a Carrera e bike at an auction (long story!). Brand new but a Halfords return where they have stripped a few bits off to use fixing another sold bike I imagine.

It is missing the battery (fairly easy to sort) but also some sort of.module that goes on the right hand side of thale handlebars.

I was hoping someone may have some clue as to what I can do to get it working? Either a conversion kit where I replace the old batter holder, or ideally, just a replacement battery and whatever the part is that is missing.

Any help welcome.

Andy

 

[Nealh]

The module you speak of , will be the display and likely well over a £100. With carrera past history one will be better to spend £80 -£100 and buy a complete new control system and ditch the TS system.
If you are handy with diy and a soldering iron then buy a dual voltage 36/48v KT controller kit and then use any generic battery of you choice taking the opportunity to use a 48v battery for 33% more power over std 36v kits/bikes.

 

[saneagle]

Those bikes with the Suntour electrical stuff are pretty good when they work, but, sadly, that's not normally for very long. There are a few flaws in that system and parts are quite expensive and difficult to get.

Assuming that it's a Suntour one, my advice would be to fit a standard Hailong type battery (£250) and a KT controller with its associated stuff (£100). You might as well save some weight by chucking the heavy torque sensor crank and fitting a standard one from Ebay.

If it's not a Suntour bike, it'll be a lot easier and cheaper to fix.

 

[Nealh]

There have been three or four folks on here who have gone down the upgrading route, use the search feature of the forum to find threads.

 

[saneagle]

The module you speak of , will be the display and likely well over a £100. With carrera past history one will be better to spend £80 -£100 and buy a complete new control system and ditch the TS system.
If you are handy with diy and a soldering iron then buy a dual voltage 36/48v KT controller kit and then use any generic battery of you choice taking the opportunity to use a 48v battery for 33% more power over std 36v kits/bikes.

I'm not sure about running a Suntour motor at 48v unless you're careful. There have been a couple of guys that stripped the plastic gears, and one of them was running 48v. Also, the motor is quite torquey, even at 36v.

 

[Bodg3r]

Thank you for the replies.

It is a vengeance model.

I am not great with DIY - what is the most simple option?

 

[saneagle]

Thank you for the replies.

It is a vengeance model.

I am not great with DIY - what is the most simple option?

Sell it for spares and buy a working ebike from Amazon, unless it's the early one without the Suntour Hesc motor.

 

[thelarkbox]

Hope the auction price was a steal.. Lets put the refit job into perspective, conversion of a 'virgin' donor bike is an afternoon job within reach of anyone capable of changing a tyre. And with the motor wheel already installed in your bike thats 50% + done before you start.

The rest of the job is replacing parts like brake levers and adding bits like the pas sensor and plugging it all together. Again your existing brake levers/sensors will work so thats done too

removing the crank or the other pedal arm may be required depending on which pas cadence sensor is selected, but the puller tool to do this can be sourced for just a few quid making it very easy..

So its just bolting on a new battery replacing the controller (be mindful to source a replacement the same size so it fits in the existing box, otherwise you may need to spend £20? on a bigger box to house the controller, or shift to the controller frame bag option. And then just plugging it all together.

Cable tidying was the most time consuming aspect this end getting done 3or 4 times at least btw velcro straps are better than cable ties for cable management .. and a soft silicone coil material is great too.

Worst case you may need to splice a couple of wires rather than just plug in? due to custom connectors on the existing elements??

 

[Nealh]

Why does he need to change brakes ?
With a KT set up they aren't needed.

 

[Nealh]

Thank you for the replies.

It is a vengeance model.

I am not great with DIY - what is the most simple option?

If not in to diy then yes sell the bike and get a working bike , but not a carrera or halfrauds type bike.
Typically a suntour based carrera bike is the last candidate one should consider to covert with a replacement system, it can be done if you are capable .

The only plus is you already have the motor installed so the hardest part is done, though again the drop out fitting set up is very different to most generic hub motors. Suntour use a proprietary anti turn/torque arm system which again can break and be hard to replace.
The issue with the carrera is the crappy suntour control system which is expensive to buy spares .
A new Bottom bracket and a PAS sesnor will need fitting .
Recommend a KT Kuenteng controller kit/display replacement , the issue is with suntour hub is they use there own proprietary motor connector. Some wire soldering is needed to connect to the controller wiring so one needs to be able to solder wires, insulate them and follow general advice on how to csrry out the job.
Any two wire generic battery can then be used , again one may have to solder up the pair of battery wires to connect as the connector will likely be different.
Once those two wiring jobs are done all other wiring is plug and play.

 

[saneagle]

Just a reminder that the Suntour battery has a special fixing method. To use a standard downtube battery, you need to grind off a couple of stubs from the frame.

OP still hasn't said whether it's a Suntour Hesc bike yet. That makes a massive difference. Early ones had conventional Chinese stuff.

 

[Bodg3r]

This is a vengeance junior e.

I will try to get some photos uploaded which may assist?

Hopefully it can just fix a couple of bits and have.it working, but certainly mixed messages above.

It has all parts / wires etc apart from the battery and 'module' to the right.