Repaired a piece of history today!

[pdarnett]

My local bike shop have no knowledge of ebikes and as I'm their only ebiker customer they pointed one of their repairs to me. It was an old PowaByke in bright red (the owner believed it may have been ex post office at some time) the batteries (SLA) were depleted, they'd charge up but under load drop to 11v.

Luckily for him I had 3 new 12v Lucas 12aH batteries for my scooter and so his pack was opened and the original powabyke branded batteries removed and replaced! Yes the original ones, he rides about 10 - 15 miles a week and regularly tops up the batteries and has done for the last 8 or 9 years! I think he's had value for money there.

Nice guy as well and paid above the cost of the batteries as I'd taken the time to do the repair when everywhere else had turned him down.

Here's the red rocket itself ready for another ten years or so! All mechanically good as well and goes like stink!

 

[Clockwise]

I really like old bikes that are still being used, see the odd person out riding on old racers and just get the feeling they have been riding the same bike for years.

 

[mike killay]

I really like old bikes that are still being used, see the odd person out riding on old racers and just get the feeling they have been riding the same bike for years.

A friend of mine still rides a bike that he used in the Army as a National Serviceman in the 1950's

 

[Wicky]

My mum bought one of them (not in red!) brand new years ago and never rode it. Saw it today stored in her garage as a family heirloom …

Are they worth much?

 

[EddiePJ]

My mum bought one of them (not in red!) brand new years ago and never rode it. Saw it today stored in her garage as a family heirloom …

Are they worth much?

Nah, just give it to me.

 

[flecc]

My mum bought one of them (not in red!) brand new years ago and never rode it. Saw it today stored in her garage as a family heirloom …

Are they worth much?

Good specimens on ebay have current offers between £50 and £80. Although yours is new, the batteries are probably dead after no use from new, So I doubt you could get very much for it.

 

[NZgeek]

I really like old bikes that are still being used, see the odd person out riding on old racers and just get the feeling they have been riding the same bike for years.

Define "old"

My usual commute is done on a 1996 Diamondback Outlook Oversize. I only paid 35 pounds for it, but it's cost slightly more than that..... by the time I paid for the conversion parts, some repairs, clothing, racks, carry boxes, rims/spokes/ seats and my recent NuVinci Hub .

Probably only up to about 1500 pounds...

DON'T tell my wife that... she's "offset" it on a holiday somewhere

 

[pdarnett]

Still worth looking at your mums bike, motors have got some poke! Built like tanks!

 

[flecc]

Still worth looking at your mums bike, motors have got some poke! Built like tanks!

Indeed, 700 watts gross with the peak coming in low at 7 mph so prodigious climbing ability.

 

[Wicky]

Interesting. How did you rebuild the battery to a working state?

 

[pdarnett]

Just replaced the three old batteries inside the case (3 times 12v to get 36v) with some new lead acid batteries I had. Pretty simple really.

 

[Clockwise]

I just started a rebuild project. Got 2 old 3 speeds, one with broken frame and one with rust and abuse(but an ok frame), plan is to respray the good frame and clean up parts from either/or to go on it. Really excited about the whole project.

Broken frame bike.

Other bike.

 

[Geebee]

Interesting. How did you rebuild the battery to a working state?

If you replaced them with LiPo you could drop 10kg or more of the bike weight, there is plenty of room in the battery case.

 

[johnc461165]

Sold one of my old Powabykes a few months ago for £140 on E-bay,

 

[pdarnett]

GeeBee you're right, there was loads of potential for Lipo, could have got maybe 6 5S packs in there. But he didn't want to change it and had a simple charging routine and was cheap to do.