The power cuts out during riding

helen bladen

Just Joined
Dec 27, 2014
3
0
51
i have recent,y bought. Electric bike which is nearly new. The battery is fully charged. When I am riding it keeps cutting out, any ideas please.

Kind regards

Helen
 

helen bladen

Just Joined
Dec 27, 2014
3
0
51
I had better add some detail now I know more.
The bike may not (as in isn't lol) be as new as the person I bought it from said.
The cover on the box that contains the electrics has an odd screw and the previous owner had taped some items up inside the box.
The bike is an izip aspen or aspen izip.
The battery is a 24v SLA unit and Has two batteries isnide the battery box.

When I first got this bike the battery power was being cut intermittently, but this was due to the front brake lever not being under enough tension to press the micro switch. The brakes needed tightening anyway and pulling 3mm of cable sorted that issue.

I charged the batteries until the charger said they were fully charged. It's a basic charger that only shows red for charging and green for charged.

Today was the first time the bike was actually ridden properly (it's for my son) and it randomly cuts out. The bike has three assistance settings and it will suddenly stop assisting with the pedals. Sometimes the battery power light will remain fully lit and sometimes it will go to its lowest level of one LED and flash. The power doesn't cut in the same way that operating the brakes cuts it as the motor seems to drag the rear wheel rather than simply freewheel. This is clearly dangerous when riding uphill as the bike comes to a standstill. It will do this on the flat or going uphill, and sometimes pedal assistance will restart after 2 or 3 seconds and sometimes it doesn't come back until you stop, turn off the power and start again.

Do any of you have any ideas on what could be wrong?
If any more info is needed to help then please ask :)
 
Last edited:

Alan Quay

Esteemed Pedelecer
Dec 4, 2012
2,351
1,076
Devon
If its causing the wheel to drag, then it's likely that the motor wires (aka phase wires) are touching somewhere. Is the motor in the hub, or a seperate motor bolted to the frame? Pics would help....
 

helen bladen

Just Joined
Dec 27, 2014
3
0
51
If its causing the wheel to drag, then it's likely that the motor wires (aka phase wires) are touching somewhere. Is the motor in the hub, or a seperate motor bolted to the frame? Pics would help....
The motor is external and is attached to the hub via a small chain on the opposite side to the chain used for pedals. All four motor brushes are in the correct position but we didn't notice any damage to the positive and negative wires. Haven't any pics at the moment as bike is at my sone house.
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,208
30,607
It's a Currie Electrodrive motor on that e-bike, shown in various ways on the link given. There's a secondary chain drive to the wheel hub from the motor's integral reduction gearbox. The secondary chain has a wedge shaped adjustable tension block against it and that might be implicated in the binding.

I've never run one of these personally, but having given the motor ID, perhaps an ex owner may know of other potential problems
.
 

peerjay56

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 24, 2013
745
201
Nr Ingleton, N. Yorkshire
Given that this is not a new bike, and the batteries are SLA, I would think that the batteries are likely to be suspect. I know there are crude methods for testing capacity of SLA car batteries, so it might be possible to verify whether yours are shot, but someone like D8veh might be able to give more technical help there. The good news is that if it is the batteries, they can be replaced - maybe even with a lighter, larger capacity lithium one.
As D8veh hasn't responded Helen, try sending him a pm (start a conversation). HTH
 
D

Deleted member 4366

Guest
From what Helen said, I would say that something is jamming. When the motor is prevented from turning, the current goes right up and the voltage goes down, which would explain the behaviour of the battery indicator LEDs. Somebody with some mechanical ability needs to check it out. It's almost impossible to solve it from the description unless somebody has specifically had that problem.
 

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