Cycling UK Forum

Cyril Haearn wrote:

Bonefishblues wrote:But a Renault Twizy would at least be fun!

Minus One
CYCLING is such fun!

Not as much fun with a daily 40mile commute and a day's work sandwiched inbetween it ain't

Re - celling a battery by soldering isn't a good idea it does need spot welding.

Soldering takes too long and the lead time of too much direct heat to the cells is bad for them.
Re -celling can be done for about £250 - 300 by Jimmy at bga-reworking.co.uk.
1a Gateway Mews, London, N11 2UT 02083611790.

They will arrange pick up and drop off of battery at both ends for, usin gonly the very best cells available with copper welding process. Bosch batteries can be re-celled, my brother had his recelled after it's capacity started to reduce haveing covered 13k miles. The 10.4ah battery was recelled with pukka Panasonic GA cells to give 13.8ah for £280.

Thanks, all useful info. I've heard something about "suicide circuits" in newer Bosch batteries, where volatile RAM in the battery management system loses it's code if the cells are disconnected, making the pack useless as no power is delivered to the bike. Has anyone come across this and know whether it's something re-cellers can deal with?

reohn2 wrote:

Cyril Haearn wrote:

Bonefishblues wrote:But a Renault Twizy would at least be fun!

Minus One
CYCLING is such fun!

Not as much fun with a daily 40mile commute and a day's work sandwiched inbetween it ain't

The thought had occurred

Think it depends on the system you choose. Replacement batteries for our retrofit kits are around £200/250.00, so, if the average 'life' is say three years, then I don't think this is too expensive. Not got to the stage of noticing any drop off in any of our batteries so far. I did read somewhere that the performance drops off gradually, so, I assume that you could still carry on using one providing it could cope with your demand!

Bosch gen1 batteries are no problem it's the later generation batteries, AFAIAW the bms needs to see 5v to prevent it bricking so a temporary source needs connecting whilst changing over during as re -cell.
Jimmy at BGA/Insat is flat out with battery work, when you speak to him (better face to face) you are captivated by his knowledge and enthusiasm for his work which often comes across as being a hobby and not a job. He mentions the rip off prices people pay for some Bosch and other battery products and deplores this side of the market he can re cell a battery with much better cells for a third to half the price of new.

Currently he has received or is about to receive 28,000 Panasonic GA cells and believes not too far away 18650 cells will be hard to source as the EV market demand soars.

I cannot resist commenting on this thread, despite the fact that the OP is asking a perfectly sensible, technical question ...

Two comments in fact:

1. I find the technical answers immensely interesting - actually what an e-bike can and cannot do in real life circumstances. That is a social question as well as a technical one. So while I'm not about to acquire an e-bike, I do like to know what's going on.

2. My advice to the OP FWIW would be to bite the bullet and get a small, cheap second-hand car. And this is from a hardened environmentalist. Commuting is commuting and it involves decisions and environmental costs. There are ways of mitigating this: working from home once a week, cycling in on a few days in summer, getting a car with a very small engine, maybe even cycling one way and leaving the car at work or half way. I don't think anything can really square the circle once we look at working long distances away from home. I personally wouldn't knock the OP for such a choice.

My advice to the OP is to live near where he works

Travelling to work is far too cheap and attractive

Cyril Haearn wrote:My advice to the OP is to live near where he works

Travelling to work is far too cheap and attractive

What if it's some out of town industrial estate and he's worked there for years enjoys the job,likes the people he works with,gets paid well and his wife and family like where they live with good schools for the children and good neighbours,Oh! And his wife's mother is disabled and needs the constant attention of her only daughter?
What then?

Cyril Haearn wrote:My advice to the OP is to live near where he works

Travelling to work is far too cheap and attractive

Yep, I would certainly prefer to do this, but due to a combination of other factors that are non-negotiable for us, including remoteness of the work site, availability of suitable housing that we can afford, we may have to be this far away. We've already identified somewhere closer that we'll be trying for, but there are no suitable houses on the market atm, haven't been for several months, and the school is oversubscribed and it's not walkable or cycleable to the next one if we can't get a place. Driving to school is something I REALLY don't want to be doing for the sake of kids' long term health as well as environmental issues.

Plus One for avoiding driving as far as possible for so many reasons, no need to list them

One thing that does strike me is that others have also looked at e-bikes for a 20 mile commute (kwackers for instance?) and found them successful. But it does seem that hemo has pretty much put paid to the idea (AIUI).

20 miles is doable a lot of the decision is how good or safe is the route in to work and return journey, day in day out all year round isn't for every one come rain or shine. Also wind, dark winters riding etc,etc, a shower facility may be required at the other end. After an hours + ride, you then have a full shift to do then the same ride home.

If solely reliant on the bike what happens when it has an off day and breaks down your back to a car if you have one or other forms of transport that may not be very convenient.

25km/h bike is most likely 1.30 - 1.50 hrs journey twice a day on top of your work day.

n+1

TBH if I had a 20mile commute a pedelec would be pretty low on the list of transport choices unless finances dictated otherwise and even then I'd be questioning pedelec upfront cost over other forms of transport .
First up would be a car ideally electric thouugh an elec car has other problems such as parking near a charging point at home and initial outlay,second choice would be a small motorcycle/scooter again ideally electric but an ICE powered 125 scooter would have enough poke to move along and accelerate briskly enough.
A pedelec would only work with a mostly off road flatish and decent cyclepath system and would take all the pleasure out of cycling for me.

There's also the consideration of the type of work done,I'm guessing folks heralding a 20mile pedelec commute don't have physical jobs and don't think of the sheer drudge of a 20mile commute in any vehicle let alone on a pedelec.
If one doesn't have a choice of a two modes get out clause when the weather's bad or was feeling a bit offside or tired,a pedelec would never be my choice.
In short a 20mile commute by pedelec would get old PDQ,YVMV.