I’ve been planning to buy an electric conversion kit for one of my bikes for a while now, and finally got the money and the CFO’s blessing last week, and ordered one. It’s due to arrive on Saturday. But that’s another story for another post, because Fortune smiled on me tonight.
Ian had a flat on his bike, so we stopped by Spoke-n-Sport to pick up some tubes tonight. I had emailed Chad, the owner, earlier asking about ebikes, so he knew I was interested. He was there tonight & asked if I had received the email he sent about the two Giant LaFree electric bikes one of his customers was looking to sell. I had seen the email, but hadn’t contacted the owner about them because I had already decided on the hub motor kit. Good thing, because the owner had bought new bikes and traded in the old ones. Chad wasn’t sure how much work it was going to be to get them running again — the owner said that one of them had a major problem but wasn’t sure about the other — so he was just looking to get rid of them. He said that if I didn’t want them he was probably just going to dump them. So, being the pack rat scavenger that I am, I couldn’t say no.
The bikes look like they’ve spent more time in the garage than on the road; a little dusty, but very little wear on anything. The burgundy one is missing the bottom plastics, and by turning the crank I can tell that that’s the problem child. The silver one seems to be ok. I plugged the batteries in, and they appeared to be charging; so far so good. Then, on a whim, I check the batteries just before bed, and one is showing a green light — charged. So, on another whim I pop the battery into the silver bike; nothing. Pop it into the burgundy bike & fiddle with the key and I get what sounds like an error beep and one LED lit on the battery level indicator. Pop it back in the silver, fiddle with it’s key, and get full battery lights! Cranking on the throttle doesn’t do anything, so on another whim I roll it to the driveway & hop on. And whaddyaknow! It works!
This is the first time I’ve ridden an electric bike, and the first time since 1986 that I’ve ridden any 2-wheeled conveyance that isn’t powered by me, so it was great having the wind in my hair again. I’m glad it was 11pm; the darkness hid my ear-to-ear smile from the neighbors. The ride was great. Went around the block a couple of times & discovered that the motor only engages when the pedals are turning. You don’t have to be pushing to get it to engage, only a token spin is required. And because the motor is ahead of the crank, it drives the chain, which also uses a standard 7-speed freewheel; that allows the motor to work in conjunction with the gears. Gear down to go up hills, and gear up for the flats. Pedal harder to give the motor some assist to go a little faster and get a little more life out of the batteries.
I couldn’t be more pleased to have a working bike without having to fix it. The other bike I’ll keep around for scavenging or selling parts. The frame may one day be incorporated into a hub-drive electric, but that’s gonna take some work. Especially getting rid of the girl frame look. Lessee… a tube across the top and a plastic fairing in between? That might be a start.
