In the last few days, I've bought a 22 inch electric bike 2nd hand for £120.
It's been pretty impressive so far imho.
Problem is, as people probably already know, is the battery...
At the moment, it does 12 miles at 17 mph quite comfortably with no input from the rider. (36v 12 amp lead acid battery)
Just curious to what you think of this idea of extending the range.
A leisure battery from a scrap yard 12v 110 amp - £30 A fast charger 22amp from Argos - £40 A 12v to 36 dc to dc convertor - £70 A current limiting diode.
ie 12v at 110amps, probably equals 36 volt at 30amp = 2 times as far = 25 miles, (taking into account the extra weight and the loss of electric convertion)
but I reckon it should be good for an approx range of 30 miles of effortless riding.
Any comments? Ideas?
Thanks, Dave
Check the capacity of your batteries, they may be aging - other similar bikes running on 36V get a lot more range, see the link below (12V, 12Ah batteries weigh a little over 4 kg, this one has 14 kg of battery, so about a 36V 12 Ah battery). Do a google search for many more hits
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New batteries are fairly cheap (likely around £50 - 60) - don't waste your time with used batteries (especially don't waste your time with car / truck starting batteries for storage), mixing batteries, or voltage converters. Doing so will not give the expected results and could be dangerous. Ever see what happens when a car battery shorts out? They are capable of sustaining several thousand amps of current into a direct short. This is enough power to turn a section of the frame of your bike into a red hot chunk of steel, or vaporize a wire shorting it out. High power DC to DC converters are not likely a good answer. There are several very good reasons why a 36V system was initially used, and there is no reason to change it to a lower voltage.