We think a little bit differently about Walmart here in Arkansas because Walmart's from here. Anyway; apologizing to anyone who thinks it's monopolizing the World; but it's where we shop and it's been a big ambition of mine to ride to it and buy groceries. So I headed out this afternoon and rode the ezebike there. After all this time of anticapating the ride; the ezebike took only took half an hour to take me the 11 miles. The hard part is getting up the half mile hill from where we live; up to Highland. From there it's rolling hills with a bit of traffic. No problem; though and I remembered to go to the hardware store in Ash Flat to buy 2 lock nuts for my rear axle. Before I left today I called the Walmart to arrange for a plug where I could charge my battery and I plugged in there and went shopping. When I was done I came out and stowed my groceries in the side bags and had one of the mechanics take a picture. The bike got a lot of interest and at one point there were about 9 guys asking me questions about it. I was heavier with 15 lb of groceries but I still rode the 11 miles home in half an hour for an average speed of 22 mph. The technique I use to make it more effecient is to use only as much power as I need to pedal fast and not use more power than I need to get up hills with moderate pedaling. I feel confident that if I used this technique I can probably go 25 - 40 miles on a full charge. I guess I'll devise a test to see how far I can really go.

I'm definately hooked! The ezebike is way more fun than a bike without a motor! My new challenge is to find places where they'll let me charge. I still don't know how far it will go and don't really want to find out until I have a spare battery to get me back home. Otherwise when I run out I'll either have to ride a heavy bike with a lot of resistance or wait for hours for a charge. But it's too fun and I had my favorite photographer along and "She" got some good pictures. I had a little incident turning around in a driveway; a long bike, going too slow, imbalance, a seat up too high, a heavy bike and I went down; skint my knee. I'm glad I had gloves on and they saved my hands. The bike took it all right; just some scratches on the battery case. No harm done; we came home and ezebike rested in her stall and filled up with some fresh juice for our next ride. eze.

First Trip on the EZE Bike.

People reading this blog know that 12 days ago I got a 48v 1000w ebike kit with a 48v 10ah battery from Golden Motor to put on my Giant Superbike. 3 or 4 days later it was on but it wasn't charging up and kept dieing. So this Monday my rep talked to one of their engineers and he wanted me to take pictures of the charger. It was from a picture of the end of the charger that he realized the switch was in the 230 volt position and not the 115 volt. I didn't even know that it had a switch! I switched it and instead of only going up to 50 volts, like before; it went up to almost 58 volts! Evidently; they were starting a big Holiday in China and the worker who shipped it was in a hurry to get out the door and forgot to switch it correctly for the US. So I had to put the battery back on the bike and went for a test ride. Yesterday I felt confident enough to try taking it for a ride to town. I wasn't sure how it would go but I set off about 2:30 in the afternoon and rode 5 miles through the hills into Hardy from Cherokee Village. I'm happy to report that it didn't die once. On the way into town I was really easy on the throttle and only used about 1/3 and put it on cruise and pedaled hard up the hills in high gear. I was real glad to get to my friend's welding shop and I charged it up while I visited. Charging took about 25 minutes. From there I rode the rest of the way into town; using River Road to avoid traffic. I just put it on full throttle cruise for the 1/2 mile along the river and it was going about 25 mph I think. Then I turned and crossed the bridge over Spring River. My friend who owns a store wasn't there but I visited the lady who was there. Then I went to the Gazebo at Loberg Park and plugged in the charger and visited some people while it charged. The green light came on after about 15 minutes and I headed home. I don't think it took me more than 15 minutes to get there. A big long hill out of Hardy was my first challenge but at full throttle and pedaling hard I made it up and turned off to Cherokee Village. There were 4 more big hills after that but it went up just fine with hard pedaling. When I got home I checked the voltage and it was 52.5v. The battery holds 57.5v and 10ah so I only used 5 volts and maybe 3.5 amp hours. Now I'm starting to like this machine. I got a post from Bill Nye the science guy this morning and he said that the chemicals are getting organized when the battery is new and the battery keeps getting better and better. He also said that a full charge is only 25 cents and this bike kit is really good quality and will last 6 years. I'm stoked and I want to ride but it's threatening rain and I'm not sure about riding it in the rain yet. It's probably ok but I don't want to take chances when I'm just starting to have fun. So; thank you Golden Motor for making a good machine and I'll do some more testing and report back to my peeps. eze

I checked the voltage before I took a test ride and it was 57 v. That's the most I've ever seen. So I went ahead with the ride but I decided not to go too far after the throttle quit again going up a big hill and I didn't even have it on full. It quit again so I decided to take it real easy and stay closer. The ride was nice. It's really hot out there. The throttle was still on green when I got back and I put it on the charger. The fan quit after half an hour but the light was still red so that's the topping off mode. I have a programming wire coming. Maybe I can tell after I get that and the program what's happening in the controller. I could probably get to town and back but every hill is going to make it quit. Oh well; eventually. eze

"All I have to do is put the battery back together now". It was a bit of a challenge but with some good packing tape and a lot of pushing and some tough screws I "got er done". I took it out and was surprised when the battery recognised a familiar hill and decided to quit; just like last time. However; instead of getting mad I turned the ignition off and on and went off again. I decided not to use full throttle and it never quit again. When I got back the green light was still on so I think it's all right. The bike's charging up for a try at going into town. eze

Dumb and Dummer! Have you ever heard of a switch for either 115 v or 230 v on an appliance with a 3 prong plug? Neither have I! Someone at the warehouse was supposed to switch it to 115 before they shipped it and not having any instructions I tried to use it at the 230v setting. As is procedure when you buy from them I had to do whatever repair was necessary and as instructed I took my battery out of it's case and plastic covering and bought a multi meter and went through a big testing procedure and numerous emails to the company and other experts and all because of a little switch on the back of the charger! It's a wonder it charged the battery at all. So now the smart little charger is blowing away and sitting there with some happy little red lights on. Now maybe when the charge light turns green; it will actually have a full charge and I can go somewhere. That is; after I put the battery back together. Amazing that I ever got any ride if it was trying to charge with only half the power! I hope in the next report I will be extatic about the bike's performance! eze now!

So this is what my source at the forum said: ""About lvc on lifepo4, regardless of brand, the absolute lvc under load should be kept above 2.0v,I checked after it shut off and it was 44v; That's 2.75 per cel the voltage profile of lifepo4 is very flat so expect to see a steady voltage reading during 80% of the capacity and a sharp drop at the end.. ( fully charged to 3.65v, drops to 3.4v overnight, and 3.2~2.8v during discharge is average ) " from ypedal if your charger is 54v that is 3.375v/cell, so 3-3.1 is a little low. That was about 18 hours after it was taken off the charger. that cct board is the battery management system(bms) it monitors each cells voltage and shuts the battery off if a cell drops below a set level. step 1 make sure the battery cell voltage is correct. seems off I checked carefully. step 2 check cell voltage under load( have wheel off ground full speed and check cells voltage)could have a cell that looks good but falls on its face under load step3 check voltage from charger while charging I'll do it. step 4 check that wires to bms are reading proper voltage from batteries I'll do it. try driving slow and see how far it goes will tell you if it is an problem with controller drawing too much for the bms I'll do it if I can. connect motor to pc and see what the settings are I ordered a cord from GM when is shuts off on a hill does it stay off until you turn off battery or unplug battery? Yes and then it only goes for a second. I am leaning towards battery or charger being the problem Bold is my comments. New Data: All cells started at 3-3.1v with full throttle and wheel off the ground power and when it died it was 2.5 on 1 cell, 2.6 on 4 cells, 2.7 on 7 cells, and 2.8 on 4 cells. So it shut off at 43v. The charger is putting out 54.5v but at the connection inside is 47. I don't know if that means there's some kind of resistance or bad connection inside the plug or if I'm just testing the voltage of the battery. I'll see what my expert thinks.

I got everything ready to take the battery appart but I tested the cel's and there's no dead one. All are between 3v and 3.1v. So now what?

I bought my first ebike kit from Golden Motor with hopes of not only having my own ebike but of making it a business and selling kits. I liked the fact that they made a gearless, brushless motor and I liked how they looked. The first thing I had to do was decide on a name for a new gmail account. I decided on LLC EZE Bike. It has great Numbers and I liked the sound. So; I contacted Golden Motors and got back a quick reply, a price list and the terms of having a dealership. A few days later I ordered a 48v 1000w kit and a 48v 10ah battery. 10 days later it arrived. It took me a few days to get it together and I took my first ride but there was something wrong! After a very short time it cut out and so began the investigation to discover the source of the problem. With the help of my rep and the Endless Sphere forum I began to try to solve the problem. The first thing I needed was to buy a Multi Meter so I could test the battery etc and report back with the data. I found out that it was not charging to capacity and the conclusion was that there was a dead cell in the battery. I was also informed that I needed a program wire to program the controller. So now you see the battery is appart and I'm waiting for a new cel to arrive from Golden Motors. I'm also ordering a programming cable. Although I'm disappointed not to be riding; this is giving me a chance to really get to know the technology of ebikes. So it's actually a blessing in disguise.