Electric Bikes - ? about adding non manufacture battery to ebike

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olanin
05-01-10, 07:18 PM
I want to get a electric bike ready thats prebuilt and am looking at either the Giant Twist Express (I really like this one) or the izip ecoride. My problem is that I can not find extra batteries for them. So if I understand right, I could just go to sears...get a general use battery (say two if its a 24v motor) and use it like the battery that came with the bike? That would be providing I can mount the new battery to the bike and custom make a connector if needed.

Thanks...

AllenG
05-01-10, 07:26 PM
Giant offers extra batteries; you can order one from your LBS.
cerewa
05-01-10, 07:28 PM
If you are buying lead acid batteries, you want to know:
how many amp hours is the battery? (too few amp hours means too little range)
is it a deep cycle battery? starter batteries will wear out very quickly if used for e-bikes; "marine batteries" will wear out a little quicker than deep cycle batteries.

dumbass
05-01-10, 07:50 PM
You really don't want to be putting SLA batteries on a new ebike no matter where you buy them.
nwmtnbkr
05-02-10, 12:17 PM
If you're comfortable with DIY projects, you should be able to build your own battery pack and wire it in parallel to increase your range. You may need to modify the way a second and/or third battery mounts to the rear rack, but that's part of the fun of DIY projects. I believe the Giant e-bike uses a battery mounting system very similar to Currie's RMB models. You might actually be able to build a battery case that will slide into that rear rack. I followed member dumbass' lead and build a LIFEPO4 pack that slides into the RMB on my bike, which has the Currie conversion kit installed on it. I'd agree that you should consider building a LIFEPO4 pack. I'm extremely happy with my LIFEPO4 pack, which I built this spring, and I'll be building a second one over the summer. Here's how the battery pack that I built slides into the Currie rack. Good luck.

http://pic50.picturetrail.com/VOL442/7447283/15664551/385308747.jpg