Shenzhen Songi electric bicycle from China

[Frank Lee]

Just got one. Everything is in Chinese so the instructions and instrumentation aren't helping. It has a remote key fob with several buttons on it. Press 'em and a female voice says things in Chinese. I have no clue what they are but I like it!

Just plugged in the battery pack (pack says 60v while chassis says 48v- upgraded?). It has a direct drive hub motor in the rear wheel. The pedals have one "gear". Charger is supposed to run on 220v but it has a 110v style plug. Am running it through a "foreign power inverter"; inverter takes 110v, converts to 220v, and the charger fits into the inverter. Well, nothing blew up yet but there is one red and one blinking red/green light on it. Am assuming blinking means it's taking a charge and when it turns green it's charged? Eventually want to get/make proper plug to go directly to my 220v service.

Looks kinda like this:



The rear passenger seat/rack and side racks look clever and useful. Gonna hafta fab something like them up for my bicycles and motorcycles!

This is going to be interesting. I'd just recently developed an interest in electric vehicles and decided to start small, fire up the learning curve, maybe progress to cars?

[jonathan150cc]

I look forward to hearing how this goes.
I've been looking more and more into electric assist the past few days.
I can't see your photo at work since the server blocks image hosting websites.
I'll look it up.

[cfg83]

Frank -

Cool. It looks like it has a pedal "limp mode", yes? Here's a dumb question. Can it go up hills? I ask because this may be a good fit for where we live (not too steep, but lonngggggg grades). How much does it weigh?

CarloSW2

[Frank Lee]

I haven't ridden it yet. Near as I can tell the bike weighs 95 lbs w/o battery pack (very awkward to use a digi bathroom scale for this...) so 147.5 lbs total.

Looks like maybe it isn't going to be a smooth plug-n-play operation. Batt pack decal SAYS 60v; it's been on the charger 24 hours and the red/green LED never went solid green, and it's only up to 35v, sooo.... might have a problem? Cracked open the battery box (52.5 lbs) and found (5) 6-DZM-12 batteries.

There are no glaring physical defects and the batt cables are very firmly attached so I'm not inclined to disturb them just yet to check the batteries individually (well OK. I did try to get one cable off and it didn't come easily so for once I decided to stop before breakage occurred ). Was just going to throw the charger on it longer but now think I may have already overcharged. The thing to do is simply put the pack on the bike and see what it does I guess.

It does have functioning pedals, although I'm sure this thing would be a total slug compared to pedalling a normal bike. It's way too small for this big galloot to get proper pedalling ergos- and there's the little matter of the extra 114 lbs vs my trusty old Fuji- but just sitting there passively riding should be just fine. My guess is the pedals are mainly useful as a range extender- use 'em to help on accel and up hills and the battery pack thanks you very much and rewards you with much longer range.

[captainslug]

Plugging a 220v charger into a 110v outlet won't kill it (however the inverse would). And all of the Chinese chargers I've used accept both 110vac and 220vac so you may not even need the step down inverter. If you're not happy with the included charger tncscooters.com has a nice 60 volt charger for $50.
http://tncscooters.com/product.php?sku=101155
Just double check the polarity of it against the charger your scooter came with to confirm that the pinout matches.

A good NEW 60v pack should still be reading at 55v total or better. And your batteries will have to be 12volt each in order to make a 60volt pack.
Check each one with a multimeter if you can get to them.

The blinking red/green is probably indicating a float charge rather than a high current charge.

[Frank Lee]

Well at least the learning curve isn't negative so far.

It is a 60v pack, five 12v batts. The 110/220 inverter was the problem. Oh, it worked, just not well enough. Made an adapter cord out of an old 220 dryer cord, an outlet box, and an outlet. Outstanding- it works! Full charge in about an hour. Installed the pack and the wheel spins when it's up on the centerstand! Progress!

Test drive: has four speeds, sure seems faster than 18 mph. Am lost as to best operating methods and of course haven't figured out all the controls either.

[Otto]

Why not gut the powertrain and battery from that bike and put them on a recumbent, preferably one with at least a Zipper fairing? Mo better.

Or, go whole hog and put the guts into a Battle Mountain-style HPV fairing?

[Frank Lee]

The thought of transplanting the motorhub, battpack, and controls onto my aluminum framed full-suspension ATB has crossed my mind...

It would be 50 lbs lighter, have good pedalling ergos, have 18 pedalling speeds vs 1, have full suspension...

[cfg83]

Frank -

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

The thought of transplanting the motorhub, battpack, and controls onto my aluminum framed full-suspension ATB has crossed my mind...

It would be 50 lbs lighter, have good pedalling ergos, have 18 pedalling speeds vs 1, have full suspension...

That's neat. With planning you could have a running bike while you take your time building up the new frame.

Didn't you go to to an "E-vehicle" club meeting one time? You could bring the bike and let them give you their running commentary.

CarloSW2

[Frank Lee]

Well I guess they really didn't want me to pedal it. Wanted to get out into traffic and stood on the crank, bending it. Not up to good ol American torque I guess.

It's fast though. Need to clock it, but it feels like 25, maybe 30 mph.