My son is at the age where he is too young to drive and doesn’t want to walk. He has been an avid bike rider to school since he started middle school, about five years ago. Last semester we rewarded his straight A’s with an electric bike.

Now me… I am old fashioned. I don’t want any additional complexity on a bicycle. That is the point. My son want’s to electrify his 1969 Cougar. Maybe the new generation of car people will find originally restored not appealing or valuable? I think it is a mistake, nevertheless I told him it is his car.

This bike is heavy, it is almost 60 pounds. It is also designed to used with electric assist. That being said, it is very difficult to pedal without the motor working. Last week, it stopped working at least consistently. What I know, which is not much is that replacement parts are difficult to find, bicycle shops are out of sorts with this technology and anything on the drivetrain is proprietary and expensive. This leads to the odds of getting help as low. We are going to have to figure this one out ourselves.

We bought the bike used, so we do not know the origins or the complete history. Apparently, it is only sold on Amazon which makes getting help more difficult. I was able to reach out to the broker, but they are primarily interested in a warranty resolution, which I think we are beyond at this point. Here is what I think I know to date.

  • The charger is working
  • The battery seems to put out the right voltage
  • The switch sometimes works and sometimes does not.

Ultimately, I was hoping to find a bad solder joint or something loose. The switch is mounted to the board on the bottom with the two red wires. I cant see anything obvious from this angle and to get to it, I will need to entirely disassemble the battery. I am pretty sure that the problem is with the switch in that it works intermittently.

Here is my logic. A new battery unit is $250 which would integrate a switch and battery. However, I can cut the wires and bypass the built in switch with a new switch and mitigate the problem for $5. The worst case scenario is that it doesn’t work and I am out $5 plus the time. But, I would lay odds on the problem being the integrated switch. Further, The chances of me getting a replacement switch (or board) that works in the OEM configuration are extremely low. So, I don’t think I want to tear the battery apart for low probability fix.

I am going to give the manufacturer some of these details and we will see if they come through with any technical help. I am not holding my breath.

End Your Programming Routine: There are sometimes problems in life that we are going to have a difficult time handing over to someone else to solve. This happens to be one of them. I suppose I could just buy the new battery unit and solve the problem with money, but then I could just buy a new bike too. Truth be told, the battery could be rebuilt as well by identifying the bad cell and replacing it in the pack. Today I am point out the proper solution is to isolate the problem and then target a specific fix. This will likely be a video coming up.