eLation 200watt kit (Australia)

[swb]

There is a slim possibility that its the freewheel - its always been slightly "excentric" in its movement.
I also replaced the bottom bracket but it did not help.

[swb]

Update! Since I now have a technical question, I created a post here.

[zx6rj1]

I just realised that Elation had closed the business ..

I had only great experience dealing with him. One worth to mention, I was packing my ebike for shipment to Europe. As the packing guy told me to remove the pedal I ruined the crankshaft. Darn. I emailed Allan to get a replacement crank shipped asap and he sent one, arriving the next day ........and not to worry about *any* cost !!

Best wishes for Allan and his family in the future.

[Wombat]

Not only closed his doors. I too received a freebie, a wider front derailleur to cope with 3 chain drives. Initial delivery was missing parts and controller casing was badly damaged due to poor packaging so a $30 part for free was no biggy!.

I bought locally a bottom crank shaft $3 less than "Alan"s list price same day needed.

But after THREE repairs to the motor (traveled nearly a whole 18 Km in all) including one traumatic drive shaft failure he still didn't replace the motor but just repeatedly buggered around with same, PLUS after the fourth failure (+14Km but now too late to get repaired) I finally discover damaged gear teeth PLUS a missing whole power sharing gear (impossible to miss during all those repairs)!!

Thanks to Alan D I have $1250+ of door stops and rubbish.

So little freebie bits and pieces mean nothing to those now and future needing repairs. A so-called "health" issue is NO cause to suddenly deregister a business, leave absolutely no info or support notices at premises, and not even leave people with data sheets and manufacturer contact info about custom manufactured primary components (especially as all identity stickers and labels etc are missing from every component; paranoia!!). At least he'll no longer be tagging people "commies" on forums

We need help to overcome the aftermath and the wonderful people here have tried to offer at least some.

[zx6rj1]

Hi Wombat, sorry to hear your problems. I've read that in the other thread too.

I have entirely contrasting experience. Bought the kit (V2) more than 2 years ago and have ridden it:
- Daily commute of 30k
- Long ride (120+ km)
- Steep moountains of switzerland and france
- Through that huge flood and dropped it into the water doh!



I've neglected the kit a bit since I got a 4wd, but now my car is written off so back to cycling transport. I noticed 2 issues:

- The switch was intermittent -> fixed yesterday with WD40
- The freewheel Chainring intermittently 'catches'.

Anyone had experience how to get parts/tool to dissasemble the chainring? . What types are they?

[Wombat]

zx6rj1

I think I mentioned in my review that I wish I had just gotten the v2 rather than wait until after AusBike 2010 where I met him and his new soon to be released v3. The v2 had a reasonable run mechanically but one thing often mentioned was the freewheel chain rings. Apparently they were very prone to disintegration in v2.

To remove it I suggest you visit some of your local bike shops and get the bottom bracket puller socket tool, $20-$30 tops maybe less. Once the chain wheel cluster is off you should have little trouble removing the free-wheeler.

If the bike shop can't help with a clue to source a new one then be prepared for a bit of a wait while you source a newy "but to get one able you should be" (that's little green fella talk).

At least yours should be a 24volt system and there are quite a few options available for fixes in the future.

Best of luck with it. I'll return if I notice a site that handles them; or maybe some bod else will.

Regards.

[amberwolf]

Would the ones at SickBikeParts work?
http://www.sickbikeparts.com/catalog/pr ... ucts_id=34
http://www.sickbikeparts.com/catalog/pr ... ucts_id=62

[zx6rj1]

Thanks Wombat and Amberwolf.

I have the tool to take off the Chainring, in fact so no issues there.

I have, however, little knowledge how the freewheel is constructed. From memory it seems that there is a mechanism in the centre which could be taken off, but with some special tool which I don't know yet. Once that part is taken off, then I can try to source the replacement.

All this talk about Elation demise makes me think if I should start a technical thread to "Self-support" the product. From a quick glace on the internet:

Motor mechanism => Identical to Cyclone (but are the cyclone clockwise?)
Throttle mechanism => The "ORO" marking looks identical to Cyclone
Battery => Should be able to source from ebay, Ping, etc.
That small guide gear => Cyclone
Chainring/freewheel > = Unknown. But perhaps a full chainring set could be bought from Cyclone?

[heathyoung]

Yep the V2's were mostly cyclone hardware.

They used the 170W version from memory (there was a 170/250/300W versions IIRC) - very simple and pretty reliable setup, steel gears, worked very well. Had a tendancy to chew amps if you don't monitor the current with a wattmeter.

I have a full cyclone setup in the classifieds if anyone is interested.

[lesspedal]

Hi Zx,
There was two 'versions' of v2, mine is first version and I had to replace the "Dicta" freewheel once, it was simply bolted on.

The later version I believe had a sprague clutch instead and think it may have been pressed into crank somehow.

I also have v3, mark2, same as SWB and is still going ok, although it doesn't get much use.

Ps: don't use wd 40, use "Inox"

[gibbo111]

I have a V2 same as lesspedal with the dicta freewheel. you can tighten them up if they loosen. Done 5500km on mine and it works well for me, I always pedal when i;m using the motor. I was thinking of trying a V3 glad I didnt.I met Alan a couple of times, sorry to hear of his decision to shut up shop, but leaving you guys with genuine quality related problems with nowhere to go is not good. And its not the Aussie way!!

[Rusty the Peddlehead]

Greetings all,
It is sad to see Allans Elation Bike dream is no more.
The dealings I had with him where nothing but good.
I had a v2 and was experiencing some difficulties with the battery. I finally lost all power after a small drop off from footpath to road.
I was a month out of warranty and sent him an email explaining the dead battery and some other problems with the bike. I was breaking spokes on the rear wheel on a brand new 2010 Giant Boulder, I had to replace the bottom bracket after 4 months, the front drive sprocket on the v 2 kept going loose, the damn battery wouldnt behave during Brisbanes mild winter mornings, the screws fell out of the chain guard (fixed this by replacing screws with bolts that had nylon lock nuts), the clutch went in the peddle assembly ,it would slip and freespin when i would take off,It was one damn thing after another. By the way- warranties on giant bikes for anything are void once you put a motor on. Had to get the back wheel spokes replaced with stronger ones - now no problems.

In my email I asked how much to test the battery and replace it if necessary.
Allans reply was to simply post it to him and he would look at it free of charge. He repaired a broken wire off the BMS and unfortunately when he was load testing the battery it caught on fire.
He replaced my V2 with a V3 system for free. This was truely excellent customer service.

My v3 which is 9 months old has some issues.
1. I cant find a front deraileur to get to the chain onto the big ring. So I only get the granny and the middle ring. This has been fine as I like to peddle my guts out so the motor isnt doing all the work ,but also I find that if I go any faster I cant stop quickly.(wears a hole in my shoe when I put my shoe on the front tire to slow down,lol). I would appeciate if anyone can suggest a deraileur that works.
2. The drive sprocket on the v 3 motor fell off last week, sheered off all 5 bolts, OMG. Couldnt find the sprocket .
I cant get the broken bolts out(easy outs dont work). I actually got hold of Allan via email and he sent me his last two ,however Australia post managed to loose it,keep up the good work fellas.
I am asking if someone could please tell me how big the drive sprocket is on a v3 and how many teeth it has.I may be able to substitue a motor cycle drive socket and retap the motor shaft head or the new bolts.
I feel like my bike is a Delorean car without a flux-capacitor,one lousy part and i'll never get back to the future. No drive sprocket - no elation !!!
Im open to any ideas.

Thanks heaps and I wish Allan D and his family all the best for the future.

[jateureka]

I have the tool to take off the Chainring, in fact so no issues there.

I have, however, little knowledge how the freewheel is constructed. From memory it seems that there is a mechanism in the centre which could be taken off, but with some special tool which I don't know yet. Once that part is taken off, then I can try to source the replacement.

Like lesspedal said, if you have the later version of V2 you will need to use a shop press to remove the sprague clutch and key from the crank. Not many bicycle shops would have this so you'd be better off to try a motorcycle shop or other engineering shop that has a press. The sprague clutch has the part number stamped on it so should be fairly easy to get a replacement from a bearing shop.
If you have the earlier version then you will need a Dicta freewheel removal tool to remove the freewheel or take it to a bicycle shop. The bike shop should be able to replace the part too

[zx6rj1]

Well after 3+ years the first major malfunction

On my way to work my crank freewheel finally failed. It now does freewheel BOTH ways. Lucky my battery was full and I simply throttle home

Thanks for the tip re: pressed sprague clutch. I will try to dissasemble this tomorrow.

[Wombat]

Rusty the Peddlehead

Front derailleur

I wish I could remember the name of the manufacturer of the el-cheapo wider changer A Doe sent me. It really is a simple fragile design but it works (so-far; I haven't dismantled all the "degraDation" gear yet). Very simply packaged the manufacturer name was one which used to be well known way back when I was a teen (a life time away!) but not so much these days. Anyhoo maybe these pics if printed will jog a bike shop bikers memory.

Also a pain this is a wide outside cable pull. I ended up placing a short spray can between the frame under the arm mit bike on side while I strained the cable as I tightened the nut. Whatever, a bike shop should be able to source one once explained (although I did prior get a couple of unhelpful fit bike-shop-biker comments about only needing two crank drives if power assisted anyway... oh der).

Hope pics help. Regards.

[Stumper]

I would appeciate if anyone can suggest a deraileur that works.

I bought a Shimano Alivio front derailuer. If you google this: "EV-FD-M413-2674B_v1_m56577569830728361" you should be able to find the details of it. It says it can span a 20 tooth difference (ie with the Elation V3 the small chainring is 28 tooth and big is 48 tooth so it can do the jump). I am having a bit of trouble at time going from the mid ring down to the small. I need the rear gears to be on the smaller sprockets to effectively change the mid chain ring down to the small.

Have you got details of the drive sprocket yet?

I bought a basically unused kit from ebay in June for $700 but it still aint working (posted elsewhere and above). I've had the motor apart a few times. One of the bearings was too tight and basically seized on one of the shafts. I got it off and sanded down that shaft just enough to get the bearing back on and able to spin freely. Haven't got the motor back on the bike yet though.

Should have bought that Aseako bike off ebay!
Cheers all.

[zx6rj1]

I took the Elation, still in a state of broken sprag freewheel to its first SNOW excursion



Very exciting. Riding in snow is very hard.

[Stumper]

This seems to be the main elation thread so I want to add in here how I fixed my V3 Mark 1 gearbox sprag clutch. I removed the sprag clutch all together, had a new output shaft machined for $100 from a local machine shop, and put a cyclone 14T freewheel sprocket on the outside of the geabox.
I just realised that it looks a bit like the original photo at the start of this thread on the Polygon-Quatro!
I comment in my own thread in this: Just figured out the steepest part of my drive way is a 9% gradient (9 metre rise over for 100m), on gravel and my elation kit gets up it in 2nd gear easily without me pedalling!!!
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