Trek Valencia + looking for info/parts/repair

[tathambenjamin]

Just today I have become the owner of a Trek Valencia + with the bionx kit, and I have been reading to find some information about repairing it.



Some details:

The bike came to me without a key and a charger. The battery is very low (but not totally dead) ,and has probably sat for a year and a half according to the previous owner. I did get it to power up for about 5 minutes and was able to get the regenerative function to work, and the taillight to light up. No battery bars.

So, I was hoping you could tell me:

1) What would I do to try to revive the battery? I gather that just recharging it to full might not be a good idea...

2) Where could I buy a charger (I am not even certain of the voltage for this battery)? The controller is the I2c version from Bionx.

3) I thought I read that there is a member here or elsewhere who will rebuild these batteries or knows how to do so. Is that so? If so, could you tell me a bit about that.

I am sure some of these answers can be had, at least partially, by searching, but I thought a few of you might know some things specific to this model...

Any info/ direction/ help would really be appreciated. I can post pictures of what I have (especially the battery) if that would help determine the battery model/ voltage, etc.

Thanks!

 

[tathambenjamin]

I think controller may be the wrong term in #2. What I mean is that the display matches pictures I have found of the I2c unit.

 

[dgk02]

I have a Valencia+. Assuming it's the same, the rack battery is 36 volt 6.6aH. Mine is still going strong so the battery might be ok although I'm no battery expert. The battery connector is weird; two thicker pins and one slightly off-center thinner pin. I bought a second charger from the Trek dealer for around $70 when I bought the bike so check with Trek dealers to see if they have one lying around. I know that there are two versions of the controller - I have the first one - but I don't think that the charger is any different.

It's really a fun ebike. I managed to break the rear wheel twice! I have no idea why, nor does Trek. The first time they replaced it under warranty, the second time it cost me $400 because my local shop (bicycle habitat in NYC) had a spare gen 1 wheel. I have no idea what I'll do if it breaks again since even if I can find that wheel it costs around $800. Well, I'll just take it apart and see if I can fix it I guess. I've already built a replacement just in case so at the moment I ride either one.

 

[icerider]

If your Valencia+ is like mine, it has a 40.7V/6.3Ah,256Wh volt battery. This would be an 11s3p LiMn with a full charge voltage of 45.5V. and a full discharge voltage of ~38 volts. Charger max volts is 45.65 on my system and it is a Bionx-labeled charger. I have NOT found such a charger ANYWHERE in the Bionx literature, but it might be worth an e-mail to TREK and/or Bionx.

The part number on my battery is 01-2090. They show up on ebay once in a long while.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BionX-01-2090-Bicycle-Electric-Assist-Motor-Lithium-Ion-Battery-With-Tail-Light-/331041400775?nma=true&si=MmwgBe3iFFwVusDDUZOK%252FPFLkSw%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 this is for an expired auction but you can see the battery to see if it matches yours.

In could be rebuilt with appropriate LIMn cells or, perhaps a quicker solution is to parallel in a 12s set of LiFePO4 (using an ideal diode to keep the Bionx battery from trying to charge the LiFe and the regen from going to the LiFe batts). There is a post here: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=18954&p=697969&hilit=ideal+diode#p697969 about the ideal diode.

I am in the process of building the ideal diode to parallel in a Prodeco 12ah LiFe to the Trek .. won't happen soon, but I will post when it is done and working.

Mine has a charger plug on the battery that is shaped like an old PS2 keyboard plug. There are three pins two thicker, one thinner. The thin pin is a no-connection (or maybe a temp sense).

You can use a multimeter to measure the battery voltage at the charge connector (although I am told NOT on the 48 volt model, if TREK even made a 48 volt system)

You can also put the bike on a stand and pedal to recharge the battery (set regen up high) -- I have never tried this, but I'll bet this is ONE HARD WAY to charge a battery.