Second eBike Battery

The purchase of a second ebike battery actually proved to be quite convoluted.  Having identified the best value for money battery that met my desired minimum capacity I wanted to order from Australia and have it delivered to Taiwan.  However the Aliexpress website would not allow me to do this using Paypal.  They wanted a credit card number entered into their system and Jan won't do this as she is very careful regarding bank account information.

I was able to communicate with the sellers representative who suggested I place the order using our Australian address and he would then change the delivery to the address in Taiwan after the order had been made.  That way we could pay using Paypal.

The battery is made from Lithium-ion 21700 cells.  To be compatible with the ebike motor it's 36V and has a capacity of 33.6Ah.  To put that into context; if you rent an ebike in Taiwan it comes with an 11Ah battery.  This is the same capacity as Jan's eTrike.  My current ebike battery capacity is 19.2Ah and I've never discharged it below 50% with my longest ride being 75km.    You can do the maths.  33.6Ah should be more than sufficient.

The current battery uses 18650 cells (those small cylinders that look similar to AA batteries) whilst the new battery uses 21700 cells. Nothing complicated about the numbers.  18650 means the cell is 18mm in diameter and 65mm long.  21700 means the cell is 21mm diameter and 70mm long.  Obviously the 21700 cells are slightly larger and have more stored energy.  About 30% more.

If you were thinking this old grey man is going to be pedalling furiously around Taiwan you will now realise he has been rather sneaky.  Yes; I will have to pedal…..  But my powerful friend will be there to help me on the steep sections.

The battery is triangular shaped and attaches to the bike frame with Velcro straps.

 

Oh… I seriously doubt the accuracy of the LED Display! 

There was one feature this battery does not have compared to my current model.  There is no usb charging port.  I use the charging port on the current battery to keep my mobile phone charged.  I've discovered the phone battery does get drained when using the GPS function and the navigation software. 

To overcome the lack of a usb port I plan on taking the two usb 'powerbanks' I purchased for use in NZ when walking around the mountain.