Where do you get batteries for $650?  The best I could do for Optimas was about 200 each. 

My Lectra that I got off this list this year:

$500 Lectra
~100 Van rental, gas, beer for friend who went with me to pick it up from the Cape.
$800 4 new Optima AGM batteries from Amazon
$200 2 new tires and shipping (local shop couldn't find them).  The existing tires were old and cracked.  Not safe.
$100 New fork boots (old ones rotted), labor for tires, inspection.
$3 For a double throw momentary switch to replace defective brake switch (radio shack).
$100 For two motor encoder rotors (white ABS ones.  Original black one broke apart on my first ride)

http://newts.org/gallery/Lectra

The story so far:  Heard about the bike and purchased it.  I made arrangements to pick it up and rented a van for the day.  I friend went with me to help load it and I took some planks for a ramp and some rope to secure it.  My first impression was it was a lot smaller than I expected.

Got it home and took the skins off.  I took my time and ordered the batteries.  I also got some battery terminal coners.  I was afraid of them bouncing up and shorting since there is nothing but gravity and good intentions holding them down. I think a battery terminal spreader would be a good investment but I haven't  got one yet.  I did get the batteries mounted and took it for my first spin around the block.

I didn't make it.  in about 100 feet I heard a sound like a squashed a plastic bottle.  Only there was no bottle.  And the bike refused to move although it did shudder a little with the throttle there was no real torque.  Maybe it is because I do PM DC motor firmware for a living but the first thing I did was take off the cover to the encoder and sure enough, the encoder rotor had broken apart.  Wah!

This isn't an off the shelf part.  I superglued the original one back together but I didn't give it long to live.  It did work and I made it around the block and the neighborhood.  Lots of fun!  And lots of comments.  First time I took it to the park  some guy driving by was like "Dude!  That's sick!"

In the meantime Scott gave me some advice and I tracked down the encoder maker Semifusion.  They had 2 left for $100 and had just sold some to someone else.  He reported they were a different size and didn't work for him.  I also learned they changed the material to the ABS which should work much better.  The plastic has conductive ink in a pattern and is used to give the control the position of the motor.   Based on the poles of the motor or the controller there is 90 degrees of adjustment and each encoder is glued to the motor shaft with a factory fixture and then drilled and pinned.  The new encoders are not drilled.

I tried to drill mine as precisely as I could to match the old one.  In trying to put the new one on the glue came off and I had to redrill it with the new holes.  In the end I got it back on and success!  At least for 11 at night it drove about 12 feet in the garage.  I will try it for real again outside when I can.

But stepping back to get it inspected I had to get new tires.  The old ones didn't have much wear but the age was showing and some cracks on the sidewall didn't look for safe for tubeless tires.  The local bike shop was very curious about the bike and no one laughed.  It was in their store for almost 3 weeks trying to find tires and when they failed I used the google to find some for the outrageous price of almost $200 with shipping.  Also the fork boots had rotted and needed to be replaced.  These weren't exact but some dirt bike boots seemed close enough.

The work done I get to the store to pick it up.  I notice there is one green and one red LED blinking all the time.  This doesn't look good.  I fiddled the charger and got 4 green.  Ok... I gear up and try to leave but it just blinks and won't go!  I put it back on the charger, fiddled some and got 4 green again and this time it worked.  At least enough to get out of the parking lot and about 2 blocks down the road before it died.  The store was nice enough to pick it up and take it home for me.

Once home I found it had two problems: 1. the 30 amp charger fuse uses a bolt to attach it to the circuit board and the bolt was loose.  It was not getting a charge and the battery really was dead.  The other problem that I think confused the symptoms and gave me the 4 greens was the fuse holder for the 10 amp headlight fuse had broken so the headlight was off.  No headlight, no load it took enough of a surface charge to fool the indicator temporarily.

I fixed both of those (tack soldered the fuse to the PCB until I can find a replacement holder) and charged it again.  This time the charger was on full charge for many hours.  The next day it held the charge the headlight was working so off I went.  Everything is great!  I took it out for errands and on the way home I decided to drive around by the reservoir.  As soon as I reached the bridge I heard the sound of the encoder breaking apart again and the bike was dead!  About 2 miles from home.

This time I just pushed it.  Up hill.  (against the wind, in the snow...).

Fortunately I had replacement encoders and was able to drill it and replace it as described previously.  It looks like it worked so far but I will post further adventures if it didn't.

jv



lyle sloan <slodown27@...> wrote:

$500 plus $650 plus batteries was still cheaper than $8000 for new electric cycles or $2500-$4000 for a conversion. Supply and demand since there are not many Lectras out there. Keep an eye out scanning the evtradinpost and craigslist and ebay and the evdl.org . You might get lucky.

I plan to be getting my batts for the Lectra in August and then beginning a race ready conversion at the end of the year.

--- On Sat, 6/14/08, gyartz <gyartz@yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: gyartz <gyartz@yahoo.com>
> Subject: [lectra] any Lectra's for sale in the Cleveland, OH area?
> To: lectra@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Saturday, June 14, 2008, 11:36 PM
> any Lectra's for sale in the Cleveland, OH area? i
> recently seen 2 for
> sale in Florida that needed batteries. i would have bought
> both of
> them, but it would cost around $650.00 each to ship them
> here! that is
> the money i would need for the new batteries!
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lectraYahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>