It’s near the end of January. Oil is back over $30, Bitcoin is (yet again) doomed, and I’ve just spent the last two posts detailing a teardown of a Trek Ride+ Valencia battery pack.
(Comments from Blogger)
2016-01-23 by Robert Moser
Nicely done!
I’ve seen those 18650 jigs for sale on Ali express, although I imagine it’s a simple enough shape you could 3D print one without issue.
2016-02-26 by easysuper
Awesome posts. Thanks! Several battery rebuilders refused my battery type, but thanks to your details, they are now willing to go for it. The rebuild is not cheap, but still $200 less than a new battery, and more Ahs.
2016-02-26 by Russell Graves
Excellent! Where are you based that rebuilders are willing to touch this type of thing, and what cells are they using? I wouldn’t go away from the spinel LiMn chemistry for a BionX pack of this era.
2016-02-29 by Ecat
Hi Russell, I have been enjoying your blog. I gave a complete older BionX kit with under 300 km on the clock. Of course the battery is dead. Tried to get it back to the right voltage and almost had a melt down. So the kit is in good shape, I have removed the cells, they are very similar in construction to the one that you rebuilt. Everything else is nice, except that the rear light is cracked. Comes with the rear rack. If you are interested, please give me an offer. I am in BC Canada. elderton@telus.net
Best,
David Elderton
Hill Eater E-Bikes
250-538-0911
2017-01-08 by Andreas
Hi Russell,
thanks for your blog and the detailed pictures and infos you provide!
I took apart the same battery case from a Diamant Ride+ bike, and yes the
sticky thing that holds together battery block and casing is just awful.
I didn’t changed the cells until now, cause it’s still working, but i think about replacing them by VTC-5’s. I don’t know if staying with the original layout or to yours. Perhaps the original 4p x 11 was used because in this way 4cells are always balancing each other?
Best Regards, Andreas
2017-01-08 by Russell Graves
If you’re going to replace the cells, go with the Sony US18650V3s - they’re the same chemistry as the originals and have the same self balancing behavior. I don’t believe the VTC-5s do, so they’d be a really bad idea.
I’ve seen both layouts on the BionX packs (series then parallel, parallel then series) and I cannot tell a difference between them in terms of how they balance.
If you’re interested in buying a replacement pack, I do sell bare packs, and I’m certified to ship them, at least within North America.
2017-10-13 by Unknown
Hi, good afternoon Russell, I was reviewing your blog since I have a Trek Valencia Ride + that I bought a friend about six months ago, but a week ago it stopped working. The driver does not turn on and it does not have that noise, I think it’s the battery, because the last time I used it was around 50km and I did not charge it, after two days I tried to turn it on and nothing. I have tried almost everything, even downloaded the battery in its entirety, according to some recommendations I found on the internet and now trying to charge it no longer goes green, but it stays in orange the charger. On the other hand this bike was modified in the store where my friend acquired it, they removed the battery from behind and placed a new one in the central tube but that was in Venezuela and I’m in Ecuador, My question is that it is likely that it has been damaged the chip? or will it be the battery? what could you do to try to revive it a little longer than another month until you have to buy another? thank you very much for your attention…
2017-10-16 by Russell Graves
If you’ve let it charge for a few hours and it won’t turn on, either you have a bad charger, or the controller board is bad. There’s really not much you can do beyond testing the pack voltage on the charge port.
The joys of proprietary packs!
2018-09-02 by Unknown
Hi Russell,
have the same battery pack, but after switching the display on it dissapears after a short time, the baterry was pimped up a few time ago, to 13 Ah, when i try the baterry on my wife’s bike it works, so I do wat to buy a conversion kit to adapt my bike while using my battery, how should I connect my Bionx battery to my new controller and if I need to change the BMS would I heve to buy a new charger?
2018-09-04 by Russell Graves
I don’t exactly understand your question.
You can’t easily use BionX batteries on other bikes, and you can’t easily use other batteries on BionX bikes.
2019-03-09 by Ricky Porty
Hello Russell, really good job! I have a question regarding this battery and probably you have an answer for me. I’m not a technician for sure, I shipped my battery to a third company located in Amsterdam for a rebuild since the original one I have (almost 6 years old) did not work properly. I spent more than 300€ on that job, and when I got the battery back with me, I notice that the battery still have more or less the same range. I suspect that nothing where done to the battery or probably something that they do not do right with the controller. I measured the battery when it is fully charged (with the G1 console test mode) and it says around 45V, it goes down to 36v when it is discharged. The itherotjing isithat the controller seems that did not noticed that a ‘new’ battery is plugged and the battery charge level oges down in just 1km cycling, but the bike still assists. The other thing is that when I’m climbing, the power goes down after five minutes, the assistance bar does not power the bike more than 25%, if I leave the bike to rest for a few minutes, it starts assisting with full power again and after 5 minutes it goes down again.
I’m thinking that that company did not do a really good job with the battery. Thanks for your reply
2019-03-13 by Russell Graves
I really don’t know - try running the pack down to shutdown (instead of showing empty on the console) and see if it recalibrates, but there are a lot of weird corners of the BionX BMS I simply haven’t reversed out yet - and the Trek stuff is even weirder.
2019-06-03 by SumGuy
Hi Ricky
I may not have understood every bit you wrote but immediately thought that they may have changed the cells but not reprogrammed and thus adapted the electronics to the new configuration. This is a routine that only few companies can do. I personally know of one in Germany and one in Switzerland but there may be half a dozen or so more in Europe. You should discuss this with the Amsterdam guys.
2019-06-03 by SumGuy
I have often read that the BionX system must be recalibrated after cell or configuration changes. Only few providers seem to be able to do that and probably none of the impotent ones would tell you about it. But I am new in the field and started collecting this info myself, so it’s just what I’ve read so far.
Russell
You mentioned at the time of this post that you sell replacement packs for the Trek Valencia / BionX battery pack. If you are still offering these packs, how can I get in touch with you to discuss pricing and availability?
Thanks
Welcome to the forum, but I need to modify wording on those posts. I’m not building packs anymore, and haven’t done so for years.
Would you happen to know anyone who would sell battery packs for Bionx? Thanks
Jim, I don’t know of anyone doing that anymore. I’d been pointing people to Nethers Wholesale, but he’s out of business as far as I can tell (I don’t know any details).
It’s a quite solidly dead brand at this point. There may still be some Facebook groups doing things with it, but I’m quite a bit out of that space at this point.
I’ve got an old I2C pack laying around in a case, but that’s it for BionX batteries.