There are several things that could be wrong with your daughter's scooter. It's impossible to say for sure without seeing it in person, but the throttle itself could be faulty. In that case, this is the part you'd need:

http://www.eco-wheelz.com/catalog/currie-scooter-throttle-5pin-p-184.php

Or, it could be the controller:

http://www.eco-wheelz.com/catalog/currie-24v-scooter-controller-p-182.php

Although the throttle would be the cheaper fix, 9 times out of 10, when you have an issue like this it's the controller that's faulty. In our shop we could easily try to replace each component individually to figure out the problem. But in this case, there's not an easy test for you to do at home. I would probably try to replace the controller first... unless there was some obvious damage to the throttle.

My 10 year old daughter, who is very good at riding this scooter, flipped the on switch and tried to roll the scooter backwards to get it to the driveway and it took off hitting the wall as she tried to hold it back and stop it. After we got it off the ground and tried to see what was going on it would no longer work. The green light comes on when you hit the on button, but nothing happens when the throttle is twisted. I changed the fuse, but nothing changed on the scooter. Any ideas what went wrong, and what needs to be ordered/fixed?
Thanks,
Maug-

There are newer car companies coming out with electric vehicles and even the larger automakers are moving towards electric. For better or for worse I am seeing more and more coverage lately on the viability and the excitement around the electric vehicle.
What I would like to find out, for my benefit and those reading, are opinions and facts on if the electric vehicle is a viable option. Will it help improve our way of life? Do you really feel they help the environment we live in? Are electric vehicles just a phase?
I know a few the vehicles which are making headway along with some general specs, please let me know if you know of any.

The IZIP Tricruiser has switched to the "EZIP" Tricruiser. Exactly the same product, but under a different brand. Please see our review of the EZIP Tricruiser at:

http://www.eco-wheelz.com/reviews/ezip-tricruiser.php

* Post comments (or questions) about our EZIP Tricruiser review here >

Very nice post. I'm new here, but found you guys because I've been researching electric scooters and there seems to be a ton being manufactured and coming out of China these days.

Thanks for sharing the video links.

I just order an EZIP Trailz bicycle and after reading all negative comments and battery issues, I wish I never ordered it. I mean a $1000 for a bike with li-ion battery??? Come on guys. I know you need profit but not to the expense of losing your business reputation. I could have bought an scooter with $700.00 Now, I feel I wasted my money and will return it as soon as I recieve the bike.

Sorry about the late response...

With any e-bike, hills and inclines are going to affect the performance of the motor. Depending on how big / steep the hill is, it could definitely slow you down.

I'm not familiar with this model in particular, but I'm guessing it's a cheap Chinese import bike (that looks more like a moped than a bicycle). Most of these types of e-bikes don't have fully fuctional pedals. Pedals are installed, but there's no gearing (to switch gears) and the crank arms are very short. This means that when you're traveling at high speed, there's no way to pedal and keep up with the motor. This is why they seem to turn so fast and it doesn't feel like you're accomplishing anything when you turn the crank. The only real use for them, is to help you build up speed (from a dead stop) or to help you manuver at slow speeds.

These types of "e-bikes" aren't very functional bicycles and are definitely more like mopeds. The only reason pedals are installed is to allow them to fall under "bicycle law" vs. normal motor vehicle laws. If you're looking to pedal (for any reason), you'll probably need to shop around for something that's more like a traditional bicycle...

Hi, Please help. I have just bought a second hand Zipee electric scooter/moped, my fist move into the e-bike world and I’m regretting my lack of knowledge already.
No doubt you will think me an idiot for asking but ….. The problem I have is that on a flat road with power only and no peddling it works fine, but if I go up any sort of reasonable gradient with power on and want to pedal to assist my clime as the hill gets steeper, I can pedal as fast as I like but with no effect, so eventually I end up either crawling or even coming to a standstill.
I put it up on the stand with the back wheel free and turn the pedals very fats by hand, it feels like the gearing is so low there is little resistance when peddling to help the motor. And on a flat road it is almost impossible to get along with peddling alone.
Any help or advise as to what the problem might be would be much appreciated.

Nehmo posted "And forget about using lead-acid batteries." in my Voltage Questions thread.
I am VERY close to ordering five 12volt-18amp batteries that are sealed lead acid.
Do they suck? Is there a big difference? This is my first bike project so I truly have no idea.
Thanks again for the help.

I added some useful winter riding links here:

http://www.eco-wheelz.com/forum/topic.php?id=5406

got very excited by the sight of this electrified trike in the snow.

i have a manhattan trike that i rode all the way through last winter, up here in Northern Ontario, and it shows, what with corrosion on the drive train and other places. (even so, what with treatments of wd40 and 3in1 oil and some very nice fellas at my local bike shop, the trike is still getting me around.)

so while i have been very tempted to add a hub motor to what is my only set of wheels to get me through this upcoming winter, i've been hesitating at the prospect of submitting a sophisticated piece of high technology such as a hub motor to the rigours of a canadian winter.

any e-bike winter riders out there who could advise me? come back anonymous or whomever!

Do you already have the motor, Bryan? You say you found a website with parts. That's different from actually having the parts.

Yes it is different from actually having the parts (lol)
I bought a 60 volt 1000 watt motor, it came with a scooter sprocket, so I had to purchase a bicycle sprocket (to fit the bicycle chain). I also bought a throttle and speed controller. I need batteries, a trike, some toggle switches and some wire. And if everything works I'll put lights on it and sell it. And then build another one, and so on. Thanks for the battery advice.

It's virtually impossible to say what the issue is for sure without seeing the bike in person. When you say the "bike takes off without the lights on the throttle" -- do you mean it takes off when someone turns the throttle and it stops when you let go? Or, it takes off and doesn't stop at all?

Really not sure how the motor could cause this problem. The motor does what it's told. So if the controller is telling the motor to go, it goes. Something has to send the motor power for it to run. My first thought would be a bad controller. Or possibly the throttle (which could also send the signal to "go"). But apparently these components have all been replaced.

Unless something has been wired up incorrectly, one of these replacement components should have fixed the problem. Not sure what else it could be...

hi hope you can help us, my husband has a E-ZIP TRANZ ELETRIC BIKE that he's had now for 4 years, we have had the normal problems with the bike over the years,meaning relplaceing batties,chargers, turmails under the batties, but nothing like this.first three weeks ago my husband rode the bike to the store,(didn't need to charge it) it worked great like always, then a few minutes later he went to go again and nothing, no eletric on anyhere, but without warning he turned it on and the bike took off without lights on throttle,so without going into this to much we bought the bike to smeone thinking he knew something about it after two weeks and ordering new parts, throttle,controler,turmail,still nothing, it did work for 10 minutes one day, but nothing now this guy doesn't know anything about bikes like this. so here we are after a week of promise from him our bike still doesn't work, none of the new parts helped he said he burned out the controller, so were useing the one the bike came with, the charger seems fine, but i'm going by what this man has told us. all and all we don't know what it could, and now this guy thinks its the moter,but am going to pick it up and leave it sit until someone out there can help us...any ideas?

Do you already have the motor, Bryan? You say you found a website with parts. That's different from actually having the parts. If you don't have anything yet, your options are open. I suppose a good question is how much money are you prepared to spend?
Regarding the battery. A car battery is typically a flooded lead-acid battery. The expensive bike batteries you were looking at were probably Lithium-ion (they could have been a few different chemistries). Although the Li-ion may seem expensive it is probably cheaper than lead-acid if you consider energy density (the amount of energy stored per unit mass) and cycle life (the number of times you can charge and discharge).
Anyway, read up. And forget about using lead-acid.
`~- Nehmo

Thanks for your help, this is my first time building an electric bike. Your advise just saved me a lot of wasted money. I'm sure I'll have more questions, thanks again, and I'll check out your prices on batteries and parts.

A car battery is only 12V. Not sure what type of motor / controller you plan on using, but all our conversion kits run at 36V or 48V. If you run less than this, the motor won't even work due to a low voltage cutout. So that means you'd need 3 (or 4) car batteries wired in series to create 36V or 48V. If you run it at 60V (the spec of the motor you provided), that would be 5 car batteries! Obviously, this will be extremely heavy.

Car batteries won't burn up your motor (if you configure them to create the right amount of voltage), but they will be so heavy that it will be impossible to pedal the trike. Not sure about the AH (amp hour) ratings on a car battery, but I'm sure they're very high. This will give you a lot of range, but it will be severely impacted by the enormous amount of weight.

Most people wire up 12V SLA batteries like these:

http://www.eco-wheelz.com/catalog/werker-sla-battery-12v-12ah-p-188.php

They can be wired in series to make whatever voltage you need. You can even get higher capacity 20AH (or 30AH) cells if you want more range. But once again, they get very heavy.

As mentioned... I really wouldn't recommend updating the scooter. It's a big hassle and you could easily fry a controller (or other components) if you don't hook them up correctly. Obviously, this voids any warranty that you may have...

The wattage of the motor (500w vs. 1000w) really won't affect the speed much. Higher wattage creates more torque (for hills or pulling more weight), but it's the higher voltage (24v vs. 36v) that will make a difference in speed.

The manufacturer's specs may say 15mph for the E-500 and E-1000, but the E-1000 is definitely faster. If it was me, I would sell the 500 and buy a 1000...

I am building an electric adult trike, I found a good website with all the parts needed to do this. I want to use a car battery, but I don't want to burn up any of my new parts.
The motor is 60 volt/1000 watts, the throttle/speed controller has an overcharge protector built in, and it calls for a 30 amp fuse. The two reasons why I want to go with a car battery is that the bike batteries and chargers are very expensive, and I'm hoping to get a farther range with the bigger battery. So I guess my questions are: Am I about to burn up my new motor with too much power going into it? And if not, will I get more range with the car battery? Thanks for any help given.

Jeremy,
Thanks for the fast reply :)..

Well i think i have space to place a extra battery !..

So i have to buy;
- 12v battery
- 36v controller (e 1000)

- and a more powerfull motor????

but why does the ezip 1000 15mph and the 500 15mph too??

emile

Hey Guys, i have the ezip 500 for a few months now and after a while i think it's more fun to go faster,
So my question is..:

What do i exactly need to buy and replace?
I just want it to make it fast!
Maybe about 20+ mph? :)
Thanks guys.

Emile

Thanks! I will take the batteries in to a local shop and have them tested.

STEVE K