by Burgerman » 21 Oct 2015, 17:53
Several reasons.
When rebuilding a BM2 that has survived hell and 3 previous rebuilds I decided to make a cheap chair that looks cool for going to the pub or whatever if needed. But mostly as spare chair. A cheap rebuild. All old 100A controller etc. But built for reliability, daft range, and looking cool.
So I went kawasaki green because I like the colour, low profile tubeless but very wide tyres because the alloys look cool the rims are light and tubeless, and because I wanted a larger rolling radius to give an easy ride. Easier to roll too for distance, (6 ply, strong tyre, bigger diameter, tubeless but still curved slightly even though its fitted to a too wide rim, so less power wasted on turning etc). And I want huge range so it is getting a 120Ah 8S headway 25.6v battery. Mostly because I cant bring myself to buy another hopeless lead brick... Its just wasted.
Total rebuild from scratch with lithium (almost 4x bigger range than lead) and new upholstery, tyres, bearings, loom, footplate, wheels, tyres, puncture fluid, bolts, motors, etc is approx:
1200 battery and loom
600 motors
160 wheels/tyres
100 footplate, upholstery, bolts
120 powder coat all parts.
+ the old f55 frame or parts.
£2180 total???
Lets call it £3000 if you were starting from scratch, needed a scrap F55 frame, seat frame, control system, lithium charger sertup etc to start, and needed to get a centre section, bars etc all made up.
At that it will be basically better than any new chair. With 4x the range and a 10 year battery life. Its rude not to do it.