BionX Won’t Turn On

September 13, 2011 By 2 Comments

 

Dead BionX

Dead BionX

Update 2:

I just heard from the BionX dealer, Bicycle Center of Seattle, today that BionX will not accept a return from him. I don’t completely understand why not, but it sounded like it might be because they get their BionX kits through another distributor – though they’re still listed on the BionX website as a dealer (BionX had told me just to bring my battery to a dealer, no special caveats mentioned). In any case, I’m pretty confused and very miffed.

I’m trying to figure out where I can go or what I can do to get this repair done now. Problem is now I won’t be able to get back to Seattle for at least a week and a half unless I take time off from work. Add on to that a minimum of a few weeks (my guess) for repair and shipping back and forth from Canada and I’m looking at a month or more without my BionX – which for all of my other riding would be fine, except for the “hill of death” at the end of my work commute.

Out of desperation I just ordered a refurbished battery from NYCeWheels so I can at least keep commuting while I get this sorted out, but my credit card and I are not very happy right now.

Update:

After some helpful emails with both NYCeWheels and BionX, I was able to pin down the problem more definitively to the battery. Fortunately, it sounds like I may be able to get my battery rebuilt for less than the price of a new one. On the downside, BionX requires that returns be handled through a dealer and the closest one is about an hour’s drive away in Seattle. I managed to get up there on Sunday though and the process is rolling. I still don’t know exactly how much it will cost or how long it will take. At this point I just have to wait and see.

Original Post:

Doesn’t my velomobile know that I have better things to do than constantly troubleshoot it? I was feeling very excited about finally having my Team on the road again with everything working smoothly, including my BionX electric assist.

But yesterday when I got the velo out to ride to work, the BionX wouldn’t turn on. I just figured that maybe, however unlikely, the battery had gone dead since the last time I rode it. I agonized for a bit about whether I should still ride it (thinking of the hill of death on my route), but decided to just go for it since I was already geared up for a ride. I thought I might still be able to make it (albeit really slowly) because the Team has a really good gear range. As it turns out, I only made it about a quarter of the way up the hill before I got stuck and had to jump out and push my velomobile the rest of the way up the hill. It’s a pretty terrible place to be stuck during morning rush hour since there is absolutely no shoulder, but fortunately no one ran me over before I could move the velo up onto the sidewalk.

I recharged the battery and the BionX still won’t turn on. Checked all the connections and still nothing. If I hold the power button down the display will come on, but it goes back off as soon as I let the button go. Searching on some forums I found a few people with similar problems, but their solutions generally seemed to be replacing the battery, which I really don’t want to have to do right now. I also checked the NYCeWheels BionX Troubleshooting Guide, but I didn’t like the results of the battery wakeup test – nothing happened (which, again, points to replacing the battery). I also emailed BionX, but have yet to hear anything back. I have no idea why it would just suddenly stop working like this.

So I’m feeling pretty frustrated right now since it doesn’t seem like I’ll be able to ride to work without pushing my Team up the hill, which kind of takes the fun out it. Really hoping that I don’t need to shell out about $1,000 for a new battery when I haven’t even gotten that much use out of my current one.

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Coming Unhinged

June 10, 2010 By 1 Comment

First one and then the other.

A couple weeks ago the front hinge on the lid of my Team failed just about the only way a hinge can – catastrophically. Well, mostly I just wanted to say “catastrophic failure” because it sounds more epic that way.

Anyway, I was opening the lid to get out of the velo and the front end just slid off and landed on the ground. It really was a cringe-inducing sight and I think I shrieked (on the inside). It was like seeing someone with a broken bone when your gut just says “that is not supposed to bend that way”. I was really worried about the torquing that happened to the rear hinge as the lid twisted down to the ground. In turned out a couple different things had happened, the hinge pin had vibrated out and the hinge plate that is sandwiched in the fiberglass of the lid had come loose, probably after the fall. Well, I flanged the pin with a center punch to get it to stay put and epoxied the hinge plate back into the lid after consulting with Ray at bluevelo (still amazing on the support). Things were good as new.

Then yesterday when I was opening the lid it let out a blood-curdling “crack”. Looking closer I saw that the reinforced area around the hinge had started to crack away from the main shell of the lid on the outside where the fiberglass is thinner. It still looked like I could nurse it through until the weekend if I was careful. But climbing out this morning at my office I saw that the hinge plate had actually come loose as well, just like the front hinge had. I grumbled and tried to get out gingerly (not always an easy feat in a velomobile), but I jostled things just enough to knock the lid off the rear hinge. In a stomach-turning, fingernail-bent-backwards moment of déjà vu, I watched the lid thud down to the ground, twisting on the front hinge in a way that is just so wrong.

There may have possibly been some underlying damage from when I rolled the velomobile a while back, but I’m not sure. I think that the fiberglass around the rear hinge probably got damaged during the fall from the front hinge. Now I’m just hoping that I didn’t do similar damage to the front area that will cause further failure. So far it looks as though the epoxy job is holding up.

On my way home the lid actually bounced back off the hinge plate when I hit a bump, so it’s definitely not staying on the road right now. I think I should be able to get it patched up tonight though.

The lid has actually always concerned me a little because it can be pretty flexy and I worried about it putting strain on the hinges. After seeing a number of velos at the LCVMG with gas springs on their lids, I’m thinking this might not be a bad idea to help stabilize the lid a little more.

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In-valid

April 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Well, both my training for the Human Power Challenge and my plans to ride to the Lacey Alternative Energy Fair this Saturday have been derailed. I strained my back recently while helping some friends move and now I’m laying around like an invalid because doing pretty much anything hurts. Since in-valids can’t fly space ships, that means the velomobile is off limits for now. I can’t even lift my leg high enough to get into the velo at this point. It’s got me seriously bummed and annoyed. I really hate it when I can’t ride and I’m itching to get back to pedaling.

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Velomobile Burglarized!

March 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Today my faith in humankind was dashed. My velomobile was burglarized.

I knew that I was taking a risk leaving anything in the velomobile, but I also have a (perhaps naive) faith that most of the people of Olympia are generally good and decent.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been using my rain jacket as a cover for my seat while the velo is parked at work to keep it dry if it rains. Today turned out to be sunny and warm, but I had the rain jacket on the seat out of habit (you just never know in Western Washington). I’m not sure if someone actually opened the velomobile or just reached through the hole (only the roof was slightly out of place), but of all things, they took my rain jacket. I guess it was about the only thing of value in there (all of $20) – my helmet is caked in sweat, the battery for my headlight wouldn’t do much good for anything else, and stealing the sprayskirt or roof would just plain be weird and mean.

I’m not too upset about the rain jacket being gone since it was a pretty cheap one (except that now my seat will get wet when it rains). I am upset that someone would steal at all from something so joyful as a velomobile. It also leaves me feeling kind of violated. When I first bought the Team I thought about a number of mechanisms I could use to secure the canopy, but eventually abandoned the idea (see naive faith, above). I may have to revisit some of those thoughts and do some more surgery on the Team, but it makes me sad that I should.

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