Having an electric bike is a good thing, however, it is also very important for you to know how to do electric bike maintenance. In this post, we’ll walk you through it.
Electric Bike Maintenance In General
- Keep the E-Bikeappearanceclean
- Wipe away dust and stains with clean cotton yarn or cotton cloth often. Wipe the e-bike with a dry cloth in time after it is wet by rain to avoid some parts from rusting and electrical parts from a short circuit due to humidity.
- Try not to wrap the paint on the electric bicycle with plastic, otherwise, it will not dry easily after being wet by the rain and will make the paint film fall off. Paint parts should not be wiped with oil to avoid pouring light on the paint surface. Plated parts should be wiped with neutral oil frequently to prevent rusting.
- Frequently check and debug the main transmission parts of electric bicycle
- Check and adjust the front axle, rear axle, middle axle, front fork, flywheel, and electric motor wheel hub to keep the transmission parts flexible and free of crashing sound and noise.
- Check whether the performance of the brake handle is good
- Check whether the screws are tightened.
- As an important part to ensure the safety of the electric bicycle and you, the brake system inspection is also very necessary
- The disc brake and disc brake pads of the electric bicycle should be checked frequently to keep them in good braking condition. If the gap between the disc brake’s gate and disc brake disc is too large, or if mud and sand and other magazines are trapped, it is easy to cause braking failure, thus affecting safe riding.
- The moving parts on your electric bicycle should be frequently oiled to reduce mutual wear and tear between parts, as well as to play a lubricating and sealing role, especially the parts of the braking part and the chain of the transmission part, which should be frequently oiled to ensure effective braking and flexible transmission.
- Store your electric bike in a dry and clean place, avoid high temperature and humidity, because high temperature will accelerate the aging of rubber parts, such as tires, handlebars, saddles, etc., while humid air will make the metal parts rust and corrode.
- It is better to scrub the whole ebike once every six months. When washing it, be careful not to let the water enter the controller or electric plug(although most of the ebikes now are using waterproof plugs, but never to be too careful), clean all the transmission parts, and add the right amount of lubricant.
- For reasons of safety and technical complexity, try not to disassemble the following parts: motor, controller, charger, battery. When necessary, go to your nearby local e-bike store to find a solution.
- How to store your e-bike for a long time
- The first thing to do is to remove the lithium-ion battery from the e-bike. Putting the battery on the e-bike that is not used for a long time will easily lead to battery loss and cause monetary loss. After that, store the battery separately in a room temperature, ventilated safe place, away from flammable materials, because once the lithium battery catches fire or explodes, the consequences are very terrible.
- After removing the battery, the bike itself should be cleaned and maintained, refer to the 7 points mentioned before.
Maintenance of core components of electric bike
Maintenance of electric bike lithium battery
As one of the core components of an electric bicycle, it is undoubtedly important to use and maintain your battery correctly. Since most of the electric bikes on the market are using lithium-ion batteries, so in the following, we take lithium-ion batteries as an example.
- Use a proper charger, charge in a cool and ventilated place, avoid humidity or high temperature, and don’t let water into the charger to prevent electric shock.
- When charging the lithium-ion battery, do not make the charging current too high to prevent the battery from exploding due to overheating.
- When riding an electric bicycle, when the battery level is too low, it means that the battery needs to be charged. At this time, try not to consume the power of the electric bicycle, and charge it as soon as possible if you can. If you continue to consume power, the life of the lithium-ion battery will be shortened when the battery voltage is lowered than the protection voltage.
- When not in use for a long time, in order to keep the lithium-ion battery in a healthy state, it should be charged once a month, and it should be fully charged each time, otherwise, it will cause a battery power loss, and the longer the power loss lasts, the more serious the damage to the lithium-ion battery will be, so you should take note of this.
4.1 How to store lithium batteries for a long time.
Store the lithium battery in a cool, ventilated, dry place. High temperatures can cause the battery case to deteriorate and deform, thus reducing the sealing and waterproofing effect. And a humid environment with high moisture content in the air can easily lead to battery short circuits or leakage.
The storage location of the battery should be away from flammable materials.
- Waterproof measures.
- When buying an electric bicycle, try to choose a model with a waterproof connector.(herein Jieli Electric, every ebike model we have been using state of the art waterproof plugs)
- Try not to travel by electric bicycle on rainy days to avoid internal short circuits or leakage of lithium battery caused by rain. On another note, if you encounter a waterlogged road, don’t rush through it and make sure the depth of the water does not exceed the center height of the motor.
- When not riding, check whether any power components are open, such as headlights, taillights, displays, etc., because the switch state of these components is sometimes not easy to notice, if left on for a long time, there will inevitably be over-discharge, which will lead to battery power loss and ultimately shorten the battery life.
- Often clean up the dust on the battery shell. Although the lithium battery shell itself is designed and manufactured with the sealing effect in mind, after a long time, with the aging of the seal, dust may enter the battery interior, causing unknowable risks.
Maintenance of electric bike motor
The electric bicycle is the core component that converts the electrical energy of the lithium battery into kinetic energy. Compared to the battery, the maintenance of the motor is relatively simple, and you need to do the following.
- When riding an e-bike, try not to make the current and voltage fluctuate too much to avoid burning the motor. What does that mean specifically? Specifically, try not to suddenly accelerate sharply or load too much when going up a steep slope, which will make the current too high, and when the current exceeds the capacity of the controller or motor, the high temperature will make the motor or controller burn up.
- Over bumpy roads, slow down the speed to prevent the motor from being subjected to excessive vibration, which can damage the physical structure of the motor. Of course, in most cases, the motor is not so fragile, do not worry too much.
- Apply a little oil to the motor shaft regularly to reduce wear and tear.
Maintenance of electric bike controller
The electric bicycle controller is connected to various electrical components and controls related operations, so it is worth your attention to these points, in the course of daily use
- Regularly check the connection between the controller and other electrical components to avoid loose joints, disconnections, or poor contact.
- Although many electric bicycle controllers are now fully sealed, which can largely avoid the controller into the water. But the controller can not be exempted from the influence of temperature, especially in the humid and rainy season, the rapid change of temperature will lead to air convection inside and outside the controller, and moisture into the controller, which may lead to a short circuit.
- Simple treatment of the controller into the water. If you find the controller gets wet, do not panic. Follow the steps below to operate.
- Turn off the power of the electric bicycle
- Take off the controller and open the controller shell with a suitable screwdriver
- Use a hairdryer to dry the circuit board by aligning it with the damp part.
- After confirming the dryness, put the controller back into the e-bike, turn on the power and verify whether the controller can work normally.
Conclusion
It is of great importance to do your electric bike maintenance properly, there are 7 things you need to do in general. And, among all those parts of an e-bike, the lithium battery, motor, and controller should be taken care of more than others.
How often do you do maintenance for your ebike? Welcome, share your experience in the comment.
Sales Manager at Jieli Electric Bikes.
Near 10 years experience in electric bike industry, researching/marketing/promoting e-bike is my daily life.