What to do with my BionX-equipped bike?

I have a Yuba Boda Boda v2 with a 36V BionX PL350 system on it, and after many years of service, the battery finally died. Battery is the rear-rack, believe it's the 250W model

I'm doing some homework on how to diagnose and potentially rebuild the battery, but I also know that's a temporary solution since it's going to be a struggle to replace any other parts that might fail in the future. So I'm considering:

• replace the whole system. Maybe switch to a mid-drive and get a Bafang or similar?

• replace the whole bike with a Radwagon or similar?

• keep trying to make the BionX last. Relatively few parts flying around, and especially not for my 36V/G2 system which is older. If I can't fix the battery this is a moot point

I haven't costed out what I could get for the BionX system or the Boda Boda and have only read a few anecdotes about the Radwagon, so curious what you all think! Thanks

If you have been happy with the bike and it still is serviceable I would see no reason to get a Radwagon. You won't get much if anything for your BionX system unless you can find someone in need of a hub/display. The Yuba without a rear wheel is not going to bring much in either. Bring true meaning to the word "recycle"!

If you have been happy with the rear hub motor and rear battery so far I would just imitate that via open source components. You might go with a geared hub over the DD this time or not deciding on your situation regarding hills and load. For sure you can up to 48v easily and there are lots of rack battery options available. The BionX had a torque assist whereas most hubs need a new bb to achieve that but cadence sensing is easy to retro to your bike. You should still be able to have a throttle also.

You could also go with a mid kit but you will need another rear wheel. Could be some benefit again according to hills and expected load capacity. Really depends on what you want to commit to and how much you want to spend.

You can get a new 36V BionX BMS here:

https://www.bx-legacy.com/collections/battery-parts

Try and see if this guy will share his "cable modification" that enables the use of a non BionX battery?

https://electricbikereview.com/forum/threads/light-touring-build-using-bionx-drive-without-a-bionx-battery.28234/

Hi BigWheel, I'm the guy.

OP's Bionx has a G2 console which I believe makes it a canbus system.

The cable mod works on I2C Bionx systems (they were replaced by canbus around 2009) by breaking out the red pos and black neg from the comm cable and supplying 5V to the console and pack voltage to the motor.

Works great on I2C, hope someone tries it one day on canbus. I would put a meter on the power supply lines in the comm cable to see if the motor is still fed pack voltage, it might have changed to 12V or 5V. The console probably still gets 5V, but that should be checked as well.

silentflight said:

Works great on I2C, hope someone tries it one day on canbus.

Click to expand...

A bit more complicated and you loose regen...

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=93078&start=100#p1372652

Cephalotus said:

A bit more complicated and you loose regen...

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=93078&start=100#p1372652

Click to expand...

Thanks, Cephalotus.

So the only change is adding a single resistor and supplying 12V to the motor instead of pack V as I mentioned.

A small price to pay to free all of the canbus BionX kits from needing a BionX battery. A single SBEC from Hobby King will provide both the 12V and 5V for $23.



https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-multistar-twin-output-5-10-amp-6-50v-sbec-for-lipoly.html?wrh_pdp=2&___store=en_us

As you mention, the clock, regen and battery gauge no longer function on the BionX console.

The loss of the clock was not noticed, I did not use it, regen is nice but never provided more than 5% and normally only 2-3% on a given ride, while the battery gauge function is performed much better with a watt's up meter or similar showing Vmin, Wmax, total Wh, etc. and bought for $15-$30.

Has anyone else tried this on canbus, perhaps the OP? It has already worked for hundreds of miles on my current I2C bike and a few thousand miles on my previous bike.

Thanks all, appreciate the input. I'm going to do some research on repairing my existing battery, and failing that, most likely swap for a mid-drive system. I'd rather not be investing in something that I just end up swapping out in a year or two when I can't find parts for it anymore.

I'll be searching through the forums here but any pointers on diagnosing BionX battery issues welcome. I've been told it's most likely unbalanced cells