No ebike is perfect, this is a thread dedicated to sharing known issues or problems with electric bikes from Fazua as well as any help and solutions you know of. Sometimes that means a DIY fix and other times it can mean a recall, software update or part replacement by a dealer.
Please be respectful and constructive with feedback, this is not a space for hate speech. In many cases, representatives from the company will see feedback and use it to improve their product. In the end, the goal is to enjoy riding and help each other go further and be safer.
Hi,
I have had my Paralane2 for a bit over 4 years. In that time I have averaged 180km per week on three road trips per week. So around 35,000km, nearly all on the hilly country roads around Canberra in Australia. The bike is great. But it developed intermittent errors over the last four months, gradually increasing in frequency until total failure with no lights at all appearing on the handlebar control. A couple of bike shops who deal in Focus and Trek bikes (fazua-equipped) had a look - one tightened the locking mechanism, the other diagnosed battery problems, cleaned all contacts etc. It all worked a bit but problems returned after a few dozen kilometres.
Eventually I ordered a new battery and fitted that. While waiting (3 months) I decided to have a good poke around.
First off I took the battery out of the powerpack and dismantled the battery. Noted that the battery pack includes a kind of plastic cage that keeps the internal cells together that has dozens of little plastic fingers that seem to be there to stop the mass of cells from rattling around inside the battery case. Most of these had broken off, so essentially the pack of cells were loose inside the case - I have passed the old battery to my son-in-law to see if it can be fixed so I can use it as a 2nd battery on longer trips.
Secondly, I pulled the bottom bracket/gearbox off the bike and cleaned and inspected it. With the bike upside down I also found a little piece of folded copper sheet caught in the wiring. This appeared to have broken off a similar piece of copper sheet that had been folded in a complex fashion and screwed to the BB/gearbox and apparently used as a kind of spring to support the 6x wire plug in the BB and ensure it is pressed firmly onto the matching plug on the powerpack and presumably carries all the sensor and control information. I can probably fabricate a new piece to replace this broken piece, but is there any reason why this is made of copper? it doesn't seem to make electrical contact with anything. There is no mention of this piece in any Fazua documentation or exploded parts diagram that I have located on the Internet and is not an advertised spare part. So why copper? I'd have thought some kind of springy stainless steel would be better. Anyway I jammed a sliver of balsa wood inside this complex copper shape so it acts as a spring again and put it all back.
At this stage I received my new battery, popped it on the bike and it works properly again. However I still need to resolve the issue of the broken convoluted copper spring device. Is it only intended as a sprung support for the connector and why copper? Next rainy day I'll pull the BB/gearbox off again and see if I can fabricate a new piece - I do have some copper shim of varying thicknesses so I may be able to approximate the original.
Has anyone else encountered this issue? if so, with what result?
If I find any further info I'll post an update - hopefully with pictures..
Cheers
Adrian
