Accidentally Fried my Old Bionx Bike?

[General Ike]

I was trying to use a different battery to power my old Bionx bike, but in the process, I'm pretty sure I accidentally connected the negative and positive ends of the battery in reverse, being the careless fool that I am. Now the bike doesn't run at all, even with the proper battery. What exactly happened? Is everything completely fried? Are there only some things I need to replace?

The bike was one these four models, but I don't know which: P-250, PL-250, P-350, PL-350. One of the older models if I'm not mistaken.

 

[JRA]

First of all it wouldn't have worked with any other than a BionX battery to begin with. If you did what you think it probably fried the controller which is inside the hub and will be complicated and expensive, if you can even find the parts, to fix. Too bad it happened but probably not worth fixing that hub and you would have better luck finding another similar/same BionX hub motor that may or may not work being as it is probably an old used unit.

If your battery is bad enough to have driven you to try another one chances are you will be best to recycle the whole thing and start fresh. Plenty of options available out there, BionX and otherwise.

 

[General Ike]

Crap, I kind of figured I probably broke one of the most important parts. So if the controller was fried, would the interface and display still work if I replaced the motor? That said, why won't it work with any battery other than a Bionx battery? Is there some way I can make a Bionx bike work with a different battery?

 

[JRA]

You can try something like what is described here: https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7813

Good luck.

 

[Ann M.]

@General Ike, see if you can find a local BionX dealer who can hook up your system to the diagnostic program. Sounds like you may have fried the controller; if that's the case that's a proprietary part that BionX doesn't sell to the general public. If the controller is still good, those older 36V batteries can be rebuilt for a reasonable price.

There's a reputable guy out on eBay that works on BionX batteries and a Texas company, ElectricRider.com that's very experienced rebuilding those batteries.
Wishing you the best!

 

[General Ike]

Thanks for your help! I have found someone who is selling a functional wheel/motor (only the wheel) for a reasonable price. So when you say I fried the controller, does that mean I only broke the wheel part, would the display/interface still work? so could I hook up the replacement wheel to the system and expect the bike to work again?

Thanks again!