Looking at 2010 A2B

[fishycharacter]

Craigslist in Boulder Colo has a 2010 A2B for sale $850
My commute by auto or Honda C70 is 10 miles through dense traffic. Very unpleasant. There is a bike path 9 of the 10 miles along the river. Very pretty. Much better. An e bike will make the commute nicer.
The A2b has some use on it and only one battery. I assume it is at the end of it's life. YouTube has videos on making your own batteries from laptop battery packs. I calculate it will cost about $200 to make a battery for the rear or second battery position. A new A2B battery pack is $700 plus shipping $100. I would like to attempt the project if the bike is nice enough to buy. Going to Boulder this morning.
Has anyone tried to make their own battery pack this way and was it successful? Did you get enough capacity from the battery pack to have enough range?

 

[JoePah]

Stay away from that bike. I owned A2B Metro 2009 model for 5 years... The reason i sold was the ridiculous battery cost. Building a battery pack is especially tricky because it has a slightly arced shape. The bike weighs 75 pounds and is no fun to pedal.. And you won't get 20 miles to a charge unless you pedal a lot.

There are much better NEW bikes around for the same money.

Stay away from old eBike Technology!

 

[HaveBlue]

Stay away from that bike. I owned A2B Metro 2009 model for 5 years... The reason i sold was the ridiculous battery cost. Building a battery pack is especially tricky because it has a slightly arced shape. The bike weighs 75 pounds and is no fun to pedal.. And you won't get 20 miles to a charge unless you pedal a lot.

There are much better NEW bikes around for the same money.

Stay away from old eBike Technology!

I just bought an old rental A2B Metro from THEGARAGEOTR in Cincinnati. They have 2 more they're selling cheap. I might just buy another one for parts.
The Metro is a 36 Volt 500 watt motor. I was thinking if I get an old dead Velociti battery and rebuild it to 48 volts, I can cruise around 25 mph instead of the measly 20 mph. I have to remember to "clown pedal" if I see any law enforcement!

 

[HaveBlue]

Stay away from that bike. I owned A2B Metro 2009 model for 5 years... The reason i sold was the ridiculous battery cost. Building a battery pack is especially tricky because it has a slightly arced shape. The bike weighs 75 pounds and is no fun to pedal.. And you won't get 20 miles to a charge unless you pedal a lot.

There are much better NEW bikes around for the same money.

Stay away from old eBike Technology!

There is a new A2B internal battery on Ebay for $549.00. I think that is a very fair price for a new LiIon battery.

 

[JoePah]

That's a good price.. May want to find out the manufacture date and if they've been charging once a month like the manual advises.

 

[pxpaulx]

Joepah is right on this one - go new, technology has significantly improved in the last 6 years.

 

[fishycharacter]

Thank you Joepah for steering me away from the A2B. I lucked out and found a Motiv Spark that has proved to be a great commuter. The original battery was weak but serviceable. I found a 52 volt battery at Luna Cycle online. Even though I have a shop with an electronics lab I opted for the Luna Cycle battery. LiFePO4 instead of Li Ion. 2,000 potential cycles vs 800. 52 volts gives 26 mph top speed with throttle only. 29 if I pedal hard. 22-24 mph cruising speed with 15 mile range and 2 bars left in the battery.
If you over volt a 36 volt system to 48 volts pay attention to the heat build up in the motor and controller. Try not to push too hard until you build up speed so the mosfets don't burn up. At 75 lbs the A2B is heavy and with an aux battery add another 10 lbs. It might all work out fine. Good luck.

 

[paul8bee]

It took 17 months to get a battery. The bike still did not work, and the shop had no idea what was wrong (bike was still under warranty) so I took it home and looked at it myself ( the dealer at the shop gave up on it, and does not sell the metro anymore). Then I found out that the problem was a grounding fault, probably due to water getting into the bike. When I turned the lights off the motor would stop, so I ripped out all the headlight wiring and cut off the two motor cut off plugs, and the pedal assist plug (that one died at only 2 months)and the 2 brake cutoff switches, and some weird looking plug that just hung there. Now it runs again. This bike is not ready for the rainy north. Also the controller is an afterthought design( too many wires in to small a space) The battery charge indicator does not work either but the speedometer does work, I guess because that is also full of water. I was ready to drop this bike off at the dump, but now maybe I can recover some of my cash. $5,4000 spent for a 10 month ride. Shame on you A2B. Good looking bike, but absolutely no service. Stay away.

 

[Ann M.]

@paul8bee , what A2B bike did you buy? The others here are talking about a 10+ yr old ebike design that A2B stopped building years ago. Motor cut off and brake cut off switches are the same thing, so before you can A2B did you contact them directly? The shop you worked with may have had problems but the company has some good tech folks who will help you and are very competent.