mini-el restoration - ** success at DVLA **

Own the fantastic City El trike ?
This is an area for you to hang out in.
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aminorjourney
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Postby aminorjourney » Fri Sep 14, 2007 4:14 pm

C'mon Karl,

Tell everyone what the last three letters of your new plate are going to be ;)
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

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http://about.me/aminorjourney/bio

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booboo
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Postby booboo » Fri Sep 14, 2007 7:51 pm

** Oh yeah **

Homers favourite brew....

Image

...the last three letters are ------> DUF :D

As a Simpsons fan I am so proud !
London to Brighton on a Sinclair C5 - 6/5/07 - what a trip !
Ford Explorer 4.0 v6 petrol for everyday abuse - thank God for LPG
Sinclair C5's (Plus "c5alive.co.uk" ) as a hobby

anachrocomputer
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Postby anachrocomputer » Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:42 pm

Glad to hear that the El is on the road at last! Now, what sort of range and speed can it do?
1994 Suzuki Cappuccino
1992 Mini-El electric bubblecar

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qdos
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Postby qdos » Sat Sep 15, 2007 2:16 pm

Can it do any dohnuts ?


aaaaah dohnuts :P

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booboo
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Postby booboo » Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:56 pm

anachrocomputer wrote:Glad to hear that the El is on the road at last! Now, what sort of range and speed can it do?


I took it out Friday afternoon and promptly ran out of juice after a few miles :oops:

In its defence I hadn't charged it fully because the "fuel gauge" was showing over two thirds "full". Unfortunately the red battery light started flashing ,then staying on full time followed by the beastie shutting down. :shock:

My long suffering wife came to the rescue with my Ford Sierra and a tow rope. :wink:

I made sure it was showing fully charged before going to my mates house today and was disappointed to see 3 "segments" of the "fuel gauge" disappear after only a few miles . I took advantage of a top up charge at his place before returning home - in its present state I would estimate the range at less than 10miles, top speed about 25mph which I suspect indicates it is underperforming a little ? :?

I guess the first area of suspicion must be the batteries - they are probably past their best, which is not entirely a surprise since I am using the ones that came with it . I've no idea how old they are or what usage they been subjected to. :roll:

I'm still well pleased with my mini-el , absolutely worth all the effort and an insane amount of fun driving about on the roads :D
London to Brighton on a Sinclair C5 - 6/5/07 - what a trip !
Ford Explorer 4.0 v6 petrol for everyday abuse - thank God for LPG
Sinclair C5's (Plus "c5alive.co.uk" ) as a hobby

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ChrisB
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Postby ChrisB » Sun Sep 16, 2007 10:04 am

Well done Karl 8)

Ah I see, I didnt realise that you where against the Q plate, I thought it was more the fact they wouldnt give you any plate.

Mind you a registration with the words DUF on it dosnt instill confidence :lol:

Sounds like very tired batteries if you ask me, not knowing what the charger is like I would say they need a nice long slow charge if they are flooded lead acids, anything up to even a week, just keep an eye on the voltage and let them stew a bit and try and drive off any sulphate.
It the charger that it comes with is a fast type one then it wont be able to recover badly discharged cells very well at all.

ChrisB
I reject reality and substitute my own !!!!!!

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booboo
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Postby booboo » Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:10 pm

ChrisB wrote:

Mind you a registration with the words DUF on it dosnt instill confidence :lol:

ChrisB



....when the batteries died my thoughts were along the same lines !

At first I was quite embarrassed ,pushing my mini-el at the head of a long tail back. But then I thought to myself, if no-one can be bothered to help me push it up the kerb and out of the traffic flow - then they can all wait in the queue until I find a dropped kerb !

:)
London to Brighton on a Sinclair C5 - 6/5/07 - what a trip !
Ford Explorer 4.0 v6 petrol for everyday abuse - thank God for LPG
Sinclair C5's (Plus "c5alive.co.uk" ) as a hobby

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booboo
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Postby booboo » Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:08 pm

since re-organising my photobucket account, most of the piccies have gone from this thread...but if you want to see them again click on this link ;

http://c5alive.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=292.0
London to Brighton on a Sinclair C5 - 6/5/07 - what a trip !
Ford Explorer 4.0 v6 petrol for everyday abuse - thank God for LPG
Sinclair C5's (Plus "c5alive.co.uk" ) as a hobby


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