Battery Vehicle Society

Hi folks,

Well, looks like the City El weekend is happening. I've picked a date in January so you will all need to bring your thermals! However, I'm hoping we can source at least one garage to work in and work on only one vehicle at a time!

If you're interested please state below. We can probably arrange accommodation in a few different places within easy reach of the workshop.

Cost is yet to be determined, but if enough people are interested Andreas from Twike UK has agreed to come over and show us all how to do a basic City El service, so it would be well worth it. I'm guessing £20 a head should cover it. I'll of course confirm nearer the time!

Nikki.

I've booked the time off work, so put me on the list for attending !

The 19th is my mum's birthday, so I'll have to think of a way of making it up to her

booboo wrote:The 19th is my mum's birthday, so I'll have to think of a way of making it up to her

Buy her a City El think theres one for sale somewhere nearby

ChrisB

ChrisB wrote:

booboo wrote:The 19th is my mum's birthday, so I'll have to think of a way of making it up to her

Buy her a City El think theres one for sale somewhere nearby

ChrisB

I know mum's are priceless, but my coffers are looking a bit empty..

Same as lots of people no doubt, it's a case of if I had the cash I'd snap it up !

So, how many people are coming?

So far Andreas has booked himself the weekend so he'll be there ( we do need to pay him some money though to cover parts and costs for a service)

So far I have:

John H (Who obviously is just down the road)
Duff Man ( couldn't resist)
Me
Is anyone else interested? The weekend will be held in a couple of local garages and I have parking on our driveway for a couple of vans (or a car and trailer)

Also, if anyone wants to borrow my City El trailer they're welcome, but they'll have to come and get it first!

Nikki.

This service weekend can't come soon enough....scared myself silly today thinking I had killed my mini-el

On Friday I had a visit from a chap interested in building his own EV who wanted to view a running vehicle for some ideas and inspiration etc.

After discussing the lack of range of my mini-el, the suggestion was to disconnect the batteries and charge them individually to see if that helped.

Once I re-connected the batteries today, the mini-el refused to run due to the capacity meter not powering up -

When the frustration/panic subsided I consulted the pages printed from Ralph Wagners site about the capacity meter always reading "nil point" after battery replacement...and the cure was to plug in the onboard charger.

Intructions followed (unusual for a bloke I know) and satisfactory result achieved.

Hopefully this weekend will cover amusing features like this

Scarely when things like that happen

Quite an odd feature I must say .

ChrisB

Okay folks - here's the calendar info for the event. It's a copy of what is posted in the BVS diary on the front page of the site.

Please take notice of the COST. £20 for BVS members and £45 for non-members!

Do you have a City El? Do you own the earlier Mini El? It's the ideal starter EV and gets many people interested in electric vehicles.


Unless you're a whiz at electric vehicles or you've got excellent German and a copy of the manual you probably don't know all you should about keeping these fantastic City vehicles on the road.

The weekend will take place over the weekend of 19th/20th January, 2008 in Stoke Gifford, Bristol, BS34 8--. Some accomodation can be arranged on a first-come, first served basis, so hurry! (Those wishing to arrive on the evening of Friday 18th are welcome to enable an early start on the Saturday.)

We shall be joined by Andreas Schroeer, owner of Twike UK and City El parts dealer for the UK. He will be demystifying the German manual and showing owners how to carry out a basic service. He is also able to supply any needed parts direct from Germany without the Language barrier and can bring them to the event if parts are ordered in time. He can also provide suitable gel batteries or flooded lead batteries for the El and chargers. Please contact him on 07707 237070 to enquire about prices and availability for your El.

We'll also be sharing individual experiences including adding an additional high-level brake light, converting to 48V, choosing appropriate batteries (including converting to Lithium Ion, LiPolymer, NiCd or Gel based Lead Acid) and making other simple modifications to enable the City El to become a suitable daily driver.


Due to limited space we will only be able to work on one City El at a time inside, but if the weather is good multiple cars can be worked on at two locations a five minute drive apart.
On Saturday night we shall have a mini road-run to a local restaurant on what (we hope) will be the largest gathering of City Els in the UK!

The cost of the weekend will be £20 per person for BVS members, or £45 for non BVS members. Since BVS membership only costs £15 a year, why not bring your membership fee and join up!? The cost of the weekend will cover basic food (breakfast and snacks) and use of equipment and service materials for the weekend. Please bring your fee with you to the event.


Nikki and Kate Gordon-Bloomfield can provide limited floor space for participants as can John Honniball. You MUST contact Nikki ASAP on 07901 553308 or 0117 307 9086 if you do not wish to find your own accommodation for the event. Alternative accommodation can be found in the BS34 area at various travel lodges, B&Bs or Hotels. If you are planning to attend please telephone Nikki so appropriate arrangements can be made.

Non City El drivers are also welcome and there will be an opportunity to try out both a stock and modified City El if time and weather permits.

This will be the first of many marque-specific weekends held by BVS members in 2008, so keep your eye out for details of the Berlingo weekend, the Enfield weekend and the Motorbike Weekend!

So far:

We have:

German Workshop Genius, parts guru and Twike man:
Andreas Schroeer

Joint event hosts:

Nikki and Kate Gordon-Bloomfield - 43V LionEl City El Targa Series III, road going!
John Honniball - 36V Mini El Basic Series II, road going!

Attendees:

John Lilly - May bring a City El Series III Targa Top, non road going, or just a pair of helping hands!

Gareth Covell - City El Series III Basic 36V, non road going (being converted to 48V). Attending one day only.

Electric Vehicles (Dave) - Mini El Series I Basic, very much non working (not for long!)

Booboo (Karl) - Mini El Series II/III Convertible, 36V, road going.

ChopperMan - No City El, but some interesting batteries!

Tony Highfield and his non-working City El series II/III.



Have I missed anyone off who is expecting to come?
Please do let me know if I have - we're planning numbers!

Nikki.

Update:

John Lilly is probably just going to attend without a vehicle as he's strapped for transportation. Hopefully the Prius will bring Gareth's El here.

I've also been playing around with a logo



Nice eh?

Map Wise - here's details on how to get to us:

We're at 6 Kent Close, Stoke Gifford, BS34 8TB. http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.515526,-2.547584&spn=0.009601,0.021436&z=16&om=1 If you zoom out a little you should be able to see the M4, M5 and M32, so pick your preferred route from there!