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Author Topic: New Member hello  (Read 3464 times)

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classiccarman

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New Member hello
« on: 03, September, 2012 - 20:50:22 »
Hi, I've just joined the forum as I am just about to be the proud owner of 3 C5's bought on EBay :) They are all scrap and in need of love and attention. The idea is to make one working one out of the 3. One of them looked really rough in the photo but was only £36 and painted black but should be worth it for the motor alone. I am having trouble finding a reliable courier to pick them up. They are all in different parts of the country so hiring a van and doing it my self would be a real road trip. One courier quoted £20 each after I had given them the weight without the battery and the exact size of the C5 but refused to load them on arrival saying they were too heavy >:(  I have some more quotes so I look forward to getting my hands on them.
I have always wanted one since the launch so I thought it was about time I got one. Working one's seem to fetch silly money at the moment. They seem to be becoming collectors icons. It just shows that Sir Clive was ahead of his time in so many of his inventions. 

I also took delivery of a Zike on Friday (another Ebay purchase). Again, another great piece of design which was even less successful than the C5. It has regenerative braking charging the batteries up. Everthing works on it but alas the drive belt is snapped :-\ Anyone know where I can source a new one? It is 86cm long and 8mm wide. The tooth spacing is 2mm. I am going to try a lawn mower spares depot in town tomorrow to see if they have anything close, but a belt specialist on Ebay has kindly offered to match one up if I send him the snapped one.

I have also started collecting the Sinclair electronic gadgets. I remember building the Sinclair Micromatic matchbox radio when I was a kid from a kit. It cost 39 shillings and sixpence or just under 2 quid in new money. I spent many an hour playing games on my Spectrum (which I still have). I have just bought a Black Watch from the States which of course dosen't work but with a bit of cleaning and some better battery contacts it started counting so there is hope for that one yet ;D The story is they had more returned faulty when new than actually worked.

I hope soon to join the ranks of owning a working C5. It will be great to use around Rutland water which has a 23 mile track round it near where I live. I need something to keep up with the Mrs who has an electric PowaBike which is capable of 15mph along the straight :o

Offline minidaz

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Re: New Member hello
« Reply #1 on: 03, September, 2012 - 21:16:51 »
Hi and welcome to the forum  :)

Sounds like you've got plenty to keep you busy  ;D but if you get stuck with anything then there are people on here who are very knowledgable and helpful, and will be able to point you in the right direction  :)

If your near Rutland Water, then your not that far from quite a few of us ( i'm in Sawtry and a few members are in the Peterborough area )

In fact i'll actually be going round Rutland Water on the 22nd, helping to raise money for a local school by walking 17 miles of it  :o ;D

Darren

Karl

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Re: New Member hello
« Reply #2 on: 03, September, 2012 - 21:32:27 »
welcome to c5alive matie  8)

Offline radiomarty

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Re: New Member hello
« Reply #3 on: 03, September, 2012 - 21:37:26 »
Hi bud - im not too far away either - £26 is a bargain bud  :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Offline C5 ENTHUSIAST + RESTORER

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Re: New Member hello
« Reply #4 on: 04, September, 2012 - 08:47:10 »
Hi there I live in ilkeston if you are passing just ring me and drop in and I will take a look at your C5s bye Chas

Offline mhurt

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Re: New Member hello
« Reply #5 on: 04, September, 2012 - 10:22:21 »
Try Nightfreight for delivery - I checked with them previously, and while they weren't exactly cheap, they weren't too expensive either.

Offline PLOD11

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Re: New Member hello
« Reply #6 on: 07, September, 2012 - 17:01:59 »
Where abouts are the C5s i am not far from you, if there are any between London and Peterborough, i could collect as i do that trip several days a week.

Welcome to the forum, i am sure you will soon have a good C5 up and running.

JOhn

Offline Lancealot

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Re: New Member hello
« Reply #7 on: 08, September, 2012 - 12:42:49 »
Hi and welcome to the forum. Post some photos of your collection.

Lance

classiccarman

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Re: New Member hello
« Reply #8 on: 16, September, 2012 - 21:09:38 »
I have finally took delivery of my C5's on Thursday. When I saw them, I thought "What have I done?" :o Luckily I have an understanding boss at work so I can keep them there until I find space for them at home.  The £36 black painted one is suprisingly the most complete wiring wise. It even has the indicator option wired up but sadly not the lenses and also has mud flaps!  The indicator bulbs are just dangling under the body work. The boot and the LED instument pod is also missing.The second one is complete appart from the LED pod again. The third has everthing intact but is more dismantled mechanically and has the brake cables missing.  It still had the battery leads there so I connected a small sealed lead acid battery and the motor strained to work (not enough current capability) with the trigger pressed. The lights worked too . I couldn't resist a pedal around in the second one as the drive train was intact. It is suprisingly comfortable to sit and pedal in it considering my 15 stone body! I will post some photo's of them in the state they now before I do any work on them. I will look in this forum for some circuit diagrams and try and sort out the hacked about wiring on them. I think I remeber reading somewhere that the LED pod has a custom chip in it so building an equivalent repacement could be tricky?

Obtaining a drive belt for the Zike is still a problem. The belt expert I sent the snapped one says it's an imperial tooth spacing (near impossible to find now) and it would be easier to replace the motor pulley with a metric one to accept a commonly available metric timing belt. Even CPC and Rapid sell these so I will look into trying that option out.

Offline PLOD11

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Re: New Member hello
« Reply #9 on: 19, September, 2012 - 00:28:39 »
Let us knwo how you get on with the drive belts, i also have a working zike and may well need to replace the belt at some time in the future.

John