How to balance with dead cells in a stack

Another spot of giving back love to the community after having driven a TWIKE that was offered to me after my catastrophic total-loss accident with TW560. TW230, a 10Ah capacity TWIKE from 1999 was lent to me by Thomas who also asked me if I could tell me if I could hear something that wasn’t OK with his TWIKE. After a few hundred km, my verdict was: some ball bearings are on their way out and will be needing some attention soon. The battery pack, however, was showing strange drops in voltage at higher loads and the end-charge voltage would […]

New hood found!

Good news: We’ve been able to source the type of hood I was looking for: More or less new, no scratches and super-transparent (not a given for 20-year-old Plexiglas)   It has just been delivered from Germany, where it was in storage for the last decade and part of a TWIKE easy which was exported to Germany from Switzerland. Welcome back to Switzerland! I’m super happy. More entries on how TW560’s repairs are progressing are coming up soon!

Tear-down of TW560

With the hood and original Luran top taken care of, we can start repairing TW560. First of all, we have to tear-down both TWIKE 560 and 524. In this entry TW560’s gets taken apart: from vehicle to parts. The image below visualizes in a very simple way what we’re going to be extracting from TW560 during this process.   My job allows me to be super-flexible with regards to where I can work: Anywhere. (Which is important – I travel a lot in Europe…and beyond) I just need my laptop to be connected to a decent Internet connection. I have […]

Welcome TW524!

As one of the parts of TW560’s rebuild strategy after my catastrophic total loss accident with TW560, procuring a new TWIKE was a cornerstone of making it happen within the means available. As always, Karma somehow handed me the solution on a silver tablet: TW524. The serial number of the TWIKE providing the parts for mine may not be too far off, as there were major changes during every single production series making many parts incompatible. An acceptable price for TW524 was found and within 2 weeks of getting the go-ahead from my insurer I am now the proud owner […]

TWIKE pilot community – compassion and camaraderie

News of my accident traveled through the grapevines of the TWIKE community at light speed – TW560’s absence was noticed by many during TWIKE Klub’s 2018 general assembly in Berne. I was asked a lot of questions what happened and how TW560 was doing. Out of nowhere I got multiple offers to borrow and drive TWIKE’s for short to longer periods of time – which I gladly accepted as I was in need of an independent mode of transport. Driving various TWIKEs proved to me – yet again – one very important point: There is not one TWIKE like another! […]

TW560 – rebuild strategy

I have CHF 15,000 to spend. What needs to be replaced? Space Frame Hood Plexiglas front windshield Luran outer skin How do I get the parts … and from where? Buying new parts is expensive. Used parts are the way to go. However, finding larger used Luran components is near-impossible, because they are usually attached to a TWIKE….hmmm. Quite a few people suggested I just buy a used TWIKE and transfer everything of value over to it. This wasn’t an option for me, as it wouldn’t be TW560 anymore. After some deliberation and lots of phone calls TW560’s rebuild strategy […]