Key-Locked Removable Battery

The Blackrock X1 carries a 48V 20Ah lithium-ion battery that locks into the downtube of the frame. Turn the key, slide the pack out, and carry it indoors to charge. The bike stays where it is, and nobody rides it away without the pack.

How it comes out

The pack sits in a cradle along the downtube, held by a lock that takes a key. Turn the key, and the pack releases and slides out on its rails. Push it back in until the lock clicks, take the key out, and it is seated for riding.

Two habits are worth forming. Turn the bike off before removing or fitting the pack, and take the key out once the pack is in, so it is not sitting in the lock while you ride.

Why removable matters

A battery you can take off the bike solves three problems at once:

• You charge where it is warm. No dragging the whole bike into a kitchen, and no running an extension cord into an unheated shed in January.
• The bike is far less worth stealing. A pack in the house is a pack nobody can take, and an e-bike without one is not going anywhere fast.
• A spare is possible. If your day is longer than one pack, a second one swaps in during the time it takes to unlock and reseat it.

Charging is done off the bike with the wall charger. Charge it somewhere dry at room temperature, on a hard surface rather than on carpet or a bed, and do not leave it charging unattended overnight as a routine.

Cold weather

Lithium packs lose usable capacity in the cold, and they get it back when they warm up again. Two things follow from that. Store the pack indoors whenever the bike is parked in an unheated space, and let a cold pack come up toward room temperature before you put it on the charger rather than plugging it in the moment it comes off the bike.

If the bike is being put away for the season, store the pack indoors at a partial charge rather than full or empty, and check on it every month or so. There is more detail in the e-bike battery guide, and cold weather riding generally is covered in winter riding in Canada.

The battery, the motor and the controller are listed on the specifications table. What the pack actually feeds is covered on the throttle and gears page, and if the bike is stored folded, the folding page covers where the package goes.