SRowells Sinclair C5

[Eeyore]

Now for something entirely different... So what happened was... I had a drive of something a few months back and its so retro and "cool" i thought I had to get one myself... What then happened was I told an eccentric friend I wanted one and he said he had one at his work and he would bring it from the Isle of Texel in the Netherlands to the UK. Sadly that didnt happen but a few weeks ago I was in Medemblik in the Netherlands for a sailing world championships and it was only an hours drive each way to get to Texel. I arranged for my friend to get on the ferry and deliver it to me...

the ferry appeared on the horizon... 



then it got closer...



then it got closer...



then it was here!



then my friend appeared on the walkway...



and then it appeared in the back of my car... It didnt fit in the car upright so I had to put it sideways and put the passenger front seat forward. Balls... i thought remembering that I had to bring it back to the uk somehow. But anyway here it is in all its glory in a dinghy park. 



Its a sinclair C5 untested and has been sat on a pallet for god knows how many years. Important things are that it has the rear wheel caps, front wheel cover, handle bar foam which all together can add up to a few hundred in spares. Also despite being untested the wiring hasnt been hacked up. It is however missing a battery, keys, battery lid, battery strap, and a chain tensioner. £150 paid!

Before we get onto how i got it home... this is the pallet it sat on for at least the last 10 years... 



and this is how it got to the ferry! Where it was then taken on as a foot passenger! 

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Next up I had to find a way of getting it home. luckily what i had planned worked and didnt stretch the trampoline of the catamaran. Many many ropes later it was tied down in a vaguely secure manner. I was told how much the centre and front caps were worth by the C5 owners club so immediately pulled them off to save them falling off on the 80 mile drive back to the hook and then the remaining 40 miles in the UK.




made it to the ferry and our spot was right next to the motorbike and pedal bike section. lots of heads turning and "is that a c5?" along with lots of dads saying "wow look an actual c5!" along with kids not caring what it really was.

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Now that its back at my house I experimented with a few things to clean it up. Cillit bang is number one preference followed by gunk. tested a small patch but havent yet put in the real elbow grease to get it all done. First thing to do was get new inner tubes as one was punctured. Still on the original sinclair branded tyres! 16" on the back and 12" on the front. Front uses an angled valve as well. All pumped up! 35psi rear and 30 front!



Bearings looked good but need greasing. After a brief ride round i found that it missed a tooth every so often. Points to some seized chain links so will have to oil that up and get it sorted. Also the main reason for skipping is the lack of a chain tensioner. No ideas how im going to solve that yet but hopefully ill make my own.



Next up was shoving 12v onto the wiring to test whether I had a working dash and working motor. the dash working is pretty rare as the components like to blow and if you get the polarity of the battery the wrong way the whole lot instantly blows. All works here! Right displays battery life and left displays motor load. The outer amber leds are always on. Fun fact that as well as putting the battery on the wrong way... just pushing the c5 backwards generates the wrong polarity which is enough to blow the dash!



and we have the original sticker with serial. yes its a hoover motor not a washing machine motor as many people thought at the time.


To get it up and running ive purchased a 063 45AH motor to replace the original oldhams 36AH battery. Hopefully a bit more range there. Ive also bought a safety wiring loom which allows use of a car/leisure battery with quick connectors and also has a diode in order to prevent spiking the dash. Ive also bought enough vinyl and reflective tape to redo all the stickers myself with my vinyl cutter as i could buy the entire roll for the cost of one set of premade stickers. t10 LED bulbs are also on order as the original headlight bulb melts the plastic housing.

So yeh. C5 project is a go. It should do 15mph and have a range of 20 miles however ive heard that hills are an issue and also 6 miles is a more realistic range! There is the option to double up batteries to extend the range and also put 24V through the motor to achieve 27mph. EU restrictions on electric bikes are 15mph so need to be careful with that one.

To Do:
fit new battery
fit battery straps
fit safety wiring loom
clean everything
design cut and apply new stickers
fit new lights
test ride!

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I have now decoded the serial number...




The 5 indicates the year 1985
The following 2 digits are the month, 10,  October
And the final 5 digits indicate the number produced that month, so mine is the 1195th to come off the production line in October 1985.

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And this is great watching for anyone who loves it... or for people who have no idea what it is or what its about!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5N937V8ZOw

And then theres wikipedia for those who want to know more and also read about why they were such a failure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5