The HelloBike E-Scooter I Thought Was Scrap, Fixed for 9.9 Yuan

Preface

I previously shared my experience recovering data from a mechanical hard drive

See: My hard drive suddenly died, and it took me half a month to recover the data… (plus data recovery tools)

It got a lot of attention from friends.

Of course, there were different voices in the comments. Some people questioned:

Is it really necessary to fuss over this yourself? Why not just spend the money?

My response at the time was pretty direct—

Learning and solving problems is, in itself, something that feels very rewarding.

Especially when you share the pitfalls you've hit and the lessons you've learned,

and it can help people who come after you—that kind of joy is pure.

In the comments I casually mentioned "fixing a bike,"

and today's post is exactly about that.

Recap

This September, my HelloBike e-scooter, which I'd been riding for years, suddenly started acting up.

The symptoms at first were:

• It kept going "beep beep beep" for no reason
• Unlocking and locking it with the phone App didn't help
• Later, the App couldn't control it at all

I bought this bike in October 2021 for 1,099 yuan,

To be honest, my first reaction was that this little e-scooter that had kept me company for four years had finally given out.

But with a "might as well struggle a bit more" mindset, I still searched online.

And I actually found people with the exact same symptoms.

From what they shared, I figured my e-scooter's alarm had also gone bad, which was why the phone app couldn't start or lock the bike.

So the fix was pretty clear: buy a new alarm and swap it in.

Setbacks

In theory the process was simple:

• Take off the rear seat and check the current alarm connector type
• Buy a new alarm
• Swap it in and verify it works

Things didn't go as smoothly as I'd imagined, though. I got stuck on step one 🤣

Taking off a HelloBike e-scooter's rear seat isn't hard. There's a small screw at the bottom of the seat; you should be able to unscrew it with a screwdriver, then slide the cover off and remove the seat.

But my screw seemed rusted, and the screwdriver wouldn't turn it.

Buying Tools

At this point I figured it was the screwdriver's fault, because I didn't have any proper screwdrivers on hand—just the free ones that come with other stuff.

So I spent 33 yuan on a new household tool set. I figured I could use it later too (spoiler: I actually did).

The new tools were indeed better, but! The new Phillips screwdriver still wouldn't turn it. I sprayed WD-40—still no luck…

I thought I just wasn't strong enough, so I put more force into it, hoping brute force would work miracles. The result… stripped the screw… 😂

Now I was in trouble. I started searching online for how to deal with a stripped screw, and a lot of people said to use a power drill… I almost ordered one.

Buying Tools, Round 2

Just as I was about to buy a drill, I noticed the outside of the screw seemed to be hexagonal??

Then I could try buying a set of hex wrenches. Even though it was already stripped, the outer hex should still turn.

So I ordered a hex wrench set for 9.4 yuan 😂

I'm not counting these tools toward the repair cost, since they can be reused.

Turning Point

After the hex wrenches arrived, I kept going with brute-force miracles.

And this time I actually got it out! Woohoo!

Buying the Alarm

The rear seat was finally open, so I could continue.

After checking, I confirmed the alarm connector was a dual-end 3+2 type.

See the image below.

So this time I went straight for a small-unit alarm.

(I asked customer service: the only difference between the large unit and the small unit is how loud they are.)

So I went with the small unit without hesitation—the large one wouldn't even fit under my rear seat.

And so I ordered the star of this post: the alarm, for 9.9 yuan.

By the way:

There's also something online called a "HelloBike dedicated box," selling for over 50 yuan.

Looking at the design, I really couldn't help myself:

Isn't that just a sticker slapped on it? 🤣

Replacing the Alarm

Here's what it looked like after I opened the rear seat. (So dirty 🤣)

I cleaned it a bit with compressed air, but there was still a lot of dust inside. After this many years, that's unavoidable.

The swap itself was very simple: unplug the original HelloBike IoT alarm and plug in the new one.

The whole process took just a few minutes.

The moment the new alarm was installed, the lights came on. When I pressed the remote and the motor spun up, the sense of accomplishment maxed out 😄

Follow-up

I'd always assumed that after HelloBike's electric vehicle business shut down, they just stopped supporting it.

I didn't expect to still get a text the day before yesterday.

The solution is shown below. In short: you can keep unlocking via Bluetooth, or spend 149 yuan to get a replacement.

So the problem my e-scooter had before probably wasn't caused by the 2G network shutdown—after all, I couldn't unlock it even from right next to it.

Wrap-up

Back to the original question: is it worth fixing it yourself?

Swapping the alarm this time was, admittedly, a very basic job.

You could absolutely just take it to a repair shop,

spend a hundred or two, and save yourself the time and hassle.

But the reality is:

• Cost: 9.9 yuan

• What I gained:

  • A complete round of problem analysis
  • Hands-on experience solving it
  • A few tools I can keep using later
  • And—the sense of accomplishment that I could actually fix it

Was it worth it?

Everyone's answer is different.

But at least for me,

it was pretty worth it.