u/uselubewithcondoms

Hi all,

I came across a Ryvid anthem that was a "roller" aka bike without a battery for $450 on fb marketplace. I got waaay too excited and when i talked to the seller, he said another guy had reached out to him saying he had a Ryvid battery for the bike that he was wanting $500 for.
In my brain, a Ryvid Anthem for $1k seemed amazing so i impulse bought it, got a bill of sale, but when i called the DMV to figure out how to get a title for it, they tell me it's stolen (obvious conclusion after my excitement calmed down) and to call the police. The police come out and tell me that the bike was actually recovered so they updated it in their system and i'm now going through the process of getting a title from the DMV/MVA.

The issue, is that the battery has been sitting for a bit and feels a little sketchy. Life has been life-ing, so i haven't really had time to start putting the bike back together.

Also, the guy who sold me the battery which did in fact originally belong to the bike told me some of the back story and gave me the contact info for the original owner.

I learned from the original owner that when the bike was stolen and recovered his insurance totaled out the bike, so he doesn't have the title anymore and i can't figure out which state farm agent he sent it to as apparently each agent is their own entity. I seem to have purchased the bike after it was left for the salvage yard to pick up, but was stolen again before the tow truck could get it and the battery seller yanked the battery since the bike was going to a salvage yard anyways. So i bought a stolen, then recovered, then re-stolen bike apparently. But in the police records, the bike is recovered, so i got that going for me!

So when trying to get support from Ryvid, they respond that they can't help me since i'm not matching their records as the original owner, and they don't want to support theft so they're not going to help me. Which is understandable!

Which brings me to my final point, i'd love to save the life of the battery which has been sitting there, but i also don't want to risk a thermal event and i was wondering if y'all knew of a smart way to check the battery health? When i initally got the battery and plugged it in, the fans started up for a moment and then shut off and the lights flashed red continuously which seemed to indicate a cell imbalance, so i just left it there while i waited for support from Ryvie. I attempted to check the voltage of the battery recently after the lights stopped blinking one day and it said 7 V, so i plugged it in for an hour and it went up to 8 V.

Is there any chance of reviving this battery? Can it be successfully and safely recharged up to a decent resting voltage while not installed in the bike while i work on getting the bike ready for the battery installation?

Anywho, thanks for reading this long and convoluted story and for any advice you have on redeeming this bike that needs some love!

Lastly, if there's a technician that feels like talking through the process of restoring this bike with me over a video call, i'd be happy to pay you an hourly rate! Or if someone is local to Baltimore, even better! The controller is also not installed in the bike and the guy i bought it from attempted to fix it up it seems, but also glued a keyed ignition in place of the FOB reader and the display is missing. Again a very regrettable decision that i definitely learned my lesson from, and i figured i'd try to make the best of the situation.