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submitted my 2p worth to the consultation objecting to increased power to 500w. What we need is better protected cycling infrastructure not more powerful motors/batteries. For throttle based bikes I have my sympathies with the disabled who wish to use them to get to 15.5mph, but I think this needs to be dealt with along with regulation of e-scooters.
 




This one's a difficult one having to make decisions to go from primary past junctions back to secondary. Had a few by local DET who didn't take further action but they don't explain why.
 
Had a look last night at options for electrifying one of my bikes. I'm very particular though and wouldn't be happy with a big ugly battery and hub motor. Found this awesome concealed system that slots down the seat tube and interfaces straight with a standard bottom bracket with added spur gear.

1710270911380.png

Vivax Assist – Goat Bikes

goatbikes.com goatbikes.com

Downsides, it's well over £2k for the kit! And need seat tube to have an inner diamater of over 30mm - all my retro Kona's are 27.2mm :(
 
Interesting. I would be careful especially if your bike isn't made specifically to house this kind of electric motor and battery. Given it won't fit in your seat tube, it might be a blessing.

if you're willing to pay £2k to electrify one of your existing bikes then you may as well consider paying for a custom built one. You'd get a pretty decent one if you're willing to to pay a bit extra over and above that though. But depends what you're after.

I have a mid drive motor on mine and the battery sits within the frame; but it's purpose built.

Mid drive motors, are the most balanced given that it adds power to the drive train. Rather than hub motors, which I have read are separate from the drive train and are either good on flats or uphill but not both. Hence why I went with the mid drive. But it does make the bike heavier.
 
Bada-Bing! said:
Interesting. I would be careful especially if your bike isn't made specifically to house this kind of electric motor and battery. Given it won't fit in your seat tube, it might be a blessing.

if you're willing to pay £2k to electrify one of your existing bikes then you may as well consider paying for a custom built one. You'd get a pretty decent one if you're willing to to pay a bit extra over and above that though. But depends what you're after.

I have a mid drive motor on mine and the battery sits within the frame; but it's purpose built.

Mid drive motors, are the most balanced given that it adds power to the drive train. Rather than hub motors, which I have read are separate from the drive train and are either good on flats or uphill but not both. Hence why I went with the mid drive. But it does make the bike heavier.
Click to expand...
I was honestly suprised at how expensive some of the retrofit kit is given that all the deliveroo riders have them installed on their clapped out bikes. Appears to be well over £400 for a chinese branded hub motor kit. I suppose a decent wedge of that is for the lithium-ion battery - not that I'd trust them given the increasing number of house fires there are directly related to the charging of cheap e-bikes/scooters.

The 2k+ price of that kit I linked is way more than I'd want to spend on one tbh, and unfortunately it doesn't look like anyone else is developing similar systems. If it were closer to £500 I'd be considering it and would be confident of being able to retrofit it safely to a frame with a larger diamater seat tube. But then my real passion when it comes to bikes is thin tubed retro steel/***anium mountain bikes, so very few would be suitable. Maybe a homemade frame from scratch incorporating somwthing simiar - always been an aim of mine to hand-build my own frame someday.
 


Still, a big bug bear of mine when I am out cycling. Don't know why Ashley Neal is criticising this cyclist for reporting it to the ADI/DVSA. I would have reported that to the police.
 
Bada-Bing! said:


Still, a big bug bear of mine when I am out cycling. Don't know why Ashley Neal is criticising this cyclist for reporting it to the ADI/DVSA. I would have reported that to the police.
Click to expand...

100% No need at all to try to pass a cyclist who's also passing a parked car. It's not just the distances involved, drivers should also consider other dangers e.g. what if the door of the parked car was opened forcing the cyclist to react? Could easily have ended up with the cyclist below the wheels of the instructor car! It's just unnecessarily putting a vulnerable road user in danger, where it would have been just a 10 sec delay to wait until the cyclist had cleared the parked car before passing.
 
dullonien said:
100% No need at all to try to pass a cyclist who's also passing a parked car. It's not just the distances involved, drivers should also consider other dangers e.g. what if the door of the parked car was opened forcing the cyclist to react? Could easily have ended up with the cyclist below the wheels of the instructor car! It's just unnecessarily putting a vulnerable road user in danger, where it would have been just a 10 sec delay to wait until the cyclist had cleared the parked car before passing.
Click to expand...
I had one learner driver beep me when overtaking me when I was overtaking parked cars in the primary position. I don't appreciate being beeped at when being overtaken and have installed a wing mirror on my right handlebar so I could see him in my mirror.

Needless to say I was fuming and caught up with him and gave his instructor a piece of my mind. The instructor's response was I should have been on the left. I said no that was me overtaking parked cars and not being in their door zone, so that was why I was in the primary position. I told him to Teach his pupil how to drive properly otherwise I would report it (and the police can deal with it). Once I calmed down I chose to leave that one and not.

End of the day these car instructors are business people and their business is to get their pupils to pass their tests. But lord knows what some of these instructors are teaching them these days.
 


I got close passed by a learner driver of a BSM driving school car today. I was not as understanding as this cyclist.

Still:

 
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Getting the right saddle height is hard even for
Beginners. Thankfully, I have a low step frame on mine so no need to tilt.
 


First advert I have seen on this. Is it shown on TV in Scotland? Not come across any down here. Still, come across some terrible close passes.
 
Jeesh the Times has really fallen down in standards hiring that right wing hack Melanie Phillips, who used to write for the Daily Fail. She's written an Op piece in today's Times excoriating cyclists and whipping up the culture wars against them - citing in nearly 20 years 2 pedestrians killed by cyclists. 😱 but failing to mention the number of pedestrians killed by motorists in comparison. Will someone please think of the children!

accusing season 7 GIF
 

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