Recent content by Wildswimmer Pete

Some TO220 devices do use BeO2, I've come across them when servicing industrial equipment but to be fair that is in kit using high voltage/current transistors. RF devices are notorious for using BeO2. It's best to err on the safe side though.

Please don't attempt to break open any power mosfets or similar power transistors. Many of them contain beryllium oxide which is extremely toxic. Speaking as a retired industrial electronics engineer.

That 1000W is the battery. Motor power is 250W. I've only used speed setting 0 which acts as a conventional pedelec. I've tried speed 1 which results in max of 10mph but I don't like riding without turning the pedals.

I've given my venerable eHopper to a friend, and treated myself to Rich Bit's latest 2018 electric mountain bike. 48v 1000W Panasonic battery, seven PAS modes and one unregulated which one can't use on the public road. Range on the flat about 25 miles. Alloy frame with three-spoke magnesium...

I'd like to know where. In all the years I've been on the road I've never seen a cyclemoter on the road, and I live in a reasonably populous part of the country (outskirts of Liverpool). When precisely? When the Thatcher government zero-rated VED for all electric vehicles (note zero-rated...

Never say never! Been listening to Radio 4 recently? It's been mooted that electric cars should be designed to use a common battery pack that can be exchanged for a "full" one at service stations. Where governments are involved, the means will always be found to screw even more taxes...

What about Datatag? When I bought my GSXR750 ten years ago I bought a Datatag kit and the one-off registration fee was £25. Apparently the police have special hand-held scanners to read the microdots and Datatg recommended applying microdots to all components including stuff like carburettors...

But only at the whim of the government of the day. Pedelecs don't qualify for VED because they aren't motor vehicles. Electric mopeds are classed as "mopeds" but like other electric motor vehicles they currently pay zero VED - however they have to have a registration number, the rider has to...

Please let us know where you can legally ride a pedelec at 45kph? I was under the impression that pedelecs were limited to 20kph throughout Europe.

Yet Because the government know full well that making cycle helmets compulsory would deter the majority from cycling. I do have two cycle helmets (one full-face) but I dislike them, if I'm compelled to wear a helmet I'll simply take the other option - my bus pass. Costs me nowt to use it.

I'm totally against compulsory insurance because like anything proposed by the Corporate State, it's the thin edge of a very nasty wedge. Compulsory number plates and "registration fees" would increase until e-bikes in particular would end up as electric mopeds. What happens if e-bikes become...

I don't know anything about the riding/driving standards in your location, but in something like 1,000,000 miles and well over 45 years on two wheels (powered and pedal) I can honestly say that in all that time I haven't been "whacked from behind by a scooter/bike" nor indeed had any "near...

I won't wear a cycle helmet partly because I won't do what the Nanny State tells me to do, but more down to cycle helmets being useless. I passed my motorcycle test back in 1968 (no, that's not a typo) and even then it was pointed out that a motorcycle helmet is only good for protection up to...

I doubt the police have the ability to confiscate pedelecs because they are not motor vehicles. Pedelecs are classed as pedal cycles. I'd suspect enforcing the 14-year rule could be problematic as such because enforcement implies breaching the terms of a licence, and of course like pedal...

I've seen a few of those dirt-bikes and thought would do me for green lanes across my nearby marshes, as although intended for youths they can be ridden by adults. Despite what I've heard from the police, electric 'crossers and minimotos fitted with pedals are limited to 250W and 14mph - in...