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No detectable load from the Alfine front hub dynamo/B&M lightset on the Rose. The front light is adequate, but a commuter or someone doing forest trails at night would want more. If I were commuting, I would probably deploy an extra rear light as well.

The Raleigh has a smaller battery - 11ah - compared to the Kalkhoff's 17ah. Six ah of battery costs money, so that's where the price difference is.

The cog looks worn to me, but as has been said, the different shaped teeth on Shimano cogs can make judging wear difficult. I also agree it's a very small cog for the application. With that in mind, could you put a larger ring on the front? That might enable you to get the speed without using...

From what I can gather, these copy batteries are fine, and they are quite a bit cheaper. The downside to me is the smaller 8ah capacity, which is not adequate for most of my rides. If you genuinely don't need more, then the battery is a good buy.

That can never be ruled out, but I suspect the giveaway was the hundreds of pics of butterflies on the camera's SD card.

In Germany, any bike designed to go on the road and weighing more than - I think - 12kg must be fitted with lights from the factory. That's why all the German trekking bikes - powered or not - have lights. The regulations conveniently allow drop bar road bikes and 'off road' mountain bikes to...

A dynamo on an ebike allows you to run a standard lighting set, which in turn makes obtaining spare bulbs easier.

700c is 29", which doesn't stop Schwalbe labelling my 29er Marathons as '28 x 2.00'. Are bike tyre sizes confusing? You bet. The three power levels and five speed limit levels on the controller are also hard to grasp, but I'm sure d8 has it right. The 31mph overall maximum you have found...

Food for thought from those pesky Germans. "Optimum" is what I would like, but the only way to establish that would be to test each motor, which is not realistically possible. Who knows, if I tested a few powerful hub motors as well, I might find I preferred one of those. Not that I am...

Seems I may be worrying about nothing. Seven/nine levels sounds good, I've always thought the Bosch could do with a couple more.

Thanks, so I can sip power on any of my proposed set ups. Or put another way, either of the new batteries would have useful extra capacity over my Bosch ones. Still can't decide about kit power. I still have this notion the 750W motor will be great fun for short bursts, but wearing to ride...

I am more and more drawn to the idea of a converted crank drive mountain bike for winter/trails. But what kit? I had a brief go on an 8Fun 250W and liked a lot about it - neat, quiet, reasonably smooth power delivery. It was only a short ride, but I was expecting to feel more grunt. I take...

Scrambled by the dongle, so no help there.

Yes, I needed more range, not speeds, on the Rose. Were you designing an ebike from the ground up, you wouldn't pick a cassette with 10 close ratios.

No danger of that, Dave. But this place would be a shambles if we all torpedoed threads in the way you have done to this one. I am a more ignorant, bombastic, sarcastic, sod than you will ever be, but try not to post as such.

Everyone else knew what I meant, as indeed did you, because only an idiot would fail to grasp it.

That surprises me, although I've never ridden one. I have, of course, ridden your Delite which is the comfiest bike I've ever been on, so the Birdy must be very good.

I think another factor in favour of hub gears is the higher chain line keeps the chain cleaner. It's only two or three inches, but I've noticed quite a difference. My AVE, being 20" wheels, is even worse - the chain gets filthy in no time. It's also a 10-speed, so it probably won't do half as...

I have two pairs, large and small, both cheap and cheerful, one pair from Edinburgh Bike Co-op and one pair from Halfords. All are performing well, although none will be any more than shower proof. I deploy at least one for most rides, but expect they would struggle to cope with a proper tour...