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House policy for me as well. Strictly, the bike should be 'tethered', and there's a £2K limit. The insurance company weren't interested in the type of bike, so it's really them making a £30 bet with me they won't have to pay out on lump of metal. It's never certain they would pay in the event...

I have little faith in any bike warranty, so my advice to the OP would be to 'self-insure'. Cheapest way to do this would be to buy a Kudos or Woosh and treat the £200 battery as a consumable - which it is.

Depends on where, when and for how long. Your bike is fairly cheap, but I wouldn't take that as much of a safeguard. We all have different needs, but better to arrange your cycling life so the bike is not left anywhere locked for long.

D locks are most commonly breached by using a jack inside the D. To combat this, you need to leave as little space as possible. In other words, use the smallest D lock you can and lock the bike to the largest post that will fit.

Looks to me as if he can't get one foot - certainly not two - onto the pedals.

Count the teeth and have a look at these options from Martin's shop. I wanted to reduce the gearing on my Rose and have a smaller Blackspire ring. They are not the cheapest, but are good quality: http://www.e-bikeshop.co.uk/eBike-Spare-Parts/Bosch-Motor-Chainring

Don't forget to have a look at the Badass dongle. Much simpler than the hot wired ones and does the same job. Mine has worked faultlessly for several months now, no error messages or other glitches. Only downside - like all dongles - is it knocks the speedo out of kilter above about 12mph...

Some flinty bits seem to take time to work through the tyre to puncture the tube. So it's worth occasionally giving the tyre a scrub with a stiff brush in the direction of tread to knock out debris.

Nope, as per the pic, the only hole is where that cable goes in near the top of the casing. I've had a good feel around underneath - reminded me of a certain process at school - and the rest of the casing is solid plastic.

My Rose/Bosch is built a bit differently. The battery cable runs on the underside of the downtube into a small hole in the motor casing. There's a mm or two of clearance, but not enough to let in significant amounts of dirt.

Ooo, Martin is in Hampshire as well. Let battle commence....

This is a puff for Haibikes, but may assist: http://www.e-bikeshop.co.uk/blog/post/why-bosch-motors-should-not-be-under-swung-on-emtbs/

But make sure you don't catch a pedal on a hump. Unlikely on a big wheeled bike, but I've done it on the Brompton.

Don't expect high speeds even if you de-restrict the bike. You will still be trying to shift a very heavy bike and the motor won't offer a lot of help over 15mph. If the commute is solely on road, it would be wise to leave some money in the budget for more road-orientated tyres. The supplied...

As a male passer-by, I think you should buy any bike so long as it has a cross bar. Joking aside, Kalkhoffs are well thought of, but that's not to say we haven't had stories on here of them breaking down. The Bosch system appears about the most reliable of the crank drives. KTM are pushing...

Pleased the job went well. I think you may be right about a stealthy ebike attracting less adverse comment. Also, mountain bikers tend to pit themselves against the trail rather than each other, so they are not so worried about what other riders are doing. I'm with you on high energy drinks...

Sure to be some snidey remarks, although presumably as a mountain bike event there is no mass start. I've had quite a few comments on fun rides, particularly early on when there's more of you together. A mountain bike event is likely to be more single file, so less opportunity for the other...

I could get a not very fast 80 miles on my two 11ah batteries. Although as Stu says, conditions - wind and hills - would have to be reasonably friendly.

You didn't pee in the reservoir? I bet you did. The good folk of Cornwall should be advised to boil their drinking water.

Sad story all round. The OP originally posted about buying a bike to reduce weight, but it looks like he only did 30 miles on it in a year.