Search results

He did, but it seems that was simultaneous with the ban, so essentially amounting an agreement to part company. A pity since Frank made many useful contributions, even if somewhat eccentrically at times.

Roughly true Hoppy, except you have said the DfT permission for 250 watts is defined by EN15194. That is not the case, the DfT have not defined the 250 watts rating in that statement, and as I've said, in UK law only BS1727 defines the power rating method. That does not have the flexibility of...

Not easy to answer, but I wouldn't say it's necessarily easy. The bike only assists to 15 mph, so all effort above that speed would have to come from you, it's no longer being an e-bike at over 15mph since there is no assistance.

In that case with a contribution of light pedal assistance, you should easily get 30 miles range, and possibly 40 miles or more from it's 37 volt 16 Ah battery. A fairly fit rider will usually use 12 Wh per mile in moderate territory, and that equals 49 miles from it's 592 Wh. If you are less...

On such trips I learned to always take the extra one, a hard lesson taught on one occasion when I didn't have enough and suffered a particulary exhausting and time-wasting completion of a hilly journey. Having a spare battery in each pannier as well as the one in use also gave the benefit of...

Radio 4 podcasts? Go ahead, I'm happy with that! :)

Thanks for finding that jhruk. Ritar's previous ads on ebay for the 15 Ah ones that Frank recommended had disappeared. So it's a choice for Mike, the original spec 15 Ah ones for a bit over £100 or the 12 Ah ones for under.

The current EU law uses EN15194 as it's arbiter of what is legal. That has two specified methods for determining the power, the choice of which to use being optional. One of them gives considerable flexibility, enabling tailoring of the current handling to give much more than 250 watts actual...

Not really, the "grandfather rights" only apply to what is legal now, insuring them against changes in the law. One such for example is, if like the EU, we change to pedelec only with throttle control banned, existing throttle controlled legal e-bikes will continue to be legal in use. Currently...

Please don't, it's bad enough with the noise sometimes blaring out from cars and the very occasional motorbike so equipped. It's claimed to be music, but how electronically generated loud thuds constitute music is not explained. .

That's a somewhat odd speed limit, the authorities tend to favour limits that accord with existing legislation and that at 5 mph doesn't match any. The ones in that area that have some degree of relevance are: Mobility chair when in pavement use = 4 mph. Mobility chair when in use on road = 8...

Certainly could be, I've no idea of the reason and could only guess.

I can see what you mean, much vagueness in that second one and the provision of four while recommending them from Powabyke etc is suspicious. A couple of years ago a number of suppliers still sold a genuinely suitable set of three for under £100, but with most of the bikes using them...

On first seeing the new Yamaha unit I thought it might be something special. Their first e-bikes back in 1999 were market leaders and put the opposition in the shade, but over time they failed to meet the fight back from others so by about 2005 they had dropped into obscurity. They then made...

Quite simply because they've got away with for enough years to create a situation that is thought to be beyond correction. Essentially the strict 200 watt limit that originally existed in the UK made e-bikes virtually useless, the added power only cancelling the added weight. So after over a...

That's sad then. I'd guess it was because of his regular postings about his high powered bikes in the general forum, rather than the off-road etc forum.

That supplier was Ritar in ebay, but unfortunately they don't appear to be supplying SLA batteries any more. I'm not sure if Frank was subsequently banned, he did leave voluntarily due to workload at one point. .

That's exactly it John. The police have more than enough to do already without getting involved in the obscure legal areas of a tiny minority matter. The only attempts were made by a couple of traffic officers who knew more than most about the law, but representations by BEBA* with some...

They wouldn't even consider something that isn't a part of UK law at present. The only conformity they would accept is with current UK legislation. In practice that doesn't matter since the DfT have agreed with police forces that no action will be taken against those using 250 watt motors...

Not to worry John, it's not a vital feature since a crank drive unit rider is perfectly capable of achieving the same smoothed change once used to the bike.