Lev

[indalo]

While spending a few days recently on the Suffolk coast, I visited the ebike shop in Leiston. I believe this is the shop run by James who occasionally contributes here as james@justebikes.co.uk. Evidently, the LEV moniker represents, "Low Emission Vehicles" which could encompass much more than just ebikes, (and may well do; I didn't ask.)

It was very refreshing to walk round a shop full of european-styled ebikes rather than the seemingly ubiquitous oriental variety we read so much about in these pages. I'm bound to say that, to my eye, the selection on offer, both new and second-hand looked superb. Clearly, they don't deal in bargain-basement ebikes as every single machine on display had a top-quality manufacturer's name on the frame and I don't think there was one bike there that I would have been unhappy to own.

Although full-size Dutch-styled bikes aren't to everyone's taste and may not be the ultimate in hill-climbing ability, around Suffolk I would think they're perfect. For those with deep pockets who prefer MTB styling, there were Haibikes on offer and very robust they looked too.

Many readers here will no doubt be aware of this particular business and some may even have visited the premises but for those who may be considering an ebike purchase, if Leiston is within reach, it's certainly worth a look. Although the guv,nor wasn't around when I visited, the lovely lady in the showroom seemed very knowledgeable and may even be the real guv,nor but what do I know?

There is no connection of any kind between me and the LEV business. I have penned my comments purely for information as an interested visitor to their showroom and I cannot vouch for any aspect of the company's business such as service, after-sales support, warranty and so on but I'm sure some forum members must have experience of the company.

Indalo

 

[eddieo]

Hi Indalo, So no test rides then? Would have very much liked to see your opinion on the Bosch drive!

I never made the connection (before now) between Justebikes and LEV as in the past when searching for info on Swiss Flyer's LEV popped up as a UK distributer (or used to be)

 

[indalo]

Hi Indalo, So no test rides then? Would have very much liked to see your opinion on the Bosch drive!

I never made the connection (before now) between Justebikes and LEV as in the past when searching for info on Swiss Flyer's LEV popped up as a UK distributer (or used to be)

Hi Ed. Unfortunately, I didn't have time for a test ride but with regard to the Haibike, the lady in the showroom said that she found the power of it a little frightening but to be fair, her regular mount is a Sparta Ion model, more leisurely in its progress, I would imagine.

I hadn't gone to the shop with the intention of test-riding any of their machines; it just happened that I was close by and I liked the look of their display so I popped in briefly.

Incidentally, they had a Flyer in the showroom though I couldn't tell you which model it was but it was a smaller-wheeled bike about the size of a medium folder.

As an aside, I rode my Gazelle quite a bit on off-road track, very sandy and muddy in places, yet it performed remarkably well despite the increased drag factor presented by such conditions. While the Haibike would be perfect over that kind of terrain, being 6Kgs lighter and much more manageable than my bike, I've got used to my sit-up-and-beg bike, preferring its serene progress to that of my other bikes. I'm certainly not averse to the idea of Bosch power but I think I'd prefer it on a traditionally-styled application, rather than the MTB style.

Noting that LEV doesn't appear amongst the ads on this page, I had a look at the list of BEBA members and was surprised to find that LEV isn't there. I'm surprised by that.

Regards,
Indalo

 

[flecc]

Evidently, the LEV moniker represents, "Low Emission Vehicles" which could encompass much more than just ebikes, (and may well do; I didn't ask.)

I've always understood LEV to stand for Light Electric Vehicles, here's one commercial quote to that effect: "Electric bikes are part of a wide range of Light Electric Vehicles (LEVs) that provide convenient local transportation."

However, the governments Health and Safety Executive says it stands for Local Exhaust Ventilation.

Wikipedia is having none of either, saying both lev and LEV are abbreviations of Leviticus and also a biblically connected christian name.

So it seems the Humpty Dumpty* approach is acceptable.

* Lewis Carroll: "Through a Looking Glass".

 

[indalo]

I've always understood LEV to stand for Light Electric Vehicles

That was my understanding too Flecc but the other meaning of the acronym does appear to be a trading style of the company as follows:

"Leiston
Low Emission Vehicles Ltd., Valley road, Leiston, Suffolk IP16 4AQ (not Sundays)
01728 833 355"

Indalo

 

[flecc]

I think most of these acronyms are flexible in meaning. One might have thought there wouldn't be too many fleccs about, but here's a list I once amused myself by searching for:

Flecc: A Flexible Cache Coherence Protocol for Dynamic Component Based Systems

Florida East Coast Electrical Contractors: flecc.com

In nursing: FLECC – First Line Emergency Course

In education: Falls-Lenox/ECC (US schools group)

On You Tube: Online name of a Canadian named Felix.

flecc: Online name of a north of England amateur DJ.

Flecc: A desktop power supply

Flecc llc: Foreign Language Immersion Early Childhood, a Florida limited liabilty company.

Federal Libraries' Experiment in Cooperative Cataloging - (Later, FEDLINK)

FlecC: An artist on deviantart.com

FLECC - Flensburg English Classroom Corpus

flecc: Shirts (flecc appears to be related to fleece/wool etc)

BULLETIN DE LA FLECC: French magazine, now ceased publication.

FLECC: Full Length Emergency Cooling Core

flecc: Twitter name of Efleno C Cavalcante

F.L.E.C.C: Federation Loisirs et Culture Cinematographiques

flecc: Groups in classifying minimal free Bernoulli subflows up to (conjugacy) isomorphism.

flecc: translations into other languages on this link
.

 

[flecc]

So further to the above, my online flecc name is the Biellise language for the fern plant!

In reality it's the abbreviation of my surname Flecchia, that originating in northern Italy and mainly existing there in Piedmont and the adjacent southern France.

Equivalent names are Spanish Flecha and French Flecher. The English pronouncing the latter in Norman times as Fletcher gave rise to that pseudo English name.

Flecchia, Flecha, Flecher and Fletcher all mean Arrowsmith, the true English equivalent.

That's not the meaning of the somewhat similar looking German and Austrian names Fleischer and Fleischmann, both of which mean butcher.

 

[james@justebikes.co.uk]

Indalo I'm usually there 12/6 and am sad to have missed you. My guess is you met either Kate or Clare - both are great: Kate delivers three of her kids to school by Sparta before coming in to straighten out my haphazard bookeeping; Clare - suffering wife mine - sorts out everything else i get wrong. Lee our finest Viking techy was probably way back in the workshop switching German front brakes from left to right or trying to get EBSC software to convince a Koga it was an e-bike and not a golf ball (one of the risks of SW update on old models is ROM paralysis). (yes Flecc I know but trust me, the pros do out way the cons… how many four year old e-bikes do you know that can be updated at the click of a mouse to have their battery recharge when they’re rolling down hill?)

LEV is Light Electric Vehicles Ltd and its younger sister LEV is Low Emission Vehicles Ltd.

The former focuses on B2B, the latter B2C through its online store 'justebikes'. This came about after I realised that whilst I and most pedelecers might know what LEV stands for, to the uninitiated it means nothing. Justebikes does what it says on the tin. (plus there’s a well hidden gov office of same name that who knows and here's hoping might one day wake up to the social, environmental and economic benefits of e-bikes).

I don't care much for any self appointed org that pretends to represent the publics interests whilst positioning theirs foremost. I don't like Beba. Despite these reservations LEV has attempted to join their merry band on numerous occasions over the years; but they weren't willing or able to accept us. Fear of quality Dutch/German/Swiss product? Dunno. Any way, by the time Mark Loveridge - who's work and vision for the UK e-bike market I’ve long respected – kindly called to say join I’d reckoned they were a dwindling force.

Lastly Indalgo, if you had ventured through into our workshop you’d have seen why we don’t sell ‘cheap’ e-bikes… over in the far left corner past what was once the bar, over the dance floor and onto the stage (it used to be a nightclub way back in the 50's) is the last of many embarrassing piles of 20 or so far away made ebikebones gathering dust. We stopped selling built-to-a-price stuff 5 years ago but even today a few are still coming back. In the showroom amongst the new Kogas, Spartas and Haibikes you saw were a dozen or so of our Sparta ION hire bikes ready for action. Most have over 6k on the clock. I bought 28 of them for our electricbikehire.co.uk in 2007 – they’re the same vintage as those terrible things in the bonepile.

We will be advertising here soon - waiting for 2012 product images.

Thanks for calling in, come again soon,

James