scobo

I use 3 panels totalling 70 watts to charge my Samsung NC10 netbook among other things. To give you some idea of what to expect, on a good day during the summer with full sun I can fully charge the netbook twice from empty. On a dull day I can charge it to about 50%. It runs for about 6 hours on a full charge consuming around 12 watts. I use a battery similar to this to store the power from the panels. I have used a SLA too but found it less efficient especially when using an inverter.

Hi Brian. I got my bike before they changed to the lithium battery so I couldn't say for sure but I'd imagine they'd have changed the photo on ebay if the battery set up was different. Buyers could send the bike back under the "not as described" rules otherwise.

It's really frustrating as the technology to build good electric cars is obviously here now if they can build cars like the Tesla and Lightning. You have to wonder if there are other factors preventing the car manufacturers from developing production electric cars such as pressure from the big petrol companys not to.

Getting back to charging during the winter, I really don't trust myself to remember to charge my battery so was thinking of leaving it plugged into a timer set to charge for maybe an hour a week to keep it topped up. Would this be ok ?

I did have a look at the second hand bikes on ebay before buying brand new but the main problem was the vast majority of sales were pickup only and there weren't many for sale within a reasonable distance from me. I guess ebikes haven't quite taken off in Scotland yet.

No worries Aldby. Sure, it's probably lower spec than many other bikes but I'd still recommend it to anyone looking for their first bike and not wanting to spend a fortune. I haven't had a bike since I was a teenager and wasn't sure if I would get it into it but I have partly due to the help and information available on this site. I may well progress to a more expensive bike with better spec in the future (if the Mrs will let me). Cheers, Scott.

That's fair enough and I'm certainly no ebike expert having just bought my first one but what i was implying was that you can't just rubbish something you haven't seen for yourself just because it's low priced (or from China).

Yes, I noticed this when I had mine in the car with me the other day. It was sitting in the passenger seat next to me but well away from my phone yet was going crazy showing similar speeds. The manual states it needs to be within 5mm of the magnet to register. Very odd.

Ah, so you equate everything that's cheap with poor quality even though you have no first hand experience. Very constructive (not).

So you've tried one of these yourself then ?

I think you'd have a job finding a better bike than this brand new for £340 ..... 26" Brand New Aluminium Electric Folding BikeSL26SF02BL on eBay, also, Bikes, Cycling, Sporting Goods (end time 06-Jun-08 21:11:30 BST) Another member posted this review of a very similar bike .... http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bike-reviews/1958-sun-lova-sl300zb-owner-reviews.html

I have a couple of solar panels on my garage roof putting putting out 70 watts and use them to charge two laptops . I use a 20ah SLA as a buffer connected to a 75 watt inverter. The laptops chargers both draw around 30-40 watts so on a day of decent sunlight they charge no problem with this set-up. I just bought an ebike recently and tried charging the battery (24v 8ah nimh) last night when the SLA wasn't charging from solar and got about 2 hours from it which is around half a charge (the SLA wasn't fully charged). My ebike's charger draws 40 watts so on a sunny day it should charge fully no problem. Unfortunately, the forecast here for the next few days is cloud and rain but I'll try it when the sun puts in an appearance again. The solar panels cost £200 for the pair (ebay), the SLA was £50, charge controller £20 and the inverter £20.

I just bought one of these ebikes recently off ebay :- 26" Brand New Aluminium Electric Folding BikeSL26SF02BL on eBay, also, Bikes, Cycling, Sporting Goods (end time 06-Jun-08 21:11:30 BST) I'm really pleased with it and the seller provided great service. They dispatched it the following day and the bike arrived the day after that.

Hi there. KY4 (Dunfermline, Fife).

Thanks guys. Mine's a twistgrip so I'll give this a go over the weekend (weather permitting).