Arash

If we are counting spare tyres mine is a mountain trike haha

Tsk tsk, they only have three wheels haha

Its clearly meant to make people believe that the wearer is a police constable, lets not pretend any one buys it for any other purpose. I have also linked the relevant legislation. Like I have also said you are an adult and make your own decisions. In the grand scheme of things it really doesn't bother me any more than questionable modifications on cars/vans or people on road bikes with so tight a lycra that I was going to call the rspb and report them for cruelty to birds on account of the budgies that they had smothered. I do have a good chuckle though. Life is too short and my time far too valuable, I come on most forums to learn and share knowledge. So while I am out walking my dog and smoking a very nice cigar, feel free to type more self riteous trite, word of warning though, you may get keybard hernia hahaha

Haha I was referring to the vests that are pants! haha

Look I am not bothered that you or some one you know wears one, it doesn't bother me that I have seen people wearing them on sports bikes behaving like prats. Having basic knowledge of some laws because of previous work I have done, I pointed out possible implications so that readers may using their own judgement and common scene make adult decisions. I am also entitled to my own views on the matter and still think they are pants.

Because the former is part of the police act and the latter is not: Any person who, not being a constable, wears any article of police uniform in circumstances where it gives him an appearance so nearly resembling that of a member of a police force as to be calculated to deceive shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale. source: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/16/section/90 I am not sure where you stand with those vests but the above is quite clear.

See loads of motor bike riders wearing them, it seems to to imply to them that every one should be mindful of their right to ride like arse holes. Impersonating a police officer carries a prison sentence.

Ok found it. Let me have a think about it. Cheers

Hi I am interested, I could not find it on ebay, can you post a link? Where abouts are you based?

Well here you go no 3d printer needed: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12-Volt-DC-Power-Connector-Magcode-Magnetic-Only-Live-When-Connected-/231148212430

I have been mulling it over and if you do go with the magnetic idea, you will have to make the socket on the external side of the rucksack, I would use 2 round plugs each with ring magnets on the male and female, I would also use some sort of thin rubber or plastic material to stop them shorting out and to make disconnections easier, rather than soldering, use epoxy. If you know some one with a 3d printer they will be delighted to make you something like that. I am building one right after I build me ebike, right after building my garden workshop! hahaha

They mentioned using it to drop food and medical supplies in a war zone, i.e a humanitarian role. There are already numerous more sophisticated ways to deliver munitions to enemy targets in war zones.

What about a kill switch with a lanyard attachment like motorcross riders have?

Don't get me started on marketing... Haha

p.s I like the last one!

I see this every day in engineering, every body moans about the loss of engineering and manufacturing in UK and Europe, and go on about the low quality of Eastern Imports. Yet when a European manufacturer offers a product every body moans about the price. The reason it costs more money is 2 fold, firstly companies spend a lot of money on R&D which they have to recoup on each product they sell. Most far eastern companies are happy to copy anything and everything, so they don't spend money on R&D, the most they do is reverse engineer stuff. Secondly, its cheaper to produce stuff in China, Vietnam, Bangladesh as they treat their workforce like shit. Low pay etc.. I am not sure what the rules are in Austria, or if the bike and parts are manufactured there but speaking to a chap in Germany when I was there he said that to build a factory in Germany you must also build housing etc for your workforce.

Having looked around at kits and paraphenailia for the last couple of month, the price you have paid would not even buy you a battery pack! What a bargain. Glad you like the bike.

What these devices do is use energy release from burned petrol diesel, turned into electricity to generate hho. It is more wasteful than burning petrol or diesel to propel your car. Every time the energy is converted there are losses through heat, noise and friction.

Soundwave, I know a chap that sells lead acid batteries for cheap. He has some hefty ones at the minute (90ah) all tested and showing good capacity. 5 or 6 of them could probably run a house. I know of at least one chap who lives off grid and a few more who use old lister stationary engines mated to gensets running as chp (combined heat power) and they have so much excess heat that they use a hot tub as a heat dump. Just need space and understanding/deaf neighbours. Best of all they are run on used cooking oil and fat derived fuel so besides the effort its a very cheap fuel to produce and reduced enviromental impact. Having tried grid tie ins, thier opinion was that its a waste of time. The certification is too costly and you get shares that you are supposed to flog to companies who want to offset thier carbon foot print. But its done on auction type areangement and too complicated for typical householder to do.

There are different stainless steels, some are soft and some are hardened, all usually come annealed (unless you specify differently) and you would have to harden them yourself. You would need an oven capable of taking the steel to its critical temperature and then it needs quenching to make it hard. After that a couple of trips in a tempering oven to make it less brittle. On most stainless it needs to be done in a low oxygen environment, some need cryogenic quenching in a vacuum!!!! You are best off using a tube rather than a rod, weight for weight tube is stronger than a rod. You will need a dc tig welder to weld stainless steel and an ac/dc tig welder to weld aluminium. You may be able to use a mig welder with the right wire and gas but its hard work as the wire is soft and gets stuck often. Make up a design and get a local engineering company to weld it up for you.

Yep ordering these tyres tonight: http://www.wiggle.co.uk/schwalbe-city-jet-mtb-tyre/ Looking for a new pair of 26" wheels, some decent pads for the brakes, new chain and I will see what else I can get cheap. Got an imax b6 and an nitecore d4 individual cell charger, got a bench power supply on its way too. Just chasing a bloke for a load of 18650's that he had ammassed and never did anything with. And last but not least an extra wide sadle for my extra lard arse haha, oh and ditching the spd pedals for some normal ones.

Thanks for all the advice, had a go on a kalkhoff today, one of the guys at work uses it. Very nice but it costs more than my car and it will probably get nicked. So project Ginga is about to take off! http://s374.photobucket.com/user/kamaangir/media/image.jpg1_3.jpg.html Its looking sorry for itself after sitting in one garden after the next. But all the rusty bits will get replaced, I liked the idea of the hub gears and the hydrolic v brakes on the kalkhoff... Depending on how much money I have left. Found a company on aliexpress selling a frame mounted battery housing for $40 plus shipping but it can only hold 50 batteries, its a very neat solution. I have decided to go with the bafang bbs02 48v kit. Hoping to get it done with the help of a mate, who's into fixies, and vintage bikes, before the next tube strikes on the 5th of august.

Thanks for the replies and the welcome, I was actually looking at the bafang kit but was not sure if it was any good. Couple of answers to questions posed: My bike is a 15 year old hardly used but "weather conditioned" raleigh mountain bike. It was about £500 when I bought it but it needs new chain and pair of wheels, I will upgrade the v brakes to some nice disks and the forks will get ditched for new ones. Its a nice down hill 9miles to work and all uphill home, I am reasonably fit as I walk about 6 or so miles per day, I am what I delicately call extra lard arse! Hence why I am considering one of these kits. I have also got access to lots of 18650 lithium ion cells, I also know a man with a 3d printer who can print any housing or other bits I need, just need to find a proper charger, the cells are a nominal 3.7v at anything from 1ah to about 2.6 ah, 11-12 series will output 40-46 volts and I can parallel the packs to get what ever capacity I need, 10 packs of 11 cells will give me some thing like 20-24ah (usual battery performance caveats apply) each cell weighs 45g so a pack of 111 including plastic housing and cables etc will weigh about 5.2 kilos. I could go with lipo but the 18650's are more or less free. I have the facility to give them an 8 hour charge at work as well as work and plenty of space to store extra packs as I make them. I will more than likely only use it for the work commute, weekends I will give my sore arse a rest! Haha Any way thats the plan so far.

Hello every body, I am considering an electric bike for a 9 mile commute to work. I can't afford or want a ready made solution, I had much rather struggle with making bits work that weere not intended for the purpose than buy a shiney one out the shop. I will be pestering all and sundry about the differences between the wheel hub or centre motor kits etc... I am an electrical engineer and work in central london, I have built some stuff before, so getting my hands grotty is a big part of the attraction of the project. Any hoo Cheers