Laoúra

I get cold hands cycling in winter and will probably be wearing gloves by early October unless it is very warm. I've got 2 pairs that I wear in winter - a silk thin pair and a thicker outer pair - they usually do OK for me. Last winter, getting the bus, I was colder than any day cycling the previous winter - the cheapskate bus company never put the heating on for our £6.40 fare!! With saddles - I've found that any time I've ridden a bike for the first time in a while has resulted in a sore bum. Give it another week or so and you will get used to it (hopefully!).

I'm sure you'll love it Moorlie - I've only had my bike a few weeks and it's a great way to get to work. I used to cycle to work on a normal bike and didn't particularly enjoy it. It's not hilly where I live, but because it's flat it gets very windy and it makes it hard work (I guess it's similar to Holland as flecc (post above) mentions). One thing I'm enjoying in this hot weather is that although I do get a bit of exercise, I'm not arriving at work sweating like I would on a normal bike. The keen cyclists still race past me on their regular bikes, but I'm getting to work in 20-25 mins and it used to take 40 mins on the bus (and also cost me £6.40 per day ).

Thanks guys - maybe I'm being a bit too precious about the bike in general (I haven't had it very long). I'm worried I'll do something stupid like drop the bag it's in when I'm faffing around locking the bike up. When I got back to it after work the other day, a bird had cr@pped on the mudguard and I couldn't leave it until I got home; had to get a tissue and wipe it off immediately. I'm sure I'll soon get over that when this nice weather finishes and it's back to cycling to work in the rain and mud

Not sure if this is the right forum for this but couldn't find an accessory area. Does anyone know of a place where you can get some kind of carry bag for your battery? What I'm after is something that will protect it and at the same time be able to put over a shoulder to carry around. When I take the battery off, at the moment I'm putting it in the rucksack with all my other stuff but I'm worried it'll get damaged.

OK thanks, will do

it's the 705se.

I'm not sure if my bike is 'behaving' as it should (or maybe it's me not understanding it!!!). Sometimes if I've got assist set at 3 or 4, it will be on no assist for a while because I'm on a fairly flat bit of road (which is what I'd expect) and then it suddenly jumps up to the top (full assist) when the road goes up a very slight incline. Does this seem correct? This only happens occasionally. Usually it just goes up one notch gradually, depending on the assist needed, not from one bar to full assist in one movement. I'm wondering if I've got a problem. Another thing I noticed today was that assist was set at 3 bars and it suddenly jumped up to 4 going up a slight incline - no throttle. Should it jump up higher than you've got it set?

Thanks to all - I think I will start bringing it in - it's no big deal to do this for me and you're right, it's worth a lot of ££s - probably about half the cost of my bike!

Thanks :-)

This is probably a daft question, but is it OK to leave your battery connected on your bike when you're not using it? I mean such as overnight when it's in a garage or a shed. I've only just got the bike and for the first part of the week brought it into the house for charging each night, but realised that the battery didn't seem to have gone down at all during the day so didn't charge it last night. Tonight when I got home it was still showing full battery, so I just switched it off but left it in place on the bike. Any thoughts? Should I be charging it each night or leave it until it has lost a bit of charge? Should I disconnect from the bike each night?

Hooray - my bike arrived on Monday. Sadly no instructions, but downloaded a manual! I had to put the pedals on, adjust the handlebars and the mudguard (which was rubbing a bit on the front wheel - sounded like a duck quacking as I rode up the road!) but that was it. Oh, and I did charge the battery, even though it seemed OK. Had a few whizzes around the block on Monday and then cycled to work on Tuesday (just over 5 miles each way). It was great. I haven't cycled much since September last year because a house-move (further away from work) coincided with my old push bike giving up the ghost so I've been on the bus. Happy to say that despite feeling a bit unfit, was at work in less than 25 minutes and not all sweaty and shattered at all. Coming home, I think it was more like 20 mins. The bus used to take an hour some days so very pleased with the commute. It's generally quite flat where I live, but there's a bit of a hill (well, it's more of a steady incline really!) going into and out of the village, and it was really easy to cycle up there. One of the reasons I used to dislike cycling on a regular bike was because it gets pretty windy where I live. Despite it being a bit windy this week, it hasn't been a problem on my Wisper (you could say it was a 'breeze' ). I'm still having a work-out - it's not a case of just sitting there like you're on a moped or something - so that's good. All my workmates have been really impressed with how the bike looks because they've seen electric bikes around which look quite old fashioned and this one certainly doesn't. I've put panniers on too so you can't really see the battery. So it's early days yet, but looking good. Trouble is, I'm a bit paranoid about it getting stolen now - I have added it to the house insurance and although I have a d-lock, I'm going to get a better one.

I've been considering an ebike for a while but still unsure. The ones I like (in my price-range) are: Cyclotricity Sahara RooDog Chic Wisper 705se GreenEdge stepthrough Ebco UCL10 I tried an Ebco last week and it was quite nice (and have tried Smarta in the past), but the price of a new battery puts me off the Ebco. The GreenEdge looks good; however reading about battery problems on the site here also makes me think that maybe one of the first three would be better. The commuting distance isn't too far - just over 5 miles each way and it's Cambridgeshire so not hilly (can get windy as it's so flat) - so I think I just need a bike with a bit of extra power to make my journey easier. Woosh bikes sound great - but sadly I can only afford to buy using work's cycle scheme and Woosh don't use the one we have. I prefer the bikes which hold the battery in the pannier rack rather than behind the seat (I think they just look nicer) and some people have said that disc brakes are better, but because it's not hilly, I've never had a problem with v-brakes around here. Any thoughts welcomed - thanks

Hi all - I have just joined up - been lurking for a few weeks and checking out the reviews and things. I'm on the verge of taking the plunge and getting an electric bike. It's quite flat where I live but often windy (and I'm lazy!), so while a 10 mile round trip commute for some on a regular bike seems like nothing - if I stick with my regular bike, I know I'll just give up and go and get the bus eventually. I tried a couple of ebikes at a place in Cambridge; still not sure which one to get though. Haven't got pots of cash and can only really go up to £1,000. I've been considering the Carrera crossfire, the Ebco UCL-10 and I like the Woosh bikes (but hoping to change jobs so probably can't do the salary sacrifice scheme at the moment).