DBCohen

Duty and VAT are certainly due, Flecc, unless the items were purchased in the EU. Ownership is merely a matter of who gets the bill - it is immaterial as to whether a bill is due or not. As far as getting billed in the first place, HMRC has limited resources, and I suspect is far more focussed on the big volume stuff like computers and electronics, jewellery, watches etc.. I've shipped clothes and miscellaneous goods many times, and never been charged for them - whereas more often than not anything electronic gets caught, and recently a watch too. With the add-on charges that all UK carriers impose, it can get pricey. My simple rule is to always assume an overseas shipment will get charged, and budget accordingly. If it gets through without, then happy days!

Now, now - live and let live. There's plenty of people who feel the same way about computers and the Internet. Or electric bikes, for that matter.

I tend to wear synthetic stuff so you get the fast drying, sweat wicking and wind barrier effect when worn in layers. Loose tops and trousers/shorts are often sold cheap in outdoor shops when the sales are on. It gives you all the benefits of lycra without making you look such a berk.

A cheap eBay pannier bag set and either bin bags or rucksack liners are just as waterproof as the expensive ones, Jon - that's the way I went. I got lightweight nylon bags in dayglo colours, and they come off the bike easily at my destination.

Barry, recently took delivery of an Oxygen Emate City and I like it very much - a much nicer bike than my previous eZee Cadence. It does have a pushbutton control on the handlebars to change it from throttle only to pedelec mode - so you can use the throttle mode to get up to speed from a standstill, and then switch to assist mode for pedalling.

I am not sure a bell or horn would help that much. That sort of jaywalking is a particular London affliction (though Manchester City Centre seems to suffer to a lesser degree), and I have had it happen to me even when in the car. It's an ignorance/arrogance thing - notice how the people at 1:00 just wander out without even looking? The attitude seems to be driven that road users will have serious repercussions if they mow someone down, so the onus is on the road user to avoid doing so whatever the pedestrian does. Another common problem is turning right at lights, even in a car - oncoming traffic seem to think it is fine to race through an amber or red even as you pull forward, having waited in the middle of the junction.

Yes, it has. Social respect has plummeted, drug use has gone up, and the Chinese dragon economy means that getting tooled up to go robbing has never been cheaper. Ever see a door get sledgehammered so that car thieves could get the keys? Happened to a neighbour of mine, with a nice threat of stabbing when he tried to intervene. I've seen laptops stolen from train tables when someone turns their back, LCD TVs smashed and grabbed from living room windows while the owners watched them, and since the price of petrol went through the roof fuel pipe disconnection underneath cars to drain the tank is making a "greatest hits" comeback. Britain is not a nice place any more.

Not many actual suggestions so far... so here's what I use. On the bike, a Kryptonite New York 3000 U-lock. This comes with a bike mount (that is OK but not great), and is a heavy beast, but appears to do the job. I carry this with me and put it through the bike when I get to the office, and supplement it with a long cable lock and padlock that I leave on the office bike stand. When I get home, the U-lock is fastened to the bike and also a Kryptonite Fahgeddaboutit chain and disk lock combo. The chain is fastened to a security loop that is blind bolted to a wooden fixture in my back yard. Some points to note: - That lot was not cheap. You need to spend properly on security - if you cheap out your bike is at risk - There is NOTHING that will stand up to a thief with power tools and time - Power tools aren't the only way to compromise a bike lock, depending on its design. Bottle jacks, pry bars, bolt cutters, liquid nitrogen - the inventiveness of the criminal mind is endless. Bear all of that in mind. My strategy is to make my bike look more difficult to steal than any others in the area. I try and lock it up in an open, public place, near others, and I make sure I position the locks as tightly on the bike as I can - if power tooling it means damaging the bike, they hopefully won't bother, and the smaller the gap the lower the chance of prying or jacking. David.

I just took delivery of my Oxygen Emate City this morning from 50Cycles. I previously had an eZee Cadence, which is most definitely an all-Chinese design and build, so is a good comparison, I suppose. The Oxygen is very nicely built - all of the cabling is well routed, and the fit and finish appears superior to me than the eZee. It feels much lighter too, and is definitely easier to handle. The frame is completely different to other bikes I have used before, with a box cross-section rather than tubes. 50Cycles supplied it all set up, with pumped tyres and a charged battery. I just needed to straighten and raise the handlebars, and screw in the pedals, and I was away. In use, the Oxygen has a clear and unambiguous power display, with buttons to change the assistance level. Assistance from the rearmount motor kicks in when you pedal, with no need for the throttle. There is also a handlebar control that disables the pedelec mode and switches it to throttle only electric drive. As a rear-motored bike, it doesn't have the hub gears the eZee had, but a derailleur set. I don't know if I'll miss them - they were good in that you could set the gear when stationary. With a front disc brake the brakes seem better than the Cadence (though the reduced weight probably helps too). In summary, I am really pleased with it - seems to me to be a more advanced machine than my old eZee (though that might be new buyer satisfaction talking at this point!).

I agree with the others who have pointed out that forcing commercial stuff into the blogs only will mean it may be missed. I have a toolbar link that brings me straight into the forums - as Flecc said, with the amount to read here I don't really want to jump somewhere else too. I suppose I could add the recent blog RSS feed to my Google Reader account... The blog area is a little confusing at present - it does not make it clear that there are a number of individual blogs that can be looked at. The recent blog entry presentation makes it hard to distinguish from an expanded forum post view - though of course, I do appreciate the underlying difference. BUT - given that suppliers are as much a member of the community as the customers, it doesn't seem right to me to hive them off just because they mention products they sell, as long as their skin in the game is publicly obvious. Clearly, they should not be advertising directly in threads - but there is a big difference between a mention or discussion of a sold product and a promotional post. Distinguishing between the two is a moderation/editorial judgement, surely? Fact is, education and discussion is always welcomed by me, and the chance to directly interact with suppliers in public and under the critical view of others who are knowledgeable is immensely valuable to the community, IMHO.

The AtoB site does a lot of that already, doesn't it?

Jon, I live in Manchester and should be taking delivery of an Oxygen Emate City in the next week or two. You are welcome to come up and give it a go if that helps. Thanks, David.

Well, I have done the Cyclescheme dance and I have an Oxygen Emate City in white on order from 50Cycles. Anyone want to buy a low-mileage eZee Cadence with a six-mile battery?

Well, I am sure that Flecc will weigh in with an expert opinion, but I always thought it was purely a measure of the electricity it consumes, rather than a power output (due to efficiency losses and other variables). Even if not, you can probably NOT count on the figure being an average. Marketing is all about having the highest number - it is possibly a peak measurement, not an average.

I would observe that I find it incredible that Plod can't track the guy down, given that his car was caught on camera. Are there NO shots of the number plate as the guy drives away?

Understood, Harry. The problem really is that Cyclescheme was never intended for e-bikes used on a daily basis, as your issues imply. They expected most scheme users to buy a mid-range ordinary bike, not e-bikes with consumable parts. An non-electric bike is not going to wear like an e-bike on daily use.

After my salary sacrifice finishes (12 months) they'll take a returnable deposit off me as "rental". and give it back to me after (hmm) 2 more years, I think. At that point the bike is mine.

Actually, following on from my figures query, I have just noticed that you were on the EMPLOYER part of the website, not EMPLOYEE. Thos figures do not represent the costs to you, the punter. Sure enough, tap a £1000 cost into the employee saving calculator, and you find that the cost to you over 12 months is £483 without that final fee. Forget about it not being yours during the period of the agreement, even if it is 4-5 years - as I said previously, no employer actually wants your bike back off you at any point.

What my company are doing is charging a single lease payment as a deposit at the end of the cyclescheme period, which is returned at the end of the overall agreement - meaning that no final value costs are incurred. They do this because otherwise, at the end of the salary sacrifice, you would be well within you rights to return the bike to the employer and walk away - it is theirs, after all. They do NOT want people doing that, and end up with the hassle of bike disposal. And I don't recognise the calculations from the Cyclescheme website - it is well known that the various savings in Cyclescheme add up to a roughly 50% overall saving, especially with VAT at 20%. And that still makes sense to me.

No, it is not, Frank's brusque manner notwithstanding. But it is worth remembering the the Copenhagen Wheel has not really been publicly tested in anger yet. The substance of its real world performance is yet to be determined. My Prius, even with an integrated regenerative braking system, computer controlled power distribution and the inertia of a family sized car, needs at least a mile of downhill freewheeling to make a measurable difference to the onboard battery level. The efficiency problem Flecc referred to is huge.

If you want commentary on the road, record it and be damned with the noise - as long as you can make out what you are saying you can always redub it later. I think your best bet is going to be a lapel mic, ideally worn under the clothes to keep it out of the wind. Tape it on to minimise movement (and therefore cloth scratching) and use foam or gauze over it too. If you don't want to be attached to the bike/camera with a wire (because it is inconvenient) just record the audio to a separate device like an MP3 recorder, and add it to the video track later.

Scott, I understand and appreciate your putting your side of the story over - it was not my aim to get the 50Cycles/eZee relationship breakdown debated in public. If you read the entire thread, you will see that I am a 50Cycles customer, who received a duff battery, and on contacting you received no response. I then found out that you had terminated with eZee and were advising customers with battery issues to email them directly. So unfortunately you didn't get all of your customers - here I am and I have never had any of the restitution you offered to others. Happy to discuss that with you offline - I will PM you. David.

Thanks for the response, Chief eZee. It's useful to know the detail - at least I know to avoid 50Cycles for a replacement bike.

On the handlebars, every vibration of the wheel, steering and your weight is transmitted to the camera. The police body-worn cameras being adopted now mount using a gear harness on the front of the shoulder. You might try improvising something like that - but it will HAVE to be tightly stuck to your jacket, rather than using a sling. I suspect you might have to stitch velcro to a vest, and then stick velcro to the back of the camera.

Fixed penalty? That would require the attendance of a policeman. When you do see them nowadays, they are in cars, not walking around on pavements, so the chance of a cyclist getting served are minimal.