Lazybee45

headphones while riding note that around MY home area, headphones are not considered legal while riding bikes, on the other hand, 90% of teh joggers wear them so what the heck! I have use them and like Mithrel said, I keep the volume where I can hear over teh music. you don't HAVE to have it turned up to bleeding levels anyway. I have found headphones that wrap around the BACK of my head work and I even found a sony AM/FM radio that does this. and I also like the winter time aplication of warm ears with the head phones too. OR put in ear buds and wear a Stocking cap (Balaclava?) so they are least not obvious! i also agree that the mirrors are the VERY best insurance against cars sneaking up on you! I am a little different. I prefer as many mirrors and as much information as I can process. I have TWO mirrors on my helmet and a mirror on EACH bar end of my Trike. (My Tour Easy does not have mirrors mounted yet) I prefer the Mirrycle bar end if I can get it. easy to mount, flexible and stays where it is put. Using common sense is maybe the best way to avoid problems! By the way, My recovery from heart work is progressing. today I rode my e-assist Tour Easy to the downtown library and back. whew! FIRST real bike ride in over 2 weeks! I am REALLY glad to be getting over this mess! mark

Sorry I don't have the quote thing down well yet. I am a "bloody yank" but I will answer anyway! Where do you live? Cedar Rapids, Iowa (look it up on google maps) how often do you commute? MOST weeks I commute 2-3 days (I only make 4 round trips usually) How far? it is about 7 miles each way to Marion, Iowa, where I work as a truck (Lorry) driver. How long does it take? It takes from 30-40 minutes. Much is rural roads but some moderate highway driving. My co-workers laugh at me, but I am older than most of them and can out work almost all of them! mark

I am runnning a pair of 15v solar panels (10 watt so they are about .6-.7 amp charge rate) They work better than people told me they would, but not enough to get full time power from teh battery. I use them to extend my range and as a charging station while stopped. these are pretty simple units and they are wired basically direct in series to the battery pack through a plug like the standard charger uses. they charge even in pretty diffused light. grey overcast days too. I don't know if you could do an indefinite length ride using ONLY solar panels, but they help some and while youare riding, they are ALWAYS trickling power in. same when you stop. I have ridden my bike to work and left it parked out in the sun and had the batteries fully charged when I returned to the bike! So do they work? yes, are they perfect? no. mark