easycommuter

Thanks for sharing about the effect of going electric on your commute, very intersting. You also mentioned your heart rate. What did you use to measure that?

I bought SL120's about 6 weeks ago. They are very good as a backup set of lights and are just fit and forget. The only problem was having to fit the rear light to the pavement side of the bike, rather than road side. This was due to their rear bracket not allowing the light to clear the derailleur gears. (The same problem mentioned in the final entry of the Reelight thread, hyperlinked earlier in this thread) I understand that Reelight now do a UK rear bracket. I ordered mine from the Reelight website (Denmark) and did specifically request a UK bracket. They didn't send it originally and are now in the process of sending it separately. For ref, Reelight told me that the Raleigh Bicycles | Bikes, Cycling Accessories & Clothing website has them in the UK.

Thanks for the extremely comprehensive replies about the 24v Heinzmann battery jhruk that is exactly the battery box I have. The charger is 24v & 7.0Amps [ATTACH]5403.vB[/ATTACH] My battery is in a similar condition you yours, again after roughly more than 10 years. I read in a thread a while back, I think by yourself flecc, that NiCd was hard to beat in terms of durability, the only trouble was that they are also extremely toxic. I was very surprised to see them still on ebay sale 199Euro (£167 approx) + P&P, and then saw it was on an exchange basis (a good service). I enjoy reading about the different battery technologies and possibilities but my limited knowledge (Centre Taps etc) would mean that a replacement (or even a Lithium £320 approx upgrade) is my best bet and definitely my say safest bet, if I go for this route. Until now I had just been looking at what new kit options (even bikes) were available, and hadn't even thought of replacing, the battery. Thanks again.

Hi Flecc I do have a 24v Heinzmann motor and have been resigned to not being able to replace the old battery. Could you point me in the right direction? Thanks.

For reference:- 1) Low power moped (a moped with pedals, with auxiliary propulsion not exceeding 1kW and a maximum design speed not exceeding 25 km/h (16mhph) £55.00 2) Two-wheeled vehicle (including motor cycle and sidecar) £85.00

Subject to working out Battery Cost against Petrol, being the only person with a Veh Reg on my bike would not concern me. The bit that is a show stopper is being forbidden to use it on a cycle way Where I live, there are a lot of cycleways, which could make up part or all of a 16 to 18 mile (round trip) commute. Choosing a cycleway for parts of the commute either can save time or dramatically increase my sense of safety on the bike Maybe I could:- >devise a special foldable Veh Reg Plate/or a cover for the Veh Reg plate & >promise myself not to go more than 15mph on a cycleway. (actually I don't think I'd want to go any faster than this on the cycleways) and go from there. That would hold up in my own court of law, but I can't see it holding up if there was an accident on the Cycle way and a UK court of law Does anybody have a GPS linked speed limiter for e-bikes

Hi First of all, thank you for your update Going back to your (very honest:)) 27/8 update (p6), I can see how a collapsible umbrella is particularly out of the way, when not in use. Just a thought, is the Senz umbrella you're thinking of getting collapsible? If it is, does it fold up easily after use, or do you have to do some manual folding etc? If not, would the size of it get in the way, when you are cycling, when it's not being used? A previous post to the Forum about a year ago(?) posted the a link to a Bike Fairing manufacturer Range - Veltop Classic - Bicycle cycle protection Veltop Classic, Transport, Mobility, Recumbent, Cyclo-Sy.

I'd love to know whether it works as you well as you hope Excellent sun-screen protection as well

I'm afraid I don't have the figures but a while back, I remember hearing on the radio, how Road Tax raises far far more, than the government actually spend on Roads.

e-Scooter + Removable Batteries If you both go ahead with an e-scooter, I think removable batteries are a very useful facility to hold out for. I understand London has several electricity re-charge points, but removeable batteries will allow your daughter to be more flexible about when and where she re-charges the batteries.

easycommuter Could you please add me to the Map at PE2 with an old Retrofit 24v Heinzmann kit

I was told by a friend who was a PE teacher and had studied exactly this question at college, to raise the saddle as high as you could, to get maximum efficiency. I raised my saddle, till my leg was definitely straight on the downward stroke, if not I was almost on tip top. I needed to came off my saddle to actually stop, but as this rarely happens on my commute, this was a small price to pay, against how much easier it was to actually cycle. However after a few weeks, I found I started having knee problems. At the time I thought this was just due to age, but went to see the Doctor anyway. The Doctor who was also an avid cyclist and knew I had cycled, said the first thing to do was try lowering the saddle. I don't know the medical reason, but the knee twinges stopped within a few days. So whilst I might be sub-optimizing on my commute, my knees are very grateful

Hi I have a 24v Heinzmann NiCad retrofit kit which is still going strong since I bought it (>5 yrs ago). I've used it most working days. I didn't realise how fortunate I was, till reading all the comments on your post

Pedelec vs Throttle Hi Lordy Lordy In case this wasn't clear, with a throttle it is basically just like what you would imagine a motor bike to have. In otherwords the more you twist the throttle handle fitted to your bike, the more power is sent to the motor. A pedelec has some sort of sensor that cleverly senses when you apply pressure to the pedals, to also send power to the electric motor. I'm afraid I am not technical, so that is far as I get in terms of how it actually works. I know there has been some favourable discussion, in another thread, about a control on (one of?) the Forza Forte (?) models by 50 Cycles which allows you to set a control to vary the amount of assistance you are given. (I must admit, the control looked particularly easy to vandalise to me, but 50 Cycles said they were refining the design to make it less vulnerable). I found there was a very very slight delay between applying pressure and the motor kicking in, but I got used to that very quickly. As flecc says with the Forza/Forte (?) you would have the option to switch between throttle and pedelec modes

Hello (This is a first posting for me). I converted a normal "sit up and beg" hybrid 12 speed deraillier Raleigh (Jaguar) bike to electric, using a Heinzmann motor, quite a few years ago. I enlisted the help of a local cycle shop, eg. to create a spoked wheel around the hub motor and for getting the throttle mechanism on the handlebars. A couple of things to bear in mind with taking the conversion kit route, it is relatively easy to convert back again if you need to. I haven't needed to in terms of the Heinzmann motor, which has been excellent, but there are occasions, like taking part in a Charity Bike Ride, when I couldn't get any sponsorship unless I took the motor off:-) Also I don't have space for #2 bikes. I visited 50 Cycles in Loughborough and was able to ride on a few proper electric bikes there. The thing that made me think twice was that ones I could try, all felt like they were mountain style of bikes. I hadn't realised how comfortable I had got with what I had been using. Obviously this is very subjective and depends on what you get used to. I keep an eye on the cost of Heinzmann kits (eg. Electric Transport Shop Electric Bike Sales - Shop Online for Electric Bikes, Electric Vehicles and Cycle Accessories) and I know they are not cheap, but their reputation for reliability, in my experience, is well justified. (Ps. After having been using a throttle for years, I was very impressed with the pedelec option on the 50cycles. I tended to look down on this, but it meant you didn't have to have your hand permanently at angle on the throttle)