2Lazy

Nice. If you were into gaming you could build yourself an awesome system. TBH all I really need these days is my iPad. I have a MacBook Pro but I can go months without even switching it on.

I don’t think ebikes are particularly expensive when you consider the cost of lithium batteries and motors etc. Yes you can save a bit of money by building an ebike yourself but few people have the time, inclination and skills to do it. Most people want an off the shelf product with a guarantee and after sales service etc. It’s the same with computers. I’ve worked for many years in an IT related field and I built a PC as part of my undergraduate degree. So I could quite easily build my own computer and save some cash if I wanted to. I never have though because, well.....I just can’t be arsed with the hassle. I’d rather spend what little free time I have doing other things and just buy a ready made solution from Apple or Dell, even if it costs me more.

Yep, several times I’ve had my chain come off on the way to or from work. Instead of spending 20 minutes taking my chain guard off and getting my hands covered in chain grease I can just keep going using the throttle and fix the chain when get home. There’s lots of talk on this thread about what the law is and why in regard to throttles. Much of which I would not dispute. But we decide what the law is or isn’t, or rather our elected officials do on our behalf. So just because something is or isn’t legal or illegal doesn’t mean that is how it should be, or that it has to remain that way, nor does it mean that the current law is sensible or enforceable. My bike was manufactured before the recent change to the law, in fact that’s one of the reasons I bought the bike when I did, so I’ll continue to use the throttle as intended. As and when I need to purchase a new bike I’ll probably just ignore the law especially as that is what a lot of ebike manufacturers and retailers seem to be doing.

It’s not a pancake, it only looks that after you’ve eaten their mushrooms....... or so I’m told. Although come to think of it, a pancake the size of Holland is exactly what I’d want after visiting one of their ‘coffee shops’

The law is complete nonsense, in my opinion. The cadence sensor on my ebike is such that I can waggle my legs around putting in virtually zero effort and the motor will give full power. As such, it does not and should not make any difference whatsoever whether my legs are moving or not. Have a speed limit and a weight limit, by all means, but why impose an arbitrary restriction which doesn’t improve safety and compromises the utility of the product, especially for disabled riders? In the US throttles are allowed in many states and have been allowed here on new ebikes for many years until recent changes to the law with no problems whatsoever. If it ain’t broke why fix it? As for the motor industry. They’re an incredibly powerful lobby that has a long history of doing everything within their power to make cycling as unappealing as possible. Motorcycle and motor scooter manufacturers especially will almost certainly see the massive growth in ebikes as a big threat to their industry especially now that London is beginning at long last to get some half decent cycling infrastructure.

They wouldn’t have to be classified as scooters / require licensing and indeed they weren’t until the law was changed. A decision which was most likely based on ignorance and/or a desire to protect the motor industry as opposed to what is or isn’t classified as a bicycle which is in any case somewhat subjective. But I can guarantee if you ask 100 people what they see when you show them a typical ebike with a throttle every one of them will say ‘a bicycle’ and not a single one of them will say ‘a scooter’.

I’m just glad I bought my Ezee Forza with full speed throttle before all these stupid new regulations were brought in. I rarely use the throttle but on those occasions when I do use the throttle it gives me a lot more control than would otherwise be the case. As such it is safer for me to have a throttle than not have one. But the powers that be chose to ban them. What kind of nonsense is that? As for a throttle that only works when the pedals are turning - what’s the point in that? A throttle is most useful from a standing start or in short bursts for low speed manoeuvres.

On the original question from the OP. On my ebike that I use for commuting I have a cadence sensor. I much prefer this, for commuting, as I want full power with minimal effort. Effectively I want an electric scooter - it just happens to be bike shaped and has pedals. My e-MTB on the other hand is a Haibike with Yamaha motor. I prefer this for off road use and for leisure use when I want to get some exercise. For me the cadence sensor vs torque sensor question really depends on the individual use case and personal preference.

I went with Aviva in the end. All they wanted to know was the value of the most expensive bike I owned (£3500) and I got them all covered for an extra £23.

Thanks for the recommendations, I will check those out.

If you’re talking about a seperate policy specifically for an ebike (as opposed to cover via a home insurance policy) then it very much depends on the value of the bike but typically an ebike worth £1500 would be about £100 per year. For my Haibike, which is valued at £3500 the cheapest I could find was £180 per year and there are requirements in regard to where the bike is kept and the type of lock that you use etc.

Please could the good folks on here recommend home insurance providers that offer a good level of cover for ebikes. My current home insurance policy with The Post Office, which is up for renewal, excludes ebikes from standard cover and even as a named item on the policy they won’t offer cover beyond £1200. I have three ebikes, total value (bought new) around £6k. Ideally I’d like cover for when I’m out and about as well as when they’re stored at home. Thanks.

I have an Ezee Forza and I've test ridden the Ezee Sprint. I haven't ridden the Oxygen S-Cross but I have tried Oxygen's previous MTB which I think had the same motor and controller as the S-Cross. I'd say the Ezee was marginally more powerful than the Oxygen, certainly in terms of torque. It was quite a while ago but there was nothing to choose between them in terms of the pedal assist / power delivery so far as I can remember. The Oxygen is better looking in my opinion, the control buttons are much easier to reach, and the integrated battery is a nice feature. But I'd be worried about leaving the bike unattended with that big LCD display - it really ought to be removable. If the Ezee Sprint still does the job I'd be inclined to keep it as the benefits that the Oxygen offers wouldn't be enough to justify the additional cost in my opinion. But it really depends how much you want a new bike, whether you like the Oxygen after a test ride and whether you think it's worth the expense.

Noticed today that the puncture that took me two hours to fix has deflated again. Couldn't face the prospect of having to remount that tyre again so took both wheels to my local bike shop. They're converting them to tubeless for me. Guy in the bike shop says I won't regret it - apparently he's been running tubeless for quite a while and hasn't had a puncture in more than 18 months.

I think you may be correct. The side wall of my rim does look quite deep. I also think in my case it's probably this particular combination of tyre and rim which makes the fit extra tight. It was incredibly difficult just to get the tyre lever under the tyre to begin unmounting it which suggests that the tyre diameter is slighter smaller than the rim.

Rims: XLC Evo Disc Hubs on Rodi TR40 Rims, Front 15mm, Rear 148x12mm Tyres: Schwalbe Nobby Nic Evo Snakeskin 27.5+ x 2.80

Yesterday I got my first puncture on my new Haibike SDuro AllMtn 6.0. I was 12 miles from home but not a problem as I had all my kit in my backpack and I have fixed dozens if not hundreds of punctures in my time. 10 minutes and I'll be back on the road. Or so I thought! To cut a long story short it took me almost two hours to fix the damn thing! Or rather it took me five minutes to fix the puncture but an hour and 45 minutes to get the tyre off the rim and back on again. And believe me I know most of the tricks - pinch and push to gather all the slack, tried it, push the tyre into the centre of the rim all the way around, tried it, bit of lube along the beading to help get the tyre back on, tried it. I'm telling you these have to be the tightest fitting tyres in the entire known universe! It took me ten minutes just to get the tyre lever under the tyre let alone begin to unmount it. On two occasions I almost admitted defeat and was going to call a friend to give me a lift home but I pressed on determined to not let it beat me. Such was the effort and force required to get the tyre back on the rim when I finally got it back on I literally fell backwards and collapsed in a heap on the floor! So at least I now know that it is physically possible to get the tyre back onto the rim but the idea of having to do that on a regular basis is unthinkable. I'm pretty sure the rims and tyres are tubeless ready so I'm thinking of getting my local bike shop to convert them to tubeless. Any advice and to what extent does tubeless with sealant protect MTBs from punctures? Also if you do get a puncture in a tubeless set-up with sealant, and you have to effect a roadside repair, by putting in a tube, how messy a job is it with all that sealant sloshing around?

To The Electric Transport Shop- Thank you for the response. I saw this post a couple of weeks ago but I've been so busy with work and other things in recent weeks I just haven't had time until now to reply. So just to give you a quick update. The independent mobile bike mechanic fitted the new chain (KMC X10e) and reindexed the gears. Since then I've been on four rides totalling 60 miles and I'm happy to report that the bike feels much better, all the gears shift correctly, I can now use all the gears, I no longer get any phantom shifting and so far (touch wood) the chain has stayed in one piece. The bike mechanic clearly knew his onions and described to me the process he went through to get the chain to the correct length - which if anyone else is interested has 118 links. I also want to address a few points raised in your post - Firstly it's absolutely correct to say that all the after sales repairs were carried out free of charge and all replacement parts were supplied free of charge. If my post was in any way ambiguous then I apologise as that was not my intention. However while we're correcting ambiguities there are some things implied in your post which I'd like to address. Firstly yes the bike can be exhilarating to ride but this is a moot point. As I have explained numerous times in this thread and to your staff in person in the shop the bike was ridden VERY carefully and at a modest pace. The bike was brand new and I was unfamiliar with it, so I was riding very conservatively, and hadn't even begun to explore its limits. Average speed on the rides where the chain broke was around 10mph, mostly on flat tarmac and almost entirely in eco+ and eco power modes. So the way the bike was ridden was not a contributing factor to the chain breaking. Secondly, proper use of gears, again this a moot point. I have been riding double and triple chain ring bikes for well over twenty years. I was therefore already quite well aware that one should avoid using extreme gears and use an appropriate gear for the speed of travel and incline/decline etc. So again the way the bike was ridden was not a contributing factor to the chain breaking. Thirdly, the only advice I received in terms of transporting the bike was before I purchased the bike when I asked if it would fit in the back of my car. And then when I collected the bike for the first time the mechanic advised me to always put a spacer between between the brake pads when the wheel is removed to prevent the pads from closing up accidentally - advice which I have followed to the letter. Having been a regular cyclist for years I am in any case no stranger to transporting bikes. In fact when I first collected the bike and I was putting it in the back of my car, with the help of your mechanic, it was actually me who insisted that it go in drive train side up to avoid any damage to it! Now I'm not suggesting your mechanic doesn't know that bikes lied on their side should always be drive train side up - two people wrangling a bike into the back of a car tends to be a recipe for miscommunication - but I mention this because the suggestion that the problems with the bike were in any way because of the way it was transported is just nonsense. The reason for the two chains breaking, I strongly suspect, is that they were fitted incorrectly. To be more precise I suspect that the chain was too short and as such it was under too much tension and that is why I sometimes got phantom/double shifting and that is also why it snapped. The reason I suspect this? The third chain (the Shimano chain) was fitted the wrong way around and it was too short such that not all the gears were reachable and the gears did not shift correctly. The independent mobile bike mechanic who you sent to fix the problem confirmed this and was able to identify the problem immediately just on a quick visual inspection yet evidently your bike mechanic thought it was perfectly fine. So you'll forgive me if I think the problem was not the way I rode the bike or the way the gears were used or the way the bike transported but simply that the bike was not set-up correctly.

If the figures you have quoted are correct they're nowhere near Dutch spending levels on cycling. £24 million divdided by 6 million Londoners is £4 per person per annum. That is well below Dutch spending levels of £20 per person per annum, in fact the Dutch will soon be spending nearer £25 pp per annum. Levels of car ownership are not a reflection of 'reliance' on motor vehicles. Just because Mrs Smith chooses to drop her kids off at school in a gas guzzling 4x4 does not mean the kids journey to school is 'reliant' on a motor vehicle. It's about priorities. If you prioritise walking and cycling it becomes the norm. As I say most journeys are urban and less than five miles, easily within the reach of a short walk or bike ride, and that is the same today as it was in the 1970s.

The CWIS is a welcome step in the right direction but the amount of investment as a proportion of overall Transport spending is still pitifully small. The Dutch spend around £20 per person per year on walking and cycling infrastructure whereas the CWIS at best will provide no more than £3.33 per person per year and only for the next five years. And of course the Dutch have the worlds best cycling design manual to ensure that the money they invest is well spent whereas we don't have any mandated cycling design guidance. The best response I've seen to the CWIS is from the Cycling Embassy of a Great Briton https://www.cycling-embassy.org.uk/news/2017/04/21/cycling-and-walking-investment-strategy-response In regard to whether the UK *could* have cycling infrastructure at least as good as the Dutch - it is completely possible and the consequent health savings would probably make it cost neutral. I read lots of arguments about why the UK can't or will never have cycling infrastructure as good as the Dutch and most of those arguments in my opinion are complete and utter bunkum. It's fair to say that it would require a huge amount of political will and the pressure for that has to come from the ground up but if you look at what's happening in London for example I'm cautiously optimistic that the tide is turning in right direction. We must also consider the fact that we simply don't have the space on our roads for many more motor vehicles and as such cycling along with technological advances such as shared autonomous electric vehicles may in the future be the only pragmatic choice in order to avoid total gridlock. I'd also dispute the assertion that we are more 'reliant' on motor vehicles than the Dutch were in the 1970s. We certainly have a lot more motor vehicles on the roads than in the 1970s but that does not necessarily mean we are or have to be reliant on them. Most journeys in Holland and the UK are in urban areas and are less than five miles, that is just a true today as it was in the 1970s.

I agree with comments on here, charge it once a day on the days you're using it. I have a 7 mile round trip commute and on the days I use my bike I put my battery on to charge first thing when I get home in the evening. I always leave my cycling gear and battery in the middle of the hallway by the front door. That way even if I forget to put the battery on charge immediately when I get home I'll almost certainly see it in the hallway at some point later in the evening which reminds me to go and put it on charge.

For anyone who's wondering where I bought the bike from it was the Electric Transport Shop (TETS) in Cambridge. I have considered very carefully whether or not I should mention where I purchased the bike and I don't think it's unreasonable. I often recommend shops and services where I've had a good experience - I've recommended Cyclezee many times on this forum for example - so I see no reason to withhold information when I've had an experience that isn't quite so good. In fact I even recommended TETS on this forum in a recent post but that was before I encountered the problems with the set up of the bike.

I realised that when I wrote it but you know what I mean. Busy today so haven't the time reword it.

I didn't say I wasn't going to name them. Just not yet.

Just had a read of the link in original post. I think this can be a problem more generally where hobbies are concerned. People get so obsessevily into the minutiae that it all gets way too serious and tribal and people's heads very quickly start to go up their bottoms. I was pleased to see that almost all of the posts in the thread disagreed with the OP who seemed to have a pretty big chip on his shoulder where ebikes are concerned.