MarkTheGoose

I use a Garmin Edge Touring GPS on my Haibike. I have it mounted just in front of the bike's own display. Works brilliantly and you get free upgrades of worldwide cycle maps. Can work with heart rate monitors, cadence sensors & even certain eBikes (not my sDuro). It's also very tough and mud & waterproof. Initially I did find battery life not great, but found by setting backlight time out to 15 seconds, it seems to last well. I did 7 hours a couple of weeks back and it still had 28% battery left. They've been around for a while now, so I managed to pick it up 2nd hand on eBay for £105.

I think you need a special cable from Yamaha, but they haven't made it available yet ...

Eddie - Martin @ On-Bike indulged me in trying many different motor/drive setups before finally settling on a Haibike sDuro. After 250 mostly off-road miles I'm very happy with the choice. I'm not hammering mine anything like as much as you, but have had no problems with the drive setup. In the end, the attraction became (partly for the way it looks, which was why you & I exchanged on the BH originally), the fact that the drive is as close to a conventional tried & trusted MTB setup as you can get. Mine has dual front rings & 10spd cassette and you can just leave the battery at home & ride as a "heavy" MTB. I've had no problems with mud on front sprocket! One of the biggest concerns I've heard voiced with crank drive as opposed to hub is the load that the motor puts on chain & sprockets, but in your case, the load is coming from your legs (when your knees permit) and wearing out chains and gears is a relatively low cost problem. I have to say, I'm a big fan of the looks of the Rotwild, but this is based exclusively on looking at pictures, not any first hand experience. In the end, I decided that a full suspension sDuro was a better compromise for my £ than a hard tail Rotwild. Yamaha doesn't yet have the UK reputation to give everybody comfort and I can't comment on how waterproof the motor is with long term immersion in mud/puddles. I can say though, that the battery terminals aren't designed into a puddle and if water does get past the seal, gravity drains it out again. I like the fact that the Yamaha system has a small clear display, it only has 3 levels of assist (thought that would be bad, but now I like it compared to my wife's bike which is Bosch) and displays cadence (which is what it shows most of the time, when I'm riding). I have loads of options if I want to change gearing, using pretty conventional parts, although for me, they've got it pretty much spot on. If I did more road, I'd probably up the 42 front to a 44, but that's it. In terms of range for my riding style, I get around 30 miles off-road if it stays in High (only tried this once, just to see what happens) but usually with a mix of high/std/eco, 50 miles is easily achievable and I have no ambitions to do more than this between charges. You'd inevitably make it go further with your riding style. On balance, I'm very pleased with my choice. See if you can get somebody to lend you one to try for a ride on the South Downs, or come up to the Cotswolds for a visit and you're welcome to try mine ...

Excellent! You don't have to share the ones when you come a cropper ... From what I understand, the dongle question wouldn't apply, as the way they work is to trick the bike into thinking it's going half the speed, so your speedo would be showing 15mph, not 30mph. Given the fastest I've travelled in the last 150 miles is 28.8mph and that was on road, I'm even more impressed

Wow! So, 3 questions (all probably daft, but then going down the nemesis next to the bridge would be daft in my world!) 1. Does the camera make you go faster (do you play to the audience, a bit)? 2. Is the speed in mph or kph? 3. Why does the date in the corner jump about & right off the screen, is it something to do with auto-stabilisation dealing with the bouncing about?

Eddie, your photography is getting better & better. Love the one under the wind blown tree and the first of these 3, with the KTM in the shade propped by a branch is magic. If you could just get better at not falling off it your fan club would be even more in awe ...

Gosh, the observation about 'racing' and 'warranties' is interesting, given the obvious Bosch endorsement. I assume 'racing' has to be an organised event, as we're probably all guilty of a bit of racing from time to time (even if it's only roadie baiting up steep hills!). Puts me in mind of a friend of mine who once said "any two yachts on the same tack are racing" - always makes me smile ...

Thanks for clarification on batteries, my bad translation! Endure Saddle Sore looks like quite a thing. As a (much) younger man with a bunch of mates I could see how that would be a real hoot. Sadly no longer for me, although just the thrill of getting out, off-road, on an MTB again now I've discovered powered bikes is keeping me very happy. That weekend in August Mrs Goose & I will be swanning around in the car in Northern Spain, so I can't even come & watch people getting tired & dirty ...

So, 4 riders per team, or solo riders (can't quite resolve continuous cycling for 24 hours!). You're allowed 20 x 400Wh batteries. Circuit is just under 5 miles, so battery changes would require some planning. A long way from a jaunt on the South Downs ...

I really enjoy riding off road. I go to London 3 days a week for work and on a few occasions have used a "Boris Bike". It's interesting that many of the comments from around the country are "other road users behave like they can't see me", whereas in London cyclists complain about other cyclists. During the rush hour in London, many many cyclists compete for road space with too many buses, lots of taxis and some cars, vans & trucks. A great deal of cyclists in London travel very fast (mostly without electrical assistance) and are a menace to ALL other road users. Cycling in London is genuinely scary IMHO...

I confess I looked at 2nd hand, but actually ended up preferring the idea of sDuro with the double front chainring. I also wondered what the consequences might have been with the battery life (new batteries are a big cost) and lastly, I had the option of a cycletowork scheme...

I have a Haibike sDuro AllMtn. Not cheap and not available 2nd hand. All my mountain biking was on a hard tail as I do just as much up as down. Then I had a massive accident (carelessly fell 48ft off a cliff!) which left me with two badly damaged legs and my mountain biking days were over. Thanks to a motor, I'm now able to mountain bike again. I chose full suspension, as the reasons for not choosing it before (weight & slight loss of drive uphills due to rear suspension compression) are far less relevant on an eBike, and quite frankly the rear suspension is more comfortable and really helps compensate for my poor balance & rubbish legs post accident. Haibike xDuro's do seem to come up on eBay occasionally. The other obvious alternatives are KTM (like Eddie), RotWild, BH (although it sounds like 'fragile' doesn't work for you), Scott - I considered all of these, (& test rode all but the RotWild, which exceeded budget) but just loved the 'feel' of the Haibike. Still think the BH Evo Jumper is the best looking bike available, but I just wasn't prepared to take the risk that it would remain reliable.

Gosh, that must spice up cycling. Do you now have to do all your cornering by leaning?

... and the "indispensable tool" is?

Waiting with bated breath for the answer to TK's second question...

So, I understand some more now having ridden some eBikes. Tried both the Active & Performance Bosch cranks on a KTM & Scott. The bike that I enjoyed the most though was the Neo Jumper! All tests on road, but bad surface & with a 10% gradient. More thinking to do and I do really want to try the Panasonic KTM...

Thank you Eddie & Dave. It's the look of the Neo that's doing it for me (I'm too vain). The whole integrated battery. I'm surprised more manufacturers haven't gone down this route. I'm off for my first test ride of a pedelec today. Based exclusively on what I've read, current shortlist is... KTM eRace P 27 Haibike Sduro Hardseven Oxygen e-Mate MTB 13AH That said, I've not tried the difference between hub & crank, so today is trying the KTM with both Panasonic hub & Bosch crank drives to get an idea of which suits. On my shortlist, the Oxygen is significantly less expensive, for apparently more. Begs the question is it another BH...

@[mention=7885]EddiePJ[/mention] - sounds like you regret buying BH Easy Motion. Why & what did you buy? Was considering Neo 650B Hardtail - should I look elsewhere?