Electric bike from Halfords

50Twuncle

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

A milk float takes up as much room as a car or van, whereas an e-bike takes up as much room as .... a bike!

The only difference between a bike and an e-bike is that an e-bike provides the rider with some assistance whilst riding. A milk float doesn't provide the driver with a bit of extra effort to move the thing. It is wholly a mechanically propelled vehicle, albeit the fuel is a rechargeable battery.

Similarly - an electric bike takes up as much road as a moped (which is required to be covered by INSURANCE, ROAD TAX and MOT) - and would you like to be hit by a 15mph vehicle being "controlled" by a sub 14 year old - either way - they should be insured and restricted to "adults" !!

poppasmurf_bewdley

50Twuncle wrote: »

Similarly - an electric bike takes up as much road as a moped (which is required to be covered by INSURANCE, ROAD TAX and MOT) - and would you like to be hit by a 15mph vehicle being "controlled" by a sub 14 year old - either way - they should be insured and restricted to "adults" !!

But you didn't mention a moped, you mentioned a milk float.

A moped 'nowadays' is what used be be classed as scooter. When I was young, a moped was a bicycle fitted with an engine of less than 50cc and had to be started by means of pedalling. I haven't seen one of these for many years but an excellent example of one was seen in the hilarious second Mr Bean movie when he got a lift on one ridden by a French peasant farmer.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?safe=off&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=653&site=imghp&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=moped+mr+bean&oq=moped+mr+bean&gs_l=img.12...11149.12947.0.15000.8.8.0.0.0.0.106.602.7j1.8.0....0...1c.1.48.img..6.2.155.hJJAT5vBKOQ#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=AaCujaSec5t5KM%253A%3BMevsGXJRN2KZwM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.imcdb.org%252Fi104374.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.imcdb.org%252Fvehicle_104374-VeloSolex-5000-1971.html%3B920%3B494

Si_Clist

50Twuncle wrote: »

Because they are "powered" by something other than "legs"
if not - why should a milk float have to have road tax and insurance ?

Sorry, but you are just plain wrong.

Neither a bicycle nor an electrically-assisted bicycle is a vehicle - unless it's an electrically-assisted pedal cycle which doesn't meet the EAPC rules, in which case it becomes a moped, which is a vehicle.

See here.

50Twuncle

Si_Clist wrote: »

Sorry, but you are just plain wrong.

Neither a bicycle nor an electrically-assisted bicycle is a vehicle - unless it's an electrically-assisted pedal cycle which doesn't meet the EAPC rules, in which case it becomes a moped, which is a vehicle.

See here.

Have you ever been hit by an electrically powered vehicle ?
Because I have - I was crushed against a fence by a old fogey in an electrically powered wheelchair..
Honest - about 7 years ago - I was visiting a tourist attraction in SW England and was badly shaken by this...
The old bloke was unable to even control his "vehicle" - which is exactly the same as could happen with an electric cycle - "driven" by a 14 year old - there MUST be licencing and restrictions over who can drive them. As well as insurance - OK I will let you off without road tax and even MOT.

zaax

If you come off at 20mph is going to hurt so motorcycle type protection is required ie proper helmet and leather gloves at a minimum.

How many recharges can the battery take?
I would imagine they are a lot heavier than normal bikes and therefore difficult to pedal if the battery is flat

Si_Clist

Oh boy ...

I'm out of this thread

50Twuncle

zaax wrote: »

If you come off at 20mph is going to hurt so motorcycle type protection is required ie proper helmet and leather gloves at a minimum.

How many recharges can the battery take?
I would imagine they are a lot heavier than normal bikes and therefore difficult to pedal if the battery is flat

Don't forget the motorcycle boots !!
and a leather jacket.........
Why bother ?
Why not just get a moped (100 mpg +)

poppasmurf_bewdley

Well, I've been out on the bike a few times now, and to me it seems worth the money.

The area where I live is very rural and extremely hilly, and the pedelec system works extremely well on all the hills and gradients around me. A six mile trip of undulating roads and paths with the system working about half the time resulted in one of the four lights going out, so about 25% of the stored power used up.

Today, I folded the bike up and put it into the back of my Mondeo Mk 4 estate. It fitted perfectly without having to put the rear seats down. I did a 10 mile trip along a canal tow path, which of course is mainly flat, and I was able to pedal the bike without any recourse to the pedelec system at all. If I, in my relatively unfit state, can do that, then I would think anyone could do it. I didn't find the weight of the bike a problem at all.

The bike itself has not shown any problem. It's just been a matter of getting the settings like saddle height correct. I intend to use the bike virtually on a daily basis as part of my get fit regime, and to this end it will come with me down to Dorset later this week. Poole is much flatter than it is here so I anticipate much less use of the pedelec system than here at home.

As an aside I did fall off the bike once, but that was my own fault at I tried to get on it on a hill whilst trying a tight turn. I finished up in a bank of nettles. I won't try that again!

sniggings

Marco_Panettone wrote: »

I doubt it. For a car you have to consider purchase price, VED, insurance, fuel, MOT, maintenance costs, parking....


E-bikes would be purchase price, battery replacement cost and maintenance.


With a car you're probably looking at £500+ annually before you even drive it anywhere. Even if you need to replace the batteries every 2 years it'll be loads cheaper to use an e-bike.

I was going by the comment someone made saying they still needs to use the bus and pay for taxis.

Some of these bikes can cost more than a run-around car.

So yeah maybe more but not that much more, my last car cost me £900 had it over 5 years, so cheaper than some of these electric bikes, insurance was less than £200 too. Tax £100.

50Twuncle

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

But they're not electrically powered in the same way. Or at least my Yamaha PAS isn't. You don't just sit on it and it does all the work.

You can't lose control and crush someone. If you stop pedalling, so does the bike.

They just boost the downstroke pedal effort you put in. They don't do anything by themselves.

All cycles should have 3rd party insurance and pay road tax! !