Electric bike from Halfords

Johnmcl7

50Twuncle wrote: »

Can you imagine a (large) 8 year old - with one of these - riding at 15mph down a busy shopping street - mowing pedestrians down left, right and centre ?
Also - there should be a riding test - to ensure safety

No I can't imagine such an absurd situation as it wouldn't be possible, an electric bike is only a few kilograms heavier than a standard bike (around 20kg) so a fraction of the weight of a moped and the weight of an eight year old and the bike would be less than most adults. So even if they could reach the pedals to get the electric assist, they'd at best be able to crash into one person and would likely do themselves more damage coming off the bike. Any eight year old wanting to go on an assault rampage would likely be better getting a baseball bat or similar weapon.

I think the electric bike legislation is entirely sensible as 15mph isn't that fast and the bikes behave almost identically to a standard pedal bike it's just you get a hand to make it easier for hills, head winds and covering longer distances.

John

Johnmcl7

50Twuncle wrote: »

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

That argument is tired and it's wrong, road tax doesn't exist (it was abolished by Churchill), funding for the roads currently comes out of general taxation so cyclists (and everyone else who pays tax) pays for the roads. Also, cyclists pay Vehicle Excise Duty at the same rate as cars - zero emissions, zero VED.

If you're just going to troll cycling topics, go waste your time elsewhere as I'm not wasting my more of mine replying to pointless replies.

John

Johnmcl7

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.

Agreed, even running an electric bike alongside a car and paying the mandatory costs for the car I'd still think the electric bike would be worth the money for the fuel saving (one of the big costs in motoring) and reduced wear and tear on the car for the common parts (brakes, tyres etc.) and the bigger parts (turbo, DMF, DPF). The main reason I started cycling was for commuting and other short trips which weren't good the diesel car I had.

I wonder if we'll see battery leasing or similar as car manufacturers have been doing to offset the initial high cost to make it more attractive and then have regular monthly payments instead.

John

Xbigman

I bought a UCR30 electric bike from Halfords and I've now run up 300 miles on it. It takes time to learn all the ins and outs of pedelec bikes to get the most out of them but I'm more than happy with mine. Its heavy at 28kg but its not unrideable without power.

My car was costing me about £1100 a year (MOT, tax, ins and petrol) to run but this year lots of things went wrong and the costs were set to rocket. I decided to go for the electric bike and spent £900 on it. With no car I needed to consider getting to work in all weathers so I bought a decent set of waterproofs, a cateye rechargable front light, shoecovers, gloves, proper bike glasses and 2 good locks. All told about £300 worth. I consider all those to be essentials.
I also bought a footpump, tyre gauge, proper set of bike tools, various odd items (chain oil/zipties and the like) and now I've added a workstand that holds the bike up in the air to work on.
All told I spent just over £1400. The bike will pay for itself in 15 months. Less if you allow any monetary value for the health benefits.
If you are a family man with kids to ferry around you need a car. Once family concerns are out of the way I cannot recommend an electric bike highly enough.



Darren

Richard53

I got talking to a couple in a motorhome on a site in Northumberland a couple of weeks ago. They had purchased a pair of Volt Metro folding bikes and couldn't praise them enough. I even was allowed a short 'go', and thought it was pretty good. After reading this thread, I have discussed it with my wife and she seems pretty keen on the idea. We always took bikes with us in the caravan and used them all the time in France, but she has had serious health issues in the last few years which have persuaded us to leave them behind and use the car. I reckon with an electric bike she might be able to get back onto two wheels again, which would do her morale a lot of good.


I popped into my local Halfords to check out the OP's bike, but they didn't have any in stock - special order only. That's a shame, because I won't buy one without seeing it first. But the search continues, and I am reading this thread with great interest. Keep the posts/experiences/opinions/advice coming!

fin7

Richard53 wrote: »

I got talking to a couple in a motorhome on a site in Northumberland a couple of weeks ago. They had purchased a pair of Volt Metro folding bikes and couldn't praise them enough. I even was allowed a short 'go', and thought it was pretty good. After reading this thread, I have discussed it with my wife and she seems pretty keen on the idea. We always took bikes with us in the caravan and used them all the time in France, but she has had serious health issues in the last few years which have persuaded us to leave them behind and use the car. I reckon with an electric bike she might be able to get back onto two wheels again, which would do her morale a lot of good.


I popped into my local Halfords to check out the OP's bike, but they didn't have any in stock - special order only. That's a shame, because I won't buy one without seeing it first. But the search continues, and I am reading this thread with great interest. Keep the posts/experiences/opinions/advice coming!

Have a look on the pedelecs forum, someone on there will be able to tell you where any local stockists are.

50Twuncle

The law needs clearing up on who can ride an electric cycle..


According to https://www.gov.uk/electric-bike-rules


"In Great Britain, if you’re 14 or over you don’t need a licence to ride electric bikes that meet certain requirements, and they don’t need to be registered, taxed or insured."


What about those under 14 - they, apparently need a licence ?


The reason for me stating this - is that some neighbours now have electric cycles and the kids (definitely sub 14) are riding them around all over the place - across my front lawn and down the main (A) road ... Someone is going to get hurt - or even killed soon ..... !!

poppasmurf_bewdley

50Twuncle wrote: »

The law needs clearing up on who can ride an electric cycle..


According to https://www.gov.uk/electric-bike-rules


"In Great Britain, if you’re 14 or over you don’t need a licence to ride electric bikes that meet certain requirements, and they don’t need to be registered, taxed or insured."


What about those under 14 - they, apparently need a licence ?



The reason for me stating this - is that some neighbours now have electric cycles and the kids (definitely sub 14) are riding them around all over the place - across my front lawn and down the main (A) road ... Someone is going to get hurt - or even killed soon ..... !!

Have you pointed out to your neighbours that it is illegal for under 14's to be riding ebikes?

Have you informed the police? How do they get onto your lawn?

Have you done anything to prevent anyone being killed?

As far as I can see, the law on who can ride an ebike is very clear. And very up to date.

Cycrow

Electric cycles are no more dangerous than normal push bikes

surfsister

sniggings wrote: »

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.

yes me too my car cost 500 quid five years ago and insurance a hundred quid! 45mpg too. pity these bikes are so dear.