Electric bikes

[reg]

I have set my ebike to run above 15mph not because I want to go fast but simply becayse I find it much safer. Why? If it's set to 15mph then it simply just my  cuts out any assistance until it drops below  15mph this can be dangerous if it happens mid critical manoeuvre e,g coming out of a junction or overtaking a vehicle. The reduction in speed is instant and, particularly on a hill, peddling power in a given gear may cause staling, not nice at any time but particularly dangerous in traffic and mid manouvere.

When the law is an ass and introduces danger then I'm happy to argue my case. 

[Jim Riley]

6 minutes ago, reg said:

I have set my ebike to run above 15mph not because I want to go fast but simply becayse I find it much safer. Why? If it's set to 15mph then it simply just my  cuts out any assistance until it drops below  15mph this can be dangerous if it happens mid critical manoeuvre e,g coming out of a junction or overtaking a vehicle. The reduction in speed is instant and, particularly on a hill, peddling power in a given gear may cause staling, not nice at any time but particularly dangerous in traffic and mid manouvere.

When the law is an ass and introduces danger then I'm happy to argue my case. 

The power die off is controlled by the Keep Current setting, if you have access to it*. I set mine to 100% It will then pull away at 15mph, fast enough at junctions imho. 

 

* I have a Bafang bbs01b mid drive, can be connected to laptop or android phone to tweak lots of settings. 

 

[Higgs]

I don't think many people look after their bikes enough to trust doing mental speeds. 

 

 

[reg]

1 hour ago, Jim Riley said:

The power die off is controlled by the Keep Current setting, if you have access to it*. I set mine to 100% It will then pull away at 15mph, fast enough at junctions imho. 

 

* I have a Bafang bbs01b mid drive, can be connected to laptop or android phone to tweak lots of settings. 

 

I have the original Bafang BBS01 it well be that this setting may be one of the B enhancements.

 

Superb bit of kit by the way wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, albeit the B version, to anyone. Massive sayings over buying some 250w ebikes, may not be as pretty but much cheaper, proven to be robust, extensive knowledge via forums and readily available spares.

[Jim Riley]

1 minute ago, reg said:

I have the original Bafang BBS01 it well be that this setting may be one of the B enhancements.

 

Superb bit of kit by the way wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, albeit the B version, to anyone. Massive sayings over buying some 250w ebikes, may not be as pretty but much cheaper, proven to be robust, extensive knowledge via forums and readily available spares.

Have you got the usb to julet programming cable? I originally used a program for the laptop, there's now Speeed app for Android, works a treat. 

[reg]

8 minutes ago, Jim Riley said:

Have you got the usb to julet programming cable? I originally used a program for the laptop, there's now Speeed app for Android, works a treat. 

No I haven't but I appreciate the info.To be honest ive run it on its existing settings for 4 or 5 years and unlikely to be changing them. I only do light use mainly shops and back. If I was to fit a BBS01B then I think I would pay a bit more attention to the settings.

 

 

Edited May 10, 2022 by reg

[Cheshire cat]

I was talking to the chap who owns Rugeley bike repair shop on Sunday. He was telling me the Ebikes at the lower end of the spectrum have a life expectancy of around three years. He sees quite a few and it's just not economical to repair them. In his opinion the components aren't up to the job.

 

I guess you get what you pay for.

[peterboat]

6 hours ago, IanD said:

FTFY 😉

Wait until you get run down by an electric scooter doing 30 on the pavement! you might then realise that they arnt the the fun thing that you imagine. As i said we witnessed a crash over the weekend on the street it could easily have ended up with 2 dead kids, old people on pavements are in danger because of the illegal scooters remember that the vast majority of them

[IanD]

16 minutes ago, peterboat said:

Wait until you get run down by an electric scooter doing 30 on the pavement! you might then realise that they arnt the the fun thing that you imagine. As i said we witnessed a crash over the weekend on the street it could easily have ended up with 2 dead kids, old people on pavements are in danger because of the illegal scooters remember that the vast majority of them

So you didn't read what I posted about clamping down on illegal 15+mph ones then?

 

I probably come across them far more often than you do (30 miles a week on the bike on the towpath) and most are sensible -- but a few zoom along like idiots at clearly illegal speeds...

Edited May 10, 2022 by IanD

[Tony1]

32 minutes ago, Cheshire cat said:

I was talking to the chap who owns Rugeley bike repair shop on Sunday. He was telling me the Ebikes at the lower end of the spectrum have a life expectancy of around three years. He sees quite a few and it's just not economical to repair them. In his opinion the components aren't up to the job.

 

I guess you get what you pay for.

 

I must second this comment. 

I bought my folding MTB ebike for about £850 and the rear hub motor failed after about 14 months and probably less than 500 miles. Also, the components were of very poor quality.

I've heard of other users who got 5,000 miles out of their machines, but personally I would strongly caution against buying at the very low end of market if at all possible.

And if you have to buy cheap, try to buy something that uses generic parts so you can buy replacements from ebay if needed. 

It can be difficult, because not everyone has 3k to spend on say an electric brompton, and not all mid-priced ebikes will be great quality either, so this is one item you need to research a lot before buying. 

 

[peterboat]

3 hours ago, IanD said:

So you didn't read what I posted about clamping down on illegal 15+mph ones then?

 

I probably come across them far more often than you do (30 miles a week on the bike on the towpath) and most are sensible -- but a few zoom along like idiots at clearly illegal speeds...

Nearly all escooters are illegal so nothing is happening about them so what gives you any faith if escooters are made legal that speeding will be stopped? Far easier to ban and crush them apart from the hire ones

[Tony1]

6 minutes ago, peterboat said:

Nearly all escooters are illegal so nothing is happening about them so what gives you any faith if escooters are made legal that speeding will be stopped? Far easier to ban and crush them apart from the hire ones

 

All they have to do is set up a scheme where local dealers can check the existing scooters and verify that they meet the legal requirements, and then they issue a road certificate for that scooter, with the user's name and address, make, model and colour of scooter, plus year of manufacture and serial number if present.

Details all kept on a central database, and the police can then check if a scooter is legal within seconds. 

I'm not sure they'll do it, because so far they are not yet doing anything about the illegal ebikes that are all over the place. 

The thing is that the huge environmental benefits alone are worth making the effort to regulate them. 

And just think how much less traffic there might be in cities if people can get around on scooters.

Most countries in the world allow e-scooters within certain limits, we are lagging way behind on this issue.  

 

 

[peterboat]

1 minute ago, Tony1 said:

 

All they have to do is set up a scheme where local dealers can check the existing scooters and verify that they meet the legal requirements, and then they issue a road certificate for that scooter, with the user's name and address, make, model and colour of scooter, plus year of manufacture and serial number if present.

Details all kept on a central database, and the police can then check if a scooter is legal within seconds. 

I'm not sure they'll do it, because so far they are not yet doing anything about the illegal ebikes that are all over the place. 

The thing is that the huge environmental benefits alone are worth making the effort to regulate them. 

And just think how much less traffic there might be in cities if people can get around on scooters.

Most countries in the world allow e-scooters within certain limits, we are lagging way behind on this issue.  

 

 

Or they could just ride bikes like I do? Pedal it along using no electric and getting fitter? Novel idea eh?

[Tony1]

10 minutes ago, peterboat said:

Or they could just ride bikes like I do? Pedal it along using no electric and getting fitter? Novel idea eh?

 

You be honest I've given up using my ebike on most rides for this very reason- improved fitness. 

But there are lots of people who want to get around on short local journeys and who have physical limitations meaning they cant ride a normal pushbike very far, if at all. Others might want to cover 2 or 3 miles to work, and not get sweaty on the journey. 

So we can't just ban electrically assisted bikes and scooters on the basis of forcing people to improve their fitness.

The day may well come when even the fittest of us will reach an age that we be really grateful for being able to get out and about on some kind of ebike or scooter.  

 

 

[peterboat]

14 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

 

You be honest I've given up using my ebike on most rides for this very reason- improved fitness. 

But there are lots of people who want to get around on short local journeys and who have physical limitations meaning they cant ride a normal pushbike very far, if at all. Others might want to cover 2 or 3 miles to work, and not get sweaty on the journey. 

So we can't just ban electrically assisted bikes and scooters on the basis of forcing people to improve their fitness.

The day may well come when even the fittest of us will reach an age that we be really grateful for being able to get out and about on some kind of ebike or scooter.  

 

 

I have no problems with ebikes, I used to have one, I have a problem with ebikes that can do ridiculous speeds which I occasionally see. My real issue is with escooters, small wheels going like the wind and losing control or worse hitting people on pavements 

[Tony1]

34 minutes ago, peterboat said:

I have no problems with ebikes, I used to have one, I have a problem with ebikes that can do ridiculous speeds which I occasionally see. My real issue is with escooters, small wheels going like the wind and losing control or worse hitting people on pavements 

 

Any scooter rider caught on a pavement (or with an illegal scooter) will be liable for prosecution, and I can imagine the police will be looking out for them after legalisation. So in fact the risk of hitting pedestrians might be less than with a pushbike- which as we know are frequently ridden on pavements.

In 2021 the London police clamped down on scooter riders, issuing them with 6 license points and fines up to £1000- so there are safeguards, and the police are capable of enforcing rules. 

 

The scooter trials of the last year or two have involved several million journeys, and the DfT are now satisfied that the risks posed by these vehicles are acceptably small, if limited to 15 mph- and at 15mph I'd feel very safe on one personally. 

 

If you are advocating the banning of an entire class of vehicle which presents an opportunity to help the coming climate crisis, surely you have a responsibility to consider whether your objections are based on emotions, or on logic. 

 

I'm not saying that the odd pedestrian wont be hit by an idiot on a scooter. Of course that will happen.

But there is a much bigger picture here, and potentially a huge benefit for the planet and climate change, that frankly outweighs the risks of injury to a few hundred pedestrians each year. 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2022 by Tony1

[Boaty Jo]

14 hours ago, Jim Riley said:

Only illegal under e power, not with gravity or your legs. Are you talking Blackstone Edge? 

Yes that's right.

[Alan de Enfield]

9 hours ago, Tony1 said:

In 2021 the London police clamped down on scooter riders, issuing them with 6 license points and fines up to £1000- so there are safeguards, and the police are capable of enforcing rules. 

 

How many young teenagers have a licence ?

[Tony1]

5 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

How many young teenagers have a licence ?

 

I dont know and frankly I dont care. I'm not writing or enforcing the regulations, I'm just guessing at them.

What is certain is that there will be age limits on the scooters, probably 17 ish, and I'm sure underage riders will be punished, just as they would be if they were caught driving a car underage and without a licence. 

With one fatality in 2020 arising from hundreds of thousands of journeys made on scooters, my view is that they are not nearly as dangerous to riders or pedestrians as some people believe, and that the many objections are based on emotive reactions to the idea of hoodie-clad youths speeding around on pavements (which is something hoodie-clad bike riders do anyway). 

There is a global tide of climate change urgency and ongoing technological progress pushing the implementation of these vehicles, and the UK is way behind on that.

No amount of righteous pearl-clutching by senior citizens is going to prevent the UK catching up with the rest of the world, at least on this issue.  

 

Who cares about the detail of the regulation policy? The time to react to its effectiveness is when we see what it is. 

Until then its just the usual hoodie fearmongering and pointless OAP outrage.

 

[ditchcrawler]

Around our way young kids ride big horses on the road and that's legal, no lights, bell or brakes and capable of more than 15Kph

[Higgs]

2 hours ago, Tony1 said:

Until then its just the usual hoodie fearmongering and pointless OAP outrage

 

I did see one dozy so and so on a scooter, weaving across a line of traffic. No idea which way it was going. Must have been on drugs, just done a cash machine, and I bet, on his way to order a pizza, but not before terrorising the neighbour's cat. That's the good thing about being a pensioner, you can do all those things you never had time for.

 

 

 

 

[Ronaldo47]

In the 1960's, the stirrups of the  police horses that were sometimes used for crowd control at West Ham's football ground, were fitted with sidelights showing white to the front and red to the rear. When I mentioned this to someone they thought I was pulling their leg.

Edited May 11, 2022 by Ronaldo47
typos

[ditchcrawler]

Just now, Ronaldo47 said:

In the 1960's, the stirrups of the  police horses that were sometimes used for crowd control at West Ham's football ground, were fitted with sidelights showing white to the front and red to the rear. When I told this to someone they thought I was pulling their leg.

Never seen that, some of the silly buggers near me even wear dark cloths in late autumn afternoons. Others of course are easily visible at a distance.

[Iain_S]

7 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

How many young teenagers have a licence ?

They would get issued with a licence number on conviction. When one of my ex parishioners initially applied for a provisional licence, he got knocked back for  6 months as he already had 12 points, (It was before the "disqualification with 6 points on a provisional licence" came in.)

[peterboat]

21 hours ago, Tony1 said:

 

Any scooter rider caught on a pavement (or with an illegal scooter) will be liable for prosecution, and I can imagine the police will be looking out for them after legalisation. So in fact the risk of hitting pedestrians might be less than with a pushbike- which as we know are frequently ridden on pavements.

In 2021 the London police clamped down on scooter riders, issuing them with 6 license points and fines up to £1000- so there are safeguards, and the police are capable of enforcing rules. 

 

The scooter trials of the last year or two have involved several million journeys, and the DfT are now satisfied that the risks posed by these vehicles are acceptably small, if limited to 15 mph- and at 15mph I'd feel very safe on one personally. 

 

If you are advocating the banning of an entire class of vehicle which presents an opportunity to help the coming climate crisis, surely you have a responsibility to consider whether your objections are based on emotions, or on logic. 

 

I'm not saying that the odd pedestrian wont be hit by an idiot on a scooter. Of course that will happen.

But there is a much bigger picture here, and potentially a huge benefit for the planet and climate change, that frankly outweighs the risks of injury to a few hundred pedestrians each year. 

 

 

Escooters are currently illegal so the Police have done little to nothing about the problem already! Secondly the NHS are opposed to the Escooters, as the accident rate is doubling yearly from them, the accidents are often serious and requiring ambulances to cart them to hospitals! I hope that the NHS wins this one or better still no insurance no ambulance and treatment might sort it.