Cycling UK Forum

jimster99 wrote: ↑29 Sep 2024, 4:05pm I've been aggressively overtaken on a foot path by a youth on an electric motorbike going 50+ mph twice in the last 7 days. Last weekend in York, this weekend in London. Both wearing full balacavas and sunglasses, both obviously not caring whether they hit someone.

I believe it's the latest rebellious trend amongst kids to wear face coverings, so it's not necesarily the case such people are out to phone snatch etc., although doubtless a significant proportion of them are, so I always get a little nervous when they whizz past, plus it looks extremely sinister.

I wish the police would more regularly hide in the bushes in parks and then grab these guys as they go past. You can't be going 50+ mph on a footpath and it needs to stop!

The problem is the culture that generates such yoofs and their attitudes, rather than the technology they use to hoon and hooligan about. I suppose it can be argued that the technology ridden is an enabler and should be banned ..... but if so, can we do it with cars too? They're far more numerous and dangerous, as are the hooning hooligans who drive them about dangerously.

Of course, this means that we nice drivists will also have to lose the car.

Could the culture be changed to nudge hooning hooligans to better behaviours? Yes it could - but it won't be, eh? Hooligan hooning of all kinds is popular with the upper clarsses. See Various Establishment figures and slebs for details.

Cycling Oldie wrote: ↑29 Sep 2024, 9:55am
I am having real trouble finding my sweet spot what I mean is a sprocket for just cruising along and eating up the miles.

I was so used to the old ratio that I struggling to find one on this bike.

"Sweet spot"? Do you mean a certain preferred cadence (a small range of pedalling revs you feel comfortable with)? If this preference is a very narrow range for you, then you'll need a close ratio cassette rather than the 11-34. The jumps in ratios of the 11-34 sprockets are all quite large.

Frankly, unless you have a smaller big ring (46 or 44) the 11 & 12 sprockets are likely redundant, unless you're as fit as a TdeF racer. If you have a 52/36 chainset, you could probably have a cassette with 14 as the smallest sprocket and still pedal comfortably at 25 mph. (Well, I do with exactly that top gear on one bike). Starting at 14 means your higher gear ratios are likely to be closer, as the jumps will be of one tooth per cog rather two teeth per cog.

Cycling Oldie wrote: ↑29 Sep 2024, 9:55am It's a 11/34 with a 54/35 up front, Ive found that I'm having to cross chain a lot and I know this isnt a good thing to do.

I hate riding on the granny ring but for the moment I have to.

Why would anyone "hate riding on the granny ring"? Why call it a granny ring? Like the big ring, the smaller ring is there to give you a gear ratio you might need in various circumstances. Personally I spend a lot of my time in the small ring of 39. 34 or 30, on various bikes with various cassettes and their various sprocket ranges.

If you select the right sprocket and ring combination to get the gear ratio you want, you can always avoid any serious cross-chaining.

***********
Personally I like a 46/34 or a 52/39/30 chainset with an 11-32 or 14 - 34 11 or 10-speed cassette respectively. No gear higher than 46/11, a low of 30/34 and always a gear ratio range that allows the perfect cadence for the type of road (it varies with the slope, for me) without any cross chaining.

[/quote]

UpWrong wrote: ↑29 Sep 2024, 11:51am [A Leaf] Sounds like a good choice. I'd have been more tempted if it had CCS rather than Chademo. I believe the new Leaf will be SUV style which will be a shame. I'm taking my MG4 in to the dealer tomorrow to fix the warped/bulging undertray which has a 1" by 24" forward facing gap to collect water and muck in the motor and BMS compartment. ("They are all like that sir. It's not a safety issue. It's not a manufacturing fault ...."). It's taken almost two years for a fix to be developed, a bolt on support bar for the undertray.

And I'm learning the foibles of the software. I had the Lane Kill Assist grab the steering with irresistable force on the motorway, so LKA will be switched off from now on.

We'll never charge the Leaf at a public charging point - although the eventual V2X home charger/inverter will need to be Chademo-compliant.

It comes with a 13 amp plug style charger (33 hours from empty to full)! But this will be useful for slow timed charging overnight to manage the battery state of charge to keep it between 40% and 70% for best battery-longevity. We also have a 7kw home charger installed that was used with the Mitsubishi PHEV and is easily converted to use the Leaf Type 2 charge port. (The Mitsubishi was Type 1).

********
Like your MG4, the Leaf has all sorts of semi-automatic driving modes, typically for use on motorways. Like you, I'll be turning off those that grab the steering wheel. I quite like the notion of a keep-your-distance (anti-tailgating) thingy (although I never tailgate, by a factor of X10); and maybe the auto emergency braking thingy (assuming that doesn't go off at random, like the steering thing).

On the other hand, I feel that many of the semi-auto driving facilities can make a driver stupid or unskilled if relied on habitually. (Rather like GPS navigation devices). I'd rather try to drive as well as possible .... although a genuine failsafe to brake if a bogey-ped leaps off the pavement might still be useful. The Leaf has a fully-auto parking mode. That'll be interesting on a hilly Welsh village road with no white lines and lots of strange bits along the verges.

****************
Sorry to hear about your MG4 bulge. One of the reasons we had for buying the Leaf is that it has a long development history and a consequently good rep for being sorted i' the design. They have tweaked it since the original but it seems to be a well-fettled thing. We'll see.

Carlton green wrote: ↑29 Sep 2024, 10:27am

The Nissan dealer in Swansea, where the Leaf comes from, has a very good reputation for service quality and charges. E-cars, of course, require very little servicing compared to ICE cars. There's also one of those HEVRA places you mention closer still to us.

Thanks for the update. I assume it’s the 40Kw version you’re buying.
The (varied) use you intend might not push the battery much … or will it. I’m pretty sure that you’ll have investigated everything and, whilst wishing you well, it’ll be interesting to hear how you get on in practise.

The Leaf is V2X compliant and a Solar Edge charger/inverter to use V2X facilities will be available from next March, to be integrated with the rest of our e-stuff in the house,

That’ll be particularly interesting.

The Leaf we bought is a 62kwh battery variety. It's a 2023 with just under 5,000 miles on the clock - but this reduces it by just short of £9,000 from the new price! I'm grateful to those who buy new cars, as the likes of me can then buy a nearly new one for 3/4 of the new price ..... but them buy-it-newers must be mad (or rich).

Before committing to such a purchase, though, both of us did immense amounts of data-furtling about the things. Happily there is a lot of information out there to furtle in .... although one must be careful of a lot of it from the likes of UBoob and other sources containing both anti-rants and gushing fanboy pieces, both of which can approach "worthless".

In so-furtling I learnt a lot about the different battery chemistries and their management for best-use and/or longevity. But in even the worst-treatment cases, its still possible that the batteries will outlive the rest of the car, as a recent post upthread reported. In essence, its best to avoid fast charging (the 50kw or more variety at public charge points) on a regular basis and to keep the charge, where practical, between 40 - 70%. This would be easy for us to do, with out usual short-journey use and home charger. But occasionally charging to 100% and depleting to 5%, if its ever necessary, won't hurt unduly if that really is occasional.

We also decided to buy a dongle and software to read it's reports about the car's systems. The dongle is an OBD-II device that's plugged into the car's diagnostic port (now standard on a huge range of cars) and the software that reads the data is Leafspy, running as a Windows or Android app. I have no phone to run and read this but the ladywife does.

The Leafspy stuff gives very detailed information about various car systems, including the battery state. This enables the user to see not just the actual state of charge (rather than the often very inaccurate dashboard guessometer reading) but also several factors about the battery cell condition and variances. It'll help devise a charging regime that does least to degrade the battery long-term; and it'll report things like cell imbalance that would need some action to rebalance them.

********************
We'll never get anywhere near the limits of this car's performance, though. No long journeys. No vrooming about. But hopefully it will eventually integrate with the rest of the e-stuff in the house, once a charger/inverter becomes available that can talk to and use the V2X abilities of the Leaf battery.

Carlton green wrote: ↑28 Sep 2024, 8:11pm

Cugel wrote: ↑28 Sep 2024, 6:33pm
* The Leaf has a 237 mile range so we can go further afield without a petrol engine switching on.

* Leaf repair and replacement costs are much less (and also available) than with most other e-cars.

I have a lot of doubts about the range, some sales literature is full of ‘porkies’.
https://www.speakev.com/threads/200-mil ... 40.165531/


Main dealer service charges are exceedingly steep, and they might still have little idea how to manage EV’s that are part of what their brand offers. I hope you have some decent HEVRA members near to you.
https://hevra.org.uk/

All that said I hope that this change works out for you and will follow events with interest.

The claimed mileage ranges for e-cars tend to follow the parameters of one or another testing regime used across the e-car manufacturing industries. Naturally, they err on the side of optimism.

As various reports suggest, the actual mileage is often less. But this is down to driving styles, various route factors, average speeds and (over the longer term) the treatment of the battery, particularly its charging regime.

For example: I drive like an old lady but in very hilly locations and at low average speeds because the roads are often narrow & bendy. This generally means more mileage for the careful driving & low average speeds but less mileage because of the constant hills (average around 1000M of up/down for every 50K travelled).

We'll also charge to a regime that will avoid full charging and deep depletions.

Happily, we tend to do short journeys of only 10 - 15km most of the time with the (very) occasional trip of 50 - 100km. The extended e-range of a Leaf will probably increase our longer trips-out by a small factor. We'll never go further in a car (would get a train or bus instead) and will never charge anywhere other than home.

*************
The Nissan dealer in Swansea, where the Leaf comes from, has a very good reputation for service quality and charges. E-cars, of course, require very little servicing compared to ICE cars. There's also one of those HEVRA places you mention closer still to us.

ymfb wrote: ↑29 Sep 2024, 5:00am Is it lazy or poor journalism.

Its advertising - sometimes of the "recommended" type (this website may receive a remuneration in partnership with Gewgaws-R-Us) or it may be the dissing-advert, arranged to blacken the name of rival sellers of gewgaws with a different label.

Not journalism at all, then - unless we accept that the meaning of "journalism" has changed to "reiterator of various PR blurbs supplied by various ilks of machinators".

biker38109 wrote: ↑29 Sep 2024, 8:18am

freeflow wrote: ↑28 Sep 2024, 8:01pm Who cares. This is a macho driven question and therefore should be ignored/deleted.

I am not talking about myself and the wording was tongue in cheek but I notice that many road cyclists, the lycra carbon fiber brigade, especially seem very up themselves and often seem annoyed at me giving them the time of day as a 'lowly' mtber.

A couple of times I have been simply ignored when giving them a cheery, fellow cyclist's, or even fellow human, hello.

Not all, of coarse, but noticed a trend that roadies, the competitive 'upwardly mobile' types at least, seem more likely to be surly to those outside of their clique. I am sure relaxed tourers and such would be chill but don't see those much when I am riding about, mostly the lycra enthusiasts.

Stereotypes to the left of me; stereotypes to the right!

Mind, there are folk who like to stereotype themselves, adopting various imaginary roles then trying to harden up these claims by buying and flaunting the various badges, emblems, costumes and accoutrements. Why, I does it myself, going about as an OFIM! (Old Phart in Merino) dressed like a 1960s TdeFer. (I right little Fer).

Best to keep in mind that these are just japes-on-a-stage, nothing to do with reality. Snooty MAMILs on rip-off state-of-the-arters can be treated as an entertainment.

Biospace wrote: ↑28 Sep 2024, 2:49pm It's good to read this comment under a video detailing battery cell replacement on a Nissan Leaf,

• "Everyone has been told it's doom and gloom when your battery fails, when cost to replace a faulty cell in a Nissan Leaf is no more than having a clutch and mass balance flywheel replaced in an ICE."

It provides a very useful reference for battery failure when the owner has the sense to take it to a specialist rather than a main dealer.

leaf cell replacement.png
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yOBNmqqziI

A Nissan Leaf is coming to the Cugels, replacing a Mitsubishi hybrid. Personally I'd replace the hybrid with another e-bike instead, of the carting ilk .... but the ladywife says no.

Why a Leaf?

Eco reasons:

* Nissan claim the Leaf is 96.2% recyclable (as well as containing 30%+ of already recycled materials). They also have a scheme in the offing for taking a knackered car back to do that recycling.

* Although the Mitsubishi hybrid has been driven with 97% of its miles from the battery and only 3% from petrol (to stop the engine seizing up through no-use) it still used 60 - 100 litres of petrol a year. A full e-car. especially one using out own solar energy, will be less polluting.

* The Leaf is V2X compliant and a Solar Edge charger/inverter to use V2X facilities will be available from next March, to be integrated with the rest of our e-stuff in the house, which will effectively reduce the electricity we download from the grid (on shorter daylight days) as we'll have a bigger battery storage capacity (90 kwh all told) to keep and use more of our solar-generated electricity instead of sending it to the grid (for nothing).

* It's made in Sunderland by Makems, just up the road rather than on the other side of the planet. (Less energy to deliver). (Not sure that's really an eco-reason).

Personal reasons:

* The Leaf has a 237 mile range so we can go further afield without a petrol engine switching on.

* The Leaf has a better km/kwh consumption than the Mitsubishi (which averaged only 2.2 km/kwh over its whole life).

* Leaf repair and replacement costs are much less (and also available) than with most other e-cars.

PH wrote: ↑25 Sep 2024, 10:29am I think the degradation of batteries is a much overestimated thing. Most of the estimates are that capacity will be reduced to 80% at 500 cycles and 50% at 1,000. If you buy a decent bike with a good BMS, look after it and at an average of 50* miles per cycle that'll be reduced to 40 miles after 25,000 and 25 miles after 50,000. That's based on a 500WH battery, 700Wh are pretty common now, that would make the mileage 70 new, 56 miles after 35,000 and 35 miles after 70,000. If you're a high mileage user, you could add about 20% to the bikes purchase price and get a second battery, use them in rotation and double the mileage.
Is this really something people worry about?

* Your usage might be anything from 30 to 80 miles, adjust the figures accordingly.
*******************************
A good number of the quality bikes back then would have been using Bosch Powerbacks, most likely 400Wh, those are still in production and cost around £550. If the rest of the bike is serviceable, the cost of the battery isn't prohibitive. But whether many people would want to invest that much in an old bike is questionable. The motor will have a lot of miles, the rest of the components will be worn and maybe more importantly to the buyer the technology has moved on.
I think it's a bit of a red herring, I know people like to big up the environmental aspects, but things don't have to last forever to have been worthwhile. if someone gets 30,000 miles from an E-bike, then reuses and recycles what they can, that is IMO a very acceptable use of resources. I know, people will tell us that non assisted bikes can last forever, but can and do are different things and we only see a tiny fraction of the bikes produced twenty years ago still in use.

All the above seems a cogent and realistic estimation of the issues around the longevity of e-bikes. Fundamentally, if you look after them and make an effort to replace worn parts, they can be made to last a very long time, just like ordinary bikes. Batteries do last a long time if looked after; and even now most can be re-celled, although the infrastructure for getting that done is in its infancy. It won't be in even 3 years time, as batteries become ubiquitous in all forms of transport.

The problem is, as with everything else, the production of junk e-bikes. These tend to break down rapidly, be badly made and difficult to recycle or mend. The solution to that is to prevent junk-manufacturing - of any and everything.

Oh - and to stop consuming the junk stuff. "A bargain" often isn't.

rjb wrote: ↑24 Sep 2024, 6:35pm Cut a shallow slot in the end of the B screw with a hacksaw. Insert it from the back of the derailleur. The screw head give you an extra 5mm and you can adjust it with a small head slotted screwdriver.

That's quite a clever way to convert the B-screw. However, a box of 100 or so stainless steel M4 bolts of various lengths, with allen key heads, can be bought for not very much. Will you use 100 M4 bolts in a lifetime? Perhaps not - but its surprising how often such things are needed and even using 5 or 6 in a lifetime is worth the expense of having a box of various lengths when you need one NOW.

You can also dish them out to your friends and neighbours, who will all be very grateful and love you forever.

Get a box of M5 and M6 too. Many things are held together by such bolts.

These boxes of various length bolts in standard thread sizes can be got inclusive if matching lock nuts, washers (plain or spring) and even 2 or 3 allen keys.

There are also alternative collections that contain not just various lengths but various sizes (e.g. M3 - M4 - M5 - M6 - M8).

Soon, you need a large shed to keep them all warm & dry.

Go mad, and get a collection imperial sizes for those bluddy North America things. Despite throwing that tea in the harbour and seeing-orf King George, the dafties have (unlike the rest of the world) stuck with imperial. Have they not heard of Napoleon!

mattheus wrote: ↑24 Sep 2024, 12:59pm

Cugel wrote: ↑24 Sep 2024, 11:38am You seem to be saying that you accept or even tacitly approve British Parliamentary corruption, bribery and general bad-behaviours against both the interests of MPs' constituents and against various ethical traditions & codes.

Incidentally: in this respect, do you think Starmer&Co are better or worse than Johnson's lot?

No line from you yet, then? As I mentioned above this no-answer is an answer. [Text removed by moderator]

mattheus wrote: ↑24 Sep 2024, 11:59am

Cugel wrote: ↑24 Sep 2024, 11:38am
Deflection, all that.

Cugel wrote: ↑24 Sep 2024, 11:38am
You seem to be saying that you accept or even tacitly approve British Parliamentary corruption, bribery and general bad-behaviours against both the interests of MPs' constituents and against various ethical traditions & codes. If I'm wrong in this assumption about your stance on this matter, please describe where you would draw that line.

That's an interesting bit of interpretation ...

Cugel wrote: ↑24 Sep 2024, 11:38am
And of course you can draw such a line; we all can. That doesn't mean that MPs will take any notice of us but it does provide one parameter or benchmark that helps decide who to vote for and who to not vote for.

Go on then. Define your line for me. Makes sure it is practical* - we can't have an unenforcable rule-book, not for the highest levels of authority in this great country of ours.

[*Clue: you can't just cite examples from the last month and say: "THIS shouldn't be allowed!" ]

My line has already been stated upthread and is very simple: no gifts at all; or, if they're unavoidable because of your "cultural factors" fully declared then handed over to the ownership of Parliament, not an individual MP.

So where's your line? Anything goes as "that's the way the world works"? But by all means continue avoiding an answer as that's an answer in itself, eh?

**************
This is the trouble with being a fan of something - the object of adoration can do no wrong in the fan's eyes. Only their pretty glamour is felt, along with the fan's glow from "belonging" to the fanclub.

Nearholmer wrote: ↑24 Sep 2024, 11:36am Hard to believe.

Why would they do that? Neither pylon routes nor buried 400kV cables need frequent access, and there’s a long history of the very infrequent “restringing” of aerial routes being done using temporary possession of land. Routine inspection is now done by helicopter and drones.

When windmills are established on a moor or similar location without current roads or tracks, a network of gravel-based tracks is made to allow the servicing of the windmills and their wee substations. These tracks are typically 3 - 5 m wide and make very good cycling paths, although they're generally not going from A to B like a road so they're good for leisure cycling rather than going to visit your auntie in the next town.

When I lived around Lancaster I came across large pylons all over the district, as they serviced the export of e-juice from Heysham nuclear power stations. Very few if any had access roads as pylons need very little maintenance - and when they do one sees a truck or two that's crossed the open field they're located within so a bloke or two can get up them to fix a broken gubbin or even to restring them with better wires. As another poster mentions, the field is used for farming purposes as it ever was before a pylon reared up in it.

There's plenty of wildlife in both locations, limited or affected only by the same farming activities, to the same degree, as took place before the mill or pylon was placed there. When walking or riding the windmill tracks its exceedingly rare to see any vehicle or other human activity.

mattheus wrote: ↑24 Sep 2024, 10:44am

Cugel wrote: ↑23 Sep 2024, 1:57pm Does you argument, by the way, apply universally? If every government contains people performing a variety of corrupt and immoral practices, of various degrees from petty to bordering on or supporting the criminal (see last Toryspiv gang for details) should we just accept them all because. "The history of every western government features this sort of thing"? Where do you (and I mean you) draw the line; or do you draw no line?

Do you mean me?

I don't draw a line. How could you? Be my guest if you have one in mind!

Minister has meeting with business leader (or sports figure). Should they both bring their own refreshments?
PM meets with foreign dignitary (let's say from Saudi); how do you manage the differences in culture, without risking offence OR risking "corruption" allegations?
Or should the PM never meet anyone? Is your rule universal?

Deflection, all that.

You seem to be saying that you accept or even tacitly approve British Parliamentary corruption, bribery and general bad-behaviours against both the interests of MPs' constituents and against various ethical traditions & codes. If I'm wrong in this assumption about your stance on this matter, please describe where you would draw that line.

And of course you can draw such a line; we all can. That doesn't mean that MPs will take any notice of us but it does provide one parameter or benchmark that helps decide who to vote for and who to not vote for.

mattheus wrote: ↑24 Sep 2024, 10:25am

cycle tramp wrote: ↑23 Sep 2024, 5:53pm ..however we're always in the middle of something- not at the end, and I very much look forward to reading posts from gravel bike riders, when the next design of bicycle crashes like a wave onto society, something like 'I don't know why people are buying these new pedal powered hover bikes, you could ride that terrain on a mid 2020's gravel bike... its all a sales gimmick'...

Love it.

Ooooh - where can I buy a pedal-powered hover bike? I've always wanted something rather better than them big float things for pedalling about the West Wales bays and inlets.