A few months into EV ownership here, and recent Alps + now Outer Hebrides tours. My first experience in a demo Leaf a few years ago was very much like the OPs, and meant I binned the idea of an EV for 4 years.

Now, with a bit a chatting with EV pals so I was prepped before purchase meant things were very smooth for public charging. Was quite stressed doing the first one though! Setting up Octopus Go with new Ohme home charger and VW was another interesting experience, but it all works now in a very plug n play manner.

Yeah, the CPS app is a bit flaky (you really need the card). And some of the chargers are old, slow, knackered and sometimes with a weird order of doing things. But as mentioned, a hell of a network really.

2 things in favour of CPS from recent experience –

1) A charger I needed to use was not working, so I called the number on the charger and they were fast, effective and extremely helpful at rebooting the charger remotely and getting everything to work.

2) Outer Hebrides CPS charging is apparently free everywhere. That’s not what the app said, but 7, 22 or 50kw chargers used all over the island and each time was charged 0. Nice!

Oh, and OP, if you think CPS is bad, don’t use BP chargers. Jesus wept!

Thought I’d do a report after 2500mile Morzine round trip from Stirlingshire via Hull/Rotterdam, in case anyone interested. First big trip for me in an EV, and in the ID Buzz. This thread has been very helpful, and the charging one, so maybe some of this is of use to others.

Range/Charging:
50-70mph is would get 200-220ish mile range, around 75mph this dropped a fair bit over long distances, 80mph/130kmph gave about 170miles. So basically gave 3hrs between charges/breaks on my route. Was fine.

Electroverse card worked pretty much everywhere, favourite chargers by a mile are Fastned (fast, easy to use, under shelter).

Electroverse app route planning always seems to choose stops that are indeed rapid chargers as I selected, but also often some way off the main road (so not motorway service stations), often without facilities. Maybe i can narrow the filters. Ionity ones nr Wellin in Belgium had more cows than vehicles. The one behind a Mr Bricolage (french B&Q) in the arse end of Metz with nothing but an empty car park was stressful as my eyeballs were floating at the time.

Apart from that, charging a total non issue as eventually I just relented for ease of coffee, toilet and bitterballen purchases and used chargers at usual service stations which were all excellent. Many places have replaced petrol pumps in main forecourt with chargers now (FR and BE).

NL/BE/L/FR charge prices are much lower than UK. CH, surprisingly, is about 50% of price here. CH also has the best charging stops in the world (see photo overlooking Lake Geneva – not me, no swooning, my pal we picked up en-route)

ID Buzz:

Flawless over duration of trip.

Super comfortable (with the fancy electric seats with extending thigh support and massage), quiet, cabin ambience lovely for long drive, stereo i think is really excellent, cabin stays cool without blasting out cold air even in v hot weather (30c+).

Apple car play used the whole time, no resets or wobbles which is a lot more reliable than previous VAG cars.

Predictive cruise 90% effective, but it does read sliproad and other road speeds which causes some frustration.

Space for 3 mtbs, 4 pairs of wheels, luggage, tools and passengers. no bother. could have put in 5 bikes + wheels, bags etc and 5 people if we filled to the roof. Buzz board stayed in the garage, pointless thing if not sleeping.

Rides a bit better when ‘full’, just like my previous 2 caravelles did.

Special shout out to the fancy IQ headlights – they are incredible! No really, nuts. once you realise what they are doing it’s real ‘holy shit’ stuff

Pole position on Hull ferry, both ways, meant lots of chat with others about the Buzz. It was a bit of a traffic stopper the whole trip, saw 2 others with much waving etc :-)

Met Amaury at the top of the Plenney, he was getting mobbed by everyone but his team mate Dylan Maples was ignored. So we all got a picture with Dylan and got Amaury to take it. Much laughter and cheering, moment of the holiday, and I think we inspired him to his win :-)

(for some reason unable to upload images – soz!)

Same as jeffl – we have also been with LV, been very responsive when needed (small bathroom flooding emergency a few years ago) and good bike cover, however out of the blue price went up by 50%. “Are you mental?” was the gist of my question to them on the phone. Our LV multicar insurance, inc. teenager, stated the same weirdly.

They did state that as I was a valued customer they would offer me a, brace yourselves, £10 discount as they wanted to keep my business. “Obviously, no you don’t”.

Thing is, LV have been great on the 3 times we actually needed them over the years (1 for house, 2 for car), and I am loath to change to mucho cheapo as my experience with supporting other members of the family who have been through months of torture with those types has been absolutely awful.

So, based on Which? (I do like which), we went with NFU for house and contents. Again good bike cover (inc 2x expensive eebs), better general cover than LV, and cheaper than we were paying LV before. Mental.

And we get automatically covered for stabling and livestock, which is really handy for us in a our small densely populated urban housing estate with a dog and 2 guinea pigs :-)

Is that exactly how we used to ride before suspension? I remember it!

3 sets of Hayes across 3 bikes. Oldest set are 4yrs old, and apart from occasional squeaky rear lever when hot and dusty (e.g. hot day in Morzine), they are bloody brilliant. Best with Original sintered pads, Galfer greens a v close second place.

Didn’t even try with both wheels on, shall give it a go in the morning :-)

Nice one fella!

Hurrah!

As a side note – on this morning’s dog walk there was loads of fledgling birds about. Looking very lost, bewildered, making lots of noise and generally looked like they were thinking “shiiiiiiiiitttttt!” :-)

We’ve walked around beecraigs a few times as central to meet family etc, noted the trails but not ridden. Seemed like superb places to take your kids for a pootle about, but not much more than that. Deffo not full face territory AFAIK. Unaware of sabotage issues.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7cOn7gsV4X/?igsh=MTg0Y3Q0cnFtNzc1cw==

Holy shit! 😬🙈

On previous vans and cars we’ve had an aftermarket, removable tow bar (with proper electrics), but on the Buzz we’ve got the factory fit electric retractable fella. Really nice.

I bought second hand, ours is a Style, I think with optional fancy electric seats that also have the amazing pull out thigh extension thingy (as a tall long legged person, with that addition is most comfortable car seat I’ve ever had). I think the Style’s all come with the 9 speaker sound upgrade thingy, and that makes it really quite a good stereo (IMHO), and also electric boot which is nice. Both our previous Caravelle’s had electric sliding rear doors which we loved but were temperamental. So, when we went for the buzz I did not look for that option. We miss it! It’s not a deal breaker, they can be annoyingly inconsistent, but still really miss them.

@TexWade – ah, you mean you take the first narrow multifelx board panel out. Ah ha, never thought of doing just that  – something else to try, would indeed alleviate the issue of the ceiling panel dip height restrictions Nr the boot.

@thebunk – yes, rear seats usable. Depends how far back the driver/passenger have their seats of course. There’s very good legroom in the front, so I imagine even for normal adults it’d work fine with those seats not at max extension.

Yes, easily get 2 bikes in with rear seats folded and back wheels still on. I do wonder if 4 could be made to work that way. With TexWade’s solution of taking the first bit of the board out, forks would go down in that gap and then you’ve a lovely flat area to roll the bikes back. Never tried that, wonder if you could get 4 in that way? No back seat passengers of course!

@mick_r – Looking at that van, the Buzz, and considering long bikes – I would say ‘no chance’ :-) (and I won’t try it until I’ve got my boot liner for fear of chanking the inside. There is rather a lot of ‘white’ inside the Buzz)

I do the drive via Hull/rotterdam 3/4 times a year as need to be in CH for work and I HATE airports but love driving (audiobooks and podcasts). very aware that on the NL-BE-L-F-CH drive there are an absolute ton of charging stations now. I do not foresee any issues but must admit to pouring over Electroverse route/charging options a LOT before I even made the call to buy the Buzz. Fingers crossed :-)

Hi @thebunk, we got a buzz about a month ago, had T5/6s for many years beforehand.

My son and I just had a go at exactly your question last night, in advance of annual alps trip in the summer. (@mick_r – not broken it yet – yay ;-) )

Our bikes are tall (high stack) and looooong (e.g. XL hello Dave and Pole Evolink). Was interesting to try different configurations. In the end, for a long journey the winning option seemed to be both wheels off 4 bikes, bikes upright in the back longways alternate forward/backward (hope that makes sense). Rear seats up but slid forward. Fork or rear axle sits nicely in the dip behind the rear seats, and fits behind the boot lid with room to spare. Plenty of space under and around bikes for wheels and ‘stuff’, and leaves back seats free too. hurrah!

We could not get the multiflex board to work with this configuration, as it reduced the height too much for the bars at the boot end where the ceiling lowers. remember we have silly tall long bikes, but when we let the air out the forks we could make it work, however that’s more faff than we wanted. I don’t see the point of the board anyways, so took it out pretty much when we got it. This also means tie downs are free in the back, so can use those to secure the bikes. Bob’s your uncle.

Point of note – my tilting Thule tow bar bike rack works perfectly with the buzz, where on the T5/6 the boot would not clear it. That was a pain in the hoop! But, for Scotland-alps I fear the rack would hit efficiency too much, and I prefer the bikes inside for this kind of journey anyway at rest stops etc.

HTH

Loved the response from Mr. Gnarr himself on IG 🙈😆

There does also seem (perception is reality and all that, and purely anecodtally from scanning the emtb forums) to be a dramatic drop off in shimano issues with the introduction of the newer shimano motors.

Groups were awash with issues previsouly, but the reports really seem to have dried up.

Still major issues with repairability, but the error codes and failed motors seem vastly reduced

Fantastic news about getting back out again, here’s to ya!

And: “Say, that’s a nice bike” :-)

I’ll stick my oar in too, not only wide, but bunion and hammer toes to add to the fun. 12.5UK size as well which can be a little limiting.

Agree on NB wide trainers being pretty good.

Agree on 5.10s becoming useless (but, fear not, if you need wide and big shoes Specialized canvas flats are awesome).

Agree on Innov8 being OK but not lasting well, though even the ‘wide’ are very style dependant, and even the widest I have are quite tight.

Sketchers wide are OK, but I find, as a big lad, they offer little to no support so make my feet ache if I’m doing any walking in them.

Keen I agree are very good, but now no longer sell/ship to the UK from europe, so that’s a right pain in the tits.

Completely coincidentally, @dantsw13 , I just found Fitville. They are dangerously close to being a bit ‘NHS’, and they do size up BIG, but I followed their fitting guide and got a pair of general smart ish trainers (on Friday) that are the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever owned. And they are not expensive.

Yep – always a sale on – and four years interest free credit! 🙂

If you read the reviews on Tripadvisor for DFDS, there is a 1/5 review stating ‘delivered the wrong sofa, will never use again, etc etc’ 😆

I still use the P&O Hull-Rotterdam crossing a few times a year (real shame they stopped the Zebrugge one as i preferred that boat and the beach at zebrugge is awesome!), did the same thing happen to the crews on that boat?

There are a number of familiar faces, both Greek and Malaysian/indonesian, working on the boat in the bits that i see (bars etc) and the dutch captains are the same i think before and after the dramatic restructure.

Safari on Mac (same on iPad), video player causing havoc with formatting when you scroll down past the player. First post after the player does this

Vinyards. Lots of vinyards. Go for a degustation, marvel at the oak barrel special number they hold back till the end, eat foie gras (holding back ethical concerns), lots of canard – god it’s lovely!

better away from the touristy ones, we know Cotes de Duras area/bergerac – hunners of fab local vineyards with enthusiastic, welcoming and quite pickled owners.

Amongst other things, yes 🙈😆

Interesting responses, cheers folks – as you have suggested, will change anyway just for peace of mind. Cue sods law kicking in…

The takes of sudden snappage are horrendous, plan to avoid that :-)

Good point about class 5 use, I don’t think I was ever going to use an obviously XC bar for my riding, but that give some something specific to look for.

Ta muchly!

I should update my thread, but yes, take our youngest everywhere we can (usually weekend stuff, but scouts etc as well), and she is a not short 12yrs, on the back of the multi tinker (similar to GSD). She bloody loves it, and it’s a superb way to chat, see what’s going on in the world etc.

Also, in the rain, as I am ‘large’ and catching all the wind and rain, at the back they stay completely dry whilst I am **** dripping wet through :-)

Also on after one rusty nail fuelled local biking group curry night, gave one of the smaller (sorry Fabian!) adult bikers a lift home. Another highlight was taking a dinosaur out guising on Halloween.

Helps we have an ever increasing and improving cycle network here. If your family wants to do it, get it done pronto! I think with smaller kids I would have gone GSD, but as we more mostly cargo and 1 large kid the multi tinker was preferred.

It is also, unquestionably, the best way to go to town or big shopping centre things. They always get jammed up at weekends with cars dawdling about and terrible single lane exits trying to cope with the Saturday shoppers from 3 directions. Now, Isobel and I just ride past “smile and wave, Isobel, just smile and wave”.

It’s ace!

See also dotting about with any pretty much anything you can fit in the panniers or strap to the back: at least 6 bags for life full of shopping, a 50” TV, stuff for the tip, taking bedding to the laundrette, best has been taking my big bike to the bike shop – just strap the front wheel and fork onto the side of the rear rack and footboard, and it’s a giant tag along. What a hoot. Before I figured that out, just piled the bike onto the seat. Also worked fine but a bit wide.

”Hey look! That’s a bike on a bike!”

LV here, surprisingly reasonable price for home, contents and a far too long list fo named bikes inc. ‘e’ , and with experience of having to claim, they are really sensible and practical with that side too. Big thumbs up.

Are you employed in the UK affiliate of the swiss company, or employed out of Switzerland but resident in UK? (I.e. have a swiss not UK contract?)

another vote for Laggan just to ensure you don’t miss the mention of it.

I’ll also say that trails around Granton are pretty good. There’s the we kinda bike parky bit in the lower woods near the river which is fun for an hour, and then the local trail crew trails are great fun (although may be some tree issues according to trail forks)

Hi OP, I am a big fella (115kgs), and got a Full Fat e-bike about 1.5yrs ago (thank you exercise induced AF) and now 4500km in. As you know Range is a factor of level of support, your pedaling style, hilliness of terrain, efficiency of motor and size of battery. For ref, my bike has a Yamaha motor (middling efficiency), and I have both a 625 and an 800wh battery.

I can do long rides, e.g. 1600m+ climbing, 45-60miles with 1 or 2 levels of support and still have 15-20% battery left on the 800 battery. At that support your are still loads faster than normal folks on normal bikes. On the 625 in trail mode (which is honestly where I spend most of my time if riding on my own or with other eebs), I can drain it in 800m climbing and 15 miles or less.

Proper hike a bike, like when it should really be on your shoulders, is horrific. Top of the Torridon lollipop was a dark moment of the soul for me and 2 others with eels I was with. If the bike will roll, then walk mode is really good. Gates higher than chest height are problematic. Even chest height is a clean and jerk.

As with other comments, descending is a blur of joy, esp with short cranks and a lower bb than my normal bikes.

Hope that helps. Riding a normal bike is still great, and I do this too, mostly to make days out on the eeb even more fun :-)

Few other thoughts for big fellas –

1) it’s all about torque, the watts output is pretty irrelevant beyond a certain point. Top 2 levels of power offer no more support for me on steep climbs as torque is the same but only power is increased. it does help accelerate faster on milder terrain I will grant. A ‘light’ e-bike with 50nm would, for me, be ‘not good’

2) total weight limit of bike does restrict options – Trek Rail for example, although full fat, has max 125kgs inc. bike I think, as does Scott, aforementioned Orbea, and others. Mine is 150kgs of which there are plenty options too.

3) I tear through consumables at a terrifying rate. Chains, cassettes, chainrings, discs, pads, rear tires. Even whole rear wheels (spokes, hubs, rims). Inserts are a godsend and curse in equal measures.

4) if you are tall (i am 195cm) find the bike with the steepest actual and effective seat angle possible, and a seat tube that points straight at the BB. any stupid mid-seat tube kinks will put the saddle too far back and with all that power on steep climbs you do NOT want your arse perched that far back.

5) Get the bike from a good local dealer. most are really still beta versions and I think it’s safe to say that the majority will have issues with electrics. I’ve a Giant Reign E+, bought for aforementioned proper seat tube, good motor and local dealer. Contrary to reports on here my Giant LBS, and Giant, (big shout out to Velocity 44 in Stirling) have been superb with warranty issues (of which there have been 3: rear hub disintegration, Fox Float X shitting itself, motor replacement at 3000kms which was more precautionary than really neeeded, but great service on all.  )

useful?

Awesome work!

Our first dog as an adult couple was a rescue Doberman/lab cross called Bruno. Gorgeous big brute, tail like a strong man’s thigh. Bruno could get the zoomies with the best of them, tuck his bum in and absolutely fly round fields etc. He thought he was the king of the zoomies amongst local dogs.

One day we met the local Greyhound rescue, Lilly, in the field by the river. Bruno looked at Lilly and said “Watch this!” and took off. The owner laughed, slowly took the lead off Lilly, and let her go. In about 3 strides she had overtaken Bruno and covered what seemed like 300yds. Utterly glorious sight.

Bruno, bless him, tried to catch up but he did that thing that humans also do when he started running too fast for his legs and ended up as a big bumfled mess of legs and flesh in a heap in the field. He looked most put out. Lilly then came hurling past on a return close-pass, utter glee in her eyes, egging Bruno on.

Was hilarious. I think Bruno slept for 2 days recovering from trying to keep up.

I think our next will be a rescue greyhound, lovely beasts.

There are local’s that I really should probably use, but on the recommendation of a friend I went with PACT too. The coffees are great, I love that there is always variation and I can tune my preferences (which I do not do religiously, but still helps – if anyone is buying me coffee – the darker roast the better please!), and the subscription speed up/slow down is very helpful.

Awesome

It’s what i do / my company does – happy to chat even if just to throw ideas around so at least you know what to discount!

It’s a hard no from me, that top tube looks ‘not good’!

I would suggest it is worth another go. I read the books so long ago they are only really a formative memory, so not frustrated by any deviation but i can see how that would bug.

1st series good, second series is WOW! I love the cast, really superb. Get into it :-)

wordnumbFree Member
A mobile phone company is adapting Neuromancer for the screen?

Hold onto your hat, wait till you find out an online book store is sending up space rockets!

I think Apple will do a good job of this, the Foundation stuff has been absolutely glorious. Superb cast, and series 2 started but wow, the last few episodes were amazeballs.

Hit it with Speed!! X2

Superb!

One up posts have an air valve, think the V2s are on sale at the mo as well

That new chainring really makes the middleburn cranks look lush – never liked the way they looked before, but oof – lots of want!

missus has an M1 8gb air – not seen it struggle with any thing she does (office, TEAMs, video editing, 649,000 browsing tabs open and a desktop that looks like a war zone)

I’ll pitch in here for the first time, local cub leader, following thread and comments with interest.

The RA thing is interesting – I think sometimes scouts pushes this, just like I would say 80% of the mandatory training, as tick the box so legally they have CYA, rather than using these things as tools to change behaviour for the better.

I’m trying to look at them more as real tools to help me and leadership team create fun, adventurous activities with risks managed, if I prepare them like that, can be rather helpful.

However – we were doing blindfold ropes courses and spiders web stuff in the woods, and one kid arrived, bent down and instantly poked a stick right into his eye socket. Oh FFS, there’s only so much I can manage! :-)

(he was fine BTW)

And as above, keep up the good work folks!