So to learn a little more I’ve swapped stems, the ebike now has a 45mm instead of 65mm, I’ll see how it goes on tomorrow’s outing

You were def at 100% at BPW when I was following you on the ebike :)

You like the bike you have so keep it, save the money for an ebike in a few years when you’re old like me :)

No worries with the advice it’s all good !

So when I started this mtb journey in October I overdosed on reading skills for riding one, bearing in mind I’m no novice to 2 wheels having ridden motorbikes since I was 6 yrs old some 44 yrs ago, I’ve raced motorbikes for 10 years and I’m fairly competent on them. I can also wheelie for miles and could do the same as a kid on a cycle.

So I tried and tried to manual my ebike and it just didn’t seem to be something I could do, until I got the normal bike and tried on that, I nearly flipped it as it came up so easy with little effort. I’ve since tried again on the ebike and it’s better but nowhere near as easy or natural to do. So in simple terms I can’t manual the ebike but I can on the normal one.

Thanks all, chainstay on my ebike is 490mm, more than the latest ebikes for sure. There’s 8kg difference in weight between the two as well.
I’ll try a different bar position and see how that helps

Something like this would rely on goodwill I’m afraid which is one particular downside.

Yup round there also here

https://flic.kr/p/S4VYwv

Some folk call it night garden loads of tiny trails

I’ll try and help, go to the jump park, facing the entrance to the jump park on the access road with the downhills on the right and jump park to the left, don’t go in but continue riding down the access road hill there’s a green gate at bottom but don’t go that far, turn left before gate and ride into there that will give you loads to explore including the bomb hole and lots of short downhills, prob spend an hour in there riding round. There is loads more but it’s easier to show folk round.

I demo’d the Kia e-niro this week and it’s a nicely built good car to drive. Range is between 220-280 miles and looking on it’s log of journeys this seems a reality. I’d have bought one today but they have only got a demo and no cars to buy, current waiting time is 18 months. I’ve put a refundable deposit on one, in the meantime the Leaf with the 60kw battery could be the game changer. Personally I won’t go tesla as they just aren’t a reliable car, they are the JLR of the EV world :)

A lap of pines red is 35mins and being local a years pass covers the parking if I drive there. It’s a great place for an hour or twos fun after work. Tbh can stretch it to 4-6 hours riding with off piste and a stop at the cafe 😁

Just passed my test* and picked this up and heading to Donington park for a trackday Monday

Untitled by Tony H[/url], on Flickr

*Not really

If I had a Land Rover I’d tow somewhere warm and comfy behind it to sit in and wait for the AA :)

My company installs EV charge points so we see a lot of EV cars. The Tesla is nice and has a useable range but it’s too much money and some of them have lots of issues they need to go back for. The Leaf is good but to get a useable range you’ll need the soon to be here 64kw version. The i3 again a nice car and very clever but range is the issue again. I drove the Kia e-niro today and that was the best for range and price, it had a genuine 260 mile range and drove great. I’d have bought one today if they had one but as you’ve said the waiting list is 18months.

Personally I’d wait for an e-niro or the Hyundai equivalent but I’d also wait till they are readily available so you don’t pay list price. Buy a big car for family duties and a leaf for commuting if that’s what you need it for :)

Pines is my local I go a couple times a week as it’s easy to do, the red is ok if you go flat out, the jump section is small but fun. Off piste is better, night garden, bomb hole, old red etc. It’s hard to find if you don’t know. It’s all on my strava account so if you send a PM I’ll link you. There’s nothing extreme there but being local I’ve no complaints 😁

From a novice point of view having only been riding since October BPW is superb especially the blue trails. I did a couple of reds this time too with no issues at all, can’t say I’m a fan of the Rocky or droppy stuff as I prefer fast and flowing but it’s good to try stuff and go out my comfort zone. Also still ride motorbikes on track but I’ve scaled that right back to 3 or 4 times a year as the mtb is just as much fun and massively cheaper

Alpinestars paragon here, don’t give them a thought once riding

Cheers mate enjoyed that, being new to this sport and a relative novice it was nice to throw in some quick blues and a couple of reds, great fun 😁

I’ve got a Huawei Band 3 pro for this use as it works better with iOS Health app, the garmin app can sometimes be flaky when syncing with iOS. The Huawei has worked fine as a simple fitness tracker, has gps built in if you do want to use it as a ride tracker too.

Maybe a change of mindset is needed too you are no longer a tradesman you are also management and a businessman. Add 25% to each job to cover one day a week admin. As has been said let people know you are a sole trader and do admin once a week or if you can every day from say 3-5pm. You have to be really strict with yourself on this but once in a routine it will work. Will also work should you take someone else on as you’ll be used to time being allowed for admin.

It’s pretty easy to see person plus motor means more speed, more speed means more fun simples.

As for the weight of the bike there’s enough back to back tests with normal bikes and there seems little difference in times even on downhill runs, even at my novice level riding with normal bikes on sections my ebike has no power advantage there’s little difference.

As for the cost I’ve come from racing motorbikes and this cycling lark is silly cheap, a day out at bpw costs £35 and my local trail centre is a £10 with parking and food. If you’re finding cycling expensive you should have listened more at school like the ebikers 😀😁😀😁

I’m mainly an ebiker and I ride for the Adrenalin buzz of riding as quick as I can, if I had a downhill centre and lift on my doorstep that is all I would do but as I don’t the bike turns lots of trails into faster trails. Most I speak to on the trails are riding a bike for the physical challenge too so will never ride an ebike, they also seem to struggle to understand why anyone would ride for the reasons I give.
They also make the mistake that an ebike takes away the physical effort, it doesn’t if you choose to try as hard as on a normal bike, at my local trail centre I’m 20-25mins quicker round a red route than on a normal bike, that’s the difference the ebike makes. If I went the same speed as my normal bike I wouldn’t get a workout but I don’t I use the power to add to the speed not to make the ride easier. Extra speed also gives me the incentive to try harder I don’t get that incentive going uphill slowly puffing out my arse which goes back to the main reason I use one and that’s not for fitness

My time on the ebike is also the same as the fastest rider on a normal bike, that being a top class racer so it shows how much speed the ebike adds which shows how much excitement it adds.

I have however just bought a new normal bike as my fitness has increased loads so I can now enjoy a more gentler ride which goes against why I started on an ebike 6 months ago 😀😀

If a Kombi is registered as a car category it can attract a car road tax, one of ours was £500 a year to tax as it was registered as a car. Better to have it registered as a van and most are these days.

Transits also have issues but not as many as a VW and they are cheaper, with regards to the doors ford sorted that whereas out 14 T5.1 still had leaky windows same as our 06…The new tranist with its big touchscreen is much better in the cab than the VW. Spec a T6 to the same as a limited transit and it’s very expensive.
But each to their own as the VW still looks better and a tranist will always have a builders image. Buying privately you can’t ignore the easy resale on a VW either

The new transit customs are better equipped, have a nicer interior, are more reliable and are cheaper. Of course they don’t look as cool to middle aged men in animal t-shirts if that’s your scene but if it isn’t they are worth a look.

Good to hear from a DNO perspective, the ones we deal with are very negative tbh and my info comes from them :)

I work in the industry installing car chargers and their infrastructure, soon all new car chargers will be smart chargers and the DNO (leccy board) will have the power to control and limit them as they see fit. So rather than upgrading and investing in our netowrk they’ll just turn everyones chargers down…..they are investing but we are currently massively behind much more advanced countries like India and China, our networks are just too old.

You also don’t buy an electric car to save money, you buy one to save the environment or more specifically move the pollution away from cities or away altogether by using renewable energy

So this week the ebike journey has led to me buying a normal bike but first an update

Took the ebike to bpw and managed to hang onto the back of a fairly quick rider all day, had the best time I’ve had on a mtb full stop and the ebike didn’t seem to have any downsides at my level.

I’ve since been using it a lot at Sherwood pines and riding as hard as I can physically and have took some quickest ebike sector times. I like the additional element of timing as i enjoy the competition side. My fitness has improved massively since starting this in October and I’ve dropped 12lbs in weight.

I’m off to bpw again with the ebike but joining it now in the garage for trail rides and family rides is a new clockwork bike, my 12yr old giant is being replaced by a calibre bossnut evo. I’ll still use the ebike for fast runs for now as I’ll never get the same speed out of s normal bike but for trail rides the normal bike will be getting used

We’ve got a new custom with the 2.0 engine with the manual box, I prefer autos so took the demo out. The big downside for me was the high revs on the motorway, it’s running nearly 1000revs higher at 80-90mph. It did change gear nicely and was smooth enough, if it had another gear to use it would be perfect.

I’m epic at e-biking and eating the cakes at the cafe afterwards

I’ve had an XR and it was superb road or track with no damping or handling issues even with race tyres on it

I’ve had a few bikes…164 to be precise but since mountain bikes have become my main hobby I haven’t wanted a bike, it’s been a couple of months since I sold my last one but this popped up for a similar price to my mtb !, couldn’t resist and if I don’t use it I can always look at it !

5000 miles a year you need some V6 Elgrand goodness, £5k so mich cheaper than a van. Much faster, comfier and can carry 4 people and 4 bikes when needed. Can sit in back and use as a day van and also sleep in back and use as a camper

Untitled by Tony H[/url], on Flickr

As lots have said above leave when you can but in the meantime make his life as hard as you can, complain to HR, get signed off with stress if you can due to his bullying. Take it as far as you can or can be bothered with. If you want some real fun take him to one side in an office with no witnesses and tell him it’s all personal now and you’re gonna **** him over. If he reacts you’ve won, but keep pushing, keep making comments if he is that bad eventually he’ll bite as people like that can’t resist. I hate workplace bullies and they deserve everything they get.

Also use a garmin edge, I use OS maps on PC to draw a route then export it as a .gpx file. Plug garmin into pc and drag .gpx file over simple as that.

Prob was me bazzer, what were you riding and what Euro track was it, Portimao ?

First visit yesterday and booked uplift, was fully booked up and never had more than a few minutes wait. Didn’t see any issues tbh worked well

Wow so that’s the first visit to BPW over. With mtb being so new to me I didn’t know what to expect especially taking my ebike. There was 5 of us with 2 of us on ebikes. I was glad of the ebike for the rides back to the uplift with the other riders on our group but tbh it was a bit pointless having them but as it’s the only decent bike I’ve got it’s the one I took and with the group I was with the bike wasn’t holding any of us up on the descents despite me being a novice as well.

I can’t explain how much I enjoyed the day, it seems like a trackday for mountain bikes, we only did the blue trails and that is exactly what I wanted from the day, the way they flowed and the speeds, berms, jumps were all perfect for me and my bike.

My history of 2 wheels is mainly motorbikes…150+ pf them including 8 years racing and 300+ trackdays and this day out on a mtb ranks in the top few things I’ve done on 2 wheels.

I only wish I had took a camera to relive a few of the trails today, I’ve got a load of strava data to pour over till next time though :)

Small update, I changed the tyres on my hardtail from smart sams to minions, I’d been sliding round a lot on the sams but still setting some times a little quicker than the FS bike on minions especially the more open sections where the HT was definitely quicker.
So I put a set of minions on the HT and tubeless’d them too and as anyone who knows about tyres they are massively better and I went quicker still. So much so I’m only 4s off a KOM on one section so my riding must be improving too. With the extra grip and speed of the minions though I really missed the FS bike, hitting stuff harder and faster it was the forks I miss the most on the FS bike as my HT only has basic RS Judys.
Not sure where to go yet but BPW next week for the first time. As fitness is increasing it’s getting close to buying a normal non ebike, lets see if I enjoy BPW :)

I’ve PCP a car for work for the past 6 years, always a 3 year deal and always go back to the dealer to swap after 18mths. Mileage is irrelevant as they never reach the end of the deal, tbh handing a car back on pcp should never be done you are better off buying it at the end of the deal if you keep it they long.
The cars we take are always 6m – 18m old. We’ve had the best deals on C class Mercs doing this. The current one was £2000 down which was equity in the old one and £220 a month over 3 years. At end of 3 years I pay £10000 to buy it if I want, tbh it’ll be worth that as a well looked after car.
The age of the car helps as a lot of depreciation has been done compared to a new car.

I’ll always quote my AA breakdown mate, petrol and Japanese, once you’ve realised that set autotrader to Toyota or Honda only and choose their model that fits your requirements.

On board his van are spares mainly for newish diesels and mainly German. Why the AA won’t publish their breakdown data I don’t know

Appreciate the advice, I’m old and not daft so will take my time….so long as I pass weeksy all is well in the world 😁