So to charge an ev using Octopus Energy and a smart charger we have to get all our leccy via Octopus is it?

yes, your car charger uses your house electricity supply, so your house electricity supply has to come from octopus.

I found that my total electric costs are about £5 per month lower with the electric car on octopus , compared to before we had the electric car when we used shell energy. Mostly due to shifting washing machine and dishwasher to the cheap night rate, plus the whole house getting cheap electric whenever the car is charging .

I loved the cross ply racing slicks I used to use on my Caterham 7, brilliant tyres

I then got a train down to Cork and a week later sailed our race boat back from Cork to N Wales.

Isn’t it incumbent on you to notify the relevant authorities that you’re leaving on a small boat? As opposed to via the mainstream ways of leaving a country.

I know when I sailed to Gibraltar from Falmouth, stopping in various countries on the way down, we had to notify the authorities that we were leaving and arriving at each stop.

The problem with doing what you suggest Flaperon is that you’ll pay 83p to £1.20 a kWh for the privilege

Which major charging network (in the uk) is charging £1.20 per kwh – The most I have seen is about 85p when using a credit card, which typically reduces by about 10%-20% when you pay a monthly subscription, the higher the subscription fee the higher the reductions . BTW 85p is still too high IMO, but I think its starting to come down slowly now.

I note that Ionity in the EU charges 69 cents per kwh with no subscription, which is getting more reasonable, and it reduces to 49 cents on their cheapest subscription

Edit : just checked Ionity in the uk is 74p per kwh without a subscription, and 53p on their cheapest subscription.

Apparently this is not ZF’s first attempt at an ebike motor, apparently they did one back in 2018, I hadnt heard of it, I guess it didnt really go anywhere.

At Eurobike 2018, ZF presented their first ebike motor as part of a joint venture between Magura, BFO and BMZ: The Sachs RS

ZF looks very cool. I’m really puzzled as to how it’s anchored in the frame though. What stops it trying to turn the body of the motor? They say the cradle bolts are only 4nm – I don’t get how that works

I read in an article that theres a kind of woodruff key to stop it rotating, and to ensure it gets mounted in the correct orientation.

Again. If I can’t roll up to a charging point, plug a world wide universal cable in, wave a random bank card and arrive back 10 minutes later with a couple of hundred miles in the “tank

You can in England at any DC fast charger, or at least that is how it’s always worked for me when I’ve used public chargers, I’ve not had a problem.

The TQ has been out since mid-2022 so could be due an update.

you could be right – but trek have just announced their slash+ that uses that motor,albeit with a bigger battery, so I’d be surprised if a new one was coming very soon

I think I would buy a bike with the Bosch, but then the Shimano gives you full 85nm, and it looks like a few motors about to hit the market too will wipe the floor with the Bosch. As these bikes are so expensive I would wait and see what comes out rather than the Bosch

Agree with that, right now bosch looks best, but unless I wanted something right now, I’d probably wait and see what the DJI motor/bike is like.

Mind you maybe the smart choice is to buy the “old” tech spesh sl 2 or tq hpr 50 at a significant discount compared to the newer stuff and have £3-4k more cash sat in your bank account .

Heres a few other observations Ive made from owning a trek fuel exe (tq motor) and looking at some other bikes

– The Specialized and the TQ motor can be run on just the range extender, ie main battery removed. Removing the main battery in the specialized required dropping the motor, so not a 2 minute job, but this approach does give a very modular approach to battery capacity. eg in the case of the tq system you can have a bike with 160wh, 360wh, or 520wh, and a corresponding variety of weights.

– The specialised and TQ range extender batteries are 160wh (as you note) – 160wh batteries can be taken on aeroplanes (in hand luggage) – so combined with the fact that the bikes can run only on the range extender, means you can more easily take your ebike abroad. Ok, so you have a very reduced range, but this I have found this useful.

– The TQ system has two versions of the display (not sure what version you tested – but I think it was the default TQ one?). DIsplays on the trek TQ bikes are a trek specific display,which might be a bit clearer to read than the TQ display.

– Its possible to remove the handlebar remote from the TQ system and still operate it using just the display – using the app you enable “extended center button” functioonality, this lets you change assist modes with a single click of the button on the display, and change display screens with a double click. – useful to know if you smash the remote control up mid ride!

– I think all the systems can hook up to a bike computer or smart watch using ant+ or bluetooth to display certain metrics on the bike computer/watch , things like battery percentage, candence, speed,power, range .

– There was a recent software update for the tq motor to enable switching assist modes using wireless ant+ – currently there are no wireless remotes to take advantage of this, but maybe that means one is comign soon?

– The recently release trek slash+ uses the tq hpr 50 system but has an even bigger 580wh battery, but is also compatible with the original 360wh battery.

if there were countrywide curbside charges and you could charge your EV in front of your house, would you have spent £2k to put one on your drive?

would very much depend on the cost of using those curbside chargers primarily, with consideration also given to how busy they were (presumably not very if they were country wide), and how much of a faff they were to use/pay for .

We now have CCTV as part deterrent, part reassurance

I’m afraid it doesn’t act as much of a detterent, we have cctv, didn’t stop our house being burgled last year and both our cars being stolen from the drive. Got some nice footage of the two hooded scrotes breaking in though – which was of no use whatsoever because they had covered their faces

<quote>This might be a stupid question but does a recharge that happens at any state of battery charge not count as a single cycle? </quote>

no – a single cycle is the equivalent of 0% to 100% charge, not just any charging event.

eg if you drained the car from 100% to 75%, then recharged it to 100% (ie a 25% charge), it would need 4 of these recharges to be counted as a single cycle, 4 x 25% = 100%

thats why if a battery is quoted as being able to provide 1000 charge cycles before its capacity ends up being reduced below 80% , and the cars range is typically 200miles to a full charge. The number of miles a car travels before the battery capacity will be lower than 80% of its original capacity is going to be around 200000miles.

The battery is constantly discharging and recharging as you drive anyway, so the real number of miles is probably going to be a bit less than the simple maths above

Managing the Schengen Shuffle

We don’t use public charging very often, but whenever we have had cause to use it, it’s been pretty seamless. Just plug in and tap a credit  card.

We’re doing our first proper long distance trip in a couple of weeks, we’re off to Fowey in Cornwall from Manchester, it seems there are six 7kw chargers in the main pay and display car park in Fowey that take the octopus electroverse card, so was just planning to use those when we get there, with a top up on/along the m5 on the way down and back. We’d normally stop at Gloucester Services, and it seems there are public tesla superchargers there, so will prob use those.

Incidentally, the merc eqc is now doing 220 to 230 miles (at motorway speeds) to a full charge now the weather is warm

I use argotal in dh supersoft on the front of my low power ebike, it’s good.

<quote>Sorry, Your chosen school excepted, the sector makes profits of about £98 million according to this report. Its clear that profit is a major motivation, to say otherwise is obfuscation.</quote>

did you read the article you linked to ? that £98 million profit is the profit made from overseas satellite campuses (most located in china,hong kong and middle east) of UK private schools , not from their UK schools themselves.

It also states that most* of the profits made from these satellite campuses are used to fund bursaries for pupils at the uk schools whose parents cant afford the fees direct .

*5 schools (out of the 40 schools with a charitable status and overseas satelites campuses, there are about 1350 independant schools in the UK, so a tiny fraction are currently making a profit from their overseas campuses) made profits that exceed the bursaries they give out.

Looks like a none story to me – I know the private school we use just plows any “profits” back into the school in the form of bursaries and improvements to facilities etc

<quote>But no – it’s being applied ‘retrospectively’ to anything invoiced after 29th July….</quote>

its not – VAT only applies to fees relating to the school term starting in jan 25 (even if they are paid now – this is the retrospective bit – to stop people paying for the jan 25 and onwards fees now to avoid vat). So this next term (starting in sept 24) is still free of VAT, as you thought it would be.

I also have a child at a private school….its nice that labour have made private schools that little bit more exclusive again – keeps the hoi poloi out /sarcasm

Ive got them on one of my bikes, I like them, Ive never had any fade even on long steep descents. I prefer the magura mt7 that I have on another bike ,but the code rsc are a decent choice

My worry is that when those funds drop into our bank account they will become part of our income for the year and taxed again accordingly.<br style=”box-sizing: border-box; –tw-border-spacing-x: 0; –tw-border-spacing-y: 0; –tw-translate-x: 0; –tw-translate-y: 0; –tw-rotate: 0; –tw-skew-x: 0; –tw-skew-y: 0; –tw-scale-x: 1; –tw-scale-y: 1; –tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; –tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; –tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; –tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246/0.5); –tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; –tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; –tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; –tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; color: #000000; font-family: Roboto, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, ‘Noto Sans’, sans-serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ‘Segoe UI’, ‘Apple Color Emoji’, ‘Segoe UI Emoji’, ‘Segoe UI Symbol’, ‘Noto Color Emoji’; background-color: #eeeeee;” />Am I right ?

No, they’re not treated as income when you sell, but any increase in value between when you inherited them and when you sell them will be subject to capital gains tax.

If no/minimal increase in value then no cgt.

a regular (say every 6 months) coating of acf50 or similar should help prolong its life.

not being able to unweigh the front over things or off drops.

That’s not an issue in my experience, the motor power makes it easier to pop the front wheel up momentarily with half a pedal stroke, or you can just lift with a body movement like you would a normal bike.

Given free choice with no monetary constraints, I’d probably go for one of the lighter, but full power e bikes that have recently started to appear , but they will be expensive.

Given a choice between what I have , which is a full fat 2020 orbea wild fs that weighs 24kg, and a light trek fuel exe that weighs 19.5kg, I’d take the trek for everything – unless I was doing those rides with others on full fat ebikes. – in which case I’d take the orbea – unless it involved hike a bike , then Id take the trek again.

Yeah I did on a trek fuel exe, bought the base 9.5 model and then swapped virtually everything, I think the only original parts left on it were the dropper post and the shock.

3 months after I bought it the motor failed and I found a crack in the frame, these were sorted under warranty no problem. They supplied a new frame and new motor.

The key is to pick a brand with a good warranty, so that means giant would be out, and when you do swap parts only swap to compatible parts, ie don’t go putting 180mm forks on a frame only designed to take a max of 150mm forks.

It’s got a squelch around the 20% travel marker. It also feels like there’s a platform to push through. This is with all the LSC and HSC wide open. I haven’t checked for volume spacers yet.

I’ve got a super deluxe ultimate, same model as yours, the squelch and platform at the 20% sag point is the negative air chamber equalising in pressure, there’s a little dimple in the air can at about that point in the travel that allows air to pass between neg and pos chambers. The noise is the air passing through that dimple and probably through a bit of lubricating oil at the same time. all Normal I would say.

Edit:just listened to your second video,sounds all normal to me

Looks great – price and reliability will be key

Anyway it seems that bending my elbows and lowering the bars was the thing I was missing

I find bar height has a massive effect on my confidence, lots of people have talked about having higher bars to give more confidence on steep stuff for a few years now (in various places, mag articles etc) , I tried raising mine, but dont like it all, it really affects front wheel grip on steep downhill stuff. The problem is its hard to articulate bar height in objective terms, maybe everyone who advocates higher bars is coming from a starting point of bars much lower than mine already were, so mine ended up way too high when I raised them?

Anyway – mine are now (and always have been – after trying higher and finding I dot like it) in a position where the grips are about level with the saddle/just a few mm lower, when the saddle is in the raised position.

Sorry, no idea why i wrote Pikes, my Jeht has 150 Lyrics. Duh.

less of a difference in that case then, but probably noticeable, just a lot less so.

I went from a carbon enduro bike with 160mm travel (fox 36) front and rear, to a carbon “trail” (or maybe some might call it all mountain) bike with 160mm front travel (with exactly the same forks – I moved them from the enduro bike to the trail bike) ,and 145mm rear travel, but otherwise similiar geo , tyres, brakes etc. There isnt much difference between them ,which is as you’d expect, given that the only real difference is 15mm more travel on the rear. The enduro bike is slightly more composed on very rough stuff due to the extra 15mm travel on the rear, but it is only slight.

You’ve got potentially more of a difference due to moving from steel frame to carbon (assuming carbon slash) – I think you’re going to have to go for a test ride to find out whether its going to be worth it to you.

would i notice any material difference in speed / stability / reduced chatter if i was on something like a Trek Slash?

I think you would notice an improvement, primarily by virtue of the fork on the slash being beefier as well as longer travel, with the extra travel on the rear allowing you to run things a bit softer.

The pike on your cotic is a fair bit flexier than something like a fox 38/zeb.and I suspect the slash frame would be overall stiffer/less flexy than the cotic.

You could probably get 80% of the improvement by putting the same fork (adjusted for an appropriate amount of travel) on your cotic

I’ve got a deluxe select + (the newest c1 variant) and the knob does wobble slightly, it’s been like this from brand new.

20psi on the rear

18psi on the front

This is for my mountain bike, with continental Kryptotal and xynotal tyres, enduro casing.

The discs do rotate ever so slightly on the centerlock spines, but this is only an issue if you brake when the bike is rolling backwards. I’ve never had any other issues with them, they seem fine, but then so do 6 bolt rotors.

I’ve always thought the 6 bolt to centerlock adapters looks a bit flimsy, but I don’t think any of the issue you describe can be attributed to them.

Benefits (to me) are that it’s easier to remove/refit the discs if you travel with the bike a lot.

I’m sure there are also benefits to the manufacturer in the initial assembly process, but they don’t affect me.

I’ve gone to centre lock on all my bikes just because it’s easier to remove/refit rotors – not that I do that very often.

 I can’t imagine ever needing more than that turbo mode,

Have you tried a full fat ebike? Try one, the power is addictive, but I still prefer my TQ motord trek fuel exe overall, but if they did one with the power, torque and range of a full fat bike but at the weight Of my fuel exe I’d be all over it.

TQ motor apparently ‘only’ supplies 50KW

It’s 50nm(of torque) and 300w of power for the tq motor

Ive got both a full fat emtb (orbea wild fs) and a low power emtb (trek fuel exe).

The full fat hardly ever gets ridden these days, but that mainly because the people I ride with are also on low power emtbs.

If everyone I rode with was on a full fat bike, then I’d need to be on a full fat bike too.

The suspension of the orbea feels amazing due to the high unsprung weight, it just ploughs through rough stuff feeling super smooth, but the fuel exe is much more agile, easier to hop about. I prefer the fuel exe.

have tried both, and like both, I’d say theres not a huge difference between them, I’d probably get whichever was cheapest

We used these guys, it was a decent day day of uplifted enduro style riding

https://www.chainguidemallorca.com/?gad_source=1

We switched from a gas hob to induction a few years ago, I wouldn’t go back to gas. Induction is just as good to cook on (but make sure you get a good induction hob, some cheapo low powered thing will probably be awful), but benefits from not generatijg any condensation or other combustion by products, quicker to heat any given pan, easier to clean, looks nicer (this is subjective I guess).

Everyone else has covered the electrical side of things.

You’re not allowed to fly with any battery larger than 160wh capacity, and even then the battery needs to be in hand luggage, ie with you in the plane cabin and not in hold baggage.

That mondraker use the tq hpr 50 motor, the main battery is 360wh,so too large to take on a plane, but the range extender battery is only 160wh,so you can take the bike without the main battery, and just take the range extender in hand luggage.

I did this with my trek fuel exe that has the same motor system as your mondraker when I went to Spain last year.

Electroverse reckoned that there were 10/12 free and the car thought there were only 2/12. I assumed that Electroverse would be correct but it wasn’t.

Just checked zapmap,  it agrees with your car, only 2/12 available. Electroverse app still showing 10/12 available

<quote>anyone else finding Intelligent Octopus a bit s*** recently? </quote>

no, ours has been working fine – ohme home pro charger controlled by IO.