That does look good, but I’d struggle to justify £10 a metre when it’s just a french cleat system made of metal.

I’ve tried a few things, the most efficient from a space point of view is to take the front wheel off, turn the bars 90 degrees and hang the bike from the front axle. Then hang the front wheel off the headset or whatever using a largeish S-hook.

If you have the headroom, removing the backwheel too might be worth doing too as you can then use the space underneath for whatever.

If you have a high ceiling, then those pulley things that lift the bikes out of the way are great, I used them to lift 10 bikes into the roof space in my workshop and could just pop them up and down as required, but I know most on here that have space for that wouldn’t be asking your question.

I’ve added a couple of lofts at each end of my workshop and have lights mounted on the roof so I can’t lift the bikes up anymore, so they’re hung upside down from nails into the loft floor joists as there is space above a car that’s parked at one end.

The trick really is to find a bit of space that you’re not using and find a way to get the bikes into it.

I used to commute Rochdale to Manchester, it’s an 800ft descent over 10 miles, so 20 was fairly easy if you set off early and got lucky with the traffic lights. Was a decent jaunt straight out of bed, then I’d go home via Saddleworth for a proper spin.

https://ebiketips.road.cc/content/advice/advice/buying-and-riding-an-s-pedelec-in-the-uk-1637

This is basically saying the same thing.

Yes, you can do it now, but not in a way that isn’t disproportionately expensive or difficult. You can see this as it would obviously be a good solution for lots of people, yet next to no one has done it.

Maybe things have changed, but when I looked into it 18 months ago I couldn’t find a local garage that would MOT a s-pedelec for me, so I stopped there. It’s obvious that the MOT requirements shouldn’t be the same as for a car and that they could be done a separate test where a bike shop essentially gives it a once over.

What’s the state of play with insurance? Anyone insured an s-pedelec? Does anyone do a car policy or a house policy that covers these? That would be a way to sort that side of it easily and cheaply.

Does anyone really think having to put a number plate on and ride only on the roads is an issue?

I’m arguing from the point of view that all levels of Government seem to agree that driving cars is a bad thing, yet when there’s a fairly straightforward approach to getting people out of cars available, the options end up being so limited or such a pain in the arse that virtually nobody is e-commuting. It’s a massive missed opportunity.

Bit daft going for a non-pedal solution, when what’s required is the e-assistance to effectively lower the commute so it’s a sensible distance, ie give you assistance up to higher speed.

I know what the rules are, but the rules are wrong. A way should have been found for people to easily and cheaply prove their safety with an e-CBT or whatever and insure themselves for e-assistance up to 20-25mph. No issues with not being able to go on bridleways.

I’ve looked at this a few times for my 20 mile commute, it just doesn’t work as a replacement for the car as it’s too far to do more than twice a week really and I need to get there quickly so I can be home when the kids are. It’s fine now, I just work form home most days instead.

It’s part of a wider lack of foresight around policy in general. It’s pretty obvious that the best way to get electric transport off the ground is to create some sort of new category of vehicle, sub 200kg, 4 wheels, up to 40mph, driven on a car license, £3-5k. Or whatever the right details are. Get single people in cars out of them and into small nippy light things because they make sense instead of giving Nissan £10k to pay for hundreds of kilos of batteries in a Leaf. Or the Renault Twizzy for £7k.

Yeah, they’re banjo’d. Good to know I have a bit of freedom, I’ll have a scoot round eBay.

Not great news, but what I expected. Probably should check the three sets of Saint brakes that are up there too…

Do earlier/later calipers work OK with the levers I have, or do I need to find exact replacements or replace the whole thing?

So annoying, they’ve been ridden maybe 30 miles a most!

Yeah, sorry, I’d like one to make my hilly 20 mile road commute take half the time and feel like 10 miles, save me getting the car out and driving halfway, and make the journey work from a time point of view.  I don’t think they make sense for this unless they’ll work over 15mph as they’ll tend to make it easier, rather than faster.

It’s great that they let you bike further and for longer, I just don’t need that yet, I need genuinely faster so I can save time.

I did wonder how useful they would be for towing the kids on the cycle tracks here, they’re all disused railways, so flat or gentle slopes, but with the weight and the rough surfaces you’d struggle to maintain 15mph I think, then it opens up more loops before the kids get bored because you can go further.

Quick question about the climbs; I already actively seek out climbs on my road bike because they’re just ace.  An eBike effectively flattens the climbs, so would I not enjoy the climbs as much because they’re now not steep or long enough or do you just feel awesome, like when there’s a huge tail-wind and you’re pretending there isn’t?

My other concern is that by making it easier to ride further, but still with the 15mph limit, they suit riding for longer, which is problematic when it’s already hard to find enough time to ride.  If you’re only able to do a 2 hour blast, I don’t think you can really rinse the battery that quickly because you’ll be travelling over 15mph.

I suppose that’s a question of if I average 13mph on a ride that’s averaging 110ft per mile of climbing, what is the average going to look like if you spank a battery in 2 hours as well?  If I climb the worse climbs between 6-7mph, can I do them at 15mph and cash in the descents to get the average up around 20mph?

Moy sure if I’ve said it before, but I’m sure these make more sense if you can have the assist in the 20-25mph range.

I’ve had three.

First one I got kicked miles out of a drainage ditch, landed on my front wheel, fully compressed the forks, was way past the point of no return, fully resigned to my fate.  Then I just rolled on the front wheel for a few metres before slowly descending back to two wheels down.  There are pictures somewhere, it looks like certain death.

Messing about in a quarry I ran down a steep screen bank into a pile of scree, up the face expecting to land on the downslope.  Going miles too fast, completely missed the downslope and landed to flat on the quarry floor.  No idea how high I was, must have been 10 foot or so, again thought that was it.  Smashed into the ground and the bike just took it and I rode it out.  Madness.

Last one was at Fort William on the longish straight just after the deer fence.  Cocked up rolling that drop on the corner – didn’t realise it couldn’t be rolled on the inside – just avoided going over the bars, but I got thrown off the back of the bike in the aftermath, and couldn’t get back to the brakes.  Just kept accelerating towards certain death.  Then somehow I smashed through various rocks until I recovered and rode it out.

I’m sure i’m doing it all wrong, but I’ve never managed to do a proper crash on my DH bike.

That isn’t normal, mine updated as soon as I turn it on and hooked it to WiFi, no drama at all.  I’d try another network, then send it back for a replacement if that doesn’t work.

First ride with mine yesterday, all worked great.  There are a few minor changes I’d like to be introduced, eg I’d like to be able to scroll backwards between screens as I have two that I flick between and end up having to cycle through several occasional screens to go from one to the other.  It would be good if you could add more fields than the device can display, when you’re fully zoomed out it could then scroll downwards.

I could do with a net climbing stat, I tend to start low, head high and drop back down again, so it’s useful to know how much free altitude I’ve got to finish with.

When following a course it knows the height of the climb I’m on, so can I have a countdown for how much climbing is left, or a percentage completed?  Let me specify minimum lengths and altitude gains for the climbs then have it automatically switch to my climbing screen for the climbs.

Estimate the time of arrival home based on the distance and profile remaining and my average speed so far.  I spent far too much time trying to workout how late I was going to be and whether I should go up to Bollihope or not yesterday.

Programmable priorities would be good, for example when I start a ride I’m more interested in altitude gain, distance, when I’m over the last big climb I want to see distance remaining.  I know I can setup a screen for this, I probably will, but it’s another one to scroll through!

I added the VAM metric to see what that was like, can’t decide how useful it is.  Does it correlate well to effort, or is it too dependent on the gradient?  I was thinking over time I’d know if I was going over xxxx metres an hour I would probably blow up, but I was pulling about 900m/hr on 8-10% gradients, maybe 1,200m/hr on steeper stuff and the steeper climbs were 2-3,000m/hr for bursts.  I already know I can’t sustain those speeds on the really steep stuff because I’ve run out of gears.

The heart rate zones graph was useless based on the zones it calculates from max heart rate.  The LEDs stayed on the same one pretty much the whole ride, the graph shows I was in the top zone for 90+% of the ride.  The zones need to be modified to narrow the working range.  I compared with Strava, which has different zones, that was a more sensible distribution.  There’s partly an issue here that I’m hideously unfit and 15kg over-weight, my heart rate is staying elevated when I’m not working hard while my body gets used to riding, so it should fall and widen the zones over time.  I hope.

Secondly on that, never used Sufferscore before, but it was pleasing to see that Strava rated my ride yesterday as “MASSIVE”!  Higher scores than any of the whippets that were riding in Weardale yesterday.  Again it’s because my heart rate is staying high, I was riding quite reserved yesterday because there were lots of climbs.  I guess my background means I can happily sit at a high heart rate and ride slowly for 2-3 hours.  Hopefully the scores will correlate quite well with how I feel I’ve ridden, it’s neat to have a single metric measure of how hard a ride was.

Regarding the above comments on using the phone to upload to Strava, I thought it would use the Bluetooth connection and the phone if it was available rather than waiting to get WiFi?  Surely if I go away for a week it’s not going to wait for me to get home before uploading.  You can control that by turning bluetooth off on your phone, but I’m sure it will try to use the phone connection if you let it.

It is right that you can’t pan the map, I can see that would be a problem for some people, though I don’t think it would be a particular issue for me.

Does the Bolt definitely just do SMS?  I ask because I’ve set mine up tonight (sub 24hr delivery!) and it says Notifications, which would normally mean anything that goes through the Android Notification system.  No big deal for me, but it would be useful if they expanded this to allow you to bring any notifications through from the Android API rather than the App, then you could block apps and contacts on the phone while connected.  I’d basically like to get whatsapps from the Wife, but nothing else.  It would be good to have music control too, but again no biggy.

I have a bit of a niche question now mine is setup and working; my Trek Madone has an ANT+ combined cadence and speed sensor built into the frame, it connects perfectly with the Wahoo and is outputting Cadence, but I have no magnet on the wheel as I’ve always used GPS speed.  There’s nowhere in the settings to turn off the speed sensor though.  Will it take the GPS speed if there’s nothing coming through from the speed sensor or do I need to fit a magnet?

Overall, it looks like a great bit of kit, was so easy to setup (once I’d copied all the fields I wanted into a spreadsheet and arranged them!).  The layout isn’t perfecton the display, it would be great if once you’ve zoomed it out to 9 you could then scroll down to more metrics, would save me having a second page for stuff I’ll rarely use.  And more control over the single metric on the top row, there are lots of metrics where it would make more sense to put two metrics on the top row and when you zoom from 2 metrics in to 1 often it’ll just remove the second metric without making the first larger, needs a bit of refinement.

Impressed that it automatically copied across my Strava routes and starred segments, but quick question on the Segment display; can I set it up to compare my times with my personal bests rather than the whole leaderboard?

First ride tomorrow, got a hilly route around Weardale planned.

Oh, despite having a million different metrics to choose from, it doesn’t have Sunset and Sunrise times.  I found having sunset on my Garmin quite useful when I was riding regularly in the evening as I’d remember from a few days ago what time I needed to be back and whether I’d need lights.

I’ve played with using my phone and my watch, both basically do the same thing but the watch I can put on the bars.  Both have GPS built in obviously, so they can work independently or together.  I’m not really sure what’s doing what with Strava, but if I use Ghost Racer I can control which device is using it’s GPS.

In theory I should use the Phone GPS talking to the watch, but the phone will randomly spank it’s battery and die, the watch should then switch it’s own GPS on, but it doesn’t.  Maybe I could use something like Tasker to detect Strava running on the phone and turn off everything else automatically, it’s probably radio signal that causes the random battery drains.  Regardless, the batteries on both *should* be up to 3 hours exercise, but don’t seem to be reliable.

I’ve been digging out all my old kit and found an ANT+ HR strap I’d forgotten about, can’t use it with either my watch or my phone, they’re bluetooth only, so there’s a man-maths saving there if I change as I don’t need a £40 HR strap.

No point getting a better watch until NFC is more widespread, best option currently looks to be the Ticwatch range, but no NFC.  The NFC options are older tech.  I use Android Pay all the time, so spending £200 on a watch and not being able to use Android pay makes no sense.

I don’t really want to limit the phone either though, I tend to listen to music quietly on the bike as it stops wind noise and actually lets me hear traffic better.  And the wind annoys my ears too.  And it’s useful to be contactable by the wife and I spotted that the new stuff like the Wahoo stuff will let me share my location with my wife live, which is actually really helpful where I’m time constrained and ‘expected’ home ages ago.  Manages expectations a bit!

The Garmin Edge 500 looks to be working still, but it’s my Wife’s and she’ll likely want it back at some point, the Edge 705 is a £10 fix, so I will repair and eBay it or keep it for maps on my mountain bike.  Though the live tracking is perhaps more likely to be useful on the mountain bike.

I ordered an Elemnt Bolt as I think the extra stuff from a new device will be worth it, especially as my Wife will appreciate being able to keep tabs on me and I won’t have to explain my complicated routes to her when I pop out.  New batteries for my HR strap and the cadence sensor in my frame and a subscription to Strava Premium and I’m good to go.

Thanks that’s all useful, I’ve been mulling it over this morning.  I think my watch/phone combo is fine at the moment while I’m just pottering about, but eventually I’m going to want to be able to easily add a route and follow it, especially if I’m riding away from home or riding a bit further away where I don’t know the roads as well.

And I’ll want to be able to see the climbs, how much climbing I’ve done and how far I have left to go etc.  And it’ll annoy me if I use either the Edge 705 or 500 that I have as I’ll have to go into the workshop to get stuff up/down loaded.

And at some point I’ll get my mountain bike out again and need a more rugged solution that isn’t going to get smashed to bits when I hit a tree.

So I should probably bite the bullet and get an Elemnt Bolt…..

Ordered a new battery, that’s a good idea. Would still like to think about options though as I really like not having to mess around on the computer to upload rides.

Maybe a new smartwatch is the answer for sub 3 hour rides, but waiting for NFC to be more widely available on those before I upgrade.

Thanks, will have a look through the options. I tried a cheap valve adaptor, they just don’t work with my POS tyre inflator, they inflator doesn’t seal at all, so pisses air everywhere.

Why don’t you dremel it slightly over, then just push it into your wet plaster?

This is the badger:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=LEM.TrackMe&hl=en_GB

Best way to run it is to set it all up then add the output to Google Earth. I *think* it’ll give the last update time so you can see if you’re definitely stationary, or maybe in a mobile blackhole, or you, the bike and the phone got hit by a drone strike or whatever.

Perhaps you could overlay a map of mobile signal for your network, I don’t know.

Whatever you do bear in mind that the usefulness is limited by the mobile signal and how someone knows whether you’ve lost signal or you’re in trouble. If you can add your route to Google Earth too then at least if you were in trouble it gives the Mountain Rescue a starting point and an intended route.

Problem is that when do you make the call given mobile signal issues are common in the places you’re likely to be/get in trouble.

I used to ue Rego a bit, but I found the Nocte far better when I was cycling a lot. I’d struggle to sleep because of twitching sore legs, the nocte used to make a big difference, the sleep stuff in it seemed to work for me. I’d say it felt like I’d had an extra hour in bed when I woke up as a rough guide.

The only bike I’ve ever regretted selling.

I’ve now got a 456C Evo. Lyrics are the forks you want, the travel adjust is very useful and the frame really suits the extra travel. Big fat tyres too, definitely those.

Had a look on eBay, those kits look mental! 30mph and you have to swap your brakes to V-brakes!

Thanks, that’s useful. It’s quite a hilly route, but the main issue is I don’t have time to do it, once you factor in getting changed and showered at both ends. Being able to cover the ground faster might be the difference between having to drive part-way or not.

I’m just musing out of interest really, and buying a new bike isn’t a realistic option at the moment anyway, which was why I wondered about add-on kits.

I was also curious as we have a young child and access to a huge network of cycletracks, I wondered about using a motor to compensate for the weight of the kid and a trailer so both parents can ride together without one being hideously slow.

I also like the idea of covering much more terrain in a given amount of time as it opens up a much bigger area of places to explore by bike when you’re time-limited. The only real counter argument seems to be that because of the power delivery it effectively flattens the hills, which would be a shame, but I presume you can turn the power down until it’s just compensating for the extra weight?

Next question, on a road ride round here I’m averaging about 100ft per mile, how long would a battery last on that sort of terrain?

Is it possible to get a kit to convert a bike? I have a 16 mile commute, if I averaged 16 mph on my road bike, what could I average with a normal and chipped ebike? Wondering if I can get the commute down to a reasonable time this way?

Will be interesting to see how this pans out. I can’t see how you can run it in the Lakes with 200 riders over that length of terrain without causing massive conflict and also very obvious damage all over the shop.

If I was still riding locally I’d be pretty concerned about what the impact will be on relations with walkers in the long-term.

As fun as it sounds, the whole concept seems pretty unrealistic.

If you could be persuaded onto sensible wheels, I have a 26″ Giant Anthem Advanced X thing that’s cluttering up my garage. It’s the full carbon frame, with full XT kit, including wheels. It’s as quick as any of the bikes you’ve listed and a lot of fun to ride, will be a lot cheaper too! Message me if you’re at all interested.

The SI Headset spec is a fraction of a mm larger than the 1.5″ standard. All you need is the bits that touch the fork, not the frame, so the best bet is to email whoever imports Cannondale spares to see if they can sell you those parts for the headset you already have.

Pretty much every way you can see on the map goes and is really good, from Warnscale you could skip the road ride to Gasgale by going back up Honister onto Dalehead, then either down through the mines or carry on towards Cat Bells, that’s a cracking descent.

Hindsgarth and Scope End is another pretty decent way off too.

Rigg Beck is ace, but I reckon it might be more affected by the recent weather and it’s not as good as your other options.

If you don’t go Dale Head, Gasgale is the easiest way up, assuming it’s not too messy after the rain. From there the best descent is off Causey Pike, you can’t ride the top section, but once you get to the start of the scree it all goes. Bear left halfway down rather than going off the end of the hill.

The run into Coledale is a top top descent, very fast and rocky, less technical than the others.

All routes off Grizedale Pike are great, but the ridge that brings you out at the bottom of Whinlatter Pass is one to do on a good day, with your A-game and with some friends, it’s the riskiest option.

They’re giving you a variable gear ratio that is a better match to your variable power output during the pedal stroke. I think that’s the theory anyway, I’ve not tried one yet.

The muscle groups thing; do you use muscles differently in different gears? I mean if you compare pedalling a hard gear to an easy gear is the muscle loading different? If so, I can see where that statement might come from.

It should be more efficient, but whether that’s because you’re spreading the load better I’ve no idea.

I had one of the original Spitfires that ate it’s bushes and axles every few miles. Massively disappointing, because the bike was unbelievable, but Banshee were absolutely superb at shoving new axles my way and eventually giving me a refund.

If you’re trying to decide between the two, the only time my SPitfire felt like it was getting towards the limit of it’s short travel was smashing very fast rocks in the Lakes. The new one has 13mm more travel, so I’d expect that to give you that bit more.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t out of its depth at all, I just felt like I’d reached a point where the extra travel from the Rune would have made me a little bit quicker.

Anything less extreme and the Spitfire is going to be the better bike, short travel gives better climbing, but also more control. The geometry is largely where the speed comes from. If fast rocky technical isn’t a large proportion of your riding, I’d go Spitfire every time.

Dunno, it feels right to me with the longer fork.

I have 29er forks on my Whippet, 470mm.

The front end is still too low, so I’d definitely go with the longer ones.

I reckon a 650 front wheel would make it about perfect though, but I don’t have the time to rebuild the front wheel.

Condensation. You need to get a vapour barrier on the warm side of the insulation to make sure you’re not creating a warm wet roof. Personally, because condensation is hard to predict, I’d want a vapour barrier on both sides of the insulation just to be sure.

The worst bit in Manchester is the latest tram lines out to Ashton. I don’t know if they’ve made changes, but the cycle path crossed the tram line at about 30 degrees. It’s pretty much impossible not to fall off in the wet riding over them.

I bet you’ll be quicker on my Giant Anthem Advanced X SL thing and it’d be a lot cheaper too.

If you can be persuaded onto sensible sized wheels, drop me an email, it’s just cluttering up my workshop at the moment.

I would think you’d be better driving between Skiddaw and Whinlatter personally. If you skip the rubbish bit between the two you could add an extra awesome descent onto whatever you’re planning.

The carbon 456 is the one you want. You get a bit more control with a full sus, but the 456 will plough through most stuff without trying to kill you too badly.

I stripped mine to build up a Spitfire a few days ago, but got stuffed by not being able to get the headset swapped over, so rode the 456C off the top of Old Man of Coniston. was expecting it to choke on all the rock and be a bit slow, but it amazed me with it’s ability.

You need planning permission to modify the height of the ground by more than 30cm.

You may also need planning permission for the change of use too.

50 miles would get you to the top of Honister, via Whinlatter and Newlands. Then back again from Egremont. You could miss out on Whinlatter and Newlands on the way back if you were a bit soft.

Backroads towards Mockerkin, but drop down Fangsbrow to Loweswater and crack on.

From where you are you’ve got the hills near Ennerdale and Pica, but not much else, other than the various passes.