Does it require a specific bAttery or battery connection? Or how easily can different connections be made?

I’ve got a spare focus internal battery with some dead cells but still circa 300kwh useable. Gathering dust so no real value to it, wonder if a project like above could make use of it?

That was part of my reasoning – I already had the battery.

My battery already had a XT60 Connector, the motor came with bare cable ends so just bought a matching connector so I can quick release the battery.

It does power up with my lawn mower battery but I reckon the range wouldn’t be too good!

So a few hundred £ to convert her current Specialized FS looks much lower risk and more affordable.

I would be interested to know what you think of battery capacity and whether you are still happy after a few weeks use.

It’s also a reversible change so if it doesn’t work out you can move the kit to another bike or eBay it.

The battery capacity will depend on how and where you ride it – you can buy various sizes but the bigger you go the more the weight penalty.

I built this for gentle riding with the family so more fire-roads, canal paths type stuff rather than gnarly tracks. Guess it will give 30 – 40 miles range.

Some questions about the e side if I may
– is the motor torque sensing and if so does it seem to work ok. (The kit seems to come with brake sensors etc)
– does the kit have everything except the battery and tools that I’d need
– any reasons (overrun, power glitches ?? Etc), why it wouldn’t be suitable for an elderly, not the most confident/experienced/highest ability cyclist to help her extend her range

Yes – it’s torque sensing and the ride feels very natural, no sudden snatching. I actually bought the slightly cheaper kit without the brake sensors as if you stop pedalling its stops the power assist.

You just need a battery and suitable tools to remove the BB.

I built a Swytch for my wife using her Specialized Myka as a base. That was an easier build as you just replace the front wheel. She loves it – it’s great for fire-roads, tow-paths and general bimbling. To me though, the drive through the front wheel feels wrong.

Very nice! And that Calibre is almost offensively cheap for what it is.

It was a bit of a punt but has worked out better than I though it would.

Obviously it’s not legal with the cut off taken out but other than that it seems tidy.

I turned the cut-off because my Levo is noticeably draggy once you get beyond 25kmph/15mph, the Tongsheng is nowhere near as bad. I reckon even with the cutoff on it would be very rideable.

Yeay!! £75 for me, first win for ages. Just spent it on a new helmet to replace the one I left in a carpark in Hayfield the other day… still short of nice pair of winter gloves thou that were inside the helmet at the time.

Just bought a Thule VeloSpace XT 2. Tried to get a 2nd hand one off eBay but were fetching silly money, £400 plus in addition hefty postage costs or travel to collect.

Most suppliers were in the £490 – £525 price range, but …. I managed to find a brand new one with free postage from the online Volvo Part Shop at £430.

Only difference is it has Volvo branding rather than Thule.

Took about a week to arrive – apparently a special order from Swedish. Double bonus is that is fits perfectly in a three quid Ikea DIMPA Storage bag. The Thule storage bag is £30.

I recently built a Switch for Mrs Paul X. It’s a neat kit, seems well put together and obvious controls. With the battery off the bike its not obvious to the untrained eye that it’s an e-bike conversion.

I test rode a few miles around our village and up a couple of long draggy hills. Bearing in mind it’s on 15.5″ frame and I normaly ride a 21″ it coped with my bulk pretty well.

It’s not as powerful as my Levo but for bimbleling about round town or light forest tracks I reckon it’s spot on.

I reckon let them to the max loans as they may not have to pay it all back. If they do then they are earning enough, probably because of the university education.

If you have the ability to fund their University education you may be better off letting them take the full loans and instead funding a house deposit for them in the future. Big deposit = lower loan interest rate on the mortgage. That saving on monthly interest could easily cover the student loan repayments.

It’s man maths innit!

My Muddy Fox Courier was £300 new in 1991.

In the spirit if these times I’ve just re-read, back to back….

On the Beach – Nevil Shute

The Day of the Triffids -John Wyndham

The Plague -Albert Camus

All a bit post-apocalyptic but were well worth re-read.

The Plague was also interesting because it was my wife’s A Level course work book from many years ago, and was covered in underling, doodles and notes!

, I thoroughly recommend you get a cheap banger for the bikes, it would be a lot easier than putting in the boot liner/seat cover/bike cover/kit boxes/extra car mats. If your vehicle clashes so much with your activities one of them is wrong.

Nah …it’s only a car! Actually not really a problem to load it up. Takes less than 5 mins.

Press button to drop rear seats, boot liner lives in the boot anyway, front wheel off in about 10 seconds, bike rear end – wheel and dirty bits of bike are covered my bike bag, put bike in car and stick my £5 Aldi seat cover on and rubber floor mat in.

All my riding kit lives in two plastic boxes so just shove them in and ready to go.

With both wheels off it will go in the boot with the rear seats up.

Our Classy E Class interior … in Mountain Biking mode…

My shout would be the Charente Maritime area south of the Vendee. I’ve spent a huge amount of time down there over the past twenty years – and will be spending much more time there from 2020!

Weather is generally better that the Vendee due to the micro-climate in the region. June July & August generally pretty hot.

Loads of quiet lanes for road biking, Informal MTB events most weekends at about 6 Euro entry fee. This year’s calendar is here. Just rock up with your bike, pay the fee and follow the route.

Other family bike stuff here.

English tourist guide here – few years old but still very useful.

Villagers ? – might be worth a listen.

Another vote for the Lidl one. I paid £129 for it inc the battery and charger.

I’ve done two seasons with it so far – I think it came with a 3 year warranty as well. Works perfectly. I’ve seen the same mower for sale under different brand names in French hypermarkets at about the same sort of price.

Just thought of a suitable motor – Challenger Hellcat, 6.2 litres of supercharged hemi hooliganism, 6-700hp readily available.

There’s one for sale in a dealer near my place. Its a insanely, serious looking, very noisy mota.

Thanks for the ideas, I’ll check them out!

I’ve just been looking at Valencia as I’m thinking of being out of the UK for a few days around the 31st October….

Ryanair from Manchester about £70 return flight.

Metroline straight into to town from airport is about 20 mins & 5 Euro. Weather is still right nice at that time of year.

I’m going to be down your way with a few days spare in early October. Thinking of packing the eBike in the car and spending a few days around Ainsa. A mate of mine is interested in joining me but he is pretty much a MTB novice, but a good off-road motorbiker. Is there anyplace in town here he can hire a decent eBike?

Cheers OP – grabbed a couple of Butchers 2.8. Excellent price!

Yeah, pretty much 50/50.

FS Turbo Levo and Marin Nailtrail HT. One is big and burly and will go anywhere, the other is lighter and more nimble and will pretty much go anywhere.

Seems to be the sweetspot stable for me at the mo.

Not Yorkshire but how about Macclesfield? Plenty of trains to Euston and not far from Manchester.

Its surpassingly close on the train – 1hr 40 mins. Train only stops at Stoke and then straight on to Euston. Macc is relatively cheap, Bollington about 2 miles from the station is worth a look or with a big budget get some Cheshire set style in Prestbury – also about 2 miles from the station.

Thread resurrection … cuz I found a nice bridge when I was out and about.

I think you’re right – the NailTrail was actually useless on the sand. N+1 … here we go again…

Palmyre to Royan in the Charente Maritime, Western France. Great beach, lots old WW2 coastal defences to have a look at.

I even did a few KMs along the La Vélodyssée while I was at it!

I’ve got a 2018 Carbon Levo XL – kitted up I’m pretty much on the weight limit for it. Feels pretty planted to me but also more playful compared to the Trek Powerfly I briefly had before it.

I use these people – https://my.eta.co.uk/breakdown/personal/quote

This policy covers me and nominated family in any car up to 20 years old, Uk and mainland Europe.

It even covers cycle rescue – might be handy when the battery fails on the eBike!

Turbo Levo for me.

I’m with Tracey on this.

Check and see what the Airline says re cancellation in the event they can’t fly – surely it would be down to them to refund you if they couldn’t. I’ve just booked to France on the ferry on the 28th March due back 3rd April. I’m not overly worried.

I buy Roche Mazet Merlot from France by the box at 9 euro a pop. Tres bien! 🍷

Same here .. in fact bring a car load back in January as part of my Brexit no deal planning.

Mista_Dobalina_Mr_Bob_Dobalina

Nice one mate!

I built a box for it to go in to but it’s brilliant once it fires up.
Just powerful enough to clean when used after your ride but not so powerful it’ll blast out your bearings.

Pah … built a box … nah! Gaffa tape is your friend. Mine cost £24 to build. £16 pump and £7 water container – (15 litres I think) and about a quids worth of tape.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/rockrider-340-mountain-bike-black-id_8351519.html

We’ve got four of these down in France. There are fine value for £160. Bit heavy, but I’ve done 20 mile gentle off road tracks rides on them and they’re OK and they do them in 5 different colours! Lots of locals use them in the village MTB Rando events.

Excellent – have been pondering portable bike cleaning options since Saturday afternoon, after arriving back at my clean car with a Peaks encrusted bike.

Kit ordered.

These … Rose Carrarini’s hot gingernut biscuits

Mrs PaulX has just made a batch …

Makes about 24 biscuits
unsalted butter 200g, softened, plus extra for greasing
self-raising flour 440g
caster sugar 150g
ground ginger 3 tbsp
cayenne pepper a pinch (optional)
bicarbonate of soda 1½ tbsp
golden syrup 240g (or light corn syrup), warmed
treacle 40g (or molasses), warmed

Preheat the oven to 160C/gas mark 3. Butter a baking tray or line it with parchment paper. If you are using a food processor, process the butter with the flour, sugar, ground ginger, cayenne if using, and bicarbonate of soda until they are well mixed. Otherwise, cut the butter into small pieces, mix the dry ingredients together and rub the butter into them with your fingers, and bring together to make a dough. Add the golden syrup and treacle. Break off pieces and shape them into 3cm balls.

Place well apart on the prepared tray and bake for about 10 minutes. The biscuits will rise and then fall a little. They must be crisp on the outside and a little chewy on the inside. Cool.

Bloody heck ! That looks real nasty … heal fast.

Update to my post above..I had a few issues with the Trek – I think it may have had quite a hard life as a demo bike before I bought it.

Rutland Cycling in Nottingham were superb – totally excellent customer service.

They tool the Trek back and did me a deal on a 2018 Levo.

OK it cost a bit more but it feels totally different to ride. Much more lively and much less noticeably Ebike.

so maybe I’ll go second hand.

Shameless plug … there might be one in the classifieds right now ….

I might try to find some French flour. Apparently doesn’t last as long as our supermarket flour – fewer preservatives in it.

I’ve used this with good results – French White Flour – Type 55

I’ve come across hunters in the woods, in the Charente a couple of years ago – bloody scary it was.

I’d entered the woods on little piece of singletrack and was about 1km in before I spotted them. Weirdly they were all wearing high viz! I was in all in black on my black Rumblefish so not as visible as them.

I made a serious amount of noise – (good job I have a bell), much to their disgust and went hell for leather out of there, down through the main track. At the exit on the main track there was guy sitting in his car blocking the track with signs advising the hunters were in the woods.

Apparently round by us they can’t hunt on a Wednesday afternoon as that is school half-day.

Kinda curtails the riding from Oct to Feb a little bit.