The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I believe it has. Heard something on the radio a couple of weeks ago.

Fair does.

[Mr Larrington]

Neighbour on the Larrington Towers Road side is shortly to have some new windows fitted at the back of his house.  It will make life easier for the rufty-tufty hairy-arsed builders if they can access his back yard via Larrington Gardens.  This means, however, that I will have to open the gate.  Which is locked.  And I cannot find the only key.

Go outside and crank up my l33t h@ck5@w 5k1llz0rz.  Get through one half of the sturdy steel ring through which the padlock passes and make a start on t'other.  Up pops the neighbour from the Larrington Gardens Road side.  Bearing the key, wot he borrowed when his own set of rufty-tufty hairy-arsed builders were Doing Stuffs on the side of his house that bears upon Larrington Gardens.  Ages ago.  Harsh words are said, though only internally.  Especially as I'd already bought a new lock (old one was allegedly molished of Ti and thus not something that will yield to my Mk. 3b Homebase Junior H@XX0r), and some additional bolts to stop the thing from swaying in the wind like the Millennium Bridge before They mended it.  What it really needs is one of those sturdy horizontal wooden beams traditionally used in medieval castles, but EO Aquitaine isn’t returning my phone calls.

Then it got dark, so I came inside.  Blimey, six o'clock already!  Doesn’t time fly when you’re giving yourself cramp and RSI with a h@ck5@w!  Oh.  It is in fact nobbut 17:15, and the kitchen clock only says six because when you were removing it from BST yesterday you bent the second hand, thereby causing the whole thing to stop its revolving-type behaviours.

My horoscope says it's one o' those days it’s best to stay in bed, as the peot sang.

[Pickled Onion]

I see the Idiot Tendency has started panic-buying milk again.  Tw@s.

Local waitrose has empty shelves where the sardines are supposed to live. I know from last time this is a sign to buy flour and yeast now.

[ian]

No bucatini in Waitrose, so we had to horrifically settle for ordinary spaghetti. End times indeed.

[phantasmagoriana]

I've no idea whether Phantasmagoriana has the slightest interest in football, but here are some football shirts to make up for it:

Bristol Rovers women on the left, Bristol City men away shirt on the right. Neither traditionally play in purple. They've been named the best women's and men's football shirts of the current season (whether this will translate to on-field performance is another matter).
https://www.bristol247.com/sport/football/purple-reigns-in-winning-rovers-and-city-shirt-designs/

I don't follow football (I used to, but the last time I watched any was Euro '96, I think); however, the curators of the National Football Museum clearly have taste!

[ElyDave]

Not sure; call it lilac! But rugball seems keener on non-primary shades than round-ball kicking. Also, how come their name hasn't attracted BLM attention?

Exeter?

[SteveC]

Not sure; call it lilac! But rugball seems keener on non-primary shades than round-ball kicking. Also, how come their name hasn't attracted BLM attention?

Exeter?

Chiefs

[Cudzoziemiec]

Chiefs and with that feathered headdress logo, very reminiscent of Washington Redskins. But with less link (afaik). In fact:

Exeter Chiefs have decided to retain their name and logo following calls from some fans to lose their Native American branding.

The Premiership club's board met on Wednesday to discuss a petition, signed by more than 3,700 people, asking for the "harmful" branding to be dropped.

"The one aspect which the board felt could be regarded as disrespectful was the club's mascot, 'Big Chief', and as a mark of respect have decided to retire him."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/53587404#:

[ElyDave]

OK, that makes sense in that context of Redskins etc, and I remember reading about it, but I wouldn't have got that from BLACK lives matter when talking about the colour of the strip

[Mrs Pingu]

Can no longer get C4 +1 HD. But I can get QVC HD, Q Beauty HD, RT and Quest HD.
Gee, thanks

[Ashaman42]

So I'm looking at motorising my Dahon folder. And it's not proving simple, the bike has a narrow front fork (74mm) and the majority of hub kits are the standard 100mm. It is quite large wheeled though at 24"

"Aha" thinks I, what about a Brompton kit, or similar but with a rim change? Apparently that won't work as the hubs are geared for the wheel size and putting the motor from a 16" wheel onto a 24" rim is a bad idea and will damage it.

Fine. Right. Then I thought what about changing the forks? I don't mind if the fold is slightly less compact as I don't really carry the bike much (it's bloody heavy and actually easier to lift unfolded anyway). I'll lose the light mount and the mount for the wee magnet that holds the thing folded but that's not the end of the world.

Looking around for how the headset works on a Dahon I find that there are aftermarket 100mm forks with the light and magnet mounts included. "Huzzah" says I.

Of course I can find said aftermarket forks for their 18" & 20" folders but can I find a 24" equivalent? Not so far.

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

I did find one kit that looks like it should work but at €800 I could just buy an electric bike.

[robgul]

So I'm looking at motorising my Dahon folder. And it's not proving simple, the bike has a narrow front fork (74mm) and the majority of hub kits are the standard 100mm. It is quite large wheeled though at 24"

"Aha" thinks I, what about a Brompton kit, or similar but with a rim change? Apparently that won't work as the hubs are geared for the wheel size and putting the motor from a 16" wheel onto a 24" rim is a bad idea and will damage it.

Fine. Right. Then I thought what about changing the forks? I don't mind if the fold is slightly less compact as I don't really carry the bike much (it's bloody heavy and actually easier to lift unfolded anyway). I'll lose the light mount and the mount for the wee magnet that holds the thing folded but that's not the end of the world.

Looking around for how the headset works on a Dahon I find that there are aftermarket 100mm forks with the light and magnet mounts included. "Huzzah" says I.

Of course I can find said aftermarket forks for their 18" & 20" folders but can I find a 24" equivalent? Not so far.

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

I did find one kit that looks like it should work but at €800 I could just buy an electric bike.

Converting ANY bike to electric is a compromise that most people will regret.  Here endeth the lesson.

[ppg]

Converting ANY bike to electric is a compromise that most people will regret.  Here endeth the lesson.

I was probably sanctimonious too in my younger days.
After a couple of decades doing stupid long Audax rides, and maybe because of, I developed permanent AFib
The compromise for me is ~3500km rides a year around hilly here, or no rides at all
Here endeth the response 

[Ashaman42]

Well everything is a compromise but I'm trying to use the bike more to avoid trains. And I can do the 25+ miles one way okay at the moment as I'm only back in the office a few days a week but once that ramps back to full time...

It just takes me a bit too long so I figure a motor to help in the junctiony and hilly bits of the route should drag my average up nicely.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Converting ANY bike to electric is a compromise that most people will regret.  Here endeth the lesson.

I was probably sanctimonious too in my younger days.
After a couple of decades doing stupid long Audax rides, and maybe because of, I developed permanent AFib
The compromise for me is ~3500km rides a year around hilly here, or no rides at all
Here endeth the response 

robgul might have meant 'converting' vs 'buying new electric bike'.

[L CC]

Converting ANY bike to electric is a compromise that most people will regret.  Here endeth the lesson.

I was probably sanctimonious too in my younger days.
After a couple of decades doing stupid long Audax rides, and maybe because of, I developed permanent AFib
The compromise for me is ~3500km rides a year around hilly here, or no rides at all
Here endeth the response 

It's the conversion that will be regretted, not the electrickery.

[Polar Bear]

I think there is a business called swytchbike who make a modular system which fits with minimal fuss and they will build the motorised front wheel.  Might be worth further investigation.

In some ways I agree with Rob's point of view but I have seen a couple of conversions specifically for people's deteriorating physical conditions which have worked out well.

Kits do tend to be a compromise but the Swytch kit looks very good to me. 

[ppg]

It's the conversion that will be regretted, not the electrickery.

But with a garage full of unused but reasonable quality bikes, what do you do?
I converted 3 for less than the cost of one e-bike of inferior quality - 1 x Swytch on the Thorn Audax and 2 x Yosepower (Tourer and MTB)

ETA: The search widget on this forum never seems to work for me, but there doesn't seem to be a sub-forum for e-bikery, despite growing numbers of us with this guilty secret - would it be an idea to start one or is that a step too far from 'cycling'?

[Mr Larrington]

“Vroom” seems to be where the motorbike threads congregate

[robgul]

Converting ANY bike to electric is a compromise that most people will regret.  Here endeth the lesson.

I was probably sanctimonious too in my younger days.
After a couple of decades doing stupid long Audax rides, and maybe because of, I developed permanent AFib
The compromise for me is ~3500km rides a year around hilly here, or no rides at all
Here endeth the response 

robgul might have meant 'converting' vs 'buying new electric bike'.

Indeed that's precisely what I meant.     

Feeling the potential need for some assistance I researched long and hard for conversion stuff for my Dawes Galaxy - whatever I looked at (obviously just front or rear hub motors) there were issues with all manner of stuff relating to controls, battery life, battery location, weight, weight distribution etc.  All of which ended in some sort of compromise with no realistic warranty.

In the end, being in the position to do so, I bought an electric road bike - an Orbea Gain which I use for some club rides and some touring.  It probably cost about 2.5 times what the "best" conversion would have been but I could live with that.   It's an excellent bike - it looks good too with the discreet inside the downtube battery and relatively small rear hub motor (.... a clubmate did remark that he's never seen a bike with a Rohlof and a derailleur  )

[ppg]

Feeling the potential need for some assistance I researched long and hard for conversion stuff for my Dawes Galaxy - whatever I looked at (obviously just front or rear hub motors) there were issues with all manner of stuff relating to controls, battery life, battery location, weight, weight distribution etc.  All of which ended in some sort of compromise with no realistic warranty.

Fair point about compromise but most people seem content with that.
Warranty? - Mrs ppg's battery expired after 10months and Yose found they couldn't fix it (in Germany) so refunded the full purchase price without quibble.
Technology moving as it does, she bought a larger capacity replacement for the same money

In the end, being in the position to do so, I bought an electric road bike - an Orbea Gain which I use for some club rides and some touring.  It probably cost about 2.5 times what the "best" conversion would have been but I could live with that

The Orbea does look like a good bike but is compromised IMO by having such a small battery (250Whr vs 500 for the Yose)
With the hills round here that would severely constrain my riding distance.
And at more than £2k that is double what my 3 conversions cost!!

[MattH]

Might be worthy of a thread in it's own right 

I keep looking at these for the commute. It's not so bad now I'm doing about 10 miles each way rather than 45, but whilst I'd started using the bicycle again, due to an injury I haven't been able to ride a standard one since June.

For the last few years my normal commute vehicle has been a motorbike. Something between a motorbike and bicycle would be good for exercise, general fitness, not being stuck in a cage but also not spending too many hours of the day commuting. Riding to the main office was taking me 5 hours a day to do the 90 mile round trip, on top of a working day that gets a bit much. I ended up on a motorbike as that dropped it to two hours a day.

At the moment I can use the Trice that I picked up to try out whilst I am recovering fine for the distance, but am really too slow to feel safe on busy commute time roads. A Barakta style electric boost may make that work for me.

Alternatively a e-bike would help out more generally, reducing commute times but also letting me get some exercise. The S-Pedelecs have some appeal, being up to 4kW and 45km/h assisted - and with a full bike license I can use one. However, in the UK you need to register them as a moped, have a number plate, wear a motorcycle helmet, get them MOTed once over 3 years old etc. And with the cost, you are pretty close to just buying a low end electric motorcycle which will have better resale value than a weird machine that is a bit of a licensing oddity. Being able to boost to urban traffic speed levels when needed rather than 15mph would be nice.

[rafletcher]

Can no longer get C4 +1 HD. But I can get QVC HD, Q Beauty HD, RT and Quest HD.
Gee, thanks

A lot of the +1 channels seem to have disappeared, but thankfully my latest Humax can record 3 channels simultaneously, rendering them generally unnecessary in our household. If only it's software wasn't so flaky.

[fuzzy]

“Vroom” seems to be where the motorbike threads congregate

  Shame on you Mr L   

Many a hardened cyclist is turning to electric assist to enable them to keep pedalling. I have got a number of people back in the saddle after a lay off due to injury, illness or old age by getting them to try an eBike.

[Ashaman42]

I think there is a business called swytchbike who make a modular system which fits with minimal fuss and they will build the motorised front wheel.  Might be worth further investigation.

In some ways I agree with Rob's point of view but I have seen a couple of conversions specifically for people's deteriorating physical conditions which have worked out well.

Kits do tend to be a compromise but the Swytch kit looks very good to me.

I did see the Swytch and even signed up for the half price on the just finished run of preorders but it's the same problems as the others, the Brompton kit is built around a 16" wheel and the universal kit has a too wide hub at 100mm.

I did see the Tern Vectron which looks like a very nice bike but alas at £3500 it's rather out of budget.