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Dreadful contraption. Makes woosh look like Riese and Muller.

Yeah, speaking of railways, 40 dead in this crash. What caused it? No idea because they buried it literally and figuratively. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenzhou_train_collision Working in a Chinese power station is not without its hazards. At least 21 killed by a dodgy steam pipe...

You were doing quite well until the end. You keep on about the cheap Chinese stuff, maybe because it keeps you occupied fixing the endless niggles. Pretend all you like, but most of the £1,000 Chinese ebikes fall apart under any use. Pay two or three times that and you will generally get a...

Describing woosh as 'very helpful' strikes me as very charitable given the 'help' amounts to telling you they can't supply a battery. This has been a recurring problem with cheap ebikes for years, the batteries only last two or three years then spares are not available leading to the scrapping...

Every now and again we hear of a Chinese 'no name' bike which looks the business and several people buy. I wonder what happens to these 'bargains' after the first few weeks of use. The last one - the name of which I forget - had a Bafang crank motor. While the law of diminishing returns...

You won't know the impact of the smaller ring until you try it. Smaller than 46 is available from Spa, but too small and your top speed will be compromised - depending on how fast you routinely pedal. A lot of bikes are over-geared for general use, top allowing the rider to pedal at 30mph or...

Battery failure will always be a concern with a secondhand ebike. However, I think the batteries on early Agattus are known to last well - @flecc may have a view. At one time, there were also cheaper, pattern replacements available.

Ah, the old tubeless ready rims with inner tubes problem. Same on my Charger. After wrestling with the front tyre once too often I went tubeless. Before that, I found the best way to break the bead was to use the end of a wooden hammer handle. I carry a six inch length (ooo er missus) for...

The levers on some Magura hydraulic brakes are known in the trade to be very plasticky. It's very easy to round out the bleed screw on top of the reservoir.

Er, won't a 2013 bike have the Impulse 1 motor? My understanding is all the aggro started with the later Impulse 2 motor. Kalkhoffs of this vintage were nicely made and finished. Could be worth a punt if the OP can get it for £400 or less.

I like the description Rose use of themselves: "Quality bike assembly in Germany." Investing in a ground-up plant to make aluminium frame ebikes in the UK cannot make any sense. However, there are still quite a few steel frame builders who could easily make a dedicated ebike frame. Equipping...

Opinions seem to vary on the Tannus tyres, but there's no doubt they are the best attempt at a solid tyre yet. I think you can get them in a couple of notional pressures, but once you've chosen which ones you would be stuck with that level of hardness. Historically, solid tyres have always...

I'm sure my Bosch battery is marked Made in Poland, and someone said the motors are made in France. Not that it's so important, although the only bit I've had conk out on any of my three Bosch bikes is the Chinese made thumbswitch. Quality components, properly assembled is all that's needed...

Both my previous Rose and current Riese and Muller Charger have a solid build quality which I've not seen on any other bikes. Quality bits skilfully assembled is all it takes, but lots of makers seem to fall down on one, the other, or both.

Fine, no doubt you know best.

According to Schwalbe: "The widespread thumbtest method is very inaccurate, as all tyres will feel identically hard from a pressure of approx. 2 bar up. "The thumb test is completely insufficient for Marathon Plus tyres due to the special puncture belt." So it comes down to who knows more...

Schwalbe say the thumb pressure test is not reliable for their tyres because of the puncture protection band. Using a gauge makes sense, but there's no need to fret over a few psi here or there. I would aim for about 40psi in the front and bit more in the back.

The rim in this pic is tubeless ready. You can see the flat ledge along either edge for the bead to seal on, although part of the ledge is under the rim tape...

Those rims are not tubeless ready because they lack the ledge for the tyre bead to seal on. That doesn't mean tubeless would not work, but getting the bead to seal might be difficult. The spoke bed is neither here nor there - that rim tape is not tubeless ready, but it's simple enough to...

As is often the case, d8 seems to be very lucky when it comes to buying cheap Chinese kit. I know of a couple of riders who have given up on unbranded pads due to short life. If you want to try different compounds, Discobrakes are a well-regarded supplier although not as cheap as they once...