How fast is your bike?

[mlcook19]

When I originally saw this thread posted a few days ago I was really excited about seeing everyones setups and performance. Sadly, a few members have turned this thread into a pissing contest over the legality of their ebikes performance.

I think everyone can not only agree, but even say that they know that running their ebike over the speed alowed by the law is not something they should do (even if they are choosing not to abide by the law). Completely derailing this thread for the sake of trying to either flame someone or to try to change their mind about their actions is not only a waste of time, but it is also rude to the people who would like to enjoy this thread (it is doubtful that you will change anyones mind anyways).

One of this administrators has already weighed in on this:

Ok, thats enough now please folks.

Can we please get back to the topic at hand?

 

[theskip1]

You can still get around on a legally assisted bike regardless of your ability to pedal, its just a case of choosing the bike which suits your circumstances. To suggest that anyone is attempting to deny you the pleasure of riding a bike is ridiculous.

No one is trying to condemn you to a moped either. It is a legal option if you want to travel at speeds beyond 15 mph on two wheels.

You raise an interesting point about wanting to use shared walkways. I take it that you mean you would like to ride selfishly, where pedestrians are, exposing them to any hazard posed by your illegal bike. Your uninsured illegal bike. Your bike that has not undergone any type approval or safety testing. All of this for your own personal convenience. There is a word for people with this sort of attitude. Despicable.



Now this has serious comedy value. It was meant as a joke? Please say that it was, if not and there are others like you, we are in serious trouble.

This argument is a bit like a burglar saying that the law should be changed to allow him and others like him to enter people's houses to nick things whenever the need arrises. And if anyone objects to this, they posses an, I'm alright jack attitude.

I think you may be a bit of a nutcase.

i dont think you get the point. have you read all the coments ?. the topic at hand was" how fast does your bike go " which is the question i atempted to answer. i also said i only tried going fast once. truth is i probably go slower than most because again as i said speed is not what i strive for.i do not need or atempt to impress anyone. why have i become the whipping boy in this debate when there were others befor me had already admitted to going well beyond the speed limit.this has become a debate on the size of motor needed . i need a bigger motor and no amout of agument can change that !.

 

[indalo]

Nice touch using a bit of latin, Russ.

Now, I thought I had a fairly good idea of the meaning of "ad hominem" but I Googled it to see if it was actually correct in the context used by our administrator. There are various sources offering definitions but this one caught my eye. There's a lot of reading involved but it's a nice little diversion from this stalled thread for anyone with a basic grasp of the English language. We all know a little latin, don't we?

Regards,
Indalo


The Ad Hominem Fallacy Fallacy

 

[Scottyf]

It was an extreme example of a law breaker wanting the law changed to accommodate his law breaking activities. This is exactly what theskip1 was suggesting should happen.

I really don't think it was what theskip1 suggested. Infact I think it was Flecc pushing the boundries.
I just thought that you using an extreme example of a break in robbery in comparison to those who tweak an ebike over a legal assisted limit no where near in the same league of "Criminal".

But its ok you can take a personal dig at me.

 

[peasjam]

You raise an interesting point about wanting to use shared walkways. I take it that you mean you would like to ride selfishly, where pedestrians are, exposing them to any hazard posed by your illegal bike. Your uninsured illegal bike. Your bike that has not undergone any type approval or safety testing. All of this for your own personal convenience. There is a word for people with this sort of attitude. Despicable.

But again, the issue of whether or not a bike is restricted to the legal limit is irrelevant in this case. Selfish and dangerous riding is just that whether it be on a leg-powered bike, restricted e-bike or none-restricted e-bike.

Your rather loud assertion that de-restricted bike automatically leads to selfish and dangerous riding is obviously going to irritate people who do have quick bikes yet manage to ride them in a safe and considerate manner.

On a slight aside; the issue of whether insurance should be a requirement is, in my view, completely worth a conversation for all bikes given that it's quite easy with the right lightweight equipment to peddle well past 20mph if you're fit enough.

 

[flecc]

Can we please get back to the topic at hand?

Of course.

This site was first founded in September 2006 by Russell Scott who rode an eZee Torq 1 on his daily commute. The Torq 1 had been released in the UK in April of that year and it's claim to fame was a 22 mph derestricted assist speed and having an easy derestrict procedure, just unplugging a link. The high assist speed was achieved with an overgeared 250w Suzhou Bafang front hub motor and the bike was purposefully designed with 700c wheels, rigid forks and derailleur gears which also had very high ratios, 122" top gear on the standard bike and a whopping 132" on the prototype which was tested by David Henshaw of A to B magazine. David was later to win the race at the first Presteigne annual e-bike rally on that machine which he still owns.

This eZee model created huge interest and it rapidly became the best selling high price e-bike on the UK market. At one point almost 40% of the forum membership owned eZee bikes, most of them Torq 1 models, and a high proportion of them were derestricted. I owned one myself. The bike had a number of intrinsic faults, but they tended to be forgiven for it's fun factor and the way it performed. It's very high motor gearing resulted in a gently progressive acceleration under power which gave the impression that the acceleration would go on for ever, a unique characteristic that no other e-bike has ever achieved. A downside of the motor gearing was that hill climbing under power was poor unless the rider was strong enough to maintain at least 12 mph climb speed to keep the bike near to it's optimum combination of torque and power.

That lack of climb ability for weaker riders resulted in many selling theirs prematurely with the prices crashing, some selling a few months old for £500, well under half the new price. eZee eventually replaced the model with the Torq 2, a more conventional e-bike with a slightly lower derestricted assist speed of 20 mph.

There are still many Torq 1 models around and some owned by forum members, but many have been substantially modified. None were changed more than my one, on which I put the motor wheel in the back to improve comfort and used the former back wheel sans gear cluster in the front forks and enlarged the battery to improve the climb performance, giving it a new name. Yiu can see the bike and it's conversion on the link below

Torq Radical

I hope you've enjoyed this little account from our earlier days of performance riding.
.

 

[flecc]

And a second post on subject from me, this tim the exploits of member Tiberius who created his own fast e-bike specifically for the Tour de Presteigne race and went on to sweep the board on the events. The illustrated thread linked to below describes the bike's creation and has many of the exciting race photos in two locations lower down the thread, including one of him riding at an impressive cornering lean angle:

Tiberius' race e-bike
.

 

[stevebills]

I have an Optibike 600T and its been peddled at 32.10mph on the flat and does it really matter what speed we do its not a race and we are not in the TT and I wouldn't bother with 15 mph its not for me.

 

[Jon]

It really does amuse me to see people arguing over derestricting ebikes i deal with law, criminals and the justice department regularly and this really is the lowest of the lowest criminality, in fact its not even worth arguing over. I have mentioned before the views of Traffic officers on a different thread. I think its it is too low but its what it is and as with some laws some will choose to follow and others wont.

Anyway

On flats i generally pedal at 21mph depending on the wind and how tired i am
On the flats with throttle ill do about 18mph (yes its a bought road legal bike)
Down hills well that depends on the hill but i have reached 33mph
Up hills again depends on the hill but averagely ill be doing 14.5mph

I use a Cats eye speedo thing and i went past the one of them speed sensor things that tell you how fast your going the other day and it married with my speedo so either they are both out or they are correct.

Today i did 13 miles going to and from meetings and i averaged 16mph but that was assisting the assist quite a bit lol

 

[james@justebikes.co.uk]

Otherwise witless leaders

I have scanned, but am guilty of not reading all xx pages of this thread... but here's my 2 pence:

Most folk that buy an e-bike (in my opinion) are delighted with the ease with which they can whiz along at 25ish kph. Many have not ridden a bike of any sorts for while, and have no beef with the legal powered speed restriction.

I've raced cars at over 200, flown planes upside down (slower) and motorcycled for about 150k on Ducati and BMWs. I'm a speed junky. But am happiest cruising on a silent e-bike at around 15mph. Any faster and I feel the need for a proper crash helmet (condom?).

Our otherwise witless leaders have got it right: measure fatal and serious accidents against manual bike data before shifting speed limits up or down (and thats what they're doing).

James