Thanks folks, it's great to see the forum being used! Hopefully we can increase the traffic even more with Pedelecs v2 which we've been planning for a while now and changed our minds on the development a couple of times mainly because we were unhappy with the software.
We've decided to go the vBulletin route again upgrading to v4, this new version has a CMS (content management system) that replaces the front end of the current site which has always sat apart from the forum. vBulletin 4 tightly integrates the forum with a front-end whereby we can aggregate and post news stories related to the industry, features, guides and reviews etc..The idea that the main site is updated throughout the day and is a landing page for new and existing users before heading to the forum.
The new front-end will also show latest forum posts and comments, there are new features which will allow members to host their own blogs, as well as write and publish their own articles.
We will do the update in two stages, the first a fairly vanilla upgrade to v4. As v4 is very new there are likely to be some issues so staying close to the standard template means less hassle if we need to quickly upgrade. Once v4 has settled down a bit more, we'll then look at a customising it with a completely revamped look. The main thing is a smooth transition.