News: New Forest Electric Bike Rally

Tim

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 1, 2006
770
78
London
It looks like 50cycles will be turning up with some bikes on Sunday, accompanied by James and Jim who will be happy to help and answer any questions.

Tim
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,160
30,577
That's great news Tim, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the weather being kind to us.
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JohnInStockie

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 10, 2006
1,048
1
Stockport, SK7
Now you know how we feel about Presteigne and the York cycle events John!
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Flecc - I think Coops will agree that neither of those locations are anywhere near Manchester either (90 mins drive to York, and god knows how long to Presteigne).

Maybe once the congestion charge comes in (if it does)..

Hope the weather is indeed kind for you all (not another 'wash out') :)
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,160
30,577
I agree John, I had many years of driving all over Britain including Manchester, but that's much closer than we in the South are from York, and even from Presteigne if like me you have London in the way first! Believe me, I've long lost count of the number of times it's taken me the ninety minutes you mention to cross just half of London alone.

In some of my commuting days the 14 miles from work could exceed two hours on the odd occasion.

My last memory of Manchester was two of us deliberately sabotaging a lift in the Queens Hotel on Piccadilly so we were stuck in it for an hour before the fire brigade wound us down. :eek:

Why? We were determined to get out of attending a top level meeting we wanted to avoid. We succeeded. :D
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coops

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 18, 2007
1,225
1
Manchester U.K.
John said:
Flecc - I think Coops will agree that neither of those locations are anywhere near Manchester either (90 mins drive to York, and god knows how long to Presteigne).
To be fair, I'm the wrong person to ask, since I've no motor vehicle other than my bike and I'm uneasy on long journeys anyway, even before the vagaries of lifts from friends, or train timetables & routes are accounted for... :rolleyes:

I'd have to say though that in terms of distance, (much as I dislike to break the local solidarity John :D) York & Presteigne are positively local to Manchester on the map, compared to their distance from London, even before you take into account the difficulty of crossing/avoiding London... but as I say, to me its just different degrees of difficulty anyhow... :rolleyes:

I hope in future more local fairs & events may spring up for everyone, that would be good :).

In some ways I don't mind: I have more trust in other's evaluation of bikes' qualities than my own (the new ezee & wisper bikes for instance) so I'm looking forward to hearing how they compare if all the circumstances are favourable for that: I also wish the event organisers and all those attending the best possible weather for it :D.

Stuart.
 

rsscott

Administrator
Staff member
Aug 17, 2006
1,399
195
I'm praying for good weather this Sunday! Richard and I will be there, we have a stand on which we will have a couple of PC's connected to the site for live updates throughout the day.

It's great to see several retailers in attendance and I'm sure it will be a fantastic day out, we're definitely looking forward to putting some faces to names!
 

MazB

Pedelecer
Nov 21, 2006
58
0
sunnny

Hi Guys,

The forecast is for:

Sunny Sunny Sunny and Sunny

Apparantly it is suppose to be the hottest day of the year on Sunday

Have fun :)

Maz.
 

MazB

Pedelecer
Nov 21, 2006
58
0
50 Cycles

Will you be taking a Chopper or Quando to the rally?

Would be good to try them out.

Cheers,
Maz
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,160
30,577
Hi Guys,

The forecast is for:

Sunny Sunny Sunny and Sunny

Apparantly it is suppose to be the hottest day of the year on Sunday


Maz.
That sounds like a Michael Fish "there is definitely no hurricane" forecast Maz. :D
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Wisper Bikes

Trade Member
Apr 11, 2007
6,282
2,252
69
Sevenoaks Kent
Solid Bike Rack

If I come, I'd need to get the train to New Milton, then it looks to be another couple of miles. Anybody know of local buses or taxis from the station? Or if I take along my (unpowered) Brompton, will I find a solid bike rack at the museum to lock it to?

Mary
Hi Mary

We have a small shop at the venue and you would be most welcome to leave your bike with us.

Best regards David
 

Wisper Bikes

Trade Member
Apr 11, 2007
6,282
2,252
69
Sevenoaks Kent
Rallies all over the UK.

Hi Pedelecers all.

If The New Forest and the London Dome in October are successful in terms of visitors, we will certainly repeat them next year.

If you include Presteigne the south seems to be reasonably covered.

We would in 2008 be delighted to arrange another three or four rallies in the rest of the country, say Exmore, The Lake District, The Northumberland National Park and Loch Lomand and the Trossacks.

If anyone has any ideas for venues then let's explore!

It would be interesting to see if we could get enough local interest to run a full The Sustainability Show from these locations in the summer 2008.

If anyone is unsure of what I mean by The Sustainability Show, log on to The Sustainability Show . The London O2 rally will take place on the Sunday of the show.

Best regards David

PS I am going to start a new thread with this post.
 

rsscott

Administrator
Staff member
Aug 17, 2006
1,399
195
Morning all from the New Forest Rally!

The weather is being kind to us so far today. We have met a few members of the forum including the legendary Flecc. We'll be taking photos throughout the day and will upload them when we can.
 

JohnInStockie

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 10, 2006
1,048
1
Stockport, SK7
Hi Russ

I hope youre having a good day there, glad the weathers been kind. Pity you dont have a live web feed :D

John
 

rsscott

Administrator
Staff member
Aug 17, 2006
1,399
195
Hi John,

I spoke too soon! We've seen a little rain so far, but nothing on the scale of Presteigne 2007.

Yes, a live web feed would be good. Perhaps for the next event, on this occasion I'm glad at least we have a connection (3G).
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,160
30,577
Yes, the weather was quite kind to us John, much better than forecast and completely normal for a traditional British Summer! :rolleyes: I didn't even bother with getting a jacket out of the car at any time, showing how light the rain was.
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Battery

Just Joined
Jul 15, 2007
1
0
New Forest E-Bike Rally

Hi there,

I just wanted to thank the organisers of the New Forest E-Bike Rally. I visited earlier today and meet some very interesting people and got to see some great products. I am sure the market here in the UK will grow quickly over the next few years so it is good to know it is supported by so many forward thinking professionals and enthusiasts. For a developing market it is important to have a ‘collective voice’ to evangelise, promote and lobby and this type of event seems like a great way to do this.:)
 

Wisper Bikes

Trade Member
Apr 11, 2007
6,282
2,252
69
Sevenoaks Kent
Thanks for comming!



A big thanks to everyone that attended the New Forest ebike event and helped make it such a good day. Unfortunately the Rally part was rained upon so it was decided to postpone it, however I hear that there was a race around the museum after I had left to take our German Partner Frank back to Gatwick. And the amazing 1000w American military ebike lead the field.



I have some great memories of the day, one of my favorites is all 20 stone of me flying around the test area on the aforesaid machine, when I took it onto the road I managed to clock up 34 mph under power only, thank goodness there weren’t any police about!! It was however very hard to peddle as an ordinary bike. The other wonderful experience was traveling at just over 60mph on the Vectrix all electric motorcycle - fantastic!



All this excitement however paled into insignificance when compared to meeting the mighty Flecc! He is a very, very nice man!!

A great show of very powerful ebikes was put on by the guys from .... where were they from??



Harvey from our battery supplier was there to give help and advice and lively conversation ensued regarding the attributes of Lithium Ion, Lithium Polymer and NiMh batteries could be heard. I think Lithium Ion eventually came out on top but it was obvious that the battery had to be specifically set up for the bike it was powering or it would not work effectively and all the problems we read about on the forum come into play.

A big thanks to David Henshaw from A to B and his family and Russ and Richard (with gorgeous girlfriend) form Pedelecs, and the bike retailers for making the day so enjoyable.



One fly in the ointment was there was the annual soap box peddle car race on the same day so we did not get the numbers we were expecting, however negotiations are underway and hopefully next year we will team up with them and hold our rally around the closed off streets of New Milton.

A special thanks to all those who came with their ebikes and to visit the stands, sorry about the rain!



Best regards David
 

Ian

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 1, 2007
1,333
0
Leicester LE4, UK.
David it appears that the site on which your pictures are hosted requires a login to access them. Could you not upload them to your Wisper site and link to them there.
 

Wisper Bikes

Trade Member
Apr 11, 2007
6,282
2,252
69
Sevenoaks Kent
Images

Thanks Ian, that's what I did, but the old Wisper site is hosted by Easily and I think that's the problem. However the new Wisper site is up today and I will post them there in the NEWS column and link to them.

I found out who the "stunt" team were, thanks to Team Hybrid for their display!

Best regards David