Not seeing any reference to these surely widely available mid-price range bikes am entering my appreciation of their pleasurable ride experience.
I have a..few old Giant 'loafers' -[i had i thought typed Lafree but auto-correct knows better] which once being widely sold as 'the Rolls Royce' of electric bikes introduced me to electric bikes 2-3 yrs ago. Not least thanks to Flecc's informative links i have managed to keep 2 on the road having finally got to realise that the first one obtained was unusual not to say b****d as that grinding noise causing heads to indeed turn at my approach wasn't normal; i switched the motor from a scrapped out old one off ebay and enjoyed the mere albeit never silent, but not excrutiating hum of power engaged and to this day this is my about town 'shopper' which repeatedly draws folk into conversation, admiring of these stylish 'wheels'. With only a minority i can report lapsing into that old cliche, 'cheating' - 'you still have to pedal' is my riposte.
Anyway, lingering last year as one may, in the excellent Ratcliffe's of Leigh cycle store , who are Raleigh distributors among others. was kindly offered a try on their newly-in Rl. Motus..surprised it barely stirred my hair at all; felt rather 'ordinary' riding on the flat at least and allied with the rather plain [in my view] styling was happy to tell myself what i already had was just as good - range notwithstanding of course. I think knowing a replacement battery might be £500 or more also off putting when I'd bought three loafers [!] for less than that..
But found myself back there after a few weeks, the prospect of a couple of hundred off the demonstrator being with the thinking about it, possibly tempting- it had gone- but they did still have a rather handsome [white] open frame Velo also at a discount being ex-demo which I permitted myself to take for a spin; and wa-HEY! when the power kicks in - with the sought-after shove in the small of the back - positively took off and a nice [c/f loafer..] LCD speedo etc. I think I'd bought into the old truism that 'crank drive is the best' -well it isn't necessarily and as we know there are pros and cons and just because the cranks tend to drive the more expensive end of the market does not always equate to 'you get what you pay for' perhaps?
Yesterday i was cycling back from town and a big rear wheel motor'ed stealth bike glided by in that manner only an electric can - you know bike going disproportionately fast for the apparent amount of relaxed peddling going on up on the surface. I went in pursuit to find out more and the Velo was up to it, Half mile further , an amber light ambiguously interpreted, i caught up a clearly not un-fit older dude, who if not particularly talkative at 15.5mph was, i noted on a full sus. Scott. Is this add-on kit i wonder- will check.
And one for Ratcliffe's; when I thought my demo battery was a bit sub-optimum range; they took bike in for test ride for few days and having apparently had a word with the Raleigh rep. just replaced the battery no sweat. Thanks guys,
I am v. satisfied customer.
The range of my 10Ah is good enough for a morning or afternoons excursion [don't forget to condition these Li-ion batteries when first used- use to empty x3 and then never again] and as i know from the earlier early drawing is not an impossible bike to dry-run.
Not ready to lose the loafer just yet, is great around town and undeniably 'cool'.
I have a..few old Giant 'loafers' -[i had i thought typed Lafree but auto-correct knows better] which once being widely sold as 'the Rolls Royce' of electric bikes introduced me to electric bikes 2-3 yrs ago. Not least thanks to Flecc's informative links i have managed to keep 2 on the road having finally got to realise that the first one obtained was unusual not to say b****d as that grinding noise causing heads to indeed turn at my approach wasn't normal; i switched the motor from a scrapped out old one off ebay and enjoyed the mere albeit never silent, but not excrutiating hum of power engaged and to this day this is my about town 'shopper' which repeatedly draws folk into conversation, admiring of these stylish 'wheels'. With only a minority i can report lapsing into that old cliche, 'cheating' - 'you still have to pedal' is my riposte.
Anyway, lingering last year as one may, in the excellent Ratcliffe's of Leigh cycle store , who are Raleigh distributors among others. was kindly offered a try on their newly-in Rl. Motus..surprised it barely stirred my hair at all; felt rather 'ordinary' riding on the flat at least and allied with the rather plain [in my view] styling was happy to tell myself what i already had was just as good - range notwithstanding of course. I think knowing a replacement battery might be £500 or more also off putting when I'd bought three loafers [!] for less than that..
But found myself back there after a few weeks, the prospect of a couple of hundred off the demonstrator being with the thinking about it, possibly tempting- it had gone- but they did still have a rather handsome [white] open frame Velo also at a discount being ex-demo which I permitted myself to take for a spin; and wa-HEY! when the power kicks in - with the sought-after shove in the small of the back - positively took off and a nice [c/f loafer..] LCD speedo etc. I think I'd bought into the old truism that 'crank drive is the best' -well it isn't necessarily and as we know there are pros and cons and just because the cranks tend to drive the more expensive end of the market does not always equate to 'you get what you pay for' perhaps?
Yesterday i was cycling back from town and a big rear wheel motor'ed stealth bike glided by in that manner only an electric can - you know bike going disproportionately fast for the apparent amount of relaxed peddling going on up on the surface. I went in pursuit to find out more and the Velo was up to it, Half mile further , an amber light ambiguously interpreted, i caught up a clearly not un-fit older dude, who if not particularly talkative at 15.5mph was, i noted on a full sus. Scott. Is this add-on kit i wonder- will check.
And one for Ratcliffe's; when I thought my demo battery was a bit sub-optimum range; they took bike in for test ride for few days and having apparently had a word with the Raleigh rep. just replaced the battery no sweat. Thanks guys,
I am v. satisfied customer.
The range of my 10Ah is good enough for a morning or afternoons excursion [don't forget to condition these Li-ion batteries when first used- use to empty x3 and then never again] and as i know from the earlier early drawing is not an impossible bike to dry-run.
Not ready to lose the loafer just yet, is great around town and undeniably 'cool'.
