Ride through Telford Town park and Race with Crank-drive Bike

saneagle

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 10, 2010
6,812
3,150
Telford
OK, for those that think hub-motors don't climb, you can see how quickly I reeled in some guy on a crank-drive bike up a steep hill. That part of the path is very steep. Te rest of it up to the top, where you can see the kids playground is steep enough for an average guy to need an ebike to get up comfortably. I'm pretty sure he was trying to race me. The camera doesn't show everything, but as I approached the junction on the path, I could see him pedalling fairly relaxed, but when he saw me, he suddenly started to put in full effort. Despite his immediate lead because of his rolling start and me from a standing start, I caught up with him in seconds without even trying. He heard my gears clicking when I was a few feet behind, looked back (0:09) like anyone racing would, and again (0:14) and then turned off and stopped. The path he turned onto goes back the way he came, so I'm pretty sure he just did that so that he didn't have to face the ignomany of being overtaken. Can anyone recognise the bike - possibly a Chinese one with Bafang motor?

The rest of the video is the approach to the town centre. In the sunshine, it had a real holiday atmosphere. It made me feel happy and pleased to live here. There is loads to do there for the kids. I was thinkung that it's better than a day out to the beach. I should've stopped and panned the camera to show it better, but it was only afterwards that I though about showing it. This is one small corner of the town park, which has many nice pools, a lot of wildlife and lots of history. What you can see is the funfair first on the right, then in front is the kids playground, which is always busy all year round, then a couple of pools on the left, and finally the fountain area, which was packed with kids splashing about, like they were on the beach.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Woosh

guerney

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 7, 2021
11,387
3,234
Can anyone recognise the bike - possibly a Chinese one with Bafang motor?
Looks like one of those puny and crap, unprogammable Ananda jobbies. But at least his ickle in-frame low continuous discharge rate battery is unlikely to be stressed enough to explode his balls off, like a shaped charge the SAS use in movies.
 
Last edited:

Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
20,365
16,870
Southend on Sea
wooshbikes.co.uk
OK, for those that think hub-motors don't climb, you can see how quickly I reeled in some guy on a crank-drive bike up a steep hill. That part of the path is very steep. Te rest of it up to the top, where you can see the kids playground is steep enough for an average guy to need an ebike to get up comfortably. I'm pretty sure he was trying to race me.
your bike has an advantage against a CD bike when the climb is short.
You don't need to change gear while the other guy would have to.
I reckon Az.'s TSDZ8 would give your kit a good workout.
The last time I was visiting Telford was in 1990.
It's good to see so much has been done up since.
 

saneagle

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 10, 2010
6,812
3,150
Telford
your bike has an advantage against a CD bike when the climb is short.
You don't need to change gear while the other guy would have to.
I reckon Az.'s TSDZ8 would give your kit a good workout.
The last time I was visiting Telford was in 1990.
It's good to see so much has been done up since.
You can hear my gears clicking. I changed about 6 times in those 100 metres. It was the other guy that didn't need to change because he was going at constant speed.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Woosh

smifee

Pedelecer
Feb 22, 2017
67
60
76
Chandler's Ford
I used to spend a couple of days in Telford each year when I took my motorhome to Dave Newell to have it serviced.
Would walk to Blists Hill Victorian town with my dog and spend the day there. Great place.
One year I had to leave the motorhome with Dave as I had to get to the New Forest for a pet sitting job. I walked with the dog through the town to the railway station. Good infrastructure for walking & cycling.
People would ask why I went from Hampshire to Telford just for a service. I told them Dave tells it like it is, no BS.
 

Az.

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 27, 2022
2,044
903
Plymouth
To me it looked like guy was minding his own business and just making sure he won't get into your way. If you want a race just say it so all participants are aware what is going on.
 

Waspy

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 8, 2012
431
170
Makes me want to live in Telford, the free to enter bike races (that you don't remember entering) would just be a bonus :D

I visited Ironbridge once many years ago, nice.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ghost1951

Ghost1951

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 2, 2024
1,590
625
Nice place.

Is that your new camera? It renders the sky much better than my old Nextbase dashcam, which habitually flares it out to white. I never see the clouds like yours shows them. I have had it a good while mind, and the technology progresses, and it wasn't expensive anyway. It does show number plates quite well though.

I went to Telford once about 1998.
 

saneagle

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 10, 2010
6,812
3,150
Telford
Nice place.

Is that your new camera? It renders the sky much better than my old Nextbase dashcam, which habitually flares it out to white. I never see the clouds like yours shows them. I have had it a good while mind, and the technology progresses, and it wasn't expensive anyway. It does show number plates quite well though.

I went to Telford once about 1998.
Yes, that was my Innovv H5 camera.

I've just donr the same ride with 4 cameras to see the difference. It's going to take a while to sort it all out.
 

Bikes4two

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 21, 2020
1,006
432
Havant
Telford looks nice and what cracking weather. I cycled through Telford 12 years ago on my LeJog trip - the city planners have been busy since then.

The other guy's bike looks to be a proprietary system given the in-frame battery and so the crank drive motor is something like a Yamaha/Shimano/Bosch maybe?

Clearly he's riding in a fairly relaxed manner, in no particular rush and like many-a-mid drive ebike rider only looks for a small amount of assistance when riding.

Clearly your hub motor can deliver some real oomph which is just right for those who like the motor to do give that sort of ride experience.

Nice video quality (but I'm no expert) - you've got me watching YT reviews on the Innovv H5 now :cool: .
 

guerney

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 7, 2021
11,387
3,234
Is that your new camera? It renders the sky much better than my old Nextbase dashcam, which habitually flares it out to white. I never see the clouds like yours shows them. I have had it a good while mind, and the technology progresses, and it wasn't expensive anyway. It does show number plates quite well though.

I went to Telford once about 1998.
Cheaper cameras can take time to adjust to changes in light levels, depending on the metering method, sensors and how the algorithm responds etc, or limited by how well the algorithm can respond if the CPU & working memory etc. is of limited capability - it's partly what you pay for when you've bought a fancy mirrorless/DSLR or cinecam, or a more expensive action camera. Nothing of note has happened to me and my bike lately, therefore after a ride in bright daylight everything is deleted... but here's an example I've kept recorded early morning. Measured light level changes as the camera is pointed in the rising sun's direction and my lights between 11 seconds and 18 seconds, if you watch carefully the camera adjusts to prevent overexposure. Looks a bit jerky because there's no motion blur, because I don't want motion blur from my bike riding flight recorder, and have set the camera up so there's as little motion blur as is reasonably acceptable while capturing some colour information. Everything slightly before the cat and everything afterwards you should ignore, because it's blurry 720P/30fps ineptly upsampled and resampled to 1080p/24p, to match the first section.




I've changed how the lights are mounted since.
 
Last edited: