Well, I have just gone and done it - Kalkhoff BS10 ordered today

[Tim]

Among our Speed Pedelec customers are several serving police officers, a high court judge, a Lord and an officer for a certain transport agency. All of whom are fully aware of the situation none of whom could care less.

What we're doing is taking a lead here, you should be grateful at least one company has the balls to do so. Until we came along, every ebike company was selling lead-acid power monsters of very dubious safety and laughable performance - then we brought back crank drives, introduced lithium batteries, then quality European ebikes, reliable regenerative technology, Harmony gearboxes and yes, Speed pedelecs. What did you do in the Great Electric Bike Revolution of 2000 - 2020?

 

[Tim]

I do not think the above or his other posts show this. Regarding BH they are confirming to EN15194. Regarding complaints one of the people bought an Oxygen bike off you however I am not going to give it out personal details without permission. The point I was making is you can not take everything someone says as fact.

Well it was more likely difficulty in getting spares or support out of Oxygen rather than anything to do with our customer service that was his gripe. We've long-since ceased selling Oxygen. Looking forward to selling some Freegos again though - now there's a company with excellent support for its dealers.

 

[Geebee]

Among our Speed Pedelec customers are several serving police officers, a high court judge and an officer for certain transport agency. All of whom are fully aware of the situation none of whom could care less.

What we're doing is taking a lead here, you should be grateful at least one company has the balls to do so. Until we came along, every ebike company was selling lead-acid power monsters of very dubious safety and laughable performance - then we brought back crank drives, introduced lithium batteries, then quality European ebikes, reliable regenerative technology, Harmony gearboxes and yes, Speed pedelecs. What did you do in the Great Electric Bike Revolution of 2000 - 2020?

We take that as none then?
It was the kind of answers our pollies have been dishing out down here with all the elections.

 

[Electrifying Cycles]

It was more than that Tim but I am not going to labour the point. The orginal point was you can not take what people say as gospel (in relation to BH assising to 20mph). Someone checked previously apparently there were no s pedelecs registered. Not checked this myself but insurance appears to be an issue from other members comments.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

However if the knowledge about them increase amongst the general population, its not going to be long before these 350w bikes get onto the radar and there could be a lot of people very unhappy about having spent thousands on bikes they really can't get away with using on the roads.
Col.

It's just as easy to restrict a bike as it is to derestrict it. I'm sure some enterprising person would be offering something on Ebay if it came to that. I reckon I could knock one up in an afternoon if anybody wants one; however, as far as I understand it, it's only software that makes the difference, so dealers might be able to re-program.

 

[Tim]

I think many of you have an over-inflated idea of what these Speed pedelecs are capable of in reality. You don't have people hooning around everywhere at 28mph, that's fairly hard work keeping that up, mentally and physically. As has been pointed out again and again, they certainly feel safer to ride. Vulnerable cyclists need literally all the help they can get on this country's roads. Many of you, dealers I mean, were also very happy to ride a BS10 around the test track at last year's Cycle Show without compunction.

 

[Tim]

It's just as easy to restrict a bike as it is to derestrict it. I'm sure some enterprising person would be offering something on Ebay if it came to that. I reckon I could knock one up in an afternoon if anybody wants one; however, as far as I understand it, it's only software that makes the difference, so dealers might be able to re-program.

Correct, the new Endeavour Impulses can have speed restricted in the user interface in just the same way it can be unrestricted on other bikes.

 

[elad770]

It was more than that Tim but I am not going to labour the point. The orginal point was you can not take what people say as gospel (in relation to BH assising to 20mph). Someone checked previously apparently there were no s pedelecs registered. Not checked this myself but insurance appears to be an issue from other members comments.

So why do 50Cycles sell them then if they can't be registered or insured? ....Oh, wait!

 

[Tim]

It was more than that Tim but I am not going to labour the point. The orginal point was you can not take what people say as gospel (in relation to BH assising to 20mph.

And yet, in my own experience which was confirmed by a customer yesterday, that appears to be the case.

Last year i had a rep from BH visit trying to sell us their bikes directly "but what about the UK distributor, what do they think of that?" I asked. He shrugged it off, wasn't bothered. Not long after Maxtrack, the UK distributor, and BH parted company. I still have the rep's card and pricelist somewhere. Now who's word should and should not be taken as gospel again?

 

[Geebee]

Correct, the new Endeavour Impulses can have speed restricted in the user interface in just the same way it can be unrestricted on other bikes.

But that would not make them comply with the EN15194 rules though?

 

[carpetbagger]

I had a legal Agattu, an £8 motor sprocket made it illegal.
It doesn't really matter what 50 cycles sells as long as they state or its says in the literature that it is illegal on uk roads, it then becomes the buyers responsibility.
Personally I am more bothered about the thousands of uninsured drivers in cars and people on mobile phones driving than a few pedelecers coaxing an extra 10mph out of their bikes.....the law is an ass and a very big one at that.
I hit 25mph on my road bike on the flat on Sunday, yet if I was on my Agattu S then I would have been breaking the law, possibly had my bike crushed, points on my licence, fined or even jailed .
YES THE LAW IS ONE VERY BIG ASS

 

[Tim]

Someone very senior in this forum bought a solidly non-EN15194 eZee Torq Li from us nearly 8 years ago now.

If you want the best of the EN15194-conformant electric bikes available, we have them.

If you want the best of the non-EN15194-conformant electric bikes money can buy, we also have them. It's entirely up to you how you use it.

If you want something that's passing itself off as EN15194 and isn't, sorry, we don't have anything like that. You'll have to go elsewhere, there are plenty of places that do them.

 

[flapajack]

Both X24 and Wisper are great bikes (I have both). The X24 is much sportier feeling but in this version less range. Having said that I find 40 real life miles (hilly rides) is quite achievable on the XT. Have you had a chance to ride either or both?

I did get a ride on teh X24 and love it - see my opening post. I didn't managed to try any other models before I made up my mind.

 

[flapajack]

Don't forget about all the EN15194 compliant (sort of) bikes that have LCDs where you can re-program the speed limit in the LCD, which is a fair proportion of bikes sold in UK, and then there's those with a pair of wires that you can unplug. Nobody seems to be complaining about that, so leave 50cycles alone, nearly everybody's doing it because that's what many customers want.

This is precisely where I come to

 

[flecc]

Until we came along, every ebike company was selling lead-acid power monsters of very dubious safety and laughable performance

A bit of exaggeration there Tim!

The sophisticated Giant Lafree lite (below) was here in 2001 years before you started up and the Yamaha PAS models in 1999, a long way before you appeared. Both were quality good performing pedelecs and hardly monsters. The Lafree weighed just 22 kilos fully equipped with mudguards, mudflaps, strong carrier, lights, propstand and wheel lock, a weight many manufacturers still struggle to get down to today for such a well equipped e-bike.

Both are still in regular use and the Lafree in particular remains a highly valued pedelec for numerous owners.

 

[carpetbagger]

As long as riders are blasting through public areas in an irresponsible manner then there is no problem with bikes that have been....designed....to do 25/28mph. For the rest, myself included (mine assists to 21 mph) then again I see little problem after all the police have been allowing people to drive at 85mph on motorways and turning a blind eye yet that is breaking the law.

 

[Ronnyuk]

I think they should work out what Wattage motor would get 90% of the UK population up a certain gradient of hill and cap the speed to say 17mph like now, that way everyone regardless of size will get the same riding experience. Take a 50cc motorbike, it will propel anyone to the maximum speed of 33mph and then the limiter cuts in.

So in theory you could put a 1000w motor on a e-bike which would take a 20st person at 17mph up "x" gradient of hill and this same motor would take a 10st person at the same limited 17mph up the same hill.

Does this sound daft?

 

[Tim]

A bit of exaggeration there Tim!

The sophisticated Giant Lafree lite (below) was here in 2001 years before you started up and the Yamaha PAS models in 1999, a long way before you appeared. Both were quality good performing pedelecs and hardly monsters. The Lafree weighed just 22 kilos fully equipped with mudguards, mudflaps, strong carrier, lights and wheel lock, a weight many manufacturers still struggle to get down to today for such a well equipped e-bike.

I did say 'brought back' crank drives - by the time we began selling them again (after an early stint selling crank-drive Honda and Panasonic folding ebikes) in 2007, neither the Giant Lafree nor the Yamaha PAS were being manufactured. Kalkhoff (and Swiss Flyer) picked up the torch with the centre drives.

It was seeing someone riding a Giant Lafree in central London around 2001-2002 that sparked the awareness that lead to this business, I hadn't given electric bikes a single thought until that moment. I very much respect their pioneering status.

 

[Artstu]

Does this sound daft?

To me it does, sorry. I'd take low power and assist to whatever speed the bike is capable of any day.

In that recent Guardian article about the 10 things that stopped people riding bikes was the inability to keep up with the flow of traffic, any legal e-bike hinders that ability in a lot of situations, apart from uphill.

 

[Ronnyuk]

To me it does, sorry. I'd take low power and assist to whatever speed the bike is capable of any day.

In that recent Guardian article about the 10 things that stopped people riding bikes was the inability to keep up with the flow of traffic, any legal e-bike hinders that ability in a lot of situations, apart from uphill.

I would almost say the opposite, E-bikes do hinder if you are over weight going uphill, on a flat and downhill they are limited to a certain speed, this speed has been determined as the average speed of a cyclist using pedal power alone.

Do you really need to keep up with the flow of traffic on a pushbike? I would say you need to buy an electric moped if this is a requirement.

If you weight 70kg a 200W ebike will get you everywhere but once you start putting 110KG of weight behind the handlebars it's a whole different ball game.