Author's posts
May 21
Our ride through France 2019
Watch an automatic Powerpoint presentation about our 2019 ride from home to Portsmouth then through France to the Mediterranean then on to Toulouse. This was created for a presentation in Germany, so the brief captions are in English and German.
Mar 14
Hase Pino freewheel removal
It’s a few years since I last serviced the freewheel on the Pino, and it felt like it could do with some fresh grease in the bearings: Tools needed are the Park Tool FR-6 and 1″ socket or spanner to fit, a bolt and washers to clamp the tool in place, a vice, hammer and …
Feb 21
Pino update
Adding a second battery The International Tandem Rally in 2022 in the first week in August, was near Tecklenburg, South West of Osnabrück in Germany. We thought it would be good to ride from home, using the Stena Line Ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland. Once in the Netherlands the going would be …
Jan 14
A long weekend with the Nutty Tandemers
Late June 2021 we put the Pino in the car and headed for Callander on the edge of the Trossachs National Park. We arrived on Wednesday 23rd and so did Jane and John. Colin and Diane would be joining us Friday evening. Day 1 Thursday was our first ride and Jane and John had bought …
Jan 14
Catch-up Christmas 2021
February 2020 we were in Spain when Covid reared its ugly head and started its advance from China. Initially we had looked at finding some winter sun in Cuba and doing some cycling and painting there, but decided against flying anywhere. So we packed the Pino into the car and spent a few days driving …
May 19
Solo e-bike conversion
Fitting a Bafang to a solo ‘should’ be straightforward, but my Qubic steel framed MTB threw up a couple of issues.I bought the motor and battery separately through AliExpress. There are dozens of suppliers, many based in China but a lot of sellers now have the option of buying from a distributor in the UK …
Feb 05
USB outlet for Pino battery
The Hailong battery on the Pino e-bike kit didn’t have a USB outlet and as I use my iPhone for navigating and tracking our rides, an outlet would be useful for keeping the phone charged, as GPS use tends to drain the phone battery pretty quickly. The battery is a 36V 17.5 Ah Hailong. There …
Dec 24
Christmas 2020
The year that never was. We had so many plans for 2020 but only managed the first; our early year trip to Spain in search of some winter sun and pleasant riding on the Pino. It’s something we had been thinking about for a while, and I’d seen a programme on the area around Dénia, …
Dec 06
Artillery vehicle drawings
This is a kind of hobby. I spent six years in the Artillery back in the 70s and we had some impressive kit. At one time I managed a website for ex-members of my unit, as drew up some battle honour crests to put on the website. These generated some interest, so I took it …
Nov 28
Swytch Bike kit
Karon loves her Roberts bike but was rarely riding it, as her health issues made even the gentlest of uphill gradients very difficult for her. We had talked about adding an e-assist kit to the bike for a while, but she didn’t want whatever we chose to change the bike too much, or make it …