Technical
Jun 24
Karon commented that we rarely ride the Cannondale anymore and I had to agree. While it’s fine on the flat, we now struggle on anything over a gentle gradient and it’s been putting us off taking it out. I had a ‘spare’ Bafang BBS01 250W motor in the shed and an old 36V battery that …
Mar 04
Below are the current (March 2024) rules for UK EAPCs (electrically assisted pedal cycles). What counts as an EAPC (Government site) This last point troubled me a little. More recently, on social media, I have seen that the Police have targeted e-bikes to check the maximum speed. OK, their focus may have been on Deliveroo and …
Sep 18
The Pino stoker’s freewheel removal Our Pino is a 2011 model with square taper cranks. The freewheel is on the left side of the ‘Captains’ crankset. Ignore the motor slung under our Pino, removal of the cranks and freewheel is still the same. Before removing the crank, take off the pedal. Removal of the cranks …
Mar 14
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
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 …
May 19
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
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 …
Nov 28
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 …
Jun 02
In January 2017 I set about electrifying my HPV Scorpion FS20 recumbent trike. Trikes are great fun to ride, and comfortable too. A lower profile and recumbent position mean they are more aerodynamic, but the downside is their weight. For me, it makes any climb hard going, even pretty innocuous lumps can take some effort. …
Jan 06
After coming back from a long tour of France I decided it was time to put a motor on the Pino. I had mulled it over for some time and, because a new ‘e-pino’ is horrendously expensive, I decided to fit a Bafang ‘Fun 8’ mid-drive motor. In the UK we are legally limited to …