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Electric bike on M25
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- The full Lemon
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Electric bike on M25
'Most unusual' vehicle stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-b ... s-49393998
A homemade motorcycle stopped on the M25 was described by a traffic officer as the "most unusual vehicle" he had apprehended in 26 years.
I used to see something very similar to this in the front garden of a house across the road from an allotment I went to. And even saw it out and about locally, once or twice.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-b ... s-49393998
A homemade motorcycle stopped on the M25 was described by a traffic officer as the "most unusual vehicle" he had apprehended in 26 years.
I used to see something very similar to this in the front garden of a house across the road from an allotment I went to. And even saw it out and about locally, once or twice.
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- Lemon Quarter
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Re: Electric bike on M25
Snorvey wrote:Warm and dry and very fast - no doubt aided by the superior streamlining v standard motorcycle.
......these ones cost 50k a pop, but I do wonder if the mass motorcycle industry is missing a trick.
One of my pals had an Ariel Arrow - a slightly down-market version of the Leader. Supposed to be relatively warm and dry for a motorcycle - but it never caught on.
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Re: Electric bike on M25
Back in about 1984-ish I found myself unexpectedly on the motorway. I think it was the under-construction M25.
I was cycling from London to Sussex, a journey I'd dune a fair few times. Down the A21 as far as Tunbridge Wells, then the smaller roads and hilly bits. Only the A21 I thought I knew dumped me unannounced on the motorway, as the green signs gave way to blue motorway ones.
I was cycling from London to Sussex, a journey I'd dune a fair few times. Down the A21 as far as Tunbridge Wells, then the smaller roads and hilly bits. Only the A21 I thought I knew dumped me unannounced on the motorway, as the green signs gave way to blue motorway ones.
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- Lemon Half
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Re: Electric bike on M25
Looks like a 1930s Heinkel. D'you think he ought to have been told that his tail gunner had bailed out?
BJ
BJ
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Re: Electric bike on M25
bungeejumper wrote:Looks like a 1930s Heinkel. D'you think he ought to have been told that his tail gunner had bailed out?
BJ
Looks to me like a Sinclair C5 that some teenager has tried to jazz up.
As far as I know, they're just as legal as BMWs.
Though Sinclair C5 owners probably know how to use the indicators!
Steve
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Re: Electric bike on M25
stevensfo wrote:...just as legal as BMWs.
Though Sinclair C5 owners probably know how to use the indicators!
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Re: Electric bike on M25
stevensfo wrote:Looks to me like a Sinclair C5 that some teenager has tried to jazz up.
As far as I know, they're just as legal as BMWs.
Though Sinclair C5 owners probably know how to use the indicators!
Oh gawd, thanks for the memory. The last time I saw a C5 in the wild, it was coming at me on an undulating main road, completely hidden from view by a minor dip in the road. (According to Wikipedia it was only 80 centimetres high.) Suicide on wheels.
And it packed a 240 watt (0.34 bhp) punch from a 12 volt battery and a motor which some people wickedly claimed had been scrounged from a Hotpoint washing machine factory in Swansea. (A fallacy - washing machine motors are much more powerful than that.... )
A friend test-drove a C5 for the local paper. Dealing with buses in the city centre left him with recurring nightmares for many years.
BJ
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Re: Electric bike on M25
bungeejumper wrote:... it packed a 240 watt (0.34 bhp) punch from a 12 volt battery and a motor which some people wickedly claimed had been scrounged from a Hotpoint washing machine factory in Swansea....
That would have been Hoover rather than Hotpoint, as it was actually a Hoover factory in Wales that built the C5 for Sinclair.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_ ... _of_the_C5Its motor was produced in Italy by Polymotor, a subsidiary of the Dutch company Philips. Although it was later famously said that the C5 was powered by a washing machine motor, the motor was in fact developed from a design produced to drive a truck cooling fan.
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Re: Electric bike on M25
Am I not correct in thinking that the C5 was categorised as a moped? It had pedals and an electric motor.
Mopeds, of course, are prohibited from motorways.
TJH
Mopeds, of course, are prohibited from motorways.
TJH
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Re: Electric bike on M25
Breelander wrote:bungeejumper wrote:... it packed a 240 watt (0.34 bhp) punch from a 12 volt battery and a motor which some people wickedly claimed had been scrounged from a Hotpoint washing machine factory in Swansea....
That would have been Hoover rather than Hotpoint, as it was actually a Hoover factory in Wales that built the C5 for Sinclair.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_ ... _of_the_C5Its motor was produced in Italy by Polymotor, a subsidiary of the Dutch company Philips. Although it was later famously said that the C5 was powered by a washing machine motor, the motor was in fact developed from a design produced to drive a truck cooling fan.
Thanks Bree, you are absolutely correct as usual. Apparently the 240 watt motor was mandated by the 250 watt limit that the government of 1983 would approve for electrically-assisted pedal cycle devices. Maximum speed was limited to 15 mph, with no reverse gear, and the C5 invariably grounded on speed bumps.
https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-re ... road-test/. Enjoy.
BJ
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Re: Electric bike on M25
bungeejumper wrote:https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-reviews/sinclair-c5-retro-road-test/. Enjoy.
BJ
I did - especially this bit....
Sinclair claimed that the C5 had the ‘same seat height’ as a family car. That was true if that car was originally from 1959 and was called a Mini.
As I own and drive a Mk1 Mini of that era (albeit a couple of year younger) I certainly know which one I'd feel safest (and comfortable) in.
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