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Electric bike on M25

Posted: August 20th, 2019, 10:10 am
by XFool
'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.

Re: Electric bike on M25

Posted: August 20th, 2019, 12:02 pm
by scotia
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.

Re: Electric bike on M25

Posted: August 21st, 2019, 8:00 am
by UncleEbenezer
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. :o

Re: Electric bike on M25

Posted: August 23rd, 2019, 2:19 pm
by bungeejumper
Looks like a 1930s Heinkel. D'you think he ought to have been told that his tail gunner had bailed out?

BJ

Re: Electric bike on M25

Posted: September 1st, 2019, 9:30 pm
by stevensfo
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

Re: Electric bike on M25

Posted: September 1st, 2019, 9:38 pm
by Breelander
stevensfo wrote:...just as legal as BMWs.
Though Sinclair C5 owners probably know how to use the indicators!

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Re: Electric bike on M25

Posted: September 2nd, 2019, 9:56 am
by bungeejumper
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.... :lol: )

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

Re: Electric bike on M25

Posted: September 2nd, 2019, 1:27 pm
by Breelander
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.

Its 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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_ ... _of_the_C5

Re: Electric bike on M25

Posted: September 2nd, 2019, 2:43 pm
by tjh290633
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

Re: Electric bike on M25

Posted: September 2nd, 2019, 3:34 pm
by bungeejumper
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.
Its 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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_ ... _of_the_C5

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. :D

BJ

Re: Electric bike on M25

Posted: September 2nd, 2019, 3:56 pm
by Breelander
bungeejumper wrote:https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-reviews/sinclair-c5-retro-road-test/. Enjoy. :D

BJ


:lol: 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. :D