Recent content by Mr. Coffee

So tell me how exactly you would make a house less expensive than a TV?

If you aren't picking up your bike every now and then you aren't on a real gravel ride.

https://forums.electricbikereview.com/threads/hardwiring-lights-on-a-como-2-0.41876/ I'd say that unless you are riding a lot (and I mean a lot) at night there are many great rechargeable LED lights at reasonable prices these days. And no matter how great the lights mounted on your bike even...

The Knipex Mini-Pliers are great but have some pretty specific narrow situations where you really need them. In particular on my Rohloff-equipped R&M Charger they are indispensable. I have a couple of other cases where they are helpful but not strictly necessary (one is a couple of very...

Even without considering the motor cutoff switch upgrading to hydraulic brakes is going to be quite a project. Especially if you haven't worked with hydraulic brakes on a bike before. Expect to make a mess and mess some stuff up. If it were me I'd start by upgrading the rotors, and probably...

The rim-drive dynamos are very inefficient and in practice are barely enough to charge small lights. Hub dynamos are more efficient, but are draggy, heavy, and often very expensive. I have a quite nice hub dynamo on my touring bike that keeps a front light going and has a USB jack on the stem...

This is probably heresy, but for the distances you are proposing to ride I'd argue that a decent non-electric city commuter bike is probably the thing to buy. I'd only really want an e-bike for this application if I knew all of the riding was going to be quite hilly. There are a whole universe...

It turns up more often with life insurance or disability than health insurance. Probably they think the risks of being physically active in a possibly risky activity are less than the risks of being inactive. And they are probably right. A lot of life insurance (really death insurance) has...

That also kind of depends on context. Most of the "group" rides I've ever participated in are carefully routed onto very quiet roads. When I say "very quiet" I mean it isn't super likely that we will encounter more than one or two motorized vehicles over the whole route. And much of the rides...

Yeah, this. Also, most e-bikes are not only heavier but have an awkward weight distribution as well. This combined with the longer wheelbase and (usually) longer chainstays that they have compared to meat-powered bikes makes them handle like a barge. If you haven't ridden a regular bike very...

Who exactly is restricting your speed? In Europe you can basically go as fast as you want as long as you have a license and insurance. What we're talking about here are vehicles that require neither of those.

One of the things a lot of people miss about the non-street-legal electric bikes is the liability issue. On one side, if somebody hits you with a motor vehicle and injures you, chances are you are SOL on getting any compensation from them or their insurance because you were operating an illegal...

One thing to watch out for with velcro straps is that they often fail to hold if they get wet or dirty. If you use a dry bag or a salty roll you could easily wrap your battery in a rag or a sweater if you think you need padding. On the top of the rear rack you really don't need padding.

Voile Straps are strong and reliable.

Simplest secure approach would be to find dry bag with a daisy chain and two or three voile straps. This bag is designed to be strapped to the handlebars but will work fine on a rear rack: https://www.rei.com/product/186003/revelate-designs-saltyroll-handlebar-bag Voile straps, probably 20...