classic33
Leg End Member
What's he charge for the conversion kit?
3 Cycling shops refuse to work on disc brakes of electric bike due to motor size???
- Thread starter night cycler
- Start date
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vickster
Legendary Member
It clearly wasn't one of those as it hasn't got disc brakes
KnittyNorah
Über Member
- Location
- The Frozen North (of England)
As far as ethics go, by their own standards. As far as the law goes, they can take advice from whichever legal authority they or their employer defer to. In any case, just because someone has set up a business as a cycle mechanic, does not mean they must offer their services to anyone who turns up asking for them, They are perfectly at liberty to refuse those services to anyone as long as it is not on the grounds of any protected characteristic. eg 'I won't service your bike because you're a woman/black/disabled/gay' is NOT ok - whereas 'I won't service your bike because I think you stole it/won't pay me/I'm too busy/it's an illegal bike/I don't like working on green bikes with pannier racks' is perfectly OK.
And Just because something might be arguably legal - or, indeed, completely accepted in law - does not mean that fact overrides a persons personal ethics or beliefs and compels them to service the bike anyway!
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Donger
Convoi Exceptionnel
- Location
- Quedgeley, Glos.
He's moved on from the jet bike now. Until recently he was working on an amphibious bike, but then he got hold of a hovercraft that was just asking to be restored! It really wouldn't surprise me if, one day, he makes his own submarine.
classic33
Leg End Member
Where's he storing the bike he no longer uses?
Just wondering
nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
Correct, in reducing the velocity of a bike from X to zero, you have to convert the kinetic energy present at velocity X into something (heat basically). As you rightly point out, KE is a function of the square of the velocity and just the mass, so when scrubbing off KE in the form of heat the velocity you're trying to get to zero from probably matters more than the mass
Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
Aint no "probably" about it, Nicky! Science; init?
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All energy is heat ( until the heat death of the universe)
bonzobanana
Guru
I certainly wasn't arguing that they should fix the bike which is what I already have written in a previous comment just questioning their so called legality argument which is a bit flawed. They certainly wouldn't just say 'We aren't going to fix your ebike because you've bought a cheap ebike rather than buying an expensive ebike from us' even if that is the real reason or 'we are utterly clueless on working on the electrics of ebikes like that and wouldn't know what we were doing'.
KnittyNorah
Über Member
- Location
- The Frozen North (of England)
Well, you wouldn't expect an authoritative statement on bike tyre tread depth in a passing conversation with a lawyer any more than expect an authoritative statement on the debatable legality of a bicycle's particular features from a bike mechanic. I'm not surprised 'its a bit flawed' when the legality of entire classes of electrically-powered vehicles is - as far as I understand it - not merely flawed but in a vacuum.
I expect their legality argument was merely the most reasonable and diplomatic excuse the shops could think of, at short notice, to avoid work which they - for whatever reason - didn't want to do.
We don't know the background behind the story; perhaps there has been a local spate of near-misses by irresponsible over-powered e-bikers; perhaps something more serious happened to someone in the local bike mechanic community; the fact that three different shops in (presumably) a fairly local area refused to deal with the issue pushes me towards thinking that there's more to this than meets the eye. Although this e-biker may well be - probably is! - a perfectly delightful person who always rides in a considerate and responsible manner. there must be something fairly significant which prompted three different businesses to give the same reason for refusal to take on paying work ...
bonzobanana
Guru
In fairness thinking about it I've read many forum comments where shops have refused doing ebike work. I think most have been because they simply don't have expertise on that particular motor system, it could be a shop that focuses on Shimano ebike motors and doesn't have the service manuals and other tools for Bosch or Brose etc. When you look at even a basic ebike kit ebike you can see the additional brake sensor wires from the brake levers and it maybe the the lever is configured to first engage regen braking before then engaging the physical wired brake the further you pull it. Then you have maybe a throttle control next to it and other controls. I keep reading comments from people who believe throttles aren't legal on ebikes but that is only true of twist and go ebikes not those that just use them to control power as they pedal. Most mid-drive motor ebikes don't have throttles so its likely most such shops that sell those will try to give false negative information about throttles as that is my experience on how such shops behave some of the time.
KnittyNorah
Über Member
- Location
- The Frozen North (of England)
We don't even know that the shops which refused were shops which claim to dealing with/service e-bikes - all the original post says is 'cycling shops'.
It's also perfectly plausible that a bike mechanic or business might have had recent correspondence with his or her insurance company reminding them that certain e-bikes are indeed legally classified as mopeds/motorbikes and thus any insurance held for work done would be invalid on such a bike. Even if dealing with the brakes would involve minimal interference with electronics, I think it would be reasonable if a mechanic therefore wanted to err on the side of caution - especially if they're not in urgent need of work.
There's definitely a lot more going on 'behind the scenes' here than we are aware of!
rogerzilla
Legendary Member
A jet bike is terribly inefficient unless you're doing many hundreds of miles per hour. Better to make a "pusher" turboprop. It'll stop close passes, too.
classic33
Leg End Member
rogerzilla
Legendary Member
That's the badger!
