Has anyone noiticed the sudden increase of electric environmentally friendly vehicles on the road? Not cars but electric scooters and mopeds.

There are some real nice ones under £150 these days and they remind me of smaller versions of the granny scooters but with flashy curved bodies and some come with headlights, brake lights and indicators, horns, key ignition, HUGE 300 - 800 watt motors and seats too! The ones with all that don't cost much over £100 either!

My bro bought me one it was dodgy knocked off stock and had all the lights and stuff and he got it working, well that was until he left the control box dangling from its chassis in the rain! Its completely dead now! I really want one he said he would get me another one thats fully working but he would have to wait til he can get more in. In the mean time, he has a petrol one he said I could borrow but damn! I don't wanna go shop with an engine popping and spluttering behind me!

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@ihatewestlife2002

Get a Sinclair C5

Good to hear that people prefer electric vehicles for intercity transportation at least. Too bad this is not the case here yet.

@ihatewestlife2002

Two kids in my street had some for Christmas. I think there broken now. They looked really cool! They could get up to 20 mph which is about the same as someone pedalling hard on a mountain bike. I would like to race them around the supermarket car parks but they are usually filled up by cruisers.

Electric transportation is all very well but largely the electricity comes from power stations burning fossil fuels, or even nuclear, so where is the advantage.

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@Intuitioned

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Intuitioned wrote: @ihatewestlife2002 ... Electric transportation is all very well but largely the electricity comes from power stations burning fossil fuels, or even nuclear, so where is the advantage.

Well, in therory at least it's a lot easier to clean a few centralized powerstations than many million mobile ones. You can keep the city cores clean since most powerstations are outside cities. Plus you don't have to transport large amounts of fuel to gas stations in polluting trucks. In practice though, todays batteries can have just as much of an environmental impact as gasoline.

Anyway, nuclear power to the people!

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@peggus

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You can keep the city cores clean since most powerstations are outside cities.

... but you have to eat something, drink water... besides - it doesn't matter where something is poisoning the Earth - we know now the rules of the theory of chaos - it's the closed system [with only Sun energy from outside]. But I agree 100% with the rest.

I'd like to see i.e. Denmark's Toria Hybrid Solar Car on the streets
Why nobody produce such a things today? Is the efficiency of solar batteries /or anti bio-fuel propaganda only excuse?
...Or some dirty (with oil ) hands don't let "the bird to fly"...

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@Intuitioned

The advantage is that for now it is kept out of towns and if you live near a wind farm then there is an advantage.

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Quote:

Intuitioned wrote: @ihatewestlife2002 Two kids in my street had some for Christmas. I think there broken now. They looked really cool! They could get up to 20 mph which is about the same as someone pedalling hard on a mountain bike.

I've managed to beat that speed on my bike. I think the fastest I ever managed to go on a pedal bike is 26 MPH. That was really exhausting though.

I go to and from work five days a week, at least 7.5 miles each way, on this bike. It's not that much different from an electric one- they may save YOU energy, but in terms of environmental friendliness, pedal bikes are the best.

Mind you, I live in a rural area, whereas cities are not the places for pedal bikes. It's too dangerous with all the traffic. It would be safer if more people used bikes instead of cars, but they're too afraid to because of the traffic- a vicious circle!

One TV advertisement sticks in my mind though- ironically an advert for a car. In opening it said "every day we make thousands of car journeys of less than a mile, so for a limited time we're offering this free bike when you buy this car!"

Mind you, you don't even need a bike to go less than a mile each day- just walk it! Jeez, HOW LAZY ARE WE BRITS?!?

We're now the fattest country in Europe- we've overtaken the Germans. We're still not as fat as Americans though.

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@all
There is an advantage to scooters: they are far more efficient than automobiles, because they're driving far less weight. True: sooner or later you're burning some fossil fuel or nuclear energy; nevertheless, you burn a lot less using an electric scooter than you would a gas-powered automobile -- probably less than a gas-powered scooter, too. I say, go for it, if you can.

@RoqueFort
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I think the fastest I ever managed to go on a pedal bike is 26 MPH. That was really exhausting though.

Ha! I've made 32mph without breaking a sweat. ...ermmm, that was downhill, though. Normally I can maintain 12-16 on a flat surface.

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I go to and from work five days a week, at least 7.5 miles each way, on this bike.

4-6 here, depending on where I'm going; up & down some hills though. Hills suck.

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Mind you, I live in a rural area, whereas cities are not the places for pedal bikes. It's too dangerous with all the traffic.

I bike in a city. I haven't ever been hit by a car, but I try to be really, really careful, too. I've had some close calls, mostly my fault, although the one yesterday was because the guy driving the truck was in the middle of the road, instead of to the right.

I understand that there was a bicycle-automobile accident near me just a couple of days ago, on the road that I always take.

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We're still not as fat as Americans though.

Hey! Well, it's true.

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battery vehicles still cause polution, batterys give off gas when charging and you use the mains to charge them and the power station supplying the electricity gives off loads of pollution .petrol is faster and gives a longer range.

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Quote: I think the fastest I ever managed to go on a pedal bike is 26 MPH. That was really exhausting though. Ha! I've made 32mph without breaking a sweat. ...ermmm, that was downhill, though. Normally I can maintain 12-16 on a flat surface.

I probably could match 32MPH downhill, but I don't have the nerve to. 26MPH felt like break-neck speed, or would if I'd hit something.

I can also manage 12-16 on a flat surface, depending on which way the wind's blowing and what mood I'm in. Sometimes I try to go as fast as I can, other times I don't feel like it and go at a mere 10 or 11MPH.

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Quote: I go to and from work five days a week, at least 7.5 miles each way, on this bike. 4-6 here, depending on where I'm going; up & down some hills though. Hills suck.

Indeed. People may tell you Norfolk is flat, but it isn't. Plenty of hills, but they're mostly not too steep. I invested in a good bike with 24 gears and aluminium frame so it's light.

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Quote: Mind you, I live in a rural area, whereas cities are not the places for pedal bikes. It's too dangerous with all the traffic. I bike in a city. I haven't ever been hit by a car, but I try to be really, really careful, too. I've had some close calls, mostly my fault, although the one yesterday was because the guy driving the truck was in the middle of the road, instead of to the right.

Ah, yes- NEARLY been hit but never actually been hit. I was the same when I lived in a semi-urban place in Kent. At least you're sensible...
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I understand that there was a bicycle-automobile accident near me just a couple of days ago, on the road that I always take.

...unlike some people.

One time I stopped to look at a map and a vehicle beeped at me from behind. I signalled for him to pass, but he might have thought I was giving him the finger! He said, "Don't give me that attitude mate- you're parked in the middle of the bl**dy road!" Well, I was on a traffic island!

Quote:

Quote: We're still not as fat as Americans though. Hey! Well, it's true.

Well, from what you've said, it seems you're one of the healthy ones! Bikes may not be up to supporting a very fat American- they'd buckle the wheels and wear out the tyres and inner tubes!

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@RoqueFort

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RoqueFort wrote: Mind you, you don't even need a bike to go less than a mile each day- just walk it! Jeez, HOW LAZY ARE WE BRITS?!? We're now the fattest country in Europe- we've overtaken the Germans. We're still not as fat as Americans though.

It is a sad state of affairs when people here in the US will not even walk across the street to catch the Metro. Some of them catch it on the wrong side and ride it around no matter how late that measure will make them.

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Moxee
AmigaOne X1000
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I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.

@rolpho

Well, my point was that you can avoid smog. I live in los angeles, the smog capital of the world. Ofcourse you still polute the world but that can't be fixed yet, so lets settle for less polution.

@bikers

I used to ride my bike everywhere in Sweden, nice big bike lanes going everywhere. Here in LA they have you commited for being suicidal if you ride around the city on a bike.

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Hah Beat all your records! 38MPH uphill on a racing bike! My uncle races bikes and I spent some time training with him

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@amigamad

Sealed lead acid batteries give off gas?

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@ihatewestlife2002

I recently drove a Toyota car which was half petrol, half battery powered. When you first switch the engine on it's deadly silent and you'd think it wasn't running at all. Your only indication that anything is happening comes when you plant your foot on the accelerator, at which point the petrol engine kicks in and you hear the increased revs. The idea is that when the car is driving steadily, the wheels are largely powered by the battery. As soon as the vehicle comes under load, it is able to take advantage of the benefits of traditional petrol engines and drive the wheels that way.
Inside the car you've got a TV display which, aside from showing GPS navigation, also shows you information about the car's power supply if you switch across to the relevant screen. You can monitor how much the car is depending on petrol or electric drive at any one time, and as you begin to floor the throttle you can actually see the drive switching across more and more to traditional combustion engine drive.

I forget the MPG figures for this particular car but they were very impressive, because the car only made use of the petrol engine when the increased power was actually required.

I think this gives the best of both worlds, although it did take quite a while to get used to the car! I wonder if you could also convert it to LPG so that it ran a combination of electric/LPG instead.

Brian

@ihatewestlife2002

The hill graidient must be something like 2%!

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Quote:

Moxee wrote: @RoqueFort Quote: RoqueFort wrote: Mind you, you don't even need a bike to go less than a mile each day- just walk it! Jeez, HOW LAZY ARE WE BRITS?!? We're now the fattest country in Europe- we've overtaken the Germans. We're still not as fat as Americans though. It is a sad state of affairs when people here in the US will not even walk across the street to catch the Metro. Some of them catch it on the wrong side and ride it around no matter how late that measure will make them.

At least you're honest- an American admitting that other Americans are lazy!

If the road is VERY busy, someone may wait forever to cross the road to get to this metro, the same time that it would take to ride the metro round from the other side!

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@ihatewestlife2002

Racing bikes are very light, so they're the fastest!

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@BrianHoskins

Those part-electric cars are expensive and not as efficient as they could be, but it's early days yet- they've just passed the prototype stage. No doubt they'll be improved in due course.

A hi-tech, part-electric car is all very well, unless you get a power cut! This TV display, I hope it isn't running Windows-based software, or you'd expect the car to crash!

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@Intuitioned

It would seem you have never tried riding one! My friend Maria has one of those granny bike type things and it can climb very steep hills without losing speed! It has a 1000 watt motor but is also quite a bit heavier than a electric scooter I love having a ride on it hehe!

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