'FULL SIZE, FRONT SUSPENSION MTB/CITY BIKE THAT FOLDS '
Strengths: Folds small enough to fit into a car. Good quality slick tyres.
Weaknesses: Heavy, frame rattles (top bar comes undone...), ovepriced by about £150-200, cheap forks, poorly specced. With knobblies on, it rides very poorly.
Overall: For £300 this is a viable prospect, but it's never going to be your favourite steed with those cheap shifters and poor quality cabling.
The folding is slow and really only suited to train transport. It's best suited to city riding but for that required upgrades are better pedals, shifters and... frankly who needs sus. forks with fat tyres on the road - so stick on some rigids. A real shame as there is a market crying out for this type of bike.
Weaknesses: Overpiced, only gives one minute of protection against "normal" attack. Why put a such a good lock on such a thin lock. Use with another (cable) lock.
Overall: This is a lock only suitable for "popping into the shop for your fags". If it's a long queue then spend £50 and get something proper.
All the tech. has gone into the very good lock - but since the bar is so thin no-one will bother picking a lock this small.
Should be priced at £10 I think 47 may stand for number of seconds it can withstand attack
Strengths: 16mm of hardness, lighter than an equivalent chain & padlock combo. Will give a min. of five minutes protection against "normal" attack.
Weaknesses: 1.8kg - but what do you expect. Wouldn't bother trying to fit it to your frame.
Overall: Can be picked up for £45 on http://www.cycleexpress.co.uk/- you'd be daft to buy anything less if your budget is less than £50.
Feels as good as some of the £125 motorbike locks kicking around. I also have a Abus Sinus 47 and I'm worried the Krypto may eat it - perhaps best to keep them in separate cages...
Weaknesses: Thieves are getting better - I guess a crowbar defeats this one as it was defeated in only a few minutes.
Overall: Well I have one of these and I will be upgrading it since a bike wearing was of these was stolen from outside my window yesterday. On the ground were the two parts of this lock - undamaged...
Overall: Maybe the last and best of the aluminium framed bikes... A pure joy to ride it's light, smooth and powerful...I can't think of any reason it's not destined to be one of the greatest bikes of all time - well, apart from some odd paint schemes... Thankfully I managed to get mine in Silver (rare in the UK) RRP is £1200 - I got it for £999 from Southwater Cycles - Waahey! (No, I'm not on commission!)
'DECENT LIGHTS, BATTERY OF LARD, BATTERY CHARGER OF MONKEY P.'
Strengths: Pretty bright, reasonably painful to look at.
Weaknesses: That battery and it's charger....If you only require 30 mins of extreme brightness then these lights are great - seriously. If you want anything over 35 mins then you're actually cheaper and MUCH LIGHTER buying a NiMH system for £80.
Overall: Note – this thread is for the same product: http://www.bikemagic.com/review/reviewproduct/mps/RGN/13/RCN/76/RPN/2188/v/1/sp/590122576376504306224 – but I can’t find an administrator email address to inform anyone…
Lights are good – although for road use, are poor viewed side-on. I got these for £50 – which seems to be the going rate if you shop around (SRP £60). It’s worth taking the time to set them up properly – they should be at an appropriate driver blinding height (adbh) if directed into the eyes of a sad driver from 15-20 metres.
I echo the above comments regarding the supplied battery (Panasonic).
On the advice within this thread I purchased two replacement batteries from Maplin a £6.99 Unbranded (called Aino Micro or something) and an £11.99 Yuasa. I also purchased a charger that detects the battery charge and switches to trickle mode when charging is complete - £9.99 from Maplin. I then compared run times (both 10W lights on). Tests use both chargers C – indicates charged using the Cateye supplied charger
Test Notes: Timing is until the battery warning light shows as lead-acid batteries should never be run-flat. Tests involving the Cateye charger were on batteries was charged for 10 hours as recommended. Light output was not measured but was observably brighter (maybe 20% or so) for the supplied battery...
Battery Notes Cateye claim the supplied Panasonic battery should be good for 150 charge/discharge cycles Yuasa claim their battery is good for 500 charge/discharge cycles No claims are known for the Unbranded battery After 3 full charge/discharge cycles the performance of all the batteries could be naturally expected to improve
Observations All batteries improve when used with the new charger, some by nearly 50%. The performance of all batteries appears to deteriorate when within a sniff of the Cateye charger… Cateye recommend charging for 8 hours from flat - with a max. charge time of 10 hours. This is inadequate because: The charging formula (Battery Current (A)/Charging current)*1.5 allows for 12 hours of charge (4000/500**)*1.5 = 12. **current of supplied charger
It therefore is clear that the supplied charger is not only of an overly basic design but that Cateye recognise this so much that they are concerned you might overcharge the battery. The supplied charger is a 12-volt device which is stepped down to 6 volts…
Recommendations
1. Replace the dumb charger with an Automatic 6V charger - £9.99 This will allow fuller and easier charging and longer run-times. Bin the Cateye charger it’s a liability that will damage your batteries. Buy a 2mm JVC-type female socket and solder onto your new charger cable. NB – the black/white cable is positive and is connected to the centre of the plug. 2. Buy a spare battery – the recommended model being …the cheapest you can buy. I’ve also bought a (hefty) 10A battery – c.130 mins burn time (on 10wx2) – useful….
Next week my tests on laser blinding weapons for cyclists
