UPGRADE

One year of e-biking in, and I've upgraded. Not entirely willingly. Long story short: old bike gets stolen. I buy new bike. Old bike gets recovered. Purchaser beats head on wall. But not to worry; the Silver Machine Mk 1 has found an excellent second-hand home somewhere in the winterless North, where a delightful artist lady will no doubt give her far less of a thrashing than I gave her. So in effect, I've gotten a great upgrade for... well, still far more than I'm happy to have spent, but certainly worth it in the long run, if the credit card company don't destroy me first.

(I didn't bother posting it, but here it is now: I had ongoing problems with the battery of the SM-1. As detailed in the last post: the wire from the ignition kept falling out. Eventually it was stuck back in with extra-strong solder and a piece of foam to keep it in place, and cross fingers it will live out its natural life for the new owner. In general, I'm told that Wisper e-bikes have ongoing hassles with loose wiring - and the occasional bolt not screwed in very tightly. Part of the issue with being exported as kitsets?)

So farewell, 2008 Wisper 705eco- the budget model of a very fine bike range. I have now moved up to Silver Machine Mk 2 - the 2009 Wisper 705se City. Key differences:

- 50% more battery power - 36V 8A. The old bike could get from Grey Lynn to Onehunga and back on a full battery charge - that's 21k over hilly terrain, for those of you who don't know Auckland. So that adds at least 10k extra range, in theory - which makes the range Grey Lynn to Otahuhu, or thereabouts. But I haven't really experimented... yet.
- classy lights - the front one powered by a dynamo, and which switches on automatically when it gets dark.
- options of different levels of power. SM-1 only had "100%" and "0%" settings (much like its owner, but never mind). So the throttle wasn't much use when you were already blamming away on pedal-assist. The new bike has "0", "40%" and "80%" settings - and the throttle will take you up to 100%. There's also the infamous green button ("offroad" mode) which would theoretically take off the legislatively mandated speed limit and enable a top speed of 30k - let's call that the "120%" mode. I say "theoretically" because I will certainly never use that on the roads because it would be totally illegal in New Zealand and I'd have to register SM-2 as a moped. *ahem*

So... hopefully I'll post a bit more once I've given SM-2 a bit of a spin and seen exactly what she's capable of. But the additional power will certainly be welcome on wet Auckland nights.