The mission creep is continuing. The bike guy in Innerleithen had some suggestions but it transpired that I'd done better than him because when he saw the one I was favouring he said, go for that. The bike centre at Glentress was advertised as dealing with the make involved (the Innerleithen shop doesn't) so I called in on the way home. But it was a bit of a bust as they don't keep many bikes at that location, and from what the guy there said they don't even do this specific model and would have to do a special order. Well, I am not ordering anything at that price without seeing it and having a shot and trying to lift it.
However, a wee bit more googling and I found an actual bike in Edinburgh. It's not the colour I want and I probably want the smaller size, but it will give me a chance to see it, handle it, assess the weight and see how it fits. I phoned the shop and I'm going to see it tomorrow afternoon. If it's all satisfactory then I'll probably order through the Edinburgh shop.
The continuing issue is getting the thing in the car, but who was it who said give me a lever and a place to stand and I can move the Earth? I'm thinking 19 kg might be within the realms of the possible.
I was fetching my non-electric bike from Innerleithen, and when I saw how far the Glentress bike shop was from the car park, rather than walk it, I whipped the bike out from the back of the car, fitted its wheel, and cycled up and back. All to keep within the free half-hour parking! That bike is at least 15 kg, and it doesn't give me any problems. A bit of determination, maybe a bit of cunning, and a willingness to take my time might get the job done on 19 kg.
The issue is that as the bikes get more powerful, the weight of the motors and the batteries goes up. Obviously. But the snag is that it's only the heavier ones where you can take the battery out, and the lighter ones come with integral batteries that are not user-removable. (Like Hilda, but she's about 13 kg even with her battery!)
What I'm looking for is torque. Hilda is apparently 30-35 Nm. I'm shooting for double that.
There's another Ribble bike that's only 12 kg, which is little short of miraculous, but it's still only 55 Nm, it has handlebars I hate with a fiery passion, and a horizontal crossbar I don't fancy at all. (Ribble don't seem to be making any sort of step-through bikes any more.) It's basically the wrong shape and I'm not convinced it's enough of a step up from Hilda.
There are a few bikes around the 23 kg mark which have removable batteries that might bring the weight down to around 19 kg. They have torque around 100 Nm and 400 watt-hour batteries which is certainly plenty of oomh. If the front runner I'm going to see tomorrow doesn't work out I'll revisit this possibility.
However, here is the front runner.
View attachment 45296
85 Nm torque, 630 watt-hours integral battery and has (like Hilda) a 210 watt-hour range extender available, bringing it to 840 watt-hours in expedition mode.
As far as I've been able to ascertain it's about 19 kg with the non-removable battery
in situ, although I haven't had an answer yet to my email to the manufacturer (in the Basque country).
Even lower gears than Hilda, enhancing the get-up-the-side-of-a-house possibilities.
Has a "walk assist" function, so that in the unlikely event of a hill I can't get up (OK, not that unlikely on the Corrieyairack, so don't knock it) the bike will contribute power to its own propulsion while you GOAP up the hill.
It can be specced with a rear carrier (essential, I think, although I am still not above strapping a basket on this thing too), mudguards, a prop stand and lights. This all adds weight of course so I'm probably back to compromises, but the rear carrier looks very lightweight in the pictures.
So watch this space.
The eye sight is 20/20 now both the cataracts have been done, but because the left eye has the reading lens, I need glasses for driving a heavy vehicle and reading glasses for my right eye if I'm going to do a lot of reading, or the eyes are tired or there is very low light.
