A serious hill to conquer: Lythe Bank North Yorkshire

Another view I always meant to take, and now have

The problem of course is you can't stop your car on the hill to take in this magnificent view down Lythe Bank onto Sandsend.
However, if you pedal up the hill on an EBike as this foolish old man who should have more sense did, you can coast back down the footpath from the village to St Oswalds Church at the top of the hill, and stop where you like to take a photo!
And the fun doesn't end there, you coast down the hill with brakes getting hotter and hotter and on the last bend at the steepest bit into the village, the footpath disappears into the bank,  and just to add a bit of interest, the front brake cable clamping nut chose this precise moment to lose some of it's grip, so the brake lever just about reached the handlebar before having any effect, so I had to  to choose either dropping about a foot onto a busy road, with only partially operating brakes on a steep hill, or turning up onto the grassy bank in the hope of gravity stopping me.
As it happens it did and I slid gracefully and slowly down onto the yard of the old Railway Station.
After adjustment the brake was fully restored and I coasted down to the bottom of the hill safely.
Obviously when repairing a puncture I cant have tightened the nut enough,
And I recalled the wise words of my father as he so often said to me
"Nothing is Foolproof to the Talented Fool"
One of these days my tombstone will read "It was the way he wanted to go!"
Remember if you haven't grown up by the time you are 70, you don't have to.

And here is the view that made it worthwhile.

Rides from our Caravan site of the Brompton

The bike is actually a little slower than the Viking Eco Stepper, topping out at 15MPH, and its a LOT noisier too,setting off on just throttle makes it growl and sound distressed, as does applying too much throttle at low speeds.
On the credit side I can't fault the hill climbing power, as it can handle any hill less than 25% (with some pedal assistance) and I have even managed the climb out of Robin Hood's Bay that has a short section of 25%, so in that sense I am well pleased with it.
Gale force winds don't bother it and me either, and my only concerns are for the noise level from the motor (though I was told at the free service that it was fine) and how many times I can unplug and re-connect the Motor, throttle and display before the connectors fail.
You have to do this of course every time to fold the Brompton and put it in the car boot
Still it has a years guarantee, so we shall see. Already I have covered over 600 miles and it seems to go very well.
Here it is on the entrance to the swing bridge in Whitby harbour

Our Caravanning site is at the top of a 5 mile hill out of Whitby that I would have had no chance of riding up without the conversion fitted!

The red electrical tape on the frame is to protect the paintwork as in my old age I tend to catch it with my shoes getting on and off the bike (memo to self to find something more permanent)

And to order a new tyre from the internet, as after a severe puncture I had to drive over 40 miles to York to get a replacement in the right size!

On Punctures, slime, and tyres...

After a month or so I got my first puncture about an hours walk from home and it was of the "sudden death" variety the wheel went off with a bang!
I was the amount of green goo all over the wheel and ground that indicated that the tyre had been treated with "Slime" but as the puncture was a half in slice through the tread I wan't surprised it hadn't done the trick, so went off to the local Halfords where the only tyre in my size 20" by 1.75" was a cheap BMX tyre from Sri Lanka.
I also bought  a new inner tube, and as my previous experience with Slime had been positive (an old tyre when taken off the Brompton proved to have been punctured 14 times before failure. I  bought a bottle of slime too.
I was concerned as I had never taken out a front wheel with Hub drive but this proved to be a doddle and I duly injected Slime into both tyres.
Next time it was the rear wheel.
One morning I found the rear tyre had gone down a few psi, pumped it up and did my morning ride to get back and find the pressure had been lost again, so I turned the bike over and took out the rear wheel, complicated by the rear stand and coaster brake and the two bolts and locknuts on the Torque arm, this is what  I saw

So the slime had at least got me home, probably twice at that! so I bought a new inner tube and then had fun getting the wheel back in as the twin torque nuts are difficult to start and tighten up

Believe me you wouldn't want to attempt it by the side of the road at night!!!
Since then I have had several more punctures and replaced the front tyre with a Schwalbe Marathon Plus, and the next time the rear wheel punctures it will get one too.

Back in the Saddle or is it saddles?

It all began with a conversation with a friend at the Castleton Tea rooms, when I mentioned I had a Honda 125cc Dylan Scooter I was thinking Of selling and buying an Ebike.

And he replied, I would love that scooter, and I have an EBike I would be happy to swop for it..
And here it is, after I had added proper mudguards and a handlebar mirror.
And most crucial of all a "Hobson Comfort Saddle" actually two saddles side by side as you can see in the image below, and hence the reason for the name of this blog.

Although it is one of the cheapest Ebikes, and had a problem with the power turning off without warning, with a little sorting and a new key "ignition" switch, it runs really well and will do over twenty miles on the small battery in the plastic case under the seat.
It is a Pedelec, and so you have to pedal as it has no throttle, more than adequate around town.
He in turn is delighted with the Honda scooter, so it was a good deal for both of us!
There are two drawbacks, it is heavy, but more significant it more collapses than folds and even then is only slightly smaller, so I started thinking about getting my Brompton converted to a "Sparticle" Ebike, so we could take it with us caravanning.