Reduce your impact

[ttxela2]

This does appeal but I'll have to wait for the used market to flesh out a bit, and used batteries can be a bit of a gamble. We have a second hand hybrid and have been very lucky that the battery has maintained most of its capacity (particularly given that it's NiMH). But given that motorbikes are generally used for short distance travel they do seem like a great candidate for being battery powered.

I had a Super Soco electric motorbike (ish - more of a moped) I got it for £1600 secondhand (it had done less than 100 miles). It was great for my 15 mile commute and would do 40mph or so. Free tax, low insurance and could be charged up off a 13A socket at work. I'd probably still have it were it not for the inconsiderate nature of some drivers. A 125 seems much safer as you can keep up with traffic.

 

[Flotsam]

I did a bit of work on this job this week, and it was a real eye-opener on the ramifications of - well, everything. This is a couple of miles from the Hanson cement works at Ketton:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-63526476

The line will be out for some time, and the cost of the repairs will be staggering, when you add in the endless vans of guys driving to fix it (24/7) and dealing with the traffic en-route, renting the field for an emergency compound, the re-routing of the rail traffic around it (it's a main line for freight and passengers), the road closure - it just goes on and on. The only good news is that there wasn't a train due, otherwise it would have been horrendous. Needless to say, we've seen even more careless driving there and back each time on the A1, with giant trucks being every fourth vehicle - in our big van full of just-in-case tools, that hardly got used. The train line is arguably more important than the road that goes underneath it, but both are now out for quite a while.

If it happened in India they'd get some bars out and sort that in half an hour.

 

[Loki]

Thanks everyone- great discussion- the more this topic is upheld in everyone’s minds the more likely we are to see results- I think anyway.