Hopefully you weren't supposed to be somewhere else when I filmed you at Barbury ;-). I started to take the video so we could see how we were missing, but thought with some editing and commentary it might be interesting to others. We did comment how nice everyone we met was at Barbury - a lovely day even though quite busy there. Annoyingly, Sally now wants a Shotkam :-(

I've cut up these tyres before but my wire cutters struggle with the reinforcing. I would only get frustrated and reach for Mr. A. Grinder - which would all go horribly wrong and result in me needing a new wheel 🤣

🤣 - It is great for comedy value! Doesn't help that the gun hasn't been used much and is still stiff to break (doesn't have the Purdey self-opening system), which means if you aren't experienced at breaking it only so far that you can then catch the cartridges, then they eject with some force. No problem if you are shooting game on a peg, but when I'm standing behind Sally I have started to flinch by instainct 🤣

Yep, fair point. I’m not trying to be overly dramatic but whatever you call it it’s dangerous if you don’t have control of it and certainly if you can’t remember which trigger you’ve pulled etc.

Yes, you are right. I have since changed them again without removing the wheel. Although I did also want to know how to remove it. Good luck in getting your new bike :-)

Thanks Steve, lve also subscribed. You have a very interesting channel.

Yes, I probably should. I am struggling with some of these distant crossers, and looking at the video I can see I am too high - when I mount the gun I think I need to check how much rib I can see.

This confused me at first, and sorry if I didn't show it in the video, but amongst the stuff that came in the package was a set of ball bearings. This was odd, but the instructions made it clear - once you are 100% sure you don't need to remove the concrete anchor bolts, you hammer the ball bearings into the hex sockets, making it impossible to get an allen key into them. You would have to weld a bolt on top. There are a couple of small bolts that screw the black plastic cover in place, but that is just for show - undo those or cut the cover off and it doesn't help at all with getting the D-ring off the concrete

I have tried this, but found it wobbled awkwardly. I now tend wheel it unfolded and only fold it at the last minute

I started leaving them at home over 12 years ago - save weight. I never remove the camper when travelling. My jacks are only bolted on by a couple of bolts at the top and the camper is a bit wobbly if only sat on them, so I wouldn't want to camp in it when not on the truck

@@SteveSallyandSmokey but if you break down or need to jack up the vehicle to change tyres is it not more difficult with the demountable on the cab

@@Bykersam I have taken it into a garage in Spain for some work. Didn't need the camper off. I've done work on the brakes in several places. I carry a 12 ton bottle jack, so I can jack the truck up easily even with camper on. My camper doesn't obscure the hole below the tailgate for cranking down the spare wheel, but because it makes it more difficult to access, I made an adapter to lengthen the handle that you slot in there. I run BFG All Terrains and have never actually had a puncture in 14 years 🙂

@@SteveSallyandSmokey I am really enjoying getting the insight you offer 🙏👍👍🙏

@@SteveSallyandSmokey may I ask if you uprated your cab as your demountable is surely heavy and if so how you uprated it.

I found a weigh bridge in Norway and discovered with the camper on and all our stuff in, the gross weight was something like 1200kg over the unladen weight of the truck. When we did the Sahara it must have been a lot heavier with extra water, diesel, 2 x spare wheels and other spares. The truck pulls the weight really well, although it doesn't brake as well as it accelerates! Of course, there is a bit of roll on corners, but I drive it like a truck, not a car

@@SteveSallyandSmokey buddy do you get dolphin movement ie front and back as if the vehicle is juddering a little because of the weight, I have a old Northstar 850dl and the side to swaying is minimal but forward backward motion which is only slight makes the vehicle feel like it's missing or slightly juddering/jerking, do you have that affect?

@@Bykersam On some road surfaces I have had "porpoising", which results in a fore/aft rocking movement roughly once per second. If I have had it more than on just a specific road surface then it tells me I need to renew my front dampers. The more weight you can move to the front of the rear axle, the better. Having a supercab rather than a double cab helps too

@@SteveSallyandSmokey Hi Steve, I have a single cab put I am getting porpoising a little too often, I have tried to move weight to the front, but didn't think of checking front dampers, thanks for that 👍👍👍

@@Bykersam Definitely worth checking the dampers, and make sure the front tyre pressure is reasonable for the weight you are carrying, since it could bounce a bit on them if the pressure is low. Most of my weight is over the rear axle, so I run the fronts at about 34 PSI and the rears about 60 PSI. But being a single-cab (which is by far the best for carrying that load and avoiding porpoising), the weight will be distributed more to the front, so you may need higher tyre pressure on the front. Check what the tyres say, they should indicate the PSI required for the weight they are carrying, so make sure you don't exceed that, but you might want to try a bit more pressure.

Thanks Phil. Glad you enjoyed it - it was a fantastic trip after a pretty dull summer in the UK

I love all the options available for camping in the US

I don't think it would in my car, but I also tend to find it easier to lift and slide in wheels first - but then since this seemed to work for me I stuck to doing it this way

I didn't test ride the Brompton. I love them as a design icon, but when I found that I could reasonably easily take the Estarli on the train, the benefits of half price, bigger tyres for rougher surfaces, the ability to change power levels while riding and the lack of problem riding on rough surfaces that have been known to cause problems with the battery connections on Bromptons - all convinced me to go for the Estarli. 1 year and 2300 miles in, I am not regretting it

Glad it was helpful. I ought to do a video with my impressions after a year and 2000 miles. But in short, I am still really impressed with the bike. One thing that I feel is important is to ensure you have a bike that can be ridden without power - that means gears and probably a chain rather than belt drive. I pretty much don't use power when in London and only turn it on when I get to the hills outside - effectively using it to just flatten the hills. I use the gears for everything else. This means I get multiple days riding before bothering to recharge the battery at half full. Oh, the other thing I like about Estarli is that they are based here in the UK. Yes, they import many parts, but they have a little factory here and helpful support staff (I've been there and met them :-) ). But good luck with whatever you choose.

@@SteveSallyandSmokey I do like the thought of prolonging the battery as much as possible. The Eovolt bike does have 7 gears as well I think, the Pro version has the drive belt which I'd previously thought was a cool feature but you've made me think it wouldn't be if it makes it harder to cycle as a regular bike! Did you buy yours online or did you find a shop that sold it?

Ah, sorry, I didn't think to cover that. You unscrew a coiled cable from the bottom of the seat post, then undo the clamp that holds the seat post / seat at the desired height, and you can then slide the entire seat, post and cable up out of the frame and take it away to charge elsewhere. We have done this when we've hired a rental property for a week, where like you, we had to charge in the house.

Good point - I don't really know what the quality of the power amplifier for the front speakers are, since I am only using its pre-amp, with the Naim amp acting as a power amp.

The TV had limited HDMI inputs, so I was routing the Blu-ray player, cable TV, Amazon, CCTV and computer through the amplifier

@@SteveSallyandSmokey So if I get this amp, the only socket I'd need to use to connect to the tv would be the optical?

We got to the car park about 8:30, which was a good move as we were parked closer to the entrance and there was no queue to get in. Got to the shooting to sign in just before 9:00, so lovely and quiet at that point. It was a lot busier by the time we left, which was before 2PM.

Thanks. It is a Go-Pro 10. The wide-angle can help the look. The image stabilization on the Go-Pro seems really good (I have it mounted to the handlebars, so there is a lot of vibration it has to cope with). But also, I decided to film at 60 frames per second in 1080p rather than 30 fps at 4K, and I think the former looks better because it is so much smoother, even though the resolution is lower.

Oooo, yes, you are right; I missed that. I should have included advice for pants, since can you imagine doing a long hike in wet weather in jeans, having to walk miles back with them soaked and chafing you! And yes, I couldn't survive without pockets. I guess that is why she always has a backpack with her wherever she goes :-)

After riding the same bike on roads in the Pyrenees, riding roads in the UK is depressing in comparison

Just the standard battery. We took the mains chargers with us, but got at least 2 days of hilly riding before needing them. Last weekend I did 118km without needing a charge. The bikes have next to no resistance when ridden without power, so the trick we have learned is to ride them as much as possible with no assistance, then just add a bit as necessary on a hill, headwind or dirt track. If you turn them on full assistance whenever you get on then yes, it will be really easy and yes, you will be able to ride faster, but you will burn through the battery power fairly quickly

Battery life isn't great but it's a compact bike

Is this Foldylock 90 identical in strength to the “Foldylock Forever?” On their website, the Forever model has a gold ring around the keyhole but this one has a red ring around the keyhole. I’m confused by this difference. Also the package does not say “Foldylock Forever” but on their website the name of the product is “Foldylock Forever”. Can anybody clear this up for me? I order a Foldylock Forever online from a third party seller and I received this same model with the red ring. I was expecting the gold ring and I’m trying to figure out if the seller ripped me off.

I noticed the colour difference. I rechecked the video and can see the packaging stated 18/18 security rating - the same as the "Foldylock Forever". Also, I found this on the Foldylock Forever page of Seatylock's website: "NOTE: The product "Foldylock 90", with a RED ring, is an original Seatylock product. It is similar to the Foldylock Forever but is sold in other platforms."

The ones I got on Amazon were labelled as Shimano Deore XTR compatible - seem to fit a number of Shimano brakes. Do make sure the picture looks exactly like the ones currently on your bike. Also, I believe Estarli changed brakes at some point, so brake pads might change on later bikes

@@SteveSallyandSmokey Thank you👍 I took out the brake pads earlier, they seem to be OK and don't need replacing yet, and I noted the letter on the back. I used your other brakes video to line them up again. They seem to be working OK again now🤞. I ride up and down a very steep hill to work and my estarli brakes don't seem to like it! Thank you so much for the videos, they're really helpful.

Where did you buy the replacement pads?

I don't have the range extender. I find with my type of usage I get about 3 rides per charge, so can get away without it. I see a picture of it on the e20.8 page of their website, but not the e20.7 page. From the e20.8 pictures, it uses the more modern battery connection - that is where there is a coiled cable from the controller that can be disconnected at the battery end, and then reconnected to the range extender (which is water-bottle sized, so fits in a water bottle mount). My battery cable is the older type that is permanently connected at the battery end, so wouldn't be compatible with the range extender. Try calling Estarli on 01442 817 374. Chloe or Jake should be able to help.

@@SteveSallyandSmokey thank you!

Not sure why you took the wheels out to change the pads.

You may be right - may well be enough clearance to remove them with the wheels in place. I wasn't 100% sure so I thought I'd just go ahead and remove the wheels - I also wanted to know I could do that. But I'll try changing the pads without removing the wheels next time (in the autumn) and see how I go

Hi. Just bought one. Nice ebike. Any tips on getting it derestricted? Cheers, P

Yes, I think it is something like that, which would definitely help on hill climbs. If you think about it, the regulations state 250w maximum, but that is power and is related to the combination of RPM and torque. So no reason why you couldn't do some magic with the controller and increase motor torque at lower RPM, while dropping it off at higher RPM to ensure it always stays below 250w output

In the end, I realised I could mount it on the frame. All I had to do was partially fold the frame by a few degrees to slide it into its mounting box. But you are right, they are heavy.

Depends on your use of the power. I find the Estarli is reasonably light for an e-bike and rides very efficiently on the flat, so I only use the power on the hills and only use as much power as I need to assist me. That means I can get 2 commutes to work (about 25km each day with a big hill climb at the end) and a weekend hilly ride (30 km+) out of about 50% of the battery capacity - but remember, that is only using the power on the hills. However, if I put it on full power every time you ride it, even on the flat, then I suspect I would have to charge it every day. As a demonstration I did cycle up nearly 800m of ascent in the Pyrenees and it uses a bit over 50% battery power, which was pretty good: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGXHp2drfaqUqLc

Yes, that cable lock would be like butter - was just there to lock the bike while I was sat nearby. I have a gold-rated U-lock, but I have often found them a struggle to get around things. So I have bought a gold-rated folding lock. Not cheap at around £90, but seems pretty solid, and importantly will go around awkward shaped things (I locked the bike to a telephone pole the other day). I did a video on that too, trying to figure out how to fit it

​@SteveSallyandSmokey I like the d1000 or litelock x1 or x3 but very very expensive. Better than a nicked bike

Yes, the latest model looks neater now they have routed the cables through the tubes. Although I don't mind these being on the outside and maintainable. I did see someone had a problem with one of the tube-routed cables on a newer bike chafing, which could be a problem if your bike gets folded a lot for transport like mine

?

Spiteful!

Yes, there are a few hills that are steeper. There is a ridiculously steep hill in Harloch, North Wales. I think I'll call it a day at 25%, at least on this bike :-)