[Music]
a while ago
i reviewed an e-bike and i was quite
taken aback how many people remarked in
well shall we say less than flattering
terms that i wasn't wearing a helmet
someone called me a quit and what that
is probably true
i don't think it's an accusation you can
fairly level at someone
just because they decide not to wear a
bicycle helmet
my critic had obviously decided that
riding a bicycle without a helmet
represents an
unacceptable level of risk and anyone
who disagrees
is automatically a quit but
surely if there's one thing that
coronavirus has taught us
it is that every one of us has our own
unique level of risk tolerance
for example you still won't catch me
anywhere near
sainsbury's or a barber for that matter
my wife on the other hand is out almost
every day licking supermarket trolley
handles
and what about children and trampolines
if i see more than one child on a
trampoline at the same time especially
when one is more than twice the size of
the other
all i hear is the crescendo of breaking
bones and ambulance sirens and whilst
the paramedics are treating me for
palpitations
other parents seem completely oblivious
on the other hand i'll happily drive at
15 times the national speed limit put an
aircraft into an accelerated spin
and i even got into a ring with a bull
once that actually was quite frightening
anyway i should warn all you helmet
wearers
that the following review contains
scenes that some viewers
may find disturbing it's a vaguely
illegal gadget
called the speed box too
and there you go i bet you're watching
this thinking
damn i wish i had one of those bear with
as my daughter likes to say
at the moment now according to the law
e-bikes or electrically assisted pedal
cycles to give them their full name
can only assist you up to 15 and a half
miles an hour
so although they're perfectly capable of
powering you beyond that speed
they've all been restricted that strikes
me
as a bit daft really when you think that
unpowered bikes
often go faster than that sometimes a
lot faster
what this little gizmo does is it takes
the restriction off
so your only limit is how fast you can
pedal
so i've now installed the speed box 2 on
my bike it was reasonably
straightforward but just to run through
what you'll need to do it
you'll need an allen key to get the
cover off the spindle
then you will hopefully have bought a
pedal puller that came with the speed
box
and with a spanner removed your pedal
then you'll need a special screwdriver
if you're unscrewing the cover the
of the bosch performance line cx
a pair of snippers to cut the cable ties
and then confusingly once i got inside
the instructions on the speed box
website showed how to install the speed
box when you had two sockets
but my cx line had four but thankfully
there's as always there's a youtuber
somewhere to explain how to do it
they showed that if you've got one of
these bikes with four sockets
uh there's one there and then one there
and one there and one there
then you remove the second and the
fourth
from the front and plug your speed box
into those two sockets
and then with the other two k wires plug
the cables you've just unplugged into
the speed box on the other side
so now uh comes the big moment i'll
switch it on
and hope it doesn't go bang
to try the speed box out i've come to a
private road near where i live
i could strap a jet pack on here and it
would still be perfectly legal
so let's see how fast this thing really
goes
any helmet wearers amongst you you may
wish to avert your eyes for a moment
let's see what happens when we engage
the speed box 2 which you do by pressing
the walk assist button
on the left here until it displays 6.2
miles an hour on the speedo that means
it's engaged
and off we go and the first thing to say
is the acceleration really quite gentle
i was expecting it to go from naught to
simon cowell an hour in just under half
a second throwing me on my back
now normally once you get 15 miles an
hour this thing just stops
but with the uh speed box engaged we
keep going
17 18 20
21 23. i'm having to pedal quite hard
now
26 27
28 29
come on 29 30. 30.5
oh my god
so realistically the speed box 2 here
means
i can now get to between 20 and 25 miles
an hour with only a moderate amount of
exertion
and if i really push myself into
myocardial infarction territory
i can get up to about 30. now
the one thing it wasn't possible for me
to test legally is the impact of the
speed box
on the range of the bike but i'd be
surprised if it didn't reduce it by up
to 25
depending on how you use it the speed
box 2
costs about 130 pounds is it worth it
well if you mainly use your bike for
exercise probably not after all it
doesn't make much odds whether you take
an hour's exercise at 15 miles an hour
or 25.
and if you use your bike to get
somewhere uh
on a private road then this will get you
there in half the time
now given how completely unremarkable it
feels riding a bike
equipped with a speed box and given you
only you have to go down the slightest
incline on a normal bike and you'll be
up to 25 miles an hour
i really do struggle to understand the
reason for restricting everyone to 15
and a half
but where did that extra half a mile an
hour come from
i suppose you could argue that if you
de-restricted bikes in urban areas you'd
probably see an
increase in pedestrians being wiped out
by
silent e-bikers zipping down the outside
but it would be easy enough to restrict
e-bike top speeds electronically in
towns and cities
the same as they can stop your drone
from flying in controlled areas
now i joked earlier about safety if i
was cycling in a city these days
of course i'd wear a helmet but if i'm
only going 100 yards to the shop in a
sleepy village in the countryside
forgive me but i'll take my chances
if you think that makes me a fit for
taking an unnecessary risk
i tried to think what you call people
like evil knievel
or serrano fines or neil armstrong
i prefer to wish you well whatever your
appetite for risk
if you know anyone who has an e-bike you
might like to share this with them
otherwise do subscribe for more reviews
of gadgets and tech designed to make
life easier
and until the next time i've been arlo
guthrie
bye