Our home before our divorce was big enough to accommodate our dining room furniture but since then the houses I’ve lived in have not been. After coming to live in France coming up to 12 years ago, my last home in Plazac was much too small and the dining room table and chairs that I’d brought with me from England were never used as my living room was far too small.

So they’ve been unused for the whole of that time and have been in storage during the construction of my new house for the best part of three years since I moved out of the old place. But no longer! Since I finished my new cloaks cupboard which represents the last area of interior storage that I’ll have, I’ve been gradually removing stuff from the storage space I’ve been hiring over that time and yesterday that included my dining room table and chairs.

Here’s how my living room looked this morning. Yes, that is a lawn mower that I want to use to cut my grass while my ride-on is out of commission. It needs to be indoors until I can strip and clean its carburettor as I’ve no room in my ‘abris’ while my ride-on is in bits and it can’t be left outside because we keep getting passing showers.

But my dining room table and chairs have found their permanent home at last, permanent during my lifetime anyway. They fit perfectly into the space I planned for them, even including the table centre extension, and all that now remains is for me to bring the two matching floor cabinets out of storage to join them, which were too heavy for me to also bring over yesterday.

It’s been a tiring job because I’ve loaded several car and trailer loads single-handedly over the past couple of days and I didn’t think for a moment how much effort would be involved in putting it all in cupboards and on shelves, mainly because there was no place to store it all in my old house and much of it remained unpacked in boxes for all the years since I arrived in France. But it’ll be worth it because little by little everything is falling into place and my new house is becoming the home that I wanted. At last!

My new e-bike needs to be registered as a Speed Bike in France and has to carry a registration plate on its rear. I sent the necessary paperwork off the day after it was delivered – uploaded it on line actually, it’s a good system – and soon after received an acknowledgement and the news that it was being processed.

Then it went quiet, until two days ago when I received a message saying that my paperwork was incomplete and that a declaration of conformity was required. I thought that I’d sent a copy of the necessary CE certification, as had been provided to me by the seller, but it seemed that this was not enough. So yesterday I began to investigate and my searches initially came across the following web site which gave the clue as to what was required.

levelomad certificats

So I dashed off messages to both the supplier of my bike and Dakeya in China and it soon transpired that neither could supply any such document. This I found to be somewhat surprising, because it means that none of the bikes that they are currently supplying into Europe can be used legally on public roads and anyone doing so would be subject to stiff penalties.

But it’s more complicated than that. The two Dakeya models, the DA06 that I have and the DA03 that has rear suspension, in common with all similar high power bikes with a top speed exceeding 25 kmh, are not subject to the same legislation as standard e-bikes. Instead they are subject to cyclomoteur legislation.

I therefore embarked on a quite lengthy project to delve into the legislative requirements and firstly found that Dakeya, as well as needing to have a ‘Certificat d’Homologation’ for the bikes they are selling in Europe, also need to make certain small changes to the bike kits they are sending out in order to allow them to conform when they do have one. I then went on to review the legislation and the legislative requirements and created a ‘certificat’ for them which I believe will meet the standards set by the authorities.

I’ve sent it to Dakeya in China together with the list of modifications they need to make to their kits in order for them to conform and am now awaiting a reply. This isn’t just about being charitable because I need this paperwork to register my bike and I’ve asked them to stamp and sign the document I’ve sent and email it back to me.

On the other hand, they need it for all the bikes they are selling into Europe to be ridden legally on public roads so it would be worth quite a bit to them and I’ve suggested that if my proposed certificate does meet the requirements of the authorities, they might like to consider compensating me for the time and effort I’ve put into it 😐

I was supposed to refit the belt that drives the cutters on my ride-on mower yesterday so I could mow my grass before the rain started again today (which it has done) but couldn’t because I’d found that a bolt holding a pulley had sheared clean off. I tried to buy another locally without much expectation that I’d be able to and sure enough I couldn’t, so after I’d downloaded a parts list and ordered one on line that’ll take several days to arrive, I decided that I’d take the opportunity to go for a bike ride.

My first mistake was that I didn’t put my warm jacket on and soon regretted it because while I was out it became much cooler and more cloudy and the wind cut through the top I was wearing like a knife. But by then it was too late and I had to keep going, so lesson learned. On the road from my house leading to Fleurac I’d noticed a turn-off to the right that I’d gone down previously on my old e-bike but had then turned round on because it had become too steep down-hill and I hadn’t fancied the drag back up again. This time on my new bike with its much greater power, I thought I’d give it a go.

And what an experience it was! Like many such tracks, it led off-road into open country consisting of woodland and rough open spaces. These ‘chemins rurals’ are open to the public but are not supported by the local communes and are used by farmers, hunters, off-roaders and adventurous bikers, much like I was going to become although I didn’t know it. After descending a few hundred metres, quite steeply in places with heavy braking, I came to a cross-roads with signs indicating that if I continued straight ahead I’d eventually arrive in Plazac, but if I turned left, I’d get to Plazac via the ‘short route’.

So given how chilly it was already becoming, I decided to go left. The surface was mainly dry but it was fairly evident that when wet it had been used by heavy farm traffic and/or some serious off-roaders because it was fairly heavily rutted and some of the ruts had become hard set like concrete making riding a bit tricky to say the least. But this was only the start. For the first hundred metres or so after I’d turned left the surface was fairly level and it was just a matter of dodging from side to side to stay out of the main ruts. But then the track suddenly took a steep roller-coaster-like down-turn and I stopped, wondering whether it might be more prudent to turn back rather than continue as the surface continued to be heavily rutted.

Predominantly, there was light woodland on both sides so there wasn’t an option to leave the track on either side – I’d just have to press on and make the best of it. But what the heck, in for a penny, in for a pound, I decided to continue. And what an experience it became! In some places the track had been cut away by traffic to leave narrow platforms at the sides and these might have been a good option to take. However, most of the ruts were so deep that if you rode off the platform you’d fall into them, and in many places the height difference between the edge platform and the bottom of the adjacent rut was 30 or so centimetres, so not something you’d want to do.

And all the while by that time the track was going down and down and at that point I hit the wet part where there was still standing water and thick mud as well as the ruts. Obviously I wasn’t having to pedal at all and in fact the challenge was to stand up out of the saddle on the pedals. Luckily I was wearing my walking boots and I decided that the best way to overcome the mud was to do as I’d been doing in some of the heavily rutted parts, which was to hang my legs out to either side in case I started to fall in either direction and move ahead under power. This was OK on the less steep bits, but there were several very steep stretches in which I almost felt that I was taking my life in my hands!

But all things must end and as the track began to level off and I turned a bend a house appeared in the front of which there was the beginning of a road with a proper hard surface. It was also less steep and I was able to continue downhill in a far more controlled way just with modest continuous braking. There were several more houses on each side of the road, one or two quite new, and eventually I got to the bottom of the hill at a junction which I’d passed by hundreds of time on the road leading up from Plazac’s market area to Fleurac, and what an experience it had been.

But it wasn’t over because now I had to get back up to Fleurac. I could have just turned left and headed for home but despite the cold I decided not to. Instead I continued right into Plazac, turned left into the centre of the village and continued on to return home via Rouffignac. I didn’t take a note of the time or the distance but it was undoubtedly the longest ride that I’d done so far. And certainly the coldest. I’d been thinking about taking my new bike off road and had been wondering where would be suitable for the first time. I’d thought I’d take it fairly gently initially to get the feel of it and I certainly hadn’t thought that I’d be trying to do anything anywhere near as extreme as I just had done. But you’ve got to live a little, haven’t you. Life’s too short for pipe and slippers 😀

Today I finished the new cloaks cupboard that I’ve been constructing in my house since last month. It’s appearance is deceptive as it belies the number of hours that I’ve put into it, partly because I do not have access to a workshop with automatic tools and have had to rely the whole time on simple hand tools and partly because a bespoke build of anything always takes much more time and effort than just assembling a kit bought from a supplier such as Brico Depot.

The images below show the space as it was handed over to me by the builder of my house and the transition to what it has become today and I am very happy with the results.

You my be wondering why this is a milestone for me and this is the reason. I see a distinction between ‘projects’ and ‘jobs’. A project consists of a series of tasks carried out over a period of time in order to achieve a final result, so decorating my house’s interior was a project as was installing my kitchen. A job is a ‘one off’ that can be carried out in a day, or maybe two, so mowing the grass I see as a job.

I’ve been working virtually non-stop on projects in order to complete the interior and exterior construction of my house since last June and this cloaks cupboard is the very last one. All that’s left are jobs – bits of tiling in the kitchen and ‘cellier’, applying beading around the interior door frames, painting the shutters – all things that I can more or less do at my leisure, without pressure and it’s a great feeling as it’ll give me more time to take on more pleasurable activities, like flying and riding my new e-bike.

But first I’ll have to mow the grass for the second time and before I can do that I’ll have to refit the cutter belt on my ride-on mower that somehow managed to jump off its pulleys last time. And as I look forward to getting out into the fresh air I noticed this morning that after being in my garden for about three years and never having borne fruit, my little apple tree that had a trunk with a diameter of 2-3 cms has been bitten off about 10 cms above the ground and the two cherry trees reduced to mere twigs. So everything in the garden isn’t lovely after all, far from it… 🙁

I did a video of the ride I did yesterday from my house to Manaurie, a small commune near Fleurac, and back.

?

Wind noise affected some of the sound unfortunately, but I expected that and I’ve already ordered some wireless mics for my Go-Pros.

At about 2 or 3 kms from here there’s a chateau – Chateau du Peuch. It’s more or less downhill all the way from my house and in summer when the tourists are here you often see middle-aged couples who have hired or borrowed bikes struggling to get up the slope which is quite steep in places. It’s a wonder there aren’t more heart attacks!

I would never have attempted it on my old electric bike but hit the hill yesterday afternoon. Going down was quite an experience as after the recent rains there was a lot of loose gravel on the road surface, but coming back up was exhilarating.

There’s a flattish bit at the start in front of the chateau entrance and then it’s more or less up-hill all the way with windy bends in places that I had to slow down for. Otherwise I hit 40 kmh in places and never went below 37 kmh – with no pedalling! This bike is totally amazing 😀

My new Dakeya e-bike arrived as expected yesterday afternoon and I assembled it in my living room. By the time I’d finished it was beginning to get darker outside so I only had time for a quick test ride, down to Victor and Madeleine’s and back, before returning and putting its battery on charge.

I have a motor-bike licence and used to ride a lot when I was younger, much younger, so whizzing along under power was an experience that I’ve become unaccustomed to after all that time. And it was a bit scary, but fun scary, to be doing it again after so long. The main reason was that if you set the ‘pedal assist’ level to the highest setting and open the throttle the bike takes off like a scalded cat!

I was out again this morning, this time with helmet and gloves on, but the air was a bit chilly and I didn’t go too far before turning back. Knowing what to expect I felt a bit more secure, although it’s going to take a week or so to get used to the bike’s functions and operation before I’ll feel fully in control. Even so I hit 47 kmh (just under 30 mph) on the way back to my house!

The first picture shows the bike in my living room before going out again this morning. The others show it in its natural environment.

I’ve now got to do all the tedious bureaucratic stuff to get it registered and insured before venturing out over long distances on the open road. I’ve also ordered some elbow and knee pads to be on the safe side, so in the meantime I’ll only be doing short local trips around the immediate area until I’ve sorted everything out. But I have to say, I already love it 😀

At last the doors are on my new cloaks cupboard.

I’ve been waiting weeks to use that title 😀

That’s the worst bit over. Now I’ve only got to build the internal shelving system but that will just be a bit tedious and time-consuming as it’ll only be all about cutting and screwing together lengths of 18mm white melamine board.

Tricky one this. I don’t want big gaps between the doors of my new cloaks cupboard so I’m now trimming the door widths down to get the fit I want. Quite time-consuming.

My new cloaks cupboard is now painted and ready for the bi-fold doors to be mounted. That’s for tomorrow as I’ve had a sound bar for my Panasonic TV delivered today and I want to install that and get it working during the rest of the day today.

I got the ceiling coving above the new cloaks cupboard up, undercoated and top-coated yesterday and I’m very pleased with the results.

All I have to do today is paint the walls and woodwork green and I’ll be ready to hang the doors.

Bad news about my new e-bike though. UPS have put the delivery back to Monday afternoon, so disappointing but not a disaster. But at least I’ll be able to press on with the cloaks cupboard over the week-end without being distracted and I also hope to be able to cut my grass, which is now beginning to get a bit long.

I’m glad to say. For a change. The side walls/wings of my new cloaks cupboard that I’m building are now more or less perfect, ready for painting, which I’ll do later today in the form of a sealer-undercoat. I now realise that I didn’t help myself with my initial choice of plaster which I grabbed at Leroy Merlin because it was nearby and convenient, when I picked up the metal edging pieces.

I knew at the time that it was labelled ‘Enduit pour joints de plaques de plâtre’ (mortar for plasterboard joints) and I thought it would be suitable. But now I think it actually wasn’t. While using it I found that it was drying very quickly and I had to keep wetting it down and also it seemed to consist of rather large grains. But the worst thing was that it always seemed ‘sticky’, which made it difficult to get a smooth surface as when I trowelled it, it tended to lift back off again.

I think I was lucky to get it as smooth as I did and I now realise that I should really have bought ‘Enduit de lissage’ (smoothing mortar) which would have made the job far easier. Anyway, after rubbing down the original plaster and finishing off the bad patches with ‘enduit de lissage’ I’ve now got surfaces which I’m very happy with. Here are the results after I’ve undercoated everything.

To be honest, it’s been a rough ride but I couldn’t be more happy. The other good news concerns my new e-bike, which I was expecting to be delivered some time after March 11th. The good news is that UPS have now informed me that it’ll be delivered this Friday afternoon, March 8th.

And here’s a good picture, at last, of what’s coming.

I can’t wait for it to arrive. It has received very good reviews because it’s a well-built machine. Unlike some others of its type it has metal mudguards, rather than flimsy plastic, and a good, strong rear parcel carrier which’ll be very handy for popping up to the shops 🙂

All we need now is for it to stop raining…

Or the start of a new chapter? Hopefully both. After playing hard-ball with the Chinese supplier on Aliexpress and a wait of 48 hours, I was today informed that the money I’d paid is to be refunded and will arrive back in my bank account in the next 2-3 days. So that has allowed me to do a further search for a suitable model, hopefully with more certainty that it will actually be delivered this time.

As mentioned in a previous post, I’d found another ‘Keteles K800 clone’ (who seem to be the Chinese manufacturer of all these similar single and dual motor e-bikes) on the French Cdiscount web site, called a Dakeya DA06, at a much lower price – 1099€ – and if I could have placed an order at the time I’d have also been eligible for a 45€ ‘loyalty discount’ and delivery for only 20€.

At the time, however, due to the debacle involving the Chinese supplier, I didn’t think that would be a wise thing to do. So I left things in abeyance and lo and behold, when I searched again today I found a second German supplier of the same model but with a twist when it came to the price.

The Dakeya comes in three colours – black, green and blue. The French supplier on Cdiscount offers all three at 1099€ with a delivery charge as of today of 60€. The German supplier, on the other hand, offers free delivery but demands premiums for green and blue.

So the black version is on offer from the German supplier for 1099€ with free delivery, so although I’d tried to order a green bike from Aliexpress, how could I resist the German supplier’s offer? The answer is, I couldn’t, so today I’ve gone ahead and placed an order for a black Dakeya DA06 which is due for delivery some time between 11th and 20th March.

My order has now been validated so hopefully this will be the end of this particular saga and the start of a new chapter as I enjoy my new e-bike. My experiences tell me that scammers are swarming around these popular, high value, fast selling items on Aliexpress like wasps around a honey pot just waiting to sting you. I found a comment left by another buyer on the web site of the seller from whom I’m awaiting my refund as follows (using Google translate).

“Some scammers… I bought a bike and he started telling me that this model is not in stock and then he tells me I am sending you this bike. Different… I told him to return the money and he tells me that’s not possible, then it is listed as delivered and nothing ever came.”

So it appears that my experiences of this seller’s behaviour was typical, but luckily I proved yet again the value of using Paypal as it looks as though the other buyer was not so lucky and may have ended up with no bike and no refund.

I don’t have very good plastering skills and by its very nature I knew that plastering the side wings of my new cloaks cupboard would not be an easy job. But I had no idea just what a nightmare it would be. The main problem was that the staples I used to fix the metal edge pieces were a bit thick and even though I’d hammered them in as much as I could without damaging the plasterboard they still stuck out a bit too much.

That made it difficult getting enough plaster in the right places to cover them and I had to use a bit of advice that I was given to me by someone with more experience than me many years ago. That was if it’s a tricky little job, like this one, don’t try to get it perfect from the outset. Do the best you can then when the plaster’s dry enough come back and sand it to flatten it off. Then come back again with a thin, wet coat of plaster to skim it over and make it perfect.

So that’s what I’ve done. All of the surfaces that I wanted to cover are covered but their finish is not to a high standard, as the images show. But that doesn’t matter because they’ll be fine to skim over once I’ve sanded them.

They are jobs for tomorrow, but at least I have the satisfaction of knowing that I’ve broken the back of the job and the worst part of the project, or at least what I think is the worst part, is now behind me. Onwards my friends!

Progress on my new cloaks cupboard has been very slow but it hasn’t just been due to messing around with e-bike stuff. I’ve also had setbacks due to poor materials not working as they were supposed to (primarily fixings, which I’ve found to be of poor quality wherever I’ve sourced them from) and availability of items that I’ve needed for the construction.

But I’ve at last got the basic structure in place in the form of the two side-wall wings that create the aperture for the doors and the ceiling cross-beam on which the track will be mounted in which the door rollers will run.

The next job will be to plaster the two side-wings but before that can be done their exposed edges have had to be reinforced with metal edging pieces.

Fixing the edging pieces was quite tricky. The pros use compressed air powered stapling guns and do the job in a matter of minutes. I have a manual stapling gun and thought that would be suitable but it isn’t, so I’ve had to look for another method. I tried plasterboard nails of different lengths but they weren’t effective and I’ve ended up using small zinc plated staples, as shown in the above images.

This was easier said than done and very tedious as each staple had to be gripped in long-nosed pliers and then hammered in. The job took ages but after plastering them, the side-wings will be painted and finished to match the existing walls.

The ceiling mounted cross-beam will not have to support any significant weight as the main supports for the bi-fold doors will be on the floor. I bought a length of square section timber for it with enough height to take the ceiling coving that will finish the unit off, but afterwards decided to increase its depth by glueing and screwing a second piece of timber to it.

The fixings holding it to the ceiling plasterboard proved to be particularly problematic as three out of the seven of them failed and I had to spend hours making fixings that worked. The following shots show each of the cross-beams ends.

As well as working on the cloaks cupboard I’ve also spent some time today playing hard-ball with the supplier on which I placed an order yesterday for a new e-bike. I’m not prepared to wait for delivery of a more expensive bike with ‘extras’ and would be happy with the one on the Cdiscount web site, the more so as Cdiscount are offering me an additional discount voucher as a result of my previous purchases.

I told the Chinese supplier that I wanted to cancel the order and they accused me of breaking my word, which after my recent experiences I thought was a bit rich coming from a Chinese supplier on Aliexpress. The supplier took umbrage and I went ahead and cancelled it anyway.

Now I’ll have to wait for up to 48 hours to ensure that the cancellation goes through and I am ensured of a refund of the sums I’ve paid before going ahead and ordering the less expensive bike on Cdiscount. I just hope the offer stays available in the meantime.

I just can’t seem to catch a break at the moment. After all the messing about yesterday with the Chinese supplier (which I now bitterly regret as I’m about to explain), when I had a few moments to spare I took another look at the e-bikes that are on offer on Cdiscount, the French web site which I’ve used quite a bit with considerable success. And know what, this is what I found – although the name’s different it’s instantly recognisable as yet another cloned Keteles K800.

But look at the price – 1099€. If you read the ad you can see that this bike is identical to the two motor, 2000W 48V one for 1298€ without rear suspension that the Chinese supplier said was out of stock. But it gets even better (or worse depending on how you look at it) when you dig deeper and check on its full price including delivery. You’ll probably have to click on the following image to see the figures.

I took the screenshot today and the delivery charge is only 20€. Yesterday when I saw the ad for the first time it was 50€, so today you can have the bike delivered in about a week for the princely sum of only 1119€. So now how do I feel about the price of 1360€ that I agreed yesterday with the Chinese seller?

Sure, my new bike will have rear suspension and upgraded front forks, but do I think they’re worth 241€? No I certainly do not, especially as I could have had this bike within a week whereas I’m now committed to waiting weeks for my new bike to be delivered. To say I’m feeling sick this morning is an understatement 🙁

What can I say? I made a mistake in my last post when I said that I’ve ordered the e-bike that I want for 938€. When I looked more closely at the order I’d placed I realised that what I’d ordered was a single motor 1000W model rather than the twin motor 2000W that I wanted.

It was an easy mistake to make because the Chinese sellers’ ads show a range of models of different specs and prices on the Aliexpress web site but all under the main heading and/or description of the highest spec one.

When you click on the model/colour combination that you are interested in only a sub-heading in small type actually changes, as shown in the following screen shot taken from the seller’s web site of the model that I’d placed an order for.

I realised soon afterwards when I had time to look at things more closely that I’d made a mistake and should have ordered the twin motor, 2000W model shown below, which was more expensive obviously.

One of the things to note is that the two bikes in the above images are not of the same brand – the cross-bar is a dead giveaway. I’ve found that the Chinese e-bike sellers on Aliexpress are very cavalier with the images that they post on their web pages but I don’t know if they or Aliexpress are responsible for just putting up any image that’s close to what they are selling because they know that under the skin they are all the same bikes and come out of the same factory.

As soon as I realised that I’d made a mistake I messaged the seller on the Aliexpress web site in order to ensure that the order was not progressed, let alone sent out. My initial message was sent yesterday and as a result I got into a live interchange today on the Aliexpress messaging system. Here are the interchanges that I’ve copied and pasted directly from our conversation.

Me:
Hello, I think I have purchased a single motor bike. This is not what I want. Please do not send this order . I will have to cancel. I need a 2 motor 2000W bike. Thank you. Please confirm you are not sending this order.

Seller:
2000W bicycle with 2 Motors is more expensive

Me:
Yes, I know. I made a mistake when I placed the order. The bike I want I think is 1298€. Need to pay difference by Paypal.

Seller:
But the 2000W one is out of stock. The price of the other 2000W is very high. It requires 1488 euros.

Me:
No that’s beyond my budget. I reluctantly suggest that the order is therefore cancelled and I reorder when the 1298€ bike is back in stock.

Seller:
There is a 1398 euro bicycle, but it takes 45 days to wait

Me:
No, still too high.

Seller:
Do you need 1000W now?

Me:
No please cancel that order. It was my mistake. I want 2 motor 2000W

Seller:
I sent 1000W before, then you have to pay 140 euros for intercepting express delivery

Me:
No, I told you before you had a chance to send. Paypal will see the timing of the messages and will refund anyway. Please do not behave badly as I will still buy from you when you have the bike I want. Otherwise I will not. Aliexpress also allow free return if the bike I cancelled is delivered. Then I will receive the full refund. Please think carefully before you do the wrong thing.

Seller:
OK

Me:
OK, let us work this out sensibly. How long before the 1298€ 200W LaFly is available? I mean 2000W of course

Seller:
It takes 40-50 days, but it is an upgraded version

Me:
In what way?

Seller:
Lafly, which arrived at the European warehouse 50 days later, is an upgraded version. It will be upgraded to this

Seller:
Upgraded to double shoulder front fork and double suspension.

Me:
OK but the big question is the price…

Seller:
The price is already the lowest 1398 euros. Look, the price is 1598 (the next image is of the comparable current model on the seller’s web site)

Seller:
If you are willing to wait for Lafly’s upgraded bike, its price is 1398

Me:
I see what you are saying. Can we agree a price of 1350€??

Seller:
The price is 1378 euros, the lowest

Me:
Come on, you are pushing too much. 1360€ and we have a deal. Don’t forget you are asking me to wait for 50 days!!

Seller:
OK

Me:
OK let’s do it

Seller:
OK

The seller then posted a link on the Aliexpress web site for the difference between the 938€ that I’d paid against my original order and the cost of the new bike (1360€) with two 1000W motors, a 48V 23AH battery and front and rear suspension.

Me:
OK I’ve paid the difference. So we can confirm this is for the Lafly upgrade 2 motor 2000W with front and rear suspension, right?

Seller:
yes

Me:
Thank you. I look forward very much to receiving it as soon as possible.

Seller:
I will contact you in 50 days

Me:
OK I guess I’ll just have to be patient

Seller:
yes, wish you a wonderful day

So how have things worked out? Apart from the delay in receiving my bike, I think pretty well. The bike that I wanted to change my order for (1298€) which the seller now says is out of stock is a mid-range model with non-lockable front suspension and no rear suspension. The upgraded model that I’ve now ordered for 1360€ has both and the Keteles factory web site (I think Keteles manufactures all these bikes under different brand names) is currently showing it for 1699€.

This is higher than other independent sellers are advertising it for but obviously Keteles would not be looking to undercut them as they are the ones bringing in the great majority of their sales. So I think that the price I’ve got (1360€) is pretty good.

In conclusion, today I found the same bike that I told the seller I’d pay 1298€ for (two motors, 2000W, 48V 23 AH battery but no rear suspension) on the CDiscount web site here in France – for 1278€, ie at a lower price if it includes delivery. So if I’d ordered from them, all of the above saga could probably have been avoided.

I was surprised to find the ad as I’ve been doing lots of internet searches, so I think that Cdiscount has only just put the bike on their web site in the last few hours if I’m correct.

But on the other hand, I’ll be getting a higher spec bike for only 82€ more rather than the 200€ or so that it usually costs for the ‘extras’ that I’ll be getting and I’m happy with that. That’s if in the meantime Cdiscount don’t start selling the upgraded model for a lower price than the 1360€ that I’ve agreed with the Chinese seller. You never know, do you 😕

I received my refund from Aliexpress today for my new e-bike that never materialised so have jumped straight in again. There are two ‘sellers’ with similar names who are offering the same bike as I ordered last time for 399,99€ and funnily enough their Aliexpress certificates show that they were both registered in Spain, one in late December 2023 and the other in late January 2024.

I already know from previous searches that the true prices of the bikes are in the range 1000€ – 1499€ so my conclusion is that both are working the same scam as my original seller. I think that anyone placing orders will be unlikely to get their money back if they use a non-guaranteed payment method, despite Aliexpress saying they will, and although the ‘sellers’ know that other monies they receive will be refunded, they can use the funds in their business for free in the meantime.

So this time I’ve gone for another supplier and another model bike, although it’s pretty apparent by now that all of these bikes of similar design are coming from the same factory and are just branded differently. Here’s what we’re talking about – very much the same as I originally ordered but this time I’ve gone for the bright green!

This time, though, I’ve paid quite a bit more, although still below the average price being demanded for the same/similar model by other suppliers – 938€.

I’ve done the same as before – paid using Paypal, although this time I’ve opted for 4 x payments over the next four months, meaning my initial outlay is roughly half what it was before. The bike is also due to be delivered a lot quicker – by March 7th – so if this one goes t*ts up as well, at least I’ll get my money back quicker than before 🙂

I can’t quite understand what’s going on. After contacting la Poste this morning to find out why I haven’t received a parcel that it said had been delivered into my mailbox, out of the blue I’ve just received an email from Aliexpress saying that my order has been cancelled and I’m being refunded the full purchase amount.

There can’t be any connection between the two events because there’s no reason why la Poste should have been in contact with Aliexpress so it would appear that Aliexpress has itself become involved independently behind the scenes with the seller.

When I checked my order status on the Aliexpress web site the information given is to the effect that the order was cancelled and refunded due to an incorrect order tracking number having been provided by the seller who will be sanctioned in accordance with the platform’s (Aliexpress’s) rules.

OK, that’s good as far as it goes, but although the original web page for the bike I ordered has now been taken down, there are still several in a similar style on Aliexpress, probably from the same ‘seller’, for similar bikes several of which are now even cheaper than the price of the one I ordered. If the ‘seller’ is a scammer, surely Aliexpress should have picked that up, closed them all down and booted the ‘seller’ off?

And there’s another thing. How come la Poste could provide tracking data for ‘my’ parcel right up to the point of delivery? There’s one explanation I can think of, which is that a legitimate label was created by this, or another legitimate, seller for a real bike being delivered to a buyer in France. The scam ‘seller’ then spoofed a copy of the label with my name and address on it and sent it to me.

Are you with me so far? The legitimate sale would then track properly through the system until it was delivered into its buyer’s mailbox – which wouldn’t have been mine, which is why it wasn’t in my mailbox even though I had been told that it had been delivered. It would also explain why my ‘delivery’ appeared to be early, as the label that had been spoofed was probably by then a few days old.

I don’t know how Aliexpress got onto this but fortunately I paid using Paypal so I’ll get my refund in a couple of days, although buyers who used other payment methods could have more difficulty. I’ll be able to relax once I’ve received it and then I’ll be able to decide whether to go for another new e-bike at the proper price, especially as I’ve already bought my safety helmet 🙂

It’ll also be interesting to hear what la Poste have to say when they come back to me as I think they’ll say yes, the parcel I queried was delivered correctly – just not to me 😕

Still no sign of my new e-bike but it appears that my assumption about the postman confusing the two parcels that were being delivered to me in the depot was incorrect. La Poste had applied its own postage label over the original Chinese one on the packaging that had contained the bike helmet that was delivered on Saturday and when I took a closer look at it I found another delivery reference. When I checked that I found that the system is confirming delivery of that parcel.

So according to la Poste, two parcels were dropped off into my mailbox on Saturday – the helmet and my new e-bike. This is total nonsense, of course, because the Chinese supplier of the bike had already sent me a copy of the label confirming despatch of the bike which showed a gross weight for the package of 38.6 kg and there’s no way that that would anything like fit into my mailbox.

So what’s going on? La Poste has a help line which I’ve tried using several times today but, surprise surprise, it doesn’t work properly. When you key in a number in the multi-choice menu it just keeps talking to you, which isn’t that surprising because such systems operated by public sector businesses in France rarely do function as intended. I think it’s a ploy to stop you contacting them with problems, but you must draw your own conclusions…

But luckily I’ve got a la Poste on line account and in it I can access a virtual assistant. Amazingly, on this occasion I do seem to have succeeded in making a claim for non-delivery of a parcel. La Poste has said that the delivery service will get back to me with a detailed response within 48 hours and have given me a claim reference. However, I’m used to playing this game with EDF and Enedis and I’ll be pleasantly surprised if this will be enough to resolve the situation. I’ll have to wait and see.

So near but yet so far. Just when you think the system has excelled itself your hopes are dashed yet again.

When I checked the La Poste tracking site again a bit earlier, I was told that the parcel I’d been tracking had been delivered into my mailbox. I thought, bloody hell, the bike’s a damn sight smaller than I thought it’d be but when I went up to check, sure enough there was a package waiting for me.

But it didn’t contain my bike, or even a small part of it. It seems that La Poste has managed to get itself into a real muddle. I have two parcels in the system – my new e-bike and a safety helmet that I ordered from Amazon. The latter wasn’t supposed to be delivered until a week after the bike but it has arrived much sooner than expected and La Poste has confused the two.

The number I’ve been tracking has indeed been for the e-bike but that’s not what has been delivered this morning under that reference because as the following image shows, the item looks nothing like a bike – it is actually the helmet.

I’m hoping that the error wasn’t made several steps back in the delivery process, that my new bike is actually at the local depot and the postman has just grabbed the first parcel he saw with my name on it. If not I suspect that this could become very messy very quickly 🙁

It seems to be moving really quickly through the system. Delivery was scheduled for 1st March but it looks as though it’ll happen well before then as it’s ready to be sent out by the local depot.

Today? Surely not. Monday? A distinct possibility I reckon.

I’ve been working on my new cloaks cupboard. Progress has been quite a bit slower than usual because earlier this month I went down with a dose of ‘flu and even now I’m still getting over it. The cupboard will be permanently fitted into an alcove that I designed-in for it adjacent to the small separate toilet and close to the house’s front door. It will take up the full width of the alcove and have full height twin bi-fold doors to give easy access to its interior.

When I designed-in the alcove I had no idea what the dimensions of the doors would be and after much searching on the internet I was fortunate to find a supplier of just what I was looking for that would extend perfectly for the full height of the alcove from floor to ceiling and four panels of which would be just a tad narrower than its width. Because of the latter, I’m having to make up two wall extension ‘wings’ on either side to completely fill the gap with the doors in place.

Here’s a shot showing one set of bi-fold doors leaning against the wall and the frameworks for the two ‘wing’ extensions now permanently in place.

I’ve had to notch the bottoms of each extension to accept the floor plinths that were installed when the floor was tiled. I told the tiler that because I didn’t then know what form the cupboard would take just to fit plinth all around the walls, but that will be a good thing as the plinth will protect the lower edges of the cupboard’s internal walls.

The next step will be to attach plasterboard panels to the fronts, backs and exposed edges of the wall extensions. I’ve tried to measure dimensions as accurately as I could and I’m aiming to get the front panel of the cloaks cupboard to line up exactly with the wall of the alcove so when I eventually fit coving it runs across from one side to the other in a straight line. For that, the plasterboard on the right-hand wall extension will need to line up exactly with the edge of the alcove wall and I hope that I’ve got it just about right.

I’ll be cutting and fitting the plasterboard surfaces to the wall extensions tomorrow. Then I’ll have to fit metal plasterboard corner pieces to the exposed edges to protect the exposed corners and plaster them in. If all goes as planned I should end up with a cloaks cupboard that will fit exactly in the space provided for it and perfectly match the existing wall colours. That’s what I hope anyway.

Then I’ll be building in an internal shelving arrangement for general storage and a hanging rail for cloaks and when that’s done, all of the main construction work on and in my house will be complete. At that point I’ll at last be able to think about getting all my stuff out of storage and bringing it into the house. It’s been languishing in there since June/July 2021 and I can’t wait for that moment to arrive.

Well, I don’t know what yet, but something sure is on its way to me. I’ve been tracking the delivery of what I hope is my new e-bike for several days now, on its way to me from China. According to China Post, it arrived in French customs yesterday.

It showed up on the French postal service tracking site for the first time yesterday evening and it’s delivery status is trackable there this morning.

I’m still somewhat mesmerised by the whole thing. Bearing in mind that I only paid 373,93€ for it including delivery from China (by airfreight no less) this is what I found when I located and checked the manufacturer’s (Keteles) web site.

According to the web site, the price of my new bike is 1499,99€ and I’m not even sure if that includes the cost of delivery. All very bizarre. And there are also a couple of reviews on Youtube of the specific model I’ve ordered which also refer to the same sort of price level.

I have noticed one thing though. The manufacturer’s web site shown above doesn’t seem to work properly – links seem to be either broken or just ineffective. I’m wondering therefore if the company might have gone bust and its stock is just being sold off? I have no idea and this could be the completely wrong conclusion, but on the basis of the above it looks as though I can certainly expect something to be delivered to my doorstep in the next few days.

A couple of days ago a tasty-looking chicken caught my eye in Intermarché. Just under 1 1/2kg for 7,60€ so I bought it. It’s been in my fridge since then and I was thinking this morning that I’d better either think about cooking it or put it in my freezer for later. I decided on the former and I came up with the brainwave of popping it into my air fryer to see how it would come out.

My air fryer has a capacity of 5 litres and it just fitted in nicely, so I then gave it a good spray with virgin olive oil, a dousing with salt and ‘Herbes de Provence’ and set it going for 60 minutes at 190 degrees C while I was doing other things. I thought it would need about 1 1/2 hours but could adjust the time if necessary as it went along when I went back in from time to time to spray the bird with more olive oil.

And it went just great! Here’s the result after the 1 1/2 hours and after I’d given it a slathering of butter for the last 15 minutes or so.

It’s absolutely delicious! It’s perfectly cooked and the flesh is just falling off the bones and because it sat on a rack in the air fryer the grease has separated and fallen into the bottom of the pan leaving the meat perfectly moist. I couldn’t resist a leg and a wing while it was cooling and have just had a few slices in a portion of freshly baked baguette for my lunch. What a treat! I can’t recommend my air fryer enough 🙂

I’ve added more information to my posts about this on Facebook so here’s the same for My Trike. First, the original Aliexpress ad.

Aliexpress ad

Now here’s the review for the almost identical bike that I saw on Youtube.

?

I’ve just received notification from the Chinese seller that it’s been despatched for it’s March 1st delivery date and I can’t see how I can lose.

If it’s a scam Aliexpress should deal with it and in any case, I paid using Paypal so would be reimbursed by it. I’m just going to sit tight and patiently wait… 🙂

Or, loosely translated, just got to go for it!

I was idly watching videos on Youtube yesterday evening, as you do, and I came across a couple of e-bike reviews. One was by a rather conventional young man in Bristol (UK) who was a cycling devotee and evidently keen on following all the rules who thought that riding down some steps was very risqué and cavalier, and another by a long-haired bloke in California who had put together the bike he reviewed in his living room and was, ahem… quite the opposite.

Not only was the bloke in California going all-out for fun but he’d done so by finding a monster of a bike with dual electric motors, one in each wheel hub, a claimed range of over 60 km without even pedalling (!!) and a top speed of… wait for it… over 35mph (56kmh). And he was almost bursting with excitement throughout his whole video as he rode up and downhill, on the beach, over big heaps of earth at the side of the road and just about anywhere else he could take it. That said it all to me.

I’ve already got an e-bike, but it’s a sit-up-and-beg, old style one that’s maybe not quite first generation but probably not long after.

It still works as it should but unlike later models you have to pedal to make the motor cut in. That’s fine when you’re a sprightly young thing as I was about forty years ago but not now. What I want is to have the option of pedalling a bit and getting the old circulation moving on the flat but having some proper assistance available for the hills because then you can confidently ride out over longer distances and know that you won’t be defeated by the terrain.

So where’s this going, you might ask? The bike that the Californian guy was reviewing had cost something over $1000 just a few months ago and I wasn’t surprised given its specification because all of the single motor, high power models I’ve looked at recently on sites like Aliexpress have been in the 700-800€ price range or higher. This one with dual motors would have had to cost more.

I had a model book-marked in my browser from last week that up to then I hadn’t paid much attention to but having seen the Californian review I thought that I’d take another look at it and when I did I was surprised to see that it also was dual-motor and almost identical to the one in the review.

So it was worth a second look. Yes, 21 gears, a 48 volt rather than a puny 35 volt system and also hydraulic disk brakes rather then the mechanical, cable operated ones that the Californian guy had looked down his nose at. But the biggest surprise came when I looked at the price… only 393,96€ including delivery!

OK, I thought, the usual Aliexpress ploy. They show the price of the lowest cost part of the item – in this case the battery – and when you click on it you find that the complete bike, including the battery, is two or three times that figure. But no! The price really was only 393,96€!

And the surprises didn’t end there. Maybe because I’ve bought a few items from the Aliexpress web site recently, I was also offered a voucher for a further 20€ off, making my price an astounding 373,96€. So what could I do? Yes, you’ve guessed it. I bought one. I mean, after all, what can possibly go wrong at that price… 😕

The bike comes in a range of fluorescent colours including yellow, red and blue. I was sorely tempted – after all, why not go the whole hog.

However, I thought that possibly discretion might be the better part of valour as a grandad flying about on a bright red or yellow e-bike might attract a bit too much attention and to be honest, although lots of kids and young people are dashing about using e-scooters as personal transport, I’m not sure how legal an e-bike like this is in France. So I’ve gone for one in black and white that won’t catch the eye of any passing ‘flic’ and cause my collar to be felt.

It’s due to be delivered by 1st March and quite honestly, I can hardly wait. I must put my old bike onto Leboncoin in the meantime to make room for the new steed 😉

I’m not planning to do any more work inside the house for a short while so after a quick trip that I had to make to Montignac, today was a perfect day to give some attention to my aircraft. I started and ran the Savannah’s engine for a while a couple of weeks or so ago but the Xair’s engine hasn’t been started and run for many months, so that was my main aim today.

I had to pull the Savannah out first and as usual, was shocked to see how dirty it had become yet again. This year must be the year for seriously getting back into the air after my house-building efforts and before I do that both aircraft will need to be thoroughly cleaned and serviced. After moving the Savannah away from the barn to create a space to move the Xair into, I pulled that out also and removed the canvas engine cover and the cover over the screen so I could open the left hand door and get in.

When I arrived I’d checked Malbec’s runway and was surprised given how little rain we’ve had lately by how soft it still is. It’s still not flyable and someone’s also driven a vehicle, probably a large SUV, around over the top of the runway creating some quite deep gouge marks. It also wasn’t easy getting the aircraft out of the barn due to the muddy state of the ground in its entrance.

I checked the Xair’s engine over prior to starting it and was pleasantly surprised to find that despite the amount of time it’s been standing, there was plenty of charge in its battery. Although it hasn’t been started, I have turned the engine over from time to time and it started and ran immediately. This was despite the fuel being over a year old, much easier and more smoothly actually than the Savannah’s had done when I started it a few weeks ago, so I was very pleased with my efforts.

It was as I was pushing the Xair back into the barn that I noticed something strange. For a few moments I thought it was a round piece of rock or broken concrete and wondered how I’d not noticed previously when I’d pulled the Xair out. But when I looked at it more closely I found that it wasn’t something hard at all, but more like something made out of paper. What on earth was it?

I think it was some kind of nest, probably one made painstakingly by wasps or some other wood chewing insect as there was a single hole in its side that would have possibly been used as an entrance and exit. This would certainly figure because if it had somehow been attached to the Xair, somewhere under its covers, there would have been plenty of time for it to have been constructed over the summer as the aircraft has remained undisturbed for months.

But anyway, I kicked it out of the way around the end of the barn and there were certainly no insects in or around it now, probably a good thing for me. I then started and ran the Savannah’s engine again too for several minutes before pushing that back into its place in the barn.

My next job must be to pull it out again, give it another thorough wash and clean and a good service including an oil and filter change and maybe new plugs depending on how they look when I take them out. Both aircraft have been neglected for far too long and with Spring just around the corner, I really also need to think about moving the Xair on to a new owner.

After today, my utility room is finished except for the small amount of plinth around the base of the floor mounted cupboard and the finishing strip on the end of the worktop. As both tasks involve applying edging strip I decided to leave them until tomorrow and do them together. There’s still the tiling to be done, as there is in the kitchen, but just as for the kitchen, the room can now be used to its full extent and the tiling can be done as and when I can get round to it at a later date.

Making the new back panel for the small wall mounted cupboard took a long time, much longer than I’d anticipated. I’m a self-confessed perfectionist but totally understand that in jobs requiring craftsman-like skills, perfection can only be attained by real craftsmen. I have no pretensions on that score so I just try to do the best job I can, aiming for a result that I am happy and can live with, and almost invariably that takes time.

Cutting out the new back panel for the hot water pipe proved to be quite difficult and very time consuming even with having the old panel as a template. What complicated things was that not only did the adjustments to the back, side and bottom of the cupboard have to accommodate the water pipe but they also had to allow for the angles that the cupboard had to be placed in and the height it had to be placed at to attach it to the wall fixings.

This would have been easily done by chopping more away but then the job would have been ruined. Here’s how it actually came out and I was happy with the end result.

Now a series of shots of the 99% finished room after I’d cleared up at the end of the day.

It’s been an arduous few days getting this room done but well worth the effort. As I only have a couple of small jobs to do and will then just take the rubbish up to the waste bins, I’ll probably have a bit of a lie-in tomorrow morning. I’ve decided that I’ve earned it 😉

This is nearly always the problem when you go out to by stuff in France – you end up wasting so much time. It was 3.15 pm by the time I got back with a pair of new tap connectors and a sheet of white faced hardboard so too late to start any major work today. But I did finish connecting up the new sink in the utility room so that’s the plumbing all finished (subject to finding no leaks tomorrow!) leaving just the carpentry to do (the ‘menuiserie’ as it’s called here in France) to finish the room off.

The reason it took so long was because I wanted flexible connectors about 25 cm in length and the shortest available in Leroy Merlin were 30 cm. So I then went into Brico Depot and found it to be the same, so I bought a pair anyway. Then just to be on the safe side, I went all the way to les Briconautes in Montignac and found it also to be the same (but more than twice as expensive as the other two stores) so then went home to trust my luck with the ones I’d bought.

They were a little bit too long but I managed to get them in and the images show the results with the mixer tap working and the overflow installed.

The sink came with two alternative holes in which to mount the mixer depending on which way round the sink was installed. It came with a plug for the unused hole which I don’t like, so I paid a bit more for a cable operated pop-up waste with a knob that fits into the spare hole and is turned left and right to raise and lower the waste ‘basket’ (it’s not a plug as such as shown in the pictures).

The shot showing the underside of the sink shows the shiny pieces of waterproof tape that I added to the joints in the waste pipe to stop them weeping. Everything is fine right now and I just hope that it stays that way.

So it’ll be ‘menuiserie’ day tomorrow and that should mean the room will be finished – apart, that is, for the tiling as is also the case for the kitchen. But at least the room and its storage will be usable, which will be a major leap forward towards emptying the storage where I’m keeping furniture and other stuff.