£1000 cycle 2 work halfords crappy voucher

[Fireproofbob]

Hi after lots of badgering our work has singed up to cycle to work, they are totally clueless so signed up to halfords/tredz scheme. The max voucher I could get was £1000. I'm ideally after an electric hybrid bike for riding a few miles each day to work and back.

I currently use a specialised pitch sport mountain bike, but after a long day on my feet an e bike would help on the way home.

Any ideas? Do you think I should wait until bike stocks have been refreshed and we get closer to winter to grab a sale bargain?

Seen a few sites that accept bike vouchers but they invoice you more than the bike costs as they include the commission the bike scheme charges them. Is this a good option?

Saw halfords was clearing last years models last week for under 1k but non left in stock now. Am I right in thinking you can't add money to voucher if bike is more?

Thanks in advance for any reply, looking for ward to joining you all on an ebike.

Cheers

 

[soundwave]

the 2021 bikes come out in sep/oct so any bargains will be long gone buy now for last years bikes.

you wont get much for £1000 tho esp if you want a bosch or other main brand bike.

 

[Fireproofbob]

Think rear hub motor is what I will be able to get so not expecting bosch. Gutted that I missed out on the bargains. Any advice on the best thing to do with this voucher? Any blags or ways to maximise the voucher?

Cheers

 

[soundwave]

Woosh Bikes

Woosh Bikes Ltd Electric bikes and kits assembled in Southend-On-Sea. Affordable and comfortable e-bikes to suit every pocket.

wooshbikes.co.uk

Wisper E-Bike Range Archives

E-Bike brand Wisper has led the UK electric bike market since 2005. The Number 1 UK e-bike brand for quality and service. 0% electric bike finance available

wisperbikes.com

 

[Edward Elizabeth]

If you're definitely saddled with Hellfrauds, then I can heartily recommend the Subway Electric, though you'll have to chuck an extra 99 quid in the pot yourself - you can add as much as you like yourself.

Don't count on sales reductions of the magnitude we used to see at Halfords - retailers are selling bikes as fast as they can get them into the store, if not even faster, and with demand still vastly outstripping supply there is little need or incentive to do the huge sales reductions they used to. At the present time the retailers have the buying public by the cojones, and I can't see they'll stop squeezing any time soon.

 

[Fireproofbob]

Will take a look at the subway, don't mind adding some extra cash if that's possible. Need to check they got they right frame size available as I'm over 6ft.

Thought bike sales might slow as getting to end of summer. Will watch halfords over the next week or so. Voucher can be used at tredz too but think that's Halfords owned and expensive.

 

[Fireproofbob]

No subway bikes in stock near me in big frame size. They have the vulcan and crossfire e at 1400, are they worth paying the extra?

 

[Amoto65]

No subway bikes in stock near me in big frame size. They have the vulcan and crossfire e at 1400, are they worth paying the extra?

No is the answer, the only Carrera worth having is the Crossfuse with the Bosch motor.

 

[Edward Elizabeth]

No is the answer, the only Carrera worth having is the Crossfuse with the Bosch motor.

Rubbish. I've had more trouble with Bosch (quite a bit) than my SiL has had with Suntour (none at all). The current high output Suntour motor in Carreras is 60NM, and the motor itself is rarely problematic.

That said, the Vulcan itself isn't the nicest bike, let down by horrible forks.

 

[Fireproofbob]

Don't think I can stretch to the mid drive crossfuse price (no way the Mrs will allow it)

 

[Nealh]

Carerra Suntour bikes are a bit of liability and hit and miss as to when the cut outs start or when they occur, the hub itself in all likelihood is quite bullet proof. The main issue appears to be the electronics, whether the latest models are any better we have to wait for owners to say. The TS BB is one of the problems and previous issues have included possibly battery BMS sensitivity as well as the motor connector.

 

[Amoto65]

Rubbish. I've had more trouble with Bosch (quite a bit) than my SiL has had with Suntour (none at all). The current high output Suntour motor in Carreras is 60NM, and the motor itself is rarely problematic.

Rubbish yourself, The Carrera Crossfire is plagued with problems just look at the amount of threads about cut outs on this site alone. I have owned both a Crossfuse and a Crossfire and the latter was nothing but trouble, while the Bosch motor in the Crossfuse has been faultless in over 2500 miles.

 

[Fireproofbob]

The crossfuse is 500 more than the crossfire and that is 400 more than the voucher. So without having to add 900 for the mid drive I will accept the bike in my price range will be a bit naff. As long as it lasts a couple of years I will be happy. I live and work close to a halfords so can take it back if it needs fixing.

Is it worth phoning or visiting my local halfords to see if they have any old stock that they are clearing out or would that be on the website?

 

[L6mbt]

I've been very happy with my Carrera Vengeance. It's the 2018 model with the Bafang motor and cadence sensor, and has given no trouble that regular lubrication and a replacement set of brake pads couldn't fix. The latest model has been updated somewhat and is now a little over £1000 (I paid £850) but it might be worth a look.

 

[Fireproofbob]

Current vengence is suntour motor and only in L size frame which is upto 6 feet 1inch. Im 6 feet 3ish will this be too small?

 

[Barnsleyrob]

You haven’t really missed out on a bargain as most stocks seem to have been snapped up months ago during lockdown. I’m sure some importers will be bringing in 2020 stock so they still have something to sell before the 2021 stuff comes out.

 

[Dewey]

Rubbish yourself, The Carrera Crossfire is plagued with problems just look at the amount of threads about cut outs on this site alone.

Those were on older models though, last December Richard Peace reported the Suntour ATS Hesc motor system had been changed to increase power

Carrera Crossfire E 2020

Carrera is Halfords own-brand budget range of regular and electrically-assisted e-bikes. Their latest 2020 model year, hybrid-style electric offering is the Crossfire E which uses a rear hub motor from far-eastern component manufacturer SR Suntour (of budget suspension fork fame). Buy the...

ebiketips.road.cc

I prompted US ebike journalist Court Rye to talk to Raleigh in the US to ask what they thought of the new motor’s reliability and they reported few problems

Raleigh Ebikes with SR Suntour Motors

Hi guys, an individual recently contacted me with some questions around the SR Suntour ebike hub motor and I passed them along to the Raleigh Electric team who were very responsive. I thought that others might have a similar question and just wanted to share the answer here and compliment them...

electricbikereview.com

 

[vfr400]

Those were on older models though, last December Richard Peace reported the Suntour ATS Hesc motor system had been changed to increase power

Carrera Crossfire E 2020

Carrera is Halfords own-brand budget range of regular and electrically-assisted e-bikes. Their latest 2020 model year, hybrid-style electric offering is the Crossfire E which uses a rear hub motor from far-eastern component manufacturer SR Suntour (of budget suspension fork fame). Buy the...

ebiketips.road.cc

I prompted US ebike journalist Court Rye to talk to Raleigh in the US to ask what they thought of the new motor’s reliability and they reported few problems

Raleigh Ebikes with SR Suntour Motors

Hi guys, an individual recently contacted me with some questions around the SR Suntour ebike hub motor and I passed them along to the Raleigh Electric team who were very responsive. I thought that others might have a similar question and just wanted to share the answer here and compliment them...

electricbikereview.com

That's very interesting. Something isn't right is it. How can there be so many problems reported here and elsewhere, even on fairly recent purchases, and they don't know anything about it?

It reminds me of when I was quality manager for Avondale caravans. We were getting loads of people ringing in with exploding tyres after changing brands to a cheaper type (Vrederstein). Our customer service guy, who sat next to me dealt with the complaints. The tyre supplier had asked him to refer any complaining customers directly to them and not to do anything himself. After I heard him referring three different complaints on three consecutive days, I asked him what's going on. All I got from him was that there were lots of complaints that he had referred and not recorded, so I decided to ring the supplier to find out about it. They told me that they had only ever heard of one instance of an exploding tyre, which they put down to over-loading. Everybody knows that everybody over-loads their caravans, but other brands of tyres never exploded.

There had also been mention about this brand of exploding tyres in a caravan magazine, so I rang the journalist. He gave all the implications that it was a problem, but wouldn't give me any details. I guess he didn't want to rock any boats.

Eventually, I got their slimy rep to visit me under the threat of asking Trading Standards to enforce a recall. After a lot of pressure he said, "If I'm honest, we're not proud of our first batch of these tyres".

 

[Amoto65]

That's very interesting. Something isn't right is it. How can there be so many problems reported here and elsewhere, even on fairly recent purchases, and they don't know anything about it?

I returned 2 Crossfires in 2017 for multiple cutouts so it looks like someone is telling porkys about the bikes.

 

[gsm.terra]

Don’t whoosh do cycle to work?