Best electric bikes under 2000

[flecc]

When you've tried a few you may have queries, and that's a good time to ask to clear those queries up Frankie.

But some of the thinning out you'll do when you try them, for example:

When trying, some find they love crank drives, some hate them.

Seeing them in the flesh, you'll find some styles you greatly prefer.

And the way the various e-bikes operate will reveal some you much prefer and some you are unhappy with.

Those personal factors quickly reduce a large choice to a very small one, since it's what you will be happy with that counts the most.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I've never found a bike that

.....and I know that some are more reliable than others

Do you know, or have you heard? Unfortunately, you can't believe everything that is written on this forum. Would you like to give an example of one bike that's more reliable than another? That should start some interesting discussion!

 

[Frankie24]

Would you like to give an example of one bike that's more reliable than another?

I was meaning that as far as I know rear motors are the only ones that normally break the spokes because of the tension or the weight. So In that way I understand that front and mid normally don't have this problem.
Maybe is not more reliable but is harder to get small or big problems like that.
Am I right?

 

[trex]

I agree with d8veh, it's difficult to prove that x is more reliable than y, simply because you are looking at small probability and many variables. It's better to judge the quality of the after sale service through real cases reported here.

 

[flecc]

I was meaning that as far as I know rear motors are the only ones that normally break the spokes because of the tension or the weight. So In that way I understand that front and mid normally don't have this problem.

Although that may have an element of truth, I remember one front hub motor e-bike which had a big problem with broken spokes, but only for some of the owners.

Owners of those prone ones had a very different view!

There is an element of chance as well as differing circumstances, so some unreliability can crop up in any e-bike at any price.

 

[EddiePJ]

Frankie, I am guessing that the only difference between the NEO Cross and the NEO Xtrem is the wheel size.
I can only answer from my own experience of owning the Xtrem, that I have never had a spoke issue. I'm not kind with the usage of my bike, but I do keep a very strict schedule of maintenance which includes checking spokes regularly. I know of one person who does a daily commute on an Xtrem who has now broken several spokes. I don't feel that this is in any way the fault of BH, as his route takes in many speed humps that he never slows down for, and he also doesn't keep a regular maintenance programme going.
Whilst I push the limits of what the BH was designed for, I hope that somewhere along the line, that I do have some kind mechanical empathy.

When I last looked, the NEO Xtrem was considerably cheaper in Ireland than over here, and it was also cheaper than the NEO Cross.

If I had to decide between the two as a commuting bike, I personally would opt for the 26" wheel set up of the Xtrem.

If commuting is going to be the sole purpose of owning the bike, then I probably wouldn't be buying either. Whilst I own the Haibike Cross for my commuting duties, in hind sight I think that should have bought a Kalkhoff. My trouble is that I'm stupidly drawn by looks over function. The Haibike doesn't have the same durability look/feel about it.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

My friend Saneagle just had a couple of spokes break on his back wheel, and he has a front motor. There was a Kalkhoff with a mid motor that had terrible problems with breaking spokes. In 1989,I bought a relatively expensive bike from Halfords (£360), and the wheel more or less collapsed after a couple of hundred miles. You have to be very careful about drawing conclusions from limited samples and hearsay. It's clear that the early BH Emotion Neos had a problem because I've read lots of reports on them. I also know of dealers that reported batches of their bikes having problems with no cause identified and subsequent batches OK.

Even if spokes do break, it's not a big deal. You can get a complete set of decent spokes from Catsnapper for about £20. I certainly wouldn't make it a decision point on which bike to buy.

 

[trex]

...
I certainly wouldn't make it a decision point on which bike to buy.

a lot of members are not so capable of sorting out broken spokes and other niggly repairs themselves, that's why they are prepared to pay £2,000 for the most reliable, trouble free bike. Now if you can design one, the world will beat a path to your new bike shed.
Is it a Kalkhoff? I don't know but I have read here just one story, a small problem with keeping the chain tensioned (posted by 103Alex1)

 

[Deleted member 4366]

All members are capale

a lot of members are not so capable of sorting out broken spokes and other niggly repairs themselves, that's why they are prepared to pay £2,000 for the most reliable, trouble free bike. Now if you can design one, the world will beat a path to your new bike shed.
Is it a Kalkhoff? I don't know but I have read here just one story, a small problem with keeping the chain tensioned (posted by 103Alex1)

All members are capable of fixing broken or loose spokes. It's not exactly difficult. The problem is lack of knowledge in how to do it. You can get a used wheel from a car-boot sale for a couple of quid, a copy of Sheldon Brown's guide, and after an afternoon's playing with them, you will have mastered a vital skill.

One of the Kakhoff models used 24-spoke rims with hub-gears. When the spokes broke, repair was very difficult because you had to do some disassembly of the hub-gears. I seem to remember that the advice was to chuck the whole wheel and buy a new 36 spoke one complete with hub-gears. I think Flecc and Tilson know something about these problems. Maybe they'd like to comment.

I just found this one. I forgot about this. Decent rim brakes like the hydraulic ones on some Kalkhoffs wear out the rims, so it's only a matter of time before you have the certainty that you'll have to get the whole wheel re-built, not just the possibility of a couple of spokes:

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/replacement-wheel-hub-for-original-kalkhoff-pro-connect.15986/

I'm not saying that Kalkhoffs are bad bikes. All bikes have advantages and disadvantages. All have servicing and maintenance issues.

 

[flecc]

One of the Kalkhoff models used 24-spoke rims with hub-gears. When the spokes broke, repair was very difficult because you had to do some disassembly of the hub-gears. I seem to remember that the advice was to chuck the whole wheel and buy a new 36 spoke one complete with hub-gears. I think Flecc and Tilson know something about these problems. Maybe they'd like to comment.

Indeed, the original Kalkhoff Pro Connect had Shimano 24 spoke wheels with the 8 speed Nexus gear hub in the rear that broke spokes from the outset. Shimano actually discontinued that wheel type almost immediately and the Pro Connects reverted to conventional 32 spoke wheels. With the hub gear being 24 spoke and problems locating 24 spoke replacement rims, the best solution was complete replacement of the wheel to 32 or 36 spoke. Fortunately not many of the 24 spoke model were sold before the change.

 

[trex]

...
You can get a used wheel from a car-boot sale for a couple of quid, a copy of Sheldon Brown's guide, and after an afternoon's playing with them, you will have mastered a vital skill.
...

perhaps applicable to male members but you can't seriously suggest to female members to spend an afternoon playing with a used wheel and a copy of Sheldon Brown's?
spend £3 on a bottle of blue loctite and 30 minutes painting over all the bolts of your new shiny bike.

 

[peerjay56]

perhaps applicable to male members but you can't seriously suggest to female members to spend an afternoon playing with a used wheel and a copy of Sheldon Brown's?
spend £3 on a bottle of blue loctite and 30 minutes painting over all the bolts of your new shiny bike.

Now who's trolling?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

spend £3 on a bottle of blue loctite and 30 minutes painting over all the bolts of your new shiny bike.

Saneagle tried that. Unfortunately his spokes settled/stretched after the initial build, so all went loose. With all the nipples nicely glued to the spokes, I couldn't shift any of them with my spoke key, so that motor-wheel was retired. I therefore give that idea, "a nice try, but no cigar".

 

[flecc]

Now who's trolling?

Maybe Trex isn't, gender division still seems common in the wheel building arena, all the builders I've ever seen have been male.

There's a married couple in this country who build wheels for a living, I can't remember where, but the wife loosely assembles the spokes into the hub and rim and the husband completes the build.
.

 

[KTM Bike Industries UK]

most of the wheels builders at the KTM factory in Austria are female.....

we've never had a problem in the 3 years we've been working with KTM in the UK with any wheels, on eBikes or normal..

so perhaps thats the solution.

 

[flecc]

the wheels builders at the KTM factory in Austria are female.....

Ah, so that's what KTM stands for, Kill The Male.
.

 

[peerjay56]

Maybe Trex isn't, gender division still seems common in the wheel building arena, all the builders I've ever seen have been male.

There's a married couple in this country who build wheels for a living, I can't remember where, but the wife loosely assembles the spokes into the hub and rim and the husband completes the build.
.

Having replied on tapatalk, I didn't add the necessary smilies - now edited to show that I did see the funny side

 

[Deleted member 4366]

The factory that builds the new Oxygen bikes has a fully automatic wheel-building machine. You program it with the spoke tensions and away it goes. It can automatically dish the wheels too by programming a different tension each side.

 

[flecc]

Having replied on tapatalk, I didn't add the necessary smilies - now edited to show that I did see the funny side

I did interpret that it was a wry comment Phil, just thought it worth an observation about the male dominance in wheel building I'd seen in Britain.

 

[Jazzist]

All members are capale


All members are capable of fixing broken or loose spokes. It's not exactly difficult. The problem is lack of knowledge in how to do it. You can get a used wheel from a car-boot sale for a couple of quid, a copy of Sheldon Brown's guide, and after an afternoon's playing with them, you will have mastered a vital skill.

One of the Kakhoff models used 24-spoke rims with hub-gears. When the spokes broke, repair was very difficult because you had to do some disassembly of the hub-gears. I seem to remember that the advice was to chuck the whole wheel and buy a new 36 spoke one complete with hub-gears. I think Flecc and Tilson know something about these problems. Maybe they'd like to comment.

I just found this one. I forgot about this. Decent rim brakes like the hydraulic ones on some Kalkhoffs wear out the rims, so it's only a matter of time before you have the certainty that you'll have to get the whole wheel re-built, not just the possibility of a couple of spokes:

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/replacement-wheel-hub-for-original-kalkhoff-pro-connect.15986/

I'm not saying that Kalkhoffs are bad bikes. All bikes have advantages and disadvantages. All have servicing and maintenance issues.

Ouch. Didn't think of that... Good reason to go with a bike with disc brakes. So this
http://www.50cycles.com/electric-bikes/proconnect-commuter/pro_connect_impulse_10g_xt.html

Instead of this http://www.50cycles.com/electric-bikes/proconnect-commuter/pro_connect_impulse_alfine_8g.html