Help! Bike for semi-specialised use - purchase advice

[Birdy101]

Hi. A non-biker here (sorry) but in need of some purchase advice and thought this might be a good start. I need to but a bike for at least 1 season (hopefully more) to use for 1 day/month on pretty hard sand - each day will entail covering some 30+km (repeat routes on a beach) by one person. I'm presuming an electric fat bike is the job and frequent washing down in freshwater will assist with inevitable corrosion/wear issues. I'd obviously like to do an end of winter/project thorough strip and clean so as to prolong the life of the bike and be able to use in similar locations in the future.
Any recommendations on models that might be best for this purpose? Budget max £2,000
Any particular things to be aware of with respect to features etc?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Incidentally I heard that a mid-drive motor is what I'd want and ideally by a Shimano, Yamaha or Bosch motor..

 

[thelarkbox]

with your budget buy 2 batteries and forget the efficiency of a mid drive and just use basic hub drive motors. the sea and sand will no doubt have an impact on the motor sooner or later and when that time comes a £100-150 cost to replace a dead hub motor is cheaper and quicker than any mid drive replacement costs.

with a spare battery on board you can afford to ghost pedal (just keep the pedals moving no force) to keep the motor engaged to drive you along at top speed, and if the first battery fails to carry you the whole 30 miles you have a backup to finish the days ride.

 

[Nealh]

Your bike won't last long at all, no matter what you do saline will destroy/corrode the electronics and the esp the battery, even dry sand will be an issue .

 

[saneagle]

Hi. A non-biker here (sorry) but in need of some purchase advice and thought this might be a good start. I need to but a bike for at least 1 season (hopefully more) to use for 1 day/month on pretty hard sand - each day will entail covering some 30+km (repeat routes on a beach) by one person. I'm presuming an electric fat bike is the job and frequent washing down in freshwater will assist with inevitable corrosion/wear issues. I'd obviously like to do an end of winter/project thorough strip and clean so as to prolong the life of the bike and be able to use in similar locations in the future.
Any recommendations on models that might be best for this purpose? Budget max £2,000
Any particular things to be aware of with respect to features etc?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Incidentally I heard that a mid-drive motor is what I'd want and ideally by a Shimano, Yamaha or Bosch motor..

Here are my thoughts. The crank-drive bikes that you mention have not demonstrated good reliability when used in muddy, sandy and wet situations. They're difficult and expensive to repair, though you might be covered under warranty for the first 12 months. You'd have to check with the dealer whether riding on the beach all the time is normal use. I think you might be better off with a cheaper bike and components that are easy to repair and replace yourself. There are loads of such fatbikes on Ebay, Amazon and elsewhere that you can find with Google.

 

[sjpt]

The main advantages of mid-drive are for mountain biking or very steep hills. I guess your beach is pretty flat, so I agree with the others that hub drive is definitely what you want.

You should probably keep to the legal pedelec rules for riding on the road, 250w max continuous rated power, no assist over 15.5 mph. The machine will then be legal to ride on roads and on cycle paths, bridleways etc.

I'm not sure if there are any specific rules for riding on beaches. That might be more covered by bye-law, but if they allow bicycles at all a pedelec should be OK. Anything more powerful will count as a moped and almost certainly be ruled out. If the bike is for some official use they may waive the bye-laws for it.

 

[Benjahmin]

I agree, a hub motor is the way to go.
As well as a 250w rated hub, make sure it is a geared hub, not a direct drive. Whilst DD motors are good at high speed on the flat I suspect it may well bog down and stall in soft sand.
I think you may struggle to find such a fat bike, most seem to come with big motors to match their big image.

 

[Peter.Bridge]

https://www.leoncycle.co.uk/ncm-aspen-fat-electric-bike-e-bike-48v-13ah-250w-e ?

"Developed in Iceland for riding on snow and ice the Fat bikes large tires surface area make it great for soft terrain including sand and gravel"

Edit :They certainly market it for the beach

 

[esuark]

https://www.leoncycle.co.uk/ncm-aspen-fat-electric-bike-e-bike-48v-13ah-250w-e

at £899.00 got to say it looks a bargain but them derailleur gears are gonna love sand..........

 

[sjpt]

At least it will be (relatively) cheap to replace the derailleurs and other bits of the transmission as necessary.

 

[Nealh]

Marketing for any beach is simply a photo shot.
Any one who mixes saline whether wet or dry sand will play havoc eventually with electrics and esp the battery as I mentioned.
Riding along the coast on the promenade is one thing but riding on sand will be another ball game.

 

[Peter.Bridge]

OK, but if there are any problems with the bike during the warranty period you would have a good claim given Leon cycles says it is ideal for riding on the beach. https://fb.watch/nPAs7-lwgI/

I do take the point that riding on the beach will limit the life of the electrics on the bike, was just following on from @saneagle s point that it might be worth getting a cheap hub motor fat bike that will be easily repairable. The original poster was asking for a bike to use 1 day/ month for 1 season, hopefully more

 

[AGS]

Engwe M20 with 2 batteries would be my choice, although not legal. It’s cheap and cheerful and easy to repair. Plenty of new ones for sale on eBay for around £1300.

 

[saneagle]

We haven't heard from OP, so it looks like they've gone away to have another think. Either that or we're going to get a link to something that does exactly the job.