Buy in UK or in Europe

[Colin the Kiwi]

We are a Kiwi couple in our early 60s, pretty fit and 1.75m and 1.95m tall respectively. We are arriving in the UK in a weeks time to pick up our Motorhome and will be travelling in the UK and Europe for 9 months. We want to get E-Bikes to give us an alternate form of transport. We've motorhomed in Europe before and know that additional transport is very handy.
As we won't be centred in one location, ongoing service from the E-Bike dealer is not that useful to us. What is important is that whatever we buy is reliable and able to be serviced in most places in the unhappy event that something goes wrong. We'll be exporting the van and bikes to NZ after our travels.
Any advice as to suitable bikes and whether we should buy in the UK or in Europe would be greatly appreciated.
As an aside ... we've just done a bike trip in Vietnam that included a continuous 35kms downhill run ... exhilerating!

 

[Woosh]

as your point of arrival is in the UK, it would make sense to buy here, in the UK.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

If you buy Wisper bikes in the UK, not only are they pretty reliable, but they also have a dealer network in NZ, so you'll get support for them when you return home.

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Thanks Dave, Electric Bikes New Zealand based in Aukland will be holding stock of our Mountain bikes by July and City and Trekking bikes as from early summer (NZ). If you need any contact information I would be pleased to assist.

All the best, David

 

[anotherkiwi]

Buy one with the speedo that can show km/h...

 

[Warwick]

Without knowing too much about your needs, the first bike that I thought of was a Haibike Trekking model - there are several. Haibike are sold throughout Europe and use either a Bosch or Yamaha mid-drive system. The Trekking models have racks and mudguards fitted as standard. They are also available in different sizes and in a (sort-of) step through frame, if needed.

Where to buy? That depends how long you will be in the UK before you travel to the mainland. Taking the Haibike Trekking SDURO 4.0 model as an example, in Germany it sells for 2,299 Euros. e-bikesdirect.co.uk* (other shops are available!) currently have it for £2149. Not much in it & I only did the quickest of comparisons. Nice looking bike though.

*My dealings with them were extremely positive.

 

[Trevormonty]

If buying factory middrive bike, Bosch, Shimano and Brose have good support in NZ. Not sure about Yamaha. There maybe option to upgrade Shimano STEP and Brose to 32km/hr cutoff in NZ when you return, not option on Bosch its 25km/h or dongle.

As for rest of bike parts eg, gears, brakes etc are standard so brand is not that important unless you break a frame or need suspension parts for Full suspension MTB.