Carrera vulcan or vengeance reliability?

[corpjones]

Hi All

Totally new to e bikes and I'm after my first budget one for casual leisure use, want to spend under £500 (will be using cycletowork scheme to get this price down) and the only decent options I can see are the Carrera vulcan or vengeance options.

When I've searched online I can see old posts which mention power cut out issues, does anyone know if these are now resolved and whether these bikes are now reliable?

Won't be doing much mileage on them but I do want it to last a few years, if they are unreliable leaning towards just getting a conventional bike.

Also if the electrics do fail, are they still decent to ride as normal bikes without assistance? Think weight without battery is about 20kg so I imagine I'd need to ride it on lower gears.

Advice appreciated

 

[Peter.Bridge]

Yes, I had noticed issues with these on the forum, I think it was the difficulty of fixing them that was the problem. Possibly better getting one with generic Chinese components, at least it is easy to fix if anything goes wrong. £500 is quite a low budget, but there are bikes on eBay / Amazon that are close to that

 

[saneagle]

They're not bad bikes when they work. They've done some improvements to solve some of the problems from the past, so they're probably not any more unreliable than other ebikes. The problem now is that they're difficult and expensive to get fixed if they do go wrong after the warranty has expired.

 

[corpjones]

Thank you for the replies, out of interest, when they do go wrong do you know if they are still ok to use as conventional bikes without the electric assist?

I think if I know worst case scenario they are still good to ride if electrics fail it would make decision easier, they seem on the heavy side so I'm worried it may be too difficult to ride without power.

 

[saneagle]

Thank you for the replies, out of interest, when they do go wrong do you know if they are still ok to use as conventional bikes without the electric assist?

I think if I know worst case scenario they are still good to ride if electrics fail it would make decision easier, they seem on the heavy side so I'm worried it may be too difficult to ride without power.

You can ride them home if your electrical system packs up, but you wouldn't to ride one every day like that. A £50 bike from Gumtree would be better.

 

[saneagle]

Where do you live and are you capable of fixing stuff yourself?

 

[Waspy]

Thank you for the replies, out of interest, when they do go wrong do you know if they are still ok to use as conventional bikes without the electric assist?

I think if I know worst case scenario they are still good to ride if electrics fail it would make decision easier, they seem on the heavy side so I'm worried it may be too difficult to ride without power.

Absolutely nobody wants to ride an electric bike with failed electrics, you seem to think you are doomed to this fate if you buy Carrera

Why are you fixated on Carrera?

Ideally you want a bike where each electrical component is easily and relatively cheap to replace, should they go wrong.

This forum can recommend the websites that sell these parts as well as advising on any fault-finding issues (having said that, my e-bike has been trouble free for three years now)

I'm sure the forum members can also recommend more suitable bikes than Carrera.

I see the Vengeance is about £900 and the Vulcan is about £1500. How are you going to get this price down to under £500?

 

[Peter.Bridge]

Yep, if you want buy a suitable donor bike off Facebook marketplace (plenty with disc brakes for under £100) and fit something like a Yosepower kit you'll have change from £500 and you can service it , fix it and upgrade it yourself

https://www.yosepower.co.uk/collections/e-bike-conversion-kit-with-battery

 

[corpjones]

Where do you live and are you capable of fixing stuff yourself?

Live in bedfordshire and I'm not very handy to be honest, think I'd struggle

 

[Waspy]

Live in bedfordshire and I'm not very handy to be honest, think I'd struggle

In that case you'd probably be best buying this Carrera Vulcan for £480. There is a two year warranty on all electrical parts, so you'd get at least two years out of it. Then ride it for as long as you can after that and if/when it fails, dump it/sell it for parts and buy another.

https://www.halfords.com/bikes/mountain-bikes/carrera-vulcan-e-electric-mountain-bike--16in-18in-20in-22in-frames-185142.html?_gl=1*qfhifv*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzY_YwYjkjAMVhZtQBh0MvA92EAQYASABEgLKX_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&gbraid=0AAAAADrJx6yQEvuAPTS8FVMy0e3lSU-OP

 

[corpjones]

Absolutely nobody wants to ride an electric bike with failed electrics, you seem to think you are doomed to this fate if you buy Carrera

Why are you fixated on Carrera?

Ideally you want a bike where each electrical component is easily and relatively cheap to replace, should they go wrong.

This forum can recommend the websites that sell these parts as well as advising on any fault-finding issues (having said that, my e-bike has been trouble free for three years now)

I'm sure the forum members can also recommend more suitable bikes than Carrera.

I see the Vengeance is about £900 and the Vulcan is about £1500. How are you going to get this price down to under £500?

Lol, that made me chuckle, your absolutely right, I think reading a few posts on the issues people have had made me paranoid.

Using cycletowork scheme I was getting prices of around £260 however looks like they were last remaining stock so all gone now, the carrera ones that are in stock are around £500 now even after using the scheme, I'll see if the cheaper ones come back in stock.

Only going to use it short distance in the summer a few times a week so if I have to spend £500 may just opt for a conventional bike instead.

 

[Waspy]

Lol, that made me chuckle, your absolutely right, I think reading a few posts on the issues people have had made me paranoid.

Using cycletowork scheme I was getting prices of around £260 however looks like they were last remaining stock so all gone now, the carrera ones that are in stock are around £500 now even after using the scheme, I'll see if the cheaper ones come back in stock.

Only going to use it short distance in the summer a few times a week so if I have to spend £500 may just opt for a conventional bike instead.

Mate, I'm a little confused. Do you have a £500 budget or not?

A good normal hardtail or hybrid can easily be 500 and more.

There are many decent e-bikes for that money on eBay and Amazon (just ask the members here what they'd recommend) or even a Carrera on the CTW scheme.

There's one thing I know to be an absolute truth, e-bikes are so much more fun than a normal bike, steep hills become flat(ish) roads, headwinds no longer exist, large bags of shopping are now weightless.

But, it's your choice of course.

 

[corpjones]

Mate, I'm a little confused. Do you have a £500 budget or not?

A good normal hardtail or hybrid can easily be 500 and more.

There are many decent e-bikes for that money on eBay and Amazon (just ask the members here what they'd recommend) or even a Carrera on the CTW scheme.

There's one thing I know to be an absolute truth, e-bikes are so much more fun than a normal bike, steep hills become flat(ish) roads, headwinds no longer exist, large bags of shopping are now weightless.

But, it's your choice of course.

Sorry to clarify, I was looking at bikes up to £500 on Halfords as I can get them pretty much half price via a work scheme so the cost to me was only going to be £260, that's mainly the reason I was only looking at the 2 Carrera ebikes, I'm limited to Halfords only if I want the discount.

Had a chat with Halfords and they said to wait a couple of weeks for stock to come back in, in the interim I'll go into store and do a test ride

 

[Waspy]

Sorry to clarify, I was looking at bikes up to £500 on Halfords as I can get them pretty much half price via a work scheme so the cost to me was only going to be £260, that's mainly the reason I was only looking at the 2 Carrera ebikes, I'm limited to Halfords only if I want the discount.

Had a chat with Halfords and they said to wait a couple of weeks for stock to come back in, in the interim I'll go into store and do a test ride

£260 is a super low budget, but God loves a tryer!

Better check Halfords daily for those re-stocked bargains.

As for doing a test ride, this is very dangerous because of Newton's Third Law of Electricity: "You test an e-bike - you buy an e-bike"

 

[Nealh]

If one want's reliability then an e- carrera would not be on my bucket list.

 

[Baz the balloon man]

If you would like nice expensive problems to fix in the future buy a Vengence or Vulcan with original parts .

I have an October 2024 Vengence 120miles on the Meter with a Youse kit 250 W road legal .

You can find it on the Gumtree I am just making a decent battery holder for it then it can be sold .

13AH HL down tube battery £550.00 .

The actual Carrera Vengence bike excluding the e components are a decent bike in my opinion.

Then in the future you can upgrade or repair at reasonable cost.