Cheap e-bike? £600?

[Max1980]

Hi guys, great forum!

I'm looking for a cheap e-bike option to get back into cycling. The plan is to do little day trips around London with my gf who just got a VanMoof. It won't be for commuting but it would be nice if I could swap some journeys. For reference I'm 5'7 and 140lbs. I would guess the range would need to be between 20-30miles.

Unfortunately I can't really justify spending big money at this point in time so I've narrowed it down to a few options. The goal is to end up with something fun that I can grow with.

1 - Used Carrera, Lombard, Chinese fat bike - These can be had for £600ish but the obvious worry is that they will have no warranty and if anything goes wrong parts could be hard to get hold of.

2 - New Amazon/Chinese bike - Brand new, 1yr warranty, good reviews but what happens if something goes wrong in a years time? scrap heap?

3 - DIY my own bike - If I don't go super high end in theory I could build something pretty cool. I have to admit I'm drawn to the UDX look, retro BMX cruisers etc


Any advice?

 

[Max1980]

I would definitely go down the new ebike kit and s/hand bike route. You'll be getting a fresh battery and motor but be able to get a decent bike secondhand to use with it. The Yose kits can be good. I think somewhere around £350-400 they do kits with batteries and these can be purchased directly from yose or sometimes they have listings on ebay. The important thing is they have some stock they ship from the UK.

Based on your weight and budget I would go with a rear wheel hub drive kit.

Thanks I think I'm leaning this way too. Mountain bikes are under £100 all day so in theory that shouldn't be a problem!

Fortunately there is a Fiido stockist fairly local so I can probably check some out soon.

 

[Max1980]

I'm with you, I love the Fairdale range of bikes, like oversize BMX. I would love to convert one to electric. Better get your credit card out!

These are beautiful!

So many cool options. I like the idea of these too.

 

[Waspy]

These are beautiful!

So many cool options. I like the idea of these too.

Well, to be honest not so keen on those. There is a guy in my town rides around on one of those, not very cool. He rides it on the roads and doing 15 - 20 mph in traffic is no fun. He would have been better off buying a 50cc scooter. Also, he rides it on the roads with no helmet, he is just begging to be pulled over by plod.

 

[Bonzo Banana]

That bike looks like a total money pit to me. Plus you would need time, workspace, tools, skills and money for parts. I mean, it would be fun doing it but I have no idea if OP has all that.

£600 is nearly an impossible budget but you could get a Woosh kit for £540 and one of these very simple, brand new, steel, Indi 'mountain' bike for £140 from Halfords for a total of £680.

But you are still going to need a few tools and know how to work on bikes.

That Marin should have some decent parts but no denying that some might need replacing but a general £20-30 bicycle tool kit should suffice if you don't have one already. This sort of thing but it would equally be needed for your Indi bike which will have lower spec components too and could be more problematic. Anyway this sort of thing. Also that Marin was just an example close to me it will be different bikes close to Max1980. Looks a simple bike to me to sort out although might need a bit of brute force in a few places.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sutekus-Bicycle-Tool-Maintenance-Beginners/dp/B0787V2Y5K

 

[guerney]

That Marin should have some decent parts but no denying that some might need replacing but a general £20-30 bicycle tool kit should suffice if you don't have one already. This sort of thing but it would equally be needed for your Indi bike which will have lower spec components too and could be more problematic. Anyway this sort of thing.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sutekus-Bicycle-Tool-Maintenance-Beginners/dp/B0787V2Y5K

That looks a useful tool kit, apart from that chain tool - in my experience, that cheap type has been single-use only. Utterly useless after one use. This Top Peak is much more durable:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Topeak-Super-Chain-Tool-Silver/dp/B000FIE4EK/ref=

Decent quality bike tools always cost rather a lot more, than one originally budgets for.

 

[Bonzo Banana]

That looks a useful tool kit, apart from that chain tool - in my experience, that cheap type has been single-use only. Utterly useless after one use. This Top Peak is much more durable:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Topeak-Super-Chain-Tool-Silver/dp/B000FIE4EK/ref=

Decent quality bike tools always cost rather a lot more, than one originally budgets for.

I've broken one or two chain tools myself in my time but they were mainly the little chain tools on multi-tools. I normally break the pin on single speed chains or perhaps 7 speed chains. I never seem to have problems with high speed chains like 10 speed as I guess they have thinner plates and typically less strong. I have two tool kits like the above I linked to one looks near identical that is perhaps 10 years old and maybe 5 years ago Halfords had an offer on their set for £10 so I bought one of those as well. All tools are still fine in both kits except I may have snapped some plastic tyre levers in one of them.

 

[Max1980]

Well, to be honest not so keen on those. There is a guy in my town rides around on one of those, not very cool. He rides it on the roads and doing 15 - 20 mph in traffic is no fun. He would have been better off buying a 50cc scooter. Also, he rides it on the roads with no helmet, he is just begging to be pulled over by plod.

Yeah its definitely a grey area. You'd have the same speed issue with any (legal) e-bike though right? I think they can be unrestricted but yeah I understand the hesitation given it basically looks like a motorbike.

I think they are really for people that always wanted the good parts of motorbike ownership - freedom, speed, looks - without having to insure, store outside, get a license etc.

 

[Waspy]

Yeah its definitely a grey area. You'd have the same speed issue with any (legal) e-bike though right? I think they can be unrestricted but yeah I understand the hesitation given it basically looks like a motorbike.

I think they are really for people that always wanted the good parts of motorbike ownership - freedom, speed, looks - without having to insure, store outside, get a license etc.

Yes the same speed issues apply to all e-bikes.

That guy had better hope his bike is restricted to 15 mph because it looks very much like an electric moped and he rides on the roads with no helmet, it is bound to attract the curiosity of the police.

Also, I find riding on busy roads no fun, it quickly makes you realise just how slow e-bikes actually are. I ride on cycle paths (loads in my town), country parks, canal towpaths etc. well away from any plod. My bike will do about 18mph but I like to bimble along at 10-15 mph.

If I lived in London, considering the number of police there, I would definitely make sure any e-bike I owned was super legal. It would be nice to bimble around tourist spots on a Sunday morning when there is little traffic (I assume).

Getting back to your original question, £600 is a very tight budget, if you could stretch it a bit, Yose Power do a complete mountain e-bike (with warranty) with a 13Ah battery for 849 euros or £722

https://yosepower.com/collections/e-bike/products/27-5-mountain-ebike-250w-mtb-electric-bicycle-elektrofahrrad-with-36v-13ah-battery

Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[egroover]

I've got 3 yosepower batteries, the oldest 4 years old, still going strong, no noticeable drop in capacity. Full 36v kit with 15ah battery is sub £400, donor bike easy to find for £200 or less

 

[Max1980]

Hi guys any thoughts on buying a non-running but fairly new bike on gumtree etc? The first one with the intermittent fault could be an easy fix.


£400, original price £1000 (allegedly

Used stuff for sale | Gumtree

Find the latest stuff for sale on Gumtree. See used items for sale from clothes,electricals, furniture to tickets and more.

www.gumtree.com

£250, original price £750

Cheap e-bike? £600?

That bike looks like a total money pit to me. Plus you would need time, workspace, tools, skills and money for parts. I mean, it would be fun doing it but I have no idea if OP has all that. £600 is nearly an impossible budget but you could get a Woosh kit for £540 and one of these very simple...

www.pedelecs.co.uk

 

[Nealh]

The gumtree bike might be worth a punt if you have £400 to spare and can test ride it. One needs to know exactly when and how the bike cuts out so again a test ride. The cutting could be that the set speed limit has been reached or the motors terminal rpm has been reached if the lcd speed limit has been set higher. One can't ride the bike with power faster then the terminal motor rpm winding will allow without increasing the voltage.
The downside is it uses the lishui control system, it depends if it is a speed or current control but personally think the KT is much better and easier to to replace components.

 

[sjpt]

The B TWIN ad says 'Now bike rides but cuts off '. That's different from an intermittent fault.

One possible reason for that is a nearly dead battery. If it isn't looked after that can come with even a fairly new battery, eg if left for a time fully discharged. That would charge normally, but as soon as you try to get any current from it voltage would drop and the motor cut out. If that is the case a replacement would be around £200 up depending on capacity. (The ad doesn't say the original capacity of the current battery.)

If you are lucky it could just be a dodgy connection somewhere.

~~~
p.s. I misread that as £250 for the BTWIN. I'd be very dubious of spending £400 on it.

 

[Bonzo Banana]

Hi guys any thoughts on buying a non-running but fairly new bike on gumtree etc? The first one with the intermittent fault could be an easy fix.


£400, original price £1000 (allegedly

Used stuff for sale | Gumtree

Find the latest stuff for sale on Gumtree. See used items for sale from clothes,electricals, furniture to tickets and more.

www.gumtree.com

I don't think that bike was originally £550 and certainly wasn't bought from Halfords. A problematic ebike kit is not worth spending that money on, the battery, motor or controller could be faulty and it could be an easy fix the cadence sensor maybe or a very expensive fix like a failing battery pack its a gamble. You can buy a brand new fresh yose ebike kit for less than £400 and its fully guaranteed. That Decathlon bike looks nothing special, you could probably pick up something similar secondhand for £50. The battery could be end of life after 100s of charge cycles. The fact the seller doesn't know that Decathlon bikes don't come from Halfords means the bike was bought secondhand or possibly stolen.

 

[Nealh]

As sjpt has mentioned it might be a battery issue but one needs to ride the bike to see.
It has a voltage read out so one can watch to see if the volatge collapses when using throttle, his saying that PAS is faster then the throttle is not correct, both PAS and throttle will give max current.
The battery depends on the specs and the max continuous current output of the cells, the battery will need to output 25a continuous for the 18a rated controller. If it is a cheap battery then it may not be up to delivering the current.

 

[Bonzo Banana]

It's a confusing Decathlon bike, it seems to have hybrid style short travel forks but it has mountain bike tyres and the crankset looks pretty cheap as do the pedals. Almost like its a mix of different bike components. The frame looks like a Riverside model especially as its paired with short travel forks. The ebike kit doesn't appear to be installed very well which is hopeful. The hybrid forks have remote lockout which is more of a premium feature for hybrid forks.

 

[Max1980]

Ok gonna sack off that idea!

Bought a new one of these locally for £100

Pardon our interruption...

 

[Waspy]

Ok gonna sack off that idea!

Bought a new one of these locally for £100

Pardon our interruption...

OK, so you've bought a 48v battery and cradle with no controller? Not being funny but what is it you intend to do with that?

 

[Max1980]

OK, so you've bought a 48v battery and cradle with no controller? Not being funny but what is it you intend to do with that?

Buy bike, buy conversion kit minus battery?

 

[Waspy]

Buy bike, buy conversion kit minus battery?

OK, well good luck. Don't forget though you will need a 48v kit (I think).

 

[Nealh]

One can buy dual volatge controllers like Kt with displays the easy bit, what you will have to be careful with though is the hub motor and particularly the winding speed. If you buy a 36v hub it will run 33% faster at 48v so if wanting to climb hills one will need ideally a proper 48v wound hub at 201rpm.