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?

 

[Bonzo Banana]

Ok so here is the running total so far -

£100 - Bike, hydraulic brakes, front suspension
£100 - Yose Power 48V 13A Battery
£60 - Bafang G020.250.DC 13 Motor on a 27.5" rim
£77 - 17A KT Controller, throttle, brake sensor, LCD3 display etc

£27 - Schwalbe Marathon plus MTB Tyre
£4 - Schwalbe innertube
£3 - Schwalbe rim tape

£23 - 8 Speed Cassette
£5 - Brake pads
£4 - Throttle Cable
£10 - New Handlebars
£14 - Hyraulic brake fluid kit
£2 - Rivnuts

Grand total = £429


I was getting a bit antsy last night so I powered on the kit just to check it is working. All good so far! Annoying having to wait for this rim tape but it's not the end of the world

Just need to buy some sort of pouch for the controller and give the whole thing a clean.

Looking forward to the image of the finished bike. If I have bits I sell on that I don't need I tend to put those in the final calculation as well as a negative but I don't know if you have any such bits. Maybe the original rear wheel. It might fetch £20 locally with a bit of a clean and the original handlebars for a fiver maybe.