I thought I’d post my experience in buying and riding my electric bike as I thought it might help others who are wading through all the information who might be in the same position.
Firstly – me - I’m nearly 47, I’m not a sportsperson, I don’t cycle as a hobby. I do have an old Raleigh Trail bike that gets used occasionally on fine days, and although I’m not particularly overweight (about 13.5 stone) I could probably do with losing a stone or so. I don’t have any health problems and I haven’t smoked for years but I’m not particularly fit and I’m quite lazy and certainly don’t enjoy exercise for its own sake. I used to cycle to work all the time in my twenties and early thirties in a different job so I’m not a complete cycling novice, but I’m very much not a bike obsessive, and just know how to do some basic maintenance. A bike for me is for getting from A to B, and maybe for a pleasant ride on a nice day.
Basically I was looking for something to help me get to work – I live in Cardiff, my office is about 5 miles away, but has 2 big hills in the way. If the journey to work was all on the flat I’d happily cycle in all the time (apart from in the rain!)
I have cycled in a couple of times but ended up having to get off and push at least twice, so the journey took about 35 - 40 minutes and there is only one shower in the building, making the whole journey more like an hour door to desk when it’s barely a fifteen minute drive. I had endless conversations with cycling friends who all said things like ‘but after a few weeks you’d be fit and sailing up those hills’ but even the fittest cyclists who commute to our office still need a shower – the last hill is really steep. I also often have to drop my kids off at school and pick them up so this makes it difficult to fit it all in.
I was also looking to reduce my fuel bill (about £40-45 per month commuting) and also get a bit of exercise into the bargain – but crucially - without needing a shower when I get to work.
So - I wanted something that ideally looked and felt like a normal bike, but would make going up hills and into headwinds feel more like going along the flat, and be able to do a 10-15 mile round trip without recharging.
Oh – and I wanted to buy via my employers cycle to work scheme to save money.
So – which bike?
In my village there are two cycle shops that sell electric bikes, so I test rode one and was convinced that an electric bike would definitely do the job as it smoothed out the hills and made it all very pleasant. In fact I was surprised at how much power you can get as I expected to have to do a lot more work. The model I test rode was the Lifecycle Mountain Sport – which was lovely, but I suspected was overpowered for my needs as you really didn’t need to pedal at all, and it would do up to 22 mph. I also talked to the other shop and they recommended a KTM Macina Cross – I didn’t get round to test riding it, but again, it looked a lovely machine.
However - both of these bikes were £1800 – which is out of my price range for the cycle to work scheme. I didn’t want to be spending that sort of money on something that, let’s face it, I might decide wasn’t for me after a few weeks or months.
Also – neither shop really listened to or understood my needs. One of them was very insistent that for hills I really needed a rear wheel drive, which I’ve seen refuted on several posts – maybe they were assuming I didn’t intend to do any pedalling at all?. The other kept talking about how great it was for off road mountain biking etc when I’d explained I wanted it for a simple commute.
I also emailed some local bike shops explaining what I was looking for and asking for advice and recommendations – but only got one or two replies which didn’t really answer my questions or give me much confidence in their knowledge or their approach to customer service. So I looked online.
The pedelec forum turned out to be the perfect place to get information – many thanks to all the community who post here- and so I waded through the arguments, reviews, opinions etc to try to get a feel for what I needed to be looking for, and what I needed to be avoiding. The arguments against cheaper models seemed to be based on past experience of lack of support, spares – especially replacement batteries etc, which may not apply to some contemporary cheaper models as the market has matured. Also I discovered that many models essentially use the same technology – a 250v hub motor, and so it is the battery that is crucial.
After a lot of research I decided between two low priced models in my price range that would suit my needs, and seemed to have happy customers with good experience of after sales service etc.
So eventually for me it was a toss up between Cycloctricity Revolver or Stealth and the Woosh Sirocco 2. Unfortunately, there are no local dealers for either of these near me in Cardiff, so I was unable to test them. In the end I chose Cyclotricity as the Cycle 2 Work scheme my employer uses isn’t accepted by Woosh (turns out there is more than one scheme… why?)
I went for the Revolver model as I couldn’t see any advantage for me of the disc brakes or the more hi tech LCD panel on the Stealth. (As I’ve said – I’m not a bike obsessive, and all the advice re: disc brakes seemed to be about stopping at high speed, in the rain, etc etc – I really don’t intend to cycle at high speeds, and I probably won’t be using it in the rain that often either. Also – I’m not really interested in the trip computer etc – I can work out how long it’s taken me to go five miles by looking at my watch). After the frustration of waiting for all the admin involved with the Cycle 2 work scheme to go through (I could write an essay about this on its own), I finally received my bike...
Firstly – me - I’m nearly 47, I’m not a sportsperson, I don’t cycle as a hobby. I do have an old Raleigh Trail bike that gets used occasionally on fine days, and although I’m not particularly overweight (about 13.5 stone) I could probably do with losing a stone or so. I don’t have any health problems and I haven’t smoked for years but I’m not particularly fit and I’m quite lazy and certainly don’t enjoy exercise for its own sake. I used to cycle to work all the time in my twenties and early thirties in a different job so I’m not a complete cycling novice, but I’m very much not a bike obsessive, and just know how to do some basic maintenance. A bike for me is for getting from A to B, and maybe for a pleasant ride on a nice day.
Basically I was looking for something to help me get to work – I live in Cardiff, my office is about 5 miles away, but has 2 big hills in the way. If the journey to work was all on the flat I’d happily cycle in all the time (apart from in the rain!)
I have cycled in a couple of times but ended up having to get off and push at least twice, so the journey took about 35 - 40 minutes and there is only one shower in the building, making the whole journey more like an hour door to desk when it’s barely a fifteen minute drive. I had endless conversations with cycling friends who all said things like ‘but after a few weeks you’d be fit and sailing up those hills’ but even the fittest cyclists who commute to our office still need a shower – the last hill is really steep. I also often have to drop my kids off at school and pick them up so this makes it difficult to fit it all in.
I was also looking to reduce my fuel bill (about £40-45 per month commuting) and also get a bit of exercise into the bargain – but crucially - without needing a shower when I get to work.
So - I wanted something that ideally looked and felt like a normal bike, but would make going up hills and into headwinds feel more like going along the flat, and be able to do a 10-15 mile round trip without recharging.
Oh – and I wanted to buy via my employers cycle to work scheme to save money.
So – which bike?
In my village there are two cycle shops that sell electric bikes, so I test rode one and was convinced that an electric bike would definitely do the job as it smoothed out the hills and made it all very pleasant. In fact I was surprised at how much power you can get as I expected to have to do a lot more work. The model I test rode was the Lifecycle Mountain Sport – which was lovely, but I suspected was overpowered for my needs as you really didn’t need to pedal at all, and it would do up to 22 mph. I also talked to the other shop and they recommended a KTM Macina Cross – I didn’t get round to test riding it, but again, it looked a lovely machine.
However - both of these bikes were £1800 – which is out of my price range for the cycle to work scheme. I didn’t want to be spending that sort of money on something that, let’s face it, I might decide wasn’t for me after a few weeks or months.
Also – neither shop really listened to or understood my needs. One of them was very insistent that for hills I really needed a rear wheel drive, which I’ve seen refuted on several posts – maybe they were assuming I didn’t intend to do any pedalling at all?. The other kept talking about how great it was for off road mountain biking etc when I’d explained I wanted it for a simple commute.
I also emailed some local bike shops explaining what I was looking for and asking for advice and recommendations – but only got one or two replies which didn’t really answer my questions or give me much confidence in their knowledge or their approach to customer service. So I looked online.
The pedelec forum turned out to be the perfect place to get information – many thanks to all the community who post here- and so I waded through the arguments, reviews, opinions etc to try to get a feel for what I needed to be looking for, and what I needed to be avoiding. The arguments against cheaper models seemed to be based on past experience of lack of support, spares – especially replacement batteries etc, which may not apply to some contemporary cheaper models as the market has matured. Also I discovered that many models essentially use the same technology – a 250v hub motor, and so it is the battery that is crucial.
After a lot of research I decided between two low priced models in my price range that would suit my needs, and seemed to have happy customers with good experience of after sales service etc.
So eventually for me it was a toss up between Cycloctricity Revolver or Stealth and the Woosh Sirocco 2. Unfortunately, there are no local dealers for either of these near me in Cardiff, so I was unable to test them. In the end I chose Cyclotricity as the Cycle 2 Work scheme my employer uses isn’t accepted by Woosh (turns out there is more than one scheme… why?)
I went for the Revolver model as I couldn’t see any advantage for me of the disc brakes or the more hi tech LCD panel on the Stealth. (As I’ve said – I’m not a bike obsessive, and all the advice re: disc brakes seemed to be about stopping at high speed, in the rain, etc etc – I really don’t intend to cycle at high speeds, and I probably won’t be using it in the rain that often either. Also – I’m not really interested in the trip computer etc – I can work out how long it’s taken me to go five miles by looking at my watch). After the frustration of waiting for all the admin involved with the Cycle 2 work scheme to go through (I could write an essay about this on its own), I finally received my bike...
