Unfortunately some low low life deceived to beak into our house a month back, as well as taking a lot of personal stuff they took my Juicy bike from the garage, along with the panier bags and charger Grrrr. House insurance didn't cover the bike, lesson to be learned there. I really miss the bike now, and want to replace it, money is a bit of a problem, cant afford to buy new, funds available about £800, looking at maybe buying a reasonable standard bike and fitting electric kit, would i get something fairly good for this price, used for travel to work, fairly flat, four trips a day, 2.5 miles each way and run outs at weekend 20 mile round trip max. The juicy was not a bad bike, few minor probs with electrics, but soon sorted, bought second hand. I know you can get Woosh and Kudos type bikes new for around this price, but i'm not keen on either make. All advice appreciated
Convert or ready built
- Thread starter denwyn
- Start date
sorry to hear about the break in and welcome back.
Cyclotricity have their Stealth bike within you budget. Any bike under £1000 is difficult to match with built your own, because a decent kit would cost you at least £500 and a decent bike would cost at least £400, unless you get a second hand donor bike. I still think conversion is the way to go, you get the style you want and still value for money.
For example, you can get quite decent German bikes like a Cube Aim Disc for £430 and fit a decent kit like the Woosh Big Bear kit (£550) or this Lapierre cross 300 for £580 and Woosh CD kit (£630), both with 15AH bottle battery, at the top end, there is this £1050 Cube AMS Pro 110, fit it with a £600 rear wheel Big Bear 48V kit and you end up with the best of both worlds.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/cube-aim-disc-26-hardtail-bike-2014/rp-prod114092
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/lapierre/cross-300-2014-hybrid-bike-ec054585
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/cube-ams-pro-110-suspension-bike-2013/rp-prod111969
Cyclotricity have their Stealth bike within you budget. Any bike under £1000 is difficult to match with built your own, because a decent kit would cost you at least £500 and a decent bike would cost at least £400, unless you get a second hand donor bike. I still think conversion is the way to go, you get the style you want and still value for money.
For example, you can get quite decent German bikes like a Cube Aim Disc for £430 and fit a decent kit like the Woosh Big Bear kit (£550) or this Lapierre cross 300 for £580 and Woosh CD kit (£630), both with 15AH bottle battery, at the top end, there is this £1050 Cube AMS Pro 110, fit it with a £600 rear wheel Big Bear 48V kit and you end up with the best of both worlds.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/cube-aim-disc-26-hardtail-bike-2014/rp-prod114092
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/lapierre/cross-300-2014-hybrid-bike-ec054585
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/cube-ams-pro-110-suspension-bike-2013/rp-prod111969
I was pleasantly surprised when mooching around Halfords recently:
Found a Carrera & a Voodo mtb/hybrid with hydraulic discs for £350.
Found a Carrera & a Voodo mtb/hybrid with hydraulic discs for £350.
I was about to suggest something similar.
The Carrera Subway is known to be a good, sturdy bike, which is only sometimes let down by poor preparation by Halfords' staff.
Buy it in a box and build it yourself, or ask a competent bike shop to do it.
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_810737_langId_-1_categoryId_165534
I'm no expert on kits, but max 20 miles means a 10ah battery will be sufficient, which gives you lots of choice.
Ha-ha, bit of a role reversal there, Trex, you are starting to sound like me.
I agree Boardmans are among the best bikes you can get for the money.
But if the OP's budget is strictly limited to £800, I think the bike needs to come in at under £300 to allow £500 for the kit.
Trex....
This forum would really benefit from some moderation by someone with some technical expertise in bikes... because there is a lot thats posted, (and I'm not talking about the electronics bit - I'm talking about standard cycling stuff) that is just nonsense and will confuse any readers, which doesn't benefit anyone.
Which components are you talking about that are European made??
There are brands that manufacture components in Europe, but they are very much aftermarket brands like Hope and Tune, I don't think you'll find any European made components on Boardman bikes, even Schwable and Continental now make most of the OEM tyres in the far east.
This forum would really benefit from some moderation by someone with some technical expertise in bikes... because there is a lot thats posted, (and I'm not talking about the electronics bit - I'm talking about standard cycling stuff) that is just nonsense and will confuse any readers, which doesn't benefit anyone.
I'm not sure what you mean by components, but the Halfords bikes are no different from any other brand, and there is no difference between their cheap brands and their Chris Boardman brand. 99% of all components on all bikes are made in the Far East. Even if you spend £6000.00 on a high end carbon road bike from any brand, the components will be made by Sram / Shimano etc etc all of which are far east made.
Which components are you talking about that are European made??
There are brands that manufacture components in Europe, but they are very much aftermarket brands like Hope and Tune, I don't think you'll find any European made components on Boardman bikes, even Schwable and Continental now make most of the OEM tyres in the far east.
D
Deleted member 4366
Guest
Have a look on Ebay, Gumtree and Facebook ads for a used bike as a donor. You can get a nice bike with hydraulic brakes for as little as £100. Any bike can make a good donor. When you make a DIY electric bike, you can always swap the stuff over from one bike to another if you want a change. If you only pay £10 for your donor, you don't miss it so much when it gets nicked.
I got this Diamondback for £15, and Saneagle got this Carera Kraken for £90. My Tesco Trax cost me a fiver
[URL=http://s451.photobucket.com/user/d8veh/media/GNG%20Gen2/226238f5-9e14-43f3-b048-c066dd1f7e54_zpsd9985706.jpg.html]
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[URL=http://s451.photobucket.com/user/d8veh/media/General%20bike/CarreraKraken_zpsd33728c8.jpg.html]
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I paid the scrapman £10 for this one:
I got this Diamondback for £15, and Saneagle got this Carera Kraken for £90. My Tesco Trax cost me a fiver
[URL=http://s451.photobucket.com/user/d8veh/media/GNG%20Gen2/226238f5-9e14-43f3-b048-c066dd1f7e54_zpsd9985706.jpg.html]
0[/URL][URL=http://s451.photobucket.com/user/d8veh/media/General%20bike/CarreraKraken_zpsd33728c8.jpg.html]
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I paid the scrapman £10 for this one:
you've put a question mark, so are you asking?
Which brands do you think are making forks in France, or brakes in Germany?
Aye, you might even be able to buy your old bike back.
most of the Mavic rims you'll see on bikes in Halfords are built in the Mavic facilities in Asia. Mavic do have facilities in Europe (in France and Romania) but from my knowledge they don't build the budget OEM rims / wheels there.
Manitou don't build in Europe.
Avid is all built in the Far East.
Magura... yes, ok - they do have a Euro Factory, so that is one of the exceptions.
But OEM spokes, will be made in the Far East... even DT Swiss who have manufacturing plants in Europe, Asia and North America that produce wheels, hubs, suspension products and, of course, stainless steel spokes – millions of them. They'll use the Far Eastern plants for the OEM builts that you see on complete bikes, because the bikes themselves are built in the Far East, so there is no point building the wheels in Europe and them shipping them to China.
Hayes moved production of most manitou forks to the USA except top of the range air forks, Sapim still make their spokes in Belgium. I am sure looking hard enough, we'll find plenty of examples to contradict one another. The point I try to make is, you can get style and quality for below the magical £1500 line above which you can buy in the shops. If you go for conversion, first thing, upgrade mechanical components to European best.
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I'm not arguing with you, I'm trying to tell you that there is no magical £1500 line, and certainly anyone with any experience of the industry would not be putting up Hayes / Manitou as an example of quality products.
Sapim may make spokes in Europe, but they are not on Halfords bikes, or even have any large OEM contracts that I'm aware of.
anyway we've digressed massively... my point was trying to get you to stop making grand sweeping statements on here about things that you might not be the best person to respond. There doesn't appear to be much moderation on here regarding technical contents.... and by posting you are diluting the useful responses which can then confuse any reader.
This statement:
The idea of buying a good bike an then converting it is a sound one for this persons budget, but to suggest he looks for European made components is totally incorrect, he shouldn't even be looking for European made bikes.
He wants to be finding a bike build with brands like Shimano, Rockshox, Suntour, etc etc. But they won't find anything on a sub £1000.00 RRP bike thats European made really, especially if he's looking in Halfords. And trying to suggest they should seek our "European made components, is less than helpful"
Sapim may make spokes in Europe, but they are not on Halfords bikes, or even have any large OEM contracts that I'm aware of.
anyway we've digressed massively... my point was trying to get you to stop making grand sweeping statements on here about things that you might not be the best person to respond. There doesn't appear to be much moderation on here regarding technical contents.... and by posting you are diluting the useful responses which can then confuse any reader.
This statement:
is incorrect, and not helpful to the thread.
The idea of buying a good bike an then converting it is a sound one for this persons budget, but to suggest he looks for European made components is totally incorrect, he shouldn't even be looking for European made bikes.
He wants to be finding a bike build with brands like Shimano, Rockshox, Suntour, etc etc. But they won't find anything on a sub £1000.00 RRP bike thats European made really, especially if he's looking in Halfords. And trying to suggest they should seek our "European made components, is less than helpful"
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Hmmm.... this seems to have gone off my track, i just wanted advice on build or buy, not to bothered if parts are Euro or China, as long as there reliable, its just a bike for leisure and trips to work, first comment from Trex was very helpful, plus i may look at some used donor bikes. Not keen on Ebay at all, postage costs outweigh the cost of a bike. will keep looking on this forum for ideas.....thanks to all
I disagree but we can't really hijack this thread for this. May be you should start a thread about what makes a KTM e-bike better than a £1500 conversion job.
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