Convert or ready built

[KTM Bike Industries UK]

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.

I'm not saying it would be.... thats completely my point. I'm replying as someone who's got 20+ years of working in the bike industry. I'm not replying trying to sell anything or promote anything.

and the reason I have replied is very much because of this:

first comment from Trex was very helpful, plus i may look at some used donor bikes.

Denwym, now thinks your first post was helpful.

When actually your first post was inaccurate and incorrect and gives a false impression of what is important to look for.

Bearing in mind I work for a brand with a factory in Europe... What I'm saying is for this topic.... European Manufacturing is 100% not something that should be a priority, especially for components.

You should be looking to buy a quality brand name bike, with branded components, and I'd suggest looking second hand, searching your local bike shops for trades ins, or local paper for people who've bought bikes on the cycle 2 work scheme that they aren't using.. Thats where the bargains are, if you don't want to look on ebay. Then buy a new conversion kit to ensure you get the back up and support with the electrics.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

. 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

Sort the listing into "nearest first". It will then show you all the bikes for sale in your town. You can then contact the seller,and go and do a deal.

If you tell us where you live, we can see who can find you the best one.

 

[trex]

Col, I hear what you said and I don't seem to miss your points but you seem to miss mine, almost systematically. I am not making a pitch for European made bikes but for European bikes (examples given Cube & Lapierre), not that far from your own view. The same applies for European components, the manufacturing aspect is global, everybody knows that. Still, Shimano components made in Singapore are in general better made than in China.
With a budget of £800, Denwyn is frankly better off buying something like a Cyclotricity Stealth or a Woosh Big Bear. There is no mileage in conversion for under £1,000. If he could stretch his budget to £1000, bearing in mind that the labour cost for fitting is around £80, something like a cube Aim with a Big Bear or CST kit (total cost including professional fit is still within £1000) will give ready made bikes for the same budget a run for their money. The same applies all the way up to around £1800. If he can put up with a second hand donor bike, then he can work with a lesser budget but you are then not comparing within the same situation.

 

[denwyn]

Sort the listing into "nearest first". It will then show you all the bikes for sale in your town. You can then contact the seller,and go and do a deal.

If you tell us where you live, we can see who can find you the best one.

Yes I do know that, I have had a quick look at the complete bikes available, dont want to be buying used bits as I really wouldnt know what im buying. Used bike sounds ok as long as its in ex condition.

 

[Croxden]

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.

Sorry to hear of your loss, I to would be miffed and like you not covered. So I have just rung my insurer who are going to include mine on the house policy for no extra cost. And it's a bit dearer than a Juicy.

 

[denwyn]

Sorry to hear of your loss, I to would be miffed and like you not covered. So I have just rung my insurer who are going to include mine on the house policy for no extra cost. And it's a bit dearer than a Juicy.

I to would have been really miffed if it was a very expensive bike, even so i was gutted to lose the Juicy, after a not so good buy of a Kudos City, which i sold and vowed i wouldn't bother again but a fairly new Juicy became available for a knock down price, i really liked it from the first time i used it. Anyway i think i am going to have a go at buying a standard bike and fitting a kit. early days yet, purchasing the bike is no problem, but i will be asking loads of advice on what e-kit to buy. Needless to say it will be on my insurance next time.

 

[Cyclezee]

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

Hi Denwyn,

How about an eZee Sprint Primo for £850 http://cyclezee.com/ezee-sprint-primo.html

 

[KeithH]

Hi
If you go for a conversion I'd recommend a self build. I'm a total numpty who had to learn which end of a soldering iron to hold the painful way. I learnt a lot and when things break I hope I'll be able to sort them albeit with the help of those on here.
Probably the most important thing is the fit/comfort of the donor, 20 miles on the wrong bike isn't fun
K

 

[Alan Quay]

On the subject of eBay, I picked up a Carerra Vengence t'other day, for £21. It needed new tyres and a chain. When I got there , the guy also had a Carerra kraken, in the same condition. I gave him £55 for both and he threw in two sets of new tyres that he had bought to fit before getting fed up with it all! One set were schwalbe city jets.

It was only 5 miles from my place.

As you see, you can get real bargains on eBay.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You jammy bar steward

 

[JuicyBike]

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

Denwyn
Give our workshop a call. May have a bike for you. Sorry to hear about this.
Kind regards

 

[denwyn]

Been down to Local Halfords in Taunton today, looked at a Carrera Vengeance Mountain Bike, £299 looks ok to me, although they were not to enthusiastic about me converting it to electric, i am looking on Ebay, but think i may prefer a new bike as the donor, although i would imagine i would invalidate any warranty on it should i go ahead and fit an e kit. may be a possibility i may be able to up the budget should need to as well : ). Thanks for all the advice.

 

[KTM Bike Industries UK]

Been down to Local Halfords in Taunton today, looked at a Carrera Vengeance Mountain Bike, £299 looks ok to me, although they were not to enthusiastic about me converting it to electric,

thats pretty normal, there aren't many (any) brands of that I'm aware of that would be happy to recommend or even approve bolting a e kit on so don't put that against Carrera. Their bikes will be designed to cope with certain strains and stresses, and adding a load more weight and power would clearly invalidate the warranty.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

If you stick a motor in your front forks and the drop-outs break off, that's clearly not covered by warranty. If you do the same and then the spokes in your back-wheel start breaking, or if your gear-changer starts slipping or brakes start leaking, they should cover it. If your frame breaks in two. that's a difficult one, but I guess that they wouldn't cover it. I think you need to apply a bit of common sense on what the risks are. It's not just a case of warranty or no warranty.

 

[denwyn]

If you stick a motor in your front forks and the drop-outs break off, that's clearly not covered by warranty. If you do the same and then the spokes in your back-wheel start breaking, or if your gear-changer starts slipping or brakes start leaking, they should cover it. If your frame breaks in two. that's a difficult one, but I guess that they wouldn't cover it. I think you need to apply a bit of common sense on what the risks are. It's not just a case of warranty or no warranty.

Yes i do understand what they were saying, of course if something breaks on the bike due to my alterations i wouldn't expect it to be covered. i would be a bit hacked off if it happened though, and it does make me think i need to be sure to buy a decent donor bike, trouble is it then as costs rise should i just buy a ready built bike. I have upped my budget to £1200 max, and that puts me into the lower end price bracket of of new bikes. I still fancy the idea of conversion though.

 

[Alan Quay]

Yes i do understand what they were saying, of course if something breaks on the bike due to my alterations i wouldn't expect it to be covered. i would be a bit hacked off if it happened though, and it does make me think i need to be sure to buy a decent donor bike, trouble is it then as costs rise should i just buy a ready built bike. I have upped my budget to £1200 max, and that puts me into the lower end price bracket of of new bikes. I still fancy the idea of conversion though.

For all these reasons, buy a used bike. No warranty, but then you're not paying for it.

Bikes are pretty easy and cheap to fix. If you are capable of fitting a kit, I would say you are capable of 90% of the maintenance required. The other 10%, you can either learn, or ask a LBS to do.

As has been mentioned, a good used bike will set you back £100. For that money you can get a bike that is almost like new, since most bikes see light use on sunny Sunday afternoons, on cycle tracks.

To wear out a half decent bike you need to thoroughly abuse it for a 1000 miles and perform no maintenance what so ever. Even then, a new chain, sprocket, some cables and lube and it''ll work as good as new.

 

[RobF]

Plenty of stuff on push bike forums about Carrera Subways being fairly bomb proof and long lasting.

In my view, an ideal donor bike.

No point in paying any more.

 

[KTM Bike Industries UK]

If you stick a motor in your front forks and the drop-outs break off, that's clearly not covered by warranty. If you do the same and then the spokes in your back-wheel start breaking, or if your gear-changer starts slipping or brakes start leaking, they should cover it. If your frame breaks in two. that's a difficult one, but I guess that they wouldn't cover it. I think you need to apply a bit of common sense on what the risks are. It's not just a case of warranty or no warranty.

just to help you understand how it works... if you do something that invalidates the warranty, ie strap a motor to the bike. No matter what breaks you won't be covered. The shop will argue that the extra speed, and stress put on the bike by the motor can cause all sorts of damage to drive chain, brakes and the frame. So even if you use a front wheel motor, I'd be very very surprised if any aspect of the warranty is valid.

however clearly, common sense suggests that you don't tell the shop what you're planning, and then if something does break, you put the original spec back on the bike before taking it back to the shop to claim on any warranty.

But as Mike has said... second hand bike clearly makes the most sense to you, you'll get much more for your money, and the quality is worth more than the warranty.

 

[trex]

Col, what is of value and can break on a £300 bike within a year?
there is no proof that the shop (Halfords) will argue with the customer if some component fails due to manufacturing issue.
to fit a hub motor to a QR front wheel, you have to file out the fork a little, 10 minute job and that will invalidate the warranty but a new SR fork is only £30 and if it fails, put some Rockshox on and see the difference.

 

[KTM Bike Industries UK]

a lot more than £300.00..... This is clearly unlikely and just hypothetical - but generally a £300.00 bike will cost more than £300.00 to rebuild should you need all the parts separately, so you can essentially do a lot more than £300.00 worth of damage to a £300.00 bike.

But its time and hassle as well, say for instance the frame snaps at a weld, then all the OEM parts you already have from your £300.00 bike might not fit a new frame you have to buy to replace your snapped one, if its not covered by the warranty. Plus you have the costs of rebuilding etc etc.

Its really unlimited, as in theory (unlikely) you could break the frame, and then have to replace it, and then break that one etc etc.

Once in a season of racing downhill, I was using Manitou forks, I went though 11 sets of carbon lowers in a season. If I'd not had a warranty on them, it could have cost me £6600.00 in just replacing fork lowers!!! The RRP on the forks themselves was just under £1000.00

So if I was this guy, I'd still buy a second hand bike. There are some bargains out there, and warranty only actually covers manufacturing faults. So isn't something that in reality with quality brands is every claimed on these days.