Hello all,
I've been a long term lurker with no login for a while. In that time I've toyed with the idea of converting a mountain bike I already own, buying a second-hand hybrid and putting a crank motor on it and buying a fresh new one.
I, like a lot of people on here it seems, can't justify 2k+ on an e-bike, therefore, total acceptable price is in the region of about 1k. The cycle to work schemes seem to really take the sting out of it when in that price territory which makes building your own a poor choice from a purely cash out of the door point of view.
I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that a Woosh Karoo or a Kudos Stealth is the way forward for me. I'm in the target weight/height category, want to go quick while actually doing some pedaling and price wise it is in the right area. Tony has been excellent at answering my pretty intense questions. The only problem I see is me getting to Southend to try one out.
My use case is a 15 to 18 mile commute from roughly Selsdon to the City of London a couple of times a week. Reasonably fit but not confident in doing there and back without some assistance for various proper reasons not just being mildly lazy. There is a bit of a grim hill at the end of the ride home which has seriously put me off even doing the journey once on a normal bike plus the number of lights which I believe an electric bike will help me get away from. This hill pushes me to an ebike with gears hence some of the discussed bikes in this range have been discounted.
I've read the Crowborough review, still not sure how bad the hill was compared to the hill I have to deal with and having read a number of threads it sounds like a tyre to the marathons, an NCX seat post and swapping the grips for some GP3s and a thumb throttle are worth considering. Mudguards and racks are just a fact of life for my use case. 13A or 15A is also a consideration for the distance as I feel I could be very close to the limit of a 13A range wise.
I'd be really interested to hear from anybody who has been through this journey of ebike discovery recently that looked at these bikes / this kind of bike and really interested if they have one of these two and live around South London with a similar commute.
Safe and happy riding,
James
I've been a long term lurker with no login for a while. In that time I've toyed with the idea of converting a mountain bike I already own, buying a second-hand hybrid and putting a crank motor on it and buying a fresh new one.
I, like a lot of people on here it seems, can't justify 2k+ on an e-bike, therefore, total acceptable price is in the region of about 1k. The cycle to work schemes seem to really take the sting out of it when in that price territory which makes building your own a poor choice from a purely cash out of the door point of view.
I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that a Woosh Karoo or a Kudos Stealth is the way forward for me. I'm in the target weight/height category, want to go quick while actually doing some pedaling and price wise it is in the right area. Tony has been excellent at answering my pretty intense questions. The only problem I see is me getting to Southend to try one out.
My use case is a 15 to 18 mile commute from roughly Selsdon to the City of London a couple of times a week. Reasonably fit but not confident in doing there and back without some assistance for various proper reasons not just being mildly lazy. There is a bit of a grim hill at the end of the ride home which has seriously put me off even doing the journey once on a normal bike plus the number of lights which I believe an electric bike will help me get away from. This hill pushes me to an ebike with gears hence some of the discussed bikes in this range have been discounted.
I've read the Crowborough review, still not sure how bad the hill was compared to the hill I have to deal with and having read a number of threads it sounds like a tyre to the marathons, an NCX seat post and swapping the grips for some GP3s and a thumb throttle are worth considering. Mudguards and racks are just a fact of life for my use case. 13A or 15A is also a consideration for the distance as I feel I could be very close to the limit of a 13A range wise.
I'd be really interested to hear from anybody who has been through this journey of ebike discovery recently that looked at these bikes / this kind of bike and really interested if they have one of these two and live around South London with a similar commute.
Safe and happy riding,
James
