ebike for communiting and trails

[lastsplash]

Hi
I am looking at purchasing a new bike and wish to get an ebike - my current bike was purchased from JJB sports over 10 years ago and probably needs to retire.

I wish to commute to work and go on trails in the local are - I live in Devon so many hills!

The bikes I have been looking at are the more light weight ones. In particular Go outdoors do this one.

https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/15933073/calibre-kinetic-e-bike-15933073

It look reasonably light (probably the same weight as my existing bike). Does any body have any view about this? As this is my first ebike my budget would be up to £1000 under the sycle to work scheme.

I am 6" and around 14 stone so any advice would be greatly appreciated as it seems there are many options out there.

 

[sjpt]

It doesn't say the battery capacity in the specs that I can see. If is probably very small. 'Up to' 40 miles could easily mean less that 15 miles in real conditions (especially in Devon), or less still if you use the motor on high settings.

Apart from that it looks like a sensible bike for what it costs. I'm not sure about reliability and spares on the Promovec e motor system; others may have a comment there.

 

[lastsplash]

Thanks for you advice - I could ask them about the battery capacity or if I can get a spare - what ah would be good for this type of bike. I can see on the promovec site that they do an 8.8 10.4 or a 12.8.

I may go down and have a chat with them when they get one in stock after the Christmas period.

 

[Woosh]

the battery on the Calibre is 36V 8.8AH, 317WH.

 

[lastsplash]

So would an 8.8ah cover an up to 40 mile distance or is it best to go for a higher capacity. My commute would be around 5 - 10 miles anything further would be 25 but I would be able to charge when I got there?

I am appreciative of your advice everything has moved on since I bought my last bike

 

[Woosh]

So would an 8.8ah cover an up to 40 mile distance

in ideal condition, yes. No headwind, no climbing hills and in eco mode (you pedal a lot).
The price is good even for 8.8AH, but it is always more useful to have as much battery capacity as you can afford. Not only the battery sags less when climbing hills (it is less stressed), you don't have to charge it up every day and are not worried about running out of battery in a cold and wet evening.

 

[Nealh]

8.8ah 25 miles tops in my view.

 

[RobF]

So would an 8.8ah cover an up to 40 mile distance or is it best to go for a higher capacity. My commute would be around 5 - 10 miles anything further would be 25 but I would be able to charge when I got there?

I am appreciative of your advice everything has moved on since I bought my last bike

It's not clear how far you are commuting, but if it's 10 miles each way, the smaller battery may not be sufficient for a round trip.

Charging twice a day may drive you nuts, not least because you would have to remember to lug the charger to and from work, or buy a spare.

Buy a bike with the biggest battery you can afford.

 

[lastsplash]

Ideal thanks for your advice

My everyday commute would be around 5 miles each way. I do work at another office that is around 15/20 miles away so I guess I would need a charge or spare battery. It is not clear on the website where to get a spare battery but I can ask and see if it is worth it. I was attracted to this bike due to the weight being 15kg rather than 24kg that seems to be the equivalent at Halfords etc.

 

[Woosh]

I was attracted to this bike due to the weight being 15kg rather than 24kg that seems to be the equivalent at Halfords etc.

I think the 15kgs is a bit low.
The motor and battery adds about 5kgs to the bike.
The Suntour XCM fork weighs nearly 3kgs on its own. That leaves 7kgs for the mechanical bike.
The Calibre Two Cubed for example, similar in mechanical specs, is quoted as 14.5kgs.

https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/15905595/calibre-two-cubed-mountain-bike-15905595/

 

[Nealh]

For hilly terrain opt for at least 10ah/360wh for 20/25 mile range and that is on low PAS assist mode. A regular fit rider will use 8 - 12 wh/m but this is variable on terrain.
You will only get an idea of your actual wh/m usage once you have ridden the bike and battery down to the Low voltage cutoff point (LVC) to actually calculate your typical usage.

 

[Carrie-anne]

Hi,

I was wondering if you got round to buying this or similar or if you were one of the many who got caught up in the COVID-19 national bike shortage?

For what it's worth my dad has the Calibre Kinetic which is now on sale in Go Outdoors for £999, and it serves him well enough, he's 6'1" and almost 18 stone and has the medium size frame, he rides it 2-4 time a week for between 11-24 miles each trip and only charges it once or twice a week usually to prep for the longer runs he does at the weekend. He also tends to ride it on higher assistance levels than necessary. We live in the countryside near Bedford so while not as flat as some places it's not anywhere near as hilly as the likes of Devon. One of the hills we do go on regularly though that we used to avoid like the plague has an variable incline between 60 and 80 degrees and goes on for just over half a mile and this bike makes it easy even for a family of lazy lumps like us.

I bought the Rockrider E-ST 100 from Decathlon for £799 which has been a fantastic bike but I'm waiting on a replacement battery as the one it came with was faulty. I haven't been able to go too far on it as while I was waiting for it to arrive I got into an accident on my dad's and injured my elbow (luckily for me the bike was not seriously harmed and I was not the one at fault so I got to live to ride another day) but between me and my mum I've accumulated around 20 miles and still haven't been able to burn through a bar of battery. It arrived with three bars and still has three bars. The E-ST 100 has a larger batter than the Kinetic coming in at 36v 10.55ah for 380w/h which is pretty good for the price and has an LCD screen with trip computer etc instead of the basic LED lights that the Kinetic comes with. On the downside thought the Kinetic has 5 levels of assistance the E-ST 100 has 3 and auto assist (also known as walk mode). I don't know where you found the weight of the Kinetic as I can't see it on site anywhere but the Rockrider is 22.5 kg including the batter and my dad's Kinetic is only slightly lighter than mine, I'd say closer to 22 or maybe 21.5kg so perhaps the 15kg weight is without the battery? Those things weigh a tonne though the 8.8ah Kinetic batter is significantly lighter than the 10.55 ah Rockrider one which is, for obvious reasons, lighter than the 11.6ah battery on my mum's Carrera Crossfire.

Would love to know what you went with in the end.