Well, my nomination, unsurprisingly, is the Freego Eagle 17.5 A/h Mountain Bike. Its so good I bought one.
Its fast, comfortable, has 3 power levels on Pedelec, or a throttle. Unlike the, albeit more sophisticated, crank drives, the Eagle is generous with its power and provides as much as I want, whenever I want it. I have had the privilige of some 40 miles testing on Bosch and Panasonic bikes, and whilst they are good hill climbers on the very steep stuff, they demand considerably more effort to ride at speed and offer no assistance at all above the 15 mph set speed. In principle they should be fantastic, but from my perspective they appear emasculated by the regulations offering no assistance whatsoever at 16 mph or more.
But having spent a whole weekend testing crank drive bikes, it was so nice to get back on the Eagle. It makes no more demands on my half century old legs than I elect to provide, and flies along in comfort with or without my help.
The 17.5 A/h Eagle also has colossal range compared to just about anything else. Today I rode out on the marsh, (mostly flat until coming home), I did 24 miles, all on max assist, blatting along the lanes at 19 mph with medium pedalling. The average over the whole ride was 16.2 mph. Back home, I still had all 4 lights glowing, and could very likely have repeated the trip without a re-charge. With more extended use of medium power, (but still fair bit of maximum), the Eagle will do over 50 miles, even with my 90 kilo bulk perched on top.
The Eagle is fast, comfortable, has good lights as standard, looks jolly nice in white and carbon framework, has probably the best range in the business, and for the first 300 miles has proved faultless and totally reliable, and its great fun to ride at any time of day or night.
I'd like to try one of these Haibike jobbies, but then I could buy 2 Eagles for the same money, and for most of us, cost is the biggest factor in our choice of E-Bike.
