Electric Mountain Bike

[martinr]

Hi

I want to buy a bike off the shelf, I'll be making a purchase this week, it will be used on private roads at Loch Rannoch, there's access to old tracks that run up the hills, my landlord uses these roads and keeps them in good condition, there's a few hills, some of them are quite steep but once you're high on the hill it's good ground.

I was looking at the Volt Alpine X at £1949, I'm willing to spend more, I know that bike is limited to 15 mph, I would prefer a faster bike, but more important is a bike that can handle the hill climbs.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Deleted member 4366]

The Oxygen Emate MTB, no question. It pulls hard to 23 mph, is light and tough, and £1700.

http://www.oxygenbicycles.com/e-bikes/e-mate-mtb-13ah

 

[Jonah]

This KTM E-Race P is considered by many to be one of the best at £2150

 

[Deleted member 4366]

This KTM E-Race P is considered by many to be one of the best at £2150

It's 15mph though. OP wanted faster.

 

[martinr]

The Oxygen Emate MTB, no question. It pulls hard to 23 mph, is light and tough, and £1700.

http://www.oxygenbicycles.com/e-bikes/e-mate-mtb-13ah

Thanks, that looks ideal, and right at my price range, need to find a dealer.

 

[Jonah]

It's 15mph though. OP wanted faster.

Quoting the OP "but more important is a bike that can handle the hill climbs".

By the way, does the Oxygen MTB have a throttle? The Oxygen website says 'TBA'.

 

[martinr]

This KTM E-Race P is considered by many to be one of the best at £2150
View attachment 9453

Looks good, I'll have a look at that one aslo.

 

[Jonah]

There are dealers in Edinburgh and Glasgow. See link http://www.shop.flidistribution.co.uk/p/ktm-dealer-list?pp=12

 

[D8ve]

Martin please try a few bikes before buying.
A little patience could save you some serious heart ache later.

 

[Jonah]

South Shields is your nearest Oxygen dealer http://www.oxygenbicycles.com/dealer-network

 

[mountainsport]

Martin please try a few bikes before buying.
A little patience could save you some serious heart ache later.

Good bike but expensive.

MS.

 

[martinr]

Martin please try a few bikes before buying.
A little patience could save you some serious heart ache later.

Cheers, problem is I'm miles from anywhere, it's 2 hours to Edinburgh or Glasgow and I'm working most days

 

[D8ve]

Martin buy the not best bike and you have to come up with an extra £500+ to trade in the old one and buy the better option.
Better to invest a few days and a few bob on looking first.
Test riding the bikes is important and 25mph off road is seriously fast. Potholes and gravel mean accidents happen and with a lot more energy at 25 than 15 mph
It's a 1/2mv squared. So if you and bike equal 100 kg then
25^2*50= 31250
15^2*50=11250
3 times the energy to damage you and higher chance of it happening.
On a legal bike.
Down hill you get 25 if the way is good anyhow.
Uphill 15 would leave your mates behind easy.
And the off road bit gets complex as the police may use the is there public access. Which is common even on forestry roads.

 

[martinr]

I've came off before on those tracks, not good, luckily it was a soft landing, apart from the ticks on me it was fine

I'm going to head to Perth tomorrow, there's a shop there that has a few bikes, they have a Volt Alpine at £1400 and a couple of bikes over £2.5k, not sure what they are.

Going for a look and to get an idea or two.

 

[Cyclezee]

Hi Martin,

Any of our Heinzmann and eZee bikes can be de-restricted for use on private land.

 

[RobF]

Battery life is very important on an ebike.

It depends on your riding and terrain, but a lot of users - me included - find 10/11ah batteries limiting, particularly after a few months when you tend to want to do longer rides.

The top spec Oxygen has a bigger battery than current KTMs.

KTM has a bigger battery on the way, but I don't know when you would get one.

 

[trex]

if you buy a Chinese bike, battery capacity is an even more important consideration. This is because all Chinese bikes are easy to derestrict and higher speed draws a lot more current from the battery.
When the battery runs close to its maximum continuous rating, the battery can get easily damaged. You would want to know how much this is, general rule, the higher the maximum continuous rating, the more reliable you battery will be. In general, this is 2C for 18650 cells up to 2900mAH and 1.5C for high capacity cells (eg 3400mAH) because of increased risk of thermal runaway. 2600mAH cells are very reliable.

 

[KTM Bike Industries UK]

The Oxygen Emate MTB, no question. It pulls hard to 23 mph, is light and tough, and £1700.

http://www.oxygenbicycles.com/e-bikes/e-mate-mtb-13ah

I can't see the weight of that bike anywhere... but more of a direct comparison to it (as its the same price) is the
2015 KTM Macina Force MTB. It comes in 27 or 29" wheel options, and each of them comes in 3 frame sizes so customers can have the correct size bike.

Bosch drive with 400wh battery. 9speed Shimano gears, shimano hubs etc etc. Weight is pretty much 20kg on the dot.

Due in with UK dealers in the next 10 days or so.

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/media/2015-ktm-macina-force-27.234/

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You can find the weight on the spec sheet here:
http://www.oxygenbicycles.com/admin/resources/bike-downloads/emate-mtb.pdf
The weight's a bit more than the bosch because of the bigger capacity battery and the big high-torque hub-motor that makes it climb so well.

All the dealers at Redbridge were queuing up to have a go on it, and I'm not at all surprised. It didn't win the World Championship hill-climb with a rank amateur rider for nothing. He beat all the semi-pros. His only training was his one mile ride to work each day on his Apollo bike. In fact, he only found out that he was participating the day before because that's when the sample bike arrived in the UK.

i guess most people recommending anything else have never had a go on one.

 

[trex]

the PDF file says that the e-mate weighs 21kgs with 11AH battery, 15A controller and SWXH motor.
The upgraded e-Mate weighs 21.5kgs with 13AH battery, 17A controller, CST BPM motor and hydraulic Tektro Auriga brakes. May be 22kgs rather than 21.5 because the CST BPM weighs about 1kg more than the SWXH?