first electric bike

[Cyclezee]

Hi Denwyn,

No hard sell, just take a few minutes to peruse our website and if you have any questions, please ask electric bikes and conversion kits - Home

Regards,

 

[denwyn]

Denwyn,you had Woosh on your shortlist. There's nothing wrong with them. They're cheap, but everything works very well. The electrical stuff is the same as on many similar, but more expensive bikes. The Sirocco CD would be my choice. It has mudguards, chainguard and lights for practical every day use. You won't find hills a problem anymore with it even if you're heavy.
I did a review of one here. Posts #1 and #18 are all you need to read.
http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/14201-woosh-crank-bike-review-2.html

My next recommendation would be the Kudos Tornado, that gets up the hills with brute power, so you go up hills a bit faster than the Kudos. This is the bike if you want to be lazy, but with only a 10aH battery, your range will be less than the Woosh. Once the price goes over £1000, there's a lot more choice of bikes able to get lardy people like us up hills.

I have sort of got it dow to just couple of new bikes now...a Woosh Sirroco Cd, or one of the Giant mens E-bikes, of course i do like some of the more expensive bikes available , but cannot justify £1500 plus for what i would use the bike for. I would have no objection to used and keep looking on Ebay and Gumtree. Thanks for all the help.

 

[RobF]

I have sort of got it dow to just couple of new bikes now...a Woosh Sirroco Cd, or one of the Giant mens E-bikes, of course i do like some of the more expensive bikes available , but cannot justify £1500 plus for what i would use the bike for. I would have no objection to used and keep looking on Ebay and Gumtree. Thanks for all the help.

Either the Giant or Woosh should serve you well.

I would steer clear of ebay or Gumtree, you really don't know what you are buying.

It's a pity the Giant dealer wasn't more helpful because there is a lot to be said for buying from a shop which you can return the bike to for service or warranty work.

Having said that, Woosh have a good reputation on here for looking after customers.

The (Chinese) Giant is a nicer bike than the Woosh, but there's not much in it.

I think the Woosh has a bigger battery, which is never a bad thing even though you are only looking at relatively short trips.

 

[ghouluk]

make sure you ride the giant before buying (and the woosh), the giant e-bikes i rented for my parents were *rubbish* worst ebikes i've ridden - noisy and extremely underpowered on hills.

 

[denwyn]

Ride before buy is not an option,that's one reason I'm on here asking questions and reading reviews etc No one near me stocks Woosh ,and the Giant dealer does not carry the e-bike.

 

[ghouluk]

i'd do everything possible to make test rides happen, but if its really not possible i'd buy the woosh every time.

Even given my bad experiences with the giant might be a one off (and lots of people on here seem to be happy with the giants) woosh are going to have much more interest in making you happy if you're not happy than giant are.......

 

[Geebee]

I had to buy my last bike without testing due to it's being more than a 1,000 km away.
Worked out really well, the plus side to doing this is that I love the bike and the way it rides, but if I had test rode it I would not have bought it and would have missed out on great bike for the price.
First impressions are not always correct

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I've not found an Ebike yet that I would be unhappy to use if it was the only one I could have. Even if you find things that you don't like, there's always a way that you can adapt it to suit. Some (all?) of the Giants have direct drive motors, which don't suit everyone, and from what you've said, I'd be surprised if one suited you. That just leaves the Woosh then, so get one ordered before they run out of stock, or you'll be back to the start. Call Hatti at Woosh, she can help you with whatever questions you have. I've never heard of a problem with a Woosh bike. All those that bought them seem to be very happy. Type "Woosh bike problem" into Google and see how many problems come up!

BTW I'm not connected to Woosh in any way, but I have been to their shop and met them at a couple of shows. They're very nice people like most of the traders that advertise and participate in this forum. also, I've reviewed a couple of their bikes, but that's for us on the forum, not for them. Of course they wouldn't have offered if they didn't have confidence in their bikes.

 

[mountainsport]

I've not found an Ebike yet that I would be unhappy to use if it was the only one I could have. Even if you find things that you don't like, there's always a way that you can adapt it to suit. Some (all?) of the Giants have direct drive motors, which don't suit everyone, and from what you've said, I'd be surprised if one suited you. That just leaves the Woosh then, so get one ordered before they run out of stock, or you'll be back to the start. Call Hatti at Woosh, she can help you with whatever questions you have. I've never heard of a problem with a Woosh bike. All those that bought them seem to be very happy. Type "Woosh bike problem" into Google and see how many problems come up!

BTW I'm not connected to Woosh in any way, but I have been to their shop and met them at a couple of shows. They're very nice people like most of the traders that advertise and participate in this forum. also, I've reviewed a couple of their bikes, but that's for us on the forum, not for them. Of course they wouldn't have offered if they didn't have confidence in their bikes.

Hi d8veh did you manage to get some details for me/us about the NEC Birmingham ebike event?

MS.

 

[Chainring]

Step-through frames.

I bought my Woosh Santana because of hip problems. I had ridden a large-frame bike for sixteen years, then bought a Barracuda ladies bike, to try and alleviate the problem. It solved the mounting problem, but age has taken its toll!!! The Santana is so easy to get on and off, but you are the one buying, so you have to like what you are spending your money on. The electrics appear to be the same on many of them, so you will find whatever you buy will be a real treat. The two questions I am always asked are: 'How much did it cost?' (Nosy gits), and 'How fast does it go?'. I try to explain that it is not fast, and ordinary cyclists leave me in the dust, but the lack of effort required to complete a journey is amazing. You will not regret buying one. I too have 'slight inclines' on my journey, and it copes really well. I imagine a crank drive with lots of gears is better for hilly country, but I have never ridden one. Woosh fitted the bill for me with the amount of bike I got for my money, including puncture-resistant tyres and the disc front brake. I actually look forward to getting on it for a ride! I'm afraid my unassisted bike was good transport (my daughter now uses it for her work cycling round the area for care work) but I was finding it hard work. I did not try an electric bike before I bought (similar situation to yourself) but I am not disappointed.

oops i am sorry i thought i had mentioned were i live, its Taunton. We have one dedicated e-bike dealer " Reaction electric Bikes " but the bikes they sell are way out of my price range, yesterday i managed to get to another dealer who are Giant agents, according to there web site they had all the electric range in stock, not true !! They stocked what looked like all the normal range but only got the electrics in to order, and to be honest all they could show me was a picture of the bike on there web page, not very impressed i left. Halfords dont do a gents e-bike, and I'm afraid I'm really not keen on a step through model or fold up bike which s all they sell. Our other couple of bike shops don't seem to do e-bikes.So i'm afraid i have no real option but online, or Ebay. a few years back i did try out a Izip bike from our e-bike dealer, seemed OK to me, but i put it off buying and they no longer sell them, having read what people say about that bike i am glad now i didn't buy one. I want to try and get something in the next few weeks if i can, and am fining this site a great help, i'm trawling through review's on here and past discussions,also keeping a daily eye on Ebay and Gumtree, as well as looking at dealers pages. Still not sure on hub or crank type bike as yet, i don't do many hills on route to work, more slight inclines, so maybe hills was wrong term to use. Thanks for all the help and advice

 

[denwyn]

I've been doing lots of looking at bike reviews / forum post and I bought the Electric bike may yesterday,and am now giving a bit of thought to maybe spending a bit more,say £1500 Max,this isn't detonate just an idea it may be better to buy local now,even though choice is a bit limited.

 

[trex]

there isn't a lot to choose from between £800 and £1500. You can only get Chinese bikes.
If you can go up to £1700, there are good selection of very nice German made bikes.
It's also better buying from a specialist e-bike shop. They offer new models and more competitive prices.
E-bikes do get obsolete quickly. Read Jerry's thread about the EBCO UCL60, RRP £1500, Jerry got it for £350 because it's 24V.

 

[Malfunction]

I got my first e bike a couple of weeks ago, it's a woosh sirocco hub drive, I did consider the cd but its not very hilly around here (Lincoln)
Anyway up to now i'm well impressed with the bike, it's obviously not the same quality as a £1000 bike but it does what it's supposed to and most of the components (motor, battery etc; are the same as used on more expensive bikes.
I did consider buying secondhand, ebay gumtree etc; and tried a couple that were local to me, I could have saved maybe £200 doing that but then spent more than that on replacement battery !!
One other thing, Iv'e never seen a woosh for sale secondhand so there must be a lot of satisfied customers out there.
Iv'e no connection with woosh apart from being one of there satisfied customers.
Whatever bike you decide on it will bring a smile to your face

 

[Jonah]

Surprising as it may seem, generally speaking you won't get a hugely better bike spending £1500 rather than £800, just bigger batteries, more gears perhaps and extra bits. The quality (premium) end of the market starts closer to £2k. There are of course unused old stock and this year's demonstrators that might reduce the £2k bikes within this price bracket or secondhand bikes that might get you a premium quality bike for under £1000. I have a few used and unused bikes available, if you're interested PM me (or use website below to send me an email).

 

[banbury frank]

Hi On a £1500 budget you can afford our mid range bike it has a 10AH 48 volt battery and shimano Hydraulic disc brakes so it goes well and stops with 1,500 watts of power hills are a thing off the past

Electric Bike Xipi comuter Kube 1,500 watt 10AH Battery 28 MPH | eBay




Frank

 

[denwyn]

there isn't a lot to choose from between £800 and £1500. You can only get Chinese bikes.
If you can go up to £1700, there are good selection of very nice German made bikes.
It's also better buying from a specialist e-bike shop. They offer new models and more competitive prices.
E-bikes do get obsolete quickly. Read Jerry's thread about the EBCO UCL60, RRP £1500, Jerry got it for £350 because it's 24V.

Your probably right, today i managed to get to our local specialist e-bike shop late this afternoon, now i had ruled them as in the past they always seemed far to expensive. today they spent a lot of time explaining all there bikes to me, they did have some £1000 bikes, a "Hero Echo Fast Forward Peak" at £999, but i could see the difference in quality between that the Gepida and Flyer models they stock, i'm also more or less convinced i want a crank type e- bike now,and i need to buy locally. i'm going back on Friday to take a few out on a test run, just got to get it in my head i need to up my budget a lot more

 

[trex]

... just got to get it in my head i need to up my budget a lot more

Consider also the diminishing return on bigger budget and nickability. Is the bike a means of transport or a treat for self? I have a BBS01 crank drive kit, decent forks and hydraulic brakes. It took me a couple of hours to build, it's cheap and takes me anywhere I want to go.

 

[overlander]

I do like the look of the spencer ivy bikes but once again the big downfall of electric bikes strikes, NO frame size choice. Thats the whole reason i went with the Trek bike, frame size ranged from 17.5" up to 25". But on saying that they do not sell them in the UK anymore, no idea why as the bike is very good quality.

 

[denwyn]

Consider also the diminishing return on bigger budget and nickability. Is the bike a means of transport or a treat for self? I have a BBS01 crank drive kit, decent forks and hydraulic brakes. It took me a couple of hours to build, it's cheap and takes me anywhere I want to go.

Bit of a spanner in the works, I'm afraid her indoors went ape when she found out I was planning to spend almost £1900 on a e-bike tomorrow, it looks like I'm back down to the £1000 limit again. Thanks for all the advice guys,I think I may leave it for a bit now, a decent used one may come up on EBay, one day. I've not been put off going electric though.

 

[Taff]

Bit of a spanner in the works, I'm afraid her indoors went ape when she found out I was planning to spend almost £1900 on a e-bike tomorrow, it looks like I'm back down to the £1000 limit again. Thanks for all the advice guys,I think I may leave it for a bit now, a decent used one may come up on EBay, one day. I've not been put off going electric though.

Buy the bike.
sell the wife.