Hi All,
My mother & father in-law have come to me asking for advice on buying a folding e-bike and I'll be grateful to anyone who can help me with this. They've come to me because I'm a cyclist but I've never ridden or owned and e-bike so I'll hold my hands up and say that I know nothing about them and so I don't have a clue what either is or isn't a good one.
Just as some background my parents aren't cyclists but they were away in their caravan and they got chatting to some other people who had folding e-bikes and they really liked the idea of them. They have no interest in traveling long distances and I don't envisage that they'll do much main road riding. It'll be a case of a mix of perhaps quiet country lane riding whilst on holiday, short trips popping to the local shops and maybe some very light off road trail stuff if for example they go to a country park somewhere and want to do a loop type ride with the grand children but it would be fairly well maintained hard packed gravel track type riding nothing in the realms of technical off road riding.
They have said that they definitely want a folding bike because they want to be able to easily take it away in the caravan or to be able to fold it and put it into the back of the car to take somewhere for days out. In terms of budget they don't want to spend too much with £1,000 being the maximum that they want to go to and so I appreciate that this budget in itself will severely limit the options to only a few bikes. But at around this price point I have absolutely no idea what features they should be thinking about in the pros and cons cases when comparing bikes.
The sort of bikes that they've looked at include the folding e-bikes that are available at Halfords such as the following:-
Apollo Transport folding e-bike at £599
https://www.halfords.com/bikes/electric-bikes/apollo-transport-electric-folding-bike---20in-542248.html
Carrera Crosscity folding e-bike at £899
https://www.halfords.com/bikes/electric-bikes/carrera-crosscity-electric-bike-298734.html
After visiting Halfords they also went to their local bike shop and the LBS sell e-bikes by a company called Ezego and there was a bike called the Ezego EZE fold. In particular my mother-in-law liked the LS version of this bike which is a low set over and she has bad knee joints and so she found it much easier to step over the frame and get onto this bike:-
https://ezego.bike/folding-electric-bicycle
However I've never before heard of the brand Ezego and nor can I easily find any reviews if this bike and so I wondered if anyone has ever heard of the Ezego Fold and has any thoughts about it?
The Ezego fold would be at the top end of their budget at £1,000 and I don't know whether or not there's something just above the £1,000 mark that anybody thinks should be considered but it would have be a compelling reason for them to spend more than £1,000 on an e-bike.
One thing I thought is that if they do buy an e-bike from their LBS at least hopefully they'd get some support and help with it down the line if they ever needed it.
Thanks for reading this and if anyone has any tips, thoughts or ideas on advice that I could give to my parents in-law that will be greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
John
My mother & father in-law have come to me asking for advice on buying a folding e-bike and I'll be grateful to anyone who can help me with this. They've come to me because I'm a cyclist but I've never ridden or owned and e-bike so I'll hold my hands up and say that I know nothing about them and so I don't have a clue what either is or isn't a good one.
Just as some background my parents aren't cyclists but they were away in their caravan and they got chatting to some other people who had folding e-bikes and they really liked the idea of them. They have no interest in traveling long distances and I don't envisage that they'll do much main road riding. It'll be a case of a mix of perhaps quiet country lane riding whilst on holiday, short trips popping to the local shops and maybe some very light off road trail stuff if for example they go to a country park somewhere and want to do a loop type ride with the grand children but it would be fairly well maintained hard packed gravel track type riding nothing in the realms of technical off road riding.
They have said that they definitely want a folding bike because they want to be able to easily take it away in the caravan or to be able to fold it and put it into the back of the car to take somewhere for days out. In terms of budget they don't want to spend too much with £1,000 being the maximum that they want to go to and so I appreciate that this budget in itself will severely limit the options to only a few bikes. But at around this price point I have absolutely no idea what features they should be thinking about in the pros and cons cases when comparing bikes.
The sort of bikes that they've looked at include the folding e-bikes that are available at Halfords such as the following:-
Apollo Transport folding e-bike at £599
https://www.halfords.com/bikes/electric-bikes/apollo-transport-electric-folding-bike---20in-542248.html
Carrera Crosscity folding e-bike at £899
https://www.halfords.com/bikes/electric-bikes/carrera-crosscity-electric-bike-298734.html
After visiting Halfords they also went to their local bike shop and the LBS sell e-bikes by a company called Ezego and there was a bike called the Ezego EZE fold. In particular my mother-in-law liked the LS version of this bike which is a low set over and she has bad knee joints and so she found it much easier to step over the frame and get onto this bike:-
https://ezego.bike/folding-electric-bicycle
However I've never before heard of the brand Ezego and nor can I easily find any reviews if this bike and so I wondered if anyone has ever heard of the Ezego Fold and has any thoughts about it?
The Ezego fold would be at the top end of their budget at £1,000 and I don't know whether or not there's something just above the £1,000 mark that anybody thinks should be considered but it would have be a compelling reason for them to spend more than £1,000 on an e-bike.
One thing I thought is that if they do buy an e-bike from their LBS at least hopefully they'd get some support and help with it down the line if they ever needed it.
Thanks for reading this and if anyone has any tips, thoughts or ideas on advice that I could give to my parents in-law that will be greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
John
