Hybrid ladies under £850

[katy dee]

Hi. So I know my budget is low but it's all I have and that's at a stretch. I've recently sold my pemberton e bike and want to move to a hybrid. We do a lot of trails ( not real off road) but enough to feel every bump on the pemberton. I've seen the GteenEdge CS2 step through from ebikes direct and read previous reviews on here. The reviews looked good apart from about three years ago people had reported the battery shorting.
My question is does anyone know if that was fixed and a bigger question, if there another people would recommend within my budget that would have a similar spec.
Any advice would be good
Thanks in advance

Oh and here's a link
https://www.e-bikesdirect.co.uk/brands/greenedge/greenedge-cs2-step-through-electric-mountain-bike

 

[gray198]

Hi Katy, have a look at Woosh bikes also Kudos. One suggestion I would make to make your ride more comfortable is to fit a suspension seat post such as Suntour NCX12. You will feel a marked improvement

 

[Deleted member 4366]

By hybrid ladies bike, one would normally take that as a lightish bike with 700c wheels and rigid forks, like your Pendleton. IIUYC, you now want a bike with suspension. I think most people would refer to that as an MTB style.

The cheap suspension forks that you get on the lower-priced bikes don't make much difference to comfort, especially when they have a motor in them. To make a significant difference, you need a rear motor, and air forks, ideally. You can upgrade more or less any forks to decent used air forks that you can find used on Ebay for about £100, but you need to know what you're doing to choose and fit them. Suspension forks add to the weight of any bike.

If it's the banging through the saddle that's the problem, you can solve that with a Suntour NCX seat-pin, that can be fitted to most bikes - about £60. The only downside is that the saddle doesn't go as low because of the height of the mechanism, so, if you saddle is already as low as it can go, the NCX will make it too high. That makes it a nogo for people with short legs.

Back to your problem then. The suspension forks on the Greenedge will make a bit of difference. Add a NCX and you'd notice a big difference. It's a shame you didn't try one on your Pendleton before condemning it. Like other bikes in that price range, the Greenedge is adequate and has no known flaws. You get good backup from Ebikes-direct, who import and distribute it.

Some people swear that certain tyres make a difference to comfort, but I haven't noticed much difference myself, except big comfy tyres make pedalling harder. I guess everything is a compromise.

One final point. If you cycle regularly, you get used to all the bumping and don't notice it anymore.

 

[katy dee]

Hi there. Thank you for this. Really specific and comprehensive. The issue which I didn't mention was with the tyres. As soon as I went on anything other than a road surface I would skid when turning. There just didn't seem to be any grip even on canal towpaths. Not surprising considering how thin they are. I have only lost £50 so am not too disappointed and it's actually made me realise what I do what from a bike. ( yes learnt the hard way !!). So given this, will I notice you think a difference with "skid" and apologies if I'm not really describing it correctly with the greenedge. Or any other within my price range that someone could recommend.

By hybrid ladies bike, one would normally take that as a lightish bike with 700c wheels and rigid forks, like your Pendleton. IIUYC, you now want a bike with suspension. I think most people would refer to that as an MTB style.

The cheap suspension forks that you get on the lower-priced bikes don't make much difference to comfort, especially when they have a motor in them. To make a significant difference, you need a rear motor, and air forks, ideally. You can upgrade more or less any forks to decent used air forks that you can find used on Ebay for about £100, but you need to know what you're doing to choose and fit them. Suspension forks add to the weight of any bike.

If it's the banging through the saddle that's the problem, you can solve that with a Suntour NCX seat-pin, that can be fitted to most bikes - about £60. The only downside is that the saddle doesn't go as low because of the height of the mechanism, so, if you saddle is already as low as it can go, the NCX will make it too high. That makes it a nogo for people with short legs.

Back to your problem then. The suspension forks on the Greenedge will make a bit of difference. Add a NCX and you'd notice a big difference. It's a shame you didn't try one on your Pendleton before condemning it. Like other bikes in that price range, the Greenedge is adequate and has no known flaws. You get good backup from Ebikes-direct, who import and distribute it.

Some people swear that certain tyres make a difference to comfort, but I haven't noticed much difference myself, except big comfy tyres make pedalling harder. I guess everything is a compromise.

One final point. If you cycle regularly, you get used to all the bumping and don't notice it anymore.

 

[katy dee]

Hi Katy, have a look at Woosh bikes also Kudos. One suggestion I would make to make your ride more comfortable is to fit a suspension seat post such as Suntour NCX12. You will feel a marked improvement

Hi. Thank you. I have had a look but am not seeing anything in my price range. Did you see one I'm missing? Quite possibly as I'm quite new to this

 

[Woosh]

Hello KD,

Is this your previous bike?

If you find it uncomfortable to ride, then may I suggest something like our Woosh Santana2.
The Santana2 is fitted with a suspension fork that cuts down substantially vibrations transmitted from road surface to your wrists and shoulders. It also has wider 50mm tyres against the Pendeton's 38mm.
It also has a 36V 13AH battery, 50% more than your previous bike.

The Santana2 costs £865 including delivery by tuffnells.

http://wooshbikes.co.uk/?santana2

 

[Deleted member 4366]

The type of tyre makes a massive difference on the amount of grip, but that brings new dilemmas. Tyres that grip on bad surfaces have more resistance on tarmac. Also, you increase the chance of punctures because the best puncture resistant tyres are hard as nails, so no grip.

Basically, what I'm saying is that you can adjust any bike to do what you want.

 

[katy dee]

Yes that's the one.
24kgs is a little too heavy (the Somerby felt incredibly heavy at 2kg less than this) as it's going on the back of a MH. Also as per my thread about tyres, I will be doing canal towpaths and forest trails so I don't know if I need something with more thickness.
But happy to be advised

Hello KD,

Is this your previous bike?

If you find it uncomfortable to ride, then may I suggest something like our Woosh Santana2.
The Santana2 is fitted with a suspension fork that cuts down substantially vibrations transmitted from road surface to your wrists and shoulders. It also has wider 50mm tyres against the Pendeton's 38mm.
It also has 1 36V 13AH battery, 50% more than your previous bike.

http://wooshbikes.co.uk/?santana2

Yes. T

 

[Woosh]

Basically, what I'm saying is that you can adjust any bike to do what you want.

a lot of my customers suffer some arthritic pain riding bikes with rigid forks which is made worse by higher air pressure in narrower tyres.
We can do a bit to alleviate the problem like changing tyres to balloon type tyres and fit better saddle and suspension post but they are not enough compared to having a front suspension fork.
That's why we don't offer many models with rigid forks.

 

[Woosh]

Yes that's the one.
24kgs is a little too heavy (the Somerby felt incredibly heavy at 2kg less than this) as it's going on the back of a MH. Also as per my thread about tyres, I will be doing canal towpaths and forest trails so I don't know if I need something with more thickness.
But happy to be advised

Yes. T

Lots of my customers use the Santana2 on canal towpaths and forrest trails. The tyres are Kevlar and wide.
But I do take your point about the weight.
You can remove the battery before lifting the bike up to the MH rack, that will bring the bike's weight down to 20-21kgs.

If you need lightweight, may be this folding Zephyr C the answer?
It has a 36V 10.5AH battery, The Zephyr C has in-frame battery, front Avid disc brakes, 3-speed gear hub, carbon belt and requires zero maintenance for at least 3-4 years.

The Zephyr C weighs 18kgs. If you remove the battery then its weight drops to 16kgs. It also folds.
The reason I mentioned this bike is that it rides nearly like a normal full size bike.

The Zephyr-C costs £799 including delivery.

Best regards

Tony