Limited Budget Basic Electric Bike?

[Cyclezee]

OK, you have less than £1000 pounds to spend so, realistically, what are you going to buy?

Here are few things to consider:

• Source, eBay, local bike shop, specialist electric bike retailer, online retailer etc.
• New or used
• Complete electric bike or convert a non powered bike
• With or without warranty
• Minimum range
• Maximum weight
• Type of battery and chemistry
• Type of motor drive, hub, crank, other
• Throttle only, pedelec only or both
• Battery type and chemistry
• Location of battery
• Battery capacity
• Motor power output
• Handlebar display and features, LED, LCD
• Size of wheels
• Type of tyres
• Transmission, derailleur, hub gears
• Number of gears
• Brakes, disc, rim, hydraulic, cable
• Lighting

This list is not exhaustive, so please add any other features or components you would want, the only criteria is that they should be currently available for less than £1000

I look forward to reading what you have to say.

 

[jerrysimon]

Well a limited budget is going to mean much less than a £1000. Use an existing bike and a lot of DIY, i.e. building a wheel from scratch. Of course all parts will be ordered direct from China though with the recent crack down and import duty charges, maybe a s/h one off ebay maybe we a viable alternative.



Regards

Jerry

 

[celedep]

Erm... .: Kudos Cycles - e-bikes with style :.

At this time only one of the listed bikes is over £1000

 

[Geebee]

Grab this for $128 plus shipping for example, you could get you batteries there as well or hit Hobby king for some unprotected LiPo's light and high powered but you need to know what you are doing with them.

Q100 36V350W Front E-Bike Kit with LED Meter - BMSBATTERY

Bike whatever was on sale that I liked locally or s/hand, personally if not a recumbent a light weight flat bar road bike, they had a 9.5 pound one on sale down here a while back for $400 ish.

Lighting, deal extreme or Ebay.

By the time you were finished it should be well under your budget and much lighter than a ready made in remotely the same price area.

I would probably go for a 24v system as the batteries work out cheaper and lighter if you don't need the extra range.

 

[NRG]

Not sure I understand the point of the thread, £1000 pretty much dictates what level of kit the bike will come with! Simply go to Kudos, Juicy or any of the other suppliers and make a choice.

 

[Scottyf]

If I had £1000 and had to buy new parts / bike over again i'd probably opt for the following criteria :-

Rear geared Hub Driven Motor
15amp 36v battery (Ie two bottle batteries fitted in frame)
Triple front gear
7 speed rear cassette
Full suspension bike - budget suspension 2inch travel
Front Disc 160mm / Rear V brake
28inch wheels (My preference)
2 year warranty - all bike
1 year warranty - electrical parts / battery etc

 

[flecc]

The only stipulation I'd make is buying direct, since a sub £1000 bike including the substantial dealer margin is potentially much less bike.

 

[kitchenman]

Some additions for the list:
Motor Noise Level, quite, little noise, milk float, don't care
Battery Life (in charge cycles or years)
Battery Conditioning Details
Battery Recharge Time
Battery Lock
Battery Warranty
Replacement Battery Cost
Charger
Charger Weight
Charger Cost
Charger FULL cutoff?
Charger Noise? Quiet, Audible, Noisy

 

[JuicyBike]

Caution: Advert...

How about a Juicy Sport with hydraulic brakes at £988?
Or Juicy Sport with 16AH LiFePO4 at £988?
Or Juicy Sport with Hydraulic Remote Lock-out suspension at...
...£988

Or any combination all the way up to Merlin.

£1,000 is a crucial price point, and who are we to fight the market. But configuring the bike to match that price point is a job for our customers, not us. So, for our bikes, on-line or at any of our dealers, there is always a range of options to choose.

Of course the standard Juicy Bike will always be amazing value, currently £789 (and the "Pedelecs" discount coupon is still working at the checkout...).

 

[indalo]

Caution: Advert...

How about a Juicy Sport with hydraulic brakes at £988?
Or Juicy Sport with 16AH LiFePO4 at £988?
Or Juicy Sport with Hydraulic Remote Lock-out suspension at...
...£988

No....no, Bob; you've got this all wrong! They're far too cheap and can't possibly be any good......they probably don't come with a guarantee worth the paper it's written on and I'll bet you can't provide any testimonials from satisfied customers! Go on...am I right or what?

Indalo

 

[overlander]

Caution: Advert...

How about a Juicy Sport with hydraulic brakes at £988?
Or Juicy Sport with 16AH LiFePO4 at £988?
Or Juicy Sport with Hydraulic Remote Lock-out suspension at...
...£988

Not just singling your bikes out as many are the same, why ohh why do they have to look so hideous. Surely it cannot be hard to make them actually look like bikes. The same with the wisper bikes why are they so hideous. I am 100% certain that the first company who make a sub £1000 bike which looks like a bike, and in different frame sizes and not just the midget frames on the market currently would have a healthy product.

 

[muckymits]

Caution: Advert...

How about a Juicy Sport with hydraulic brakes at £988?
Or Juicy Sport with 16AH LiFePO4 at £988?
Or Juicy Sport with Hydraulic Remote Lock-out suspension at...
...£988

Not just singling your bikes out as many are the same, why ohh why do they have to look so hideous. Surely it cannot be hard to make them actually look like bikes. The same with the wisper bikes why are they so hideous. I am 100% certain that the first company who make a sub £1000 bike which looks like a bike, and in different frame sizes and not just the midget frames on the market currently would have a healthy product.

Exactly what Ive been going on about, they get laughed at by our customers.

 

[indalo]

why ohh why do they have to look so hideous. Surely it cannot be hard to make them actually look like bikes. The same with the wisper bikes why are they so hideous.

I find myself in complete agreement with you Overlander and I'm delighted I'm not the only one to hold that view.

They do say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I have always presumed that the style, (wrong word really) to which you allude is an oriental thing. Perhaps I'm wrong but they're still ugly!

Indalo

 

[DJH]

Caution: Advert...



Not just singling your bikes out as many are the same, why ohh why do they have to look so hideous. Surely it cannot be hard to make them actually look like bikes. The same with the wisper bikes why are they so hideous. I am 100% certain that the first company who make a sub £1000 bike which looks like a bike, and in different frame sizes and not just the midget frames on the market currently would have a healthy product.

Most people think my Claud Butler Glide 1 looks very neat and can't tell it's an electric bike. It cost £850 and so far I've done over 800 hilly miles on it with no real problems. It also has a two year guarantee which I feel is important. Electrically it's not very sophisticated but it does the job and so far (6 months) I estimate it's saved me nearly £400 in car running costs (Land Rover Defender in my case).

 

[flecc]

Not just singling your bikes out as many are the same, why ohh why do they have to look so hideous. Surely it cannot be hard to make them actually look like bikes.

It actually is hard on a bike with a substantial in-frame battery behind the seat stem. The problem is that the battery needs to protude between the upper rear frame members for it to be removable. That in turn means a lower than normal rear crossbar point to be directly opposite those rear frame tubes. Joining at any other point would be too great a stress on the seat tube, leading to breakages.

The two responses are like Wisper and Juicy, curving the crossbar down to the rear, or like eZee, sloping a straight crossbar steeply. Some crank drives like the Panasonic unit manage with a side demountable battery, but for good capacity they tend to be fat because they lack height, excusable on those crank units which are fat anyway, but not so easy on a normal crank width bike.

 

[Scottyf]

I always thought it would be better to have the battery compartment on the front side of the stem. This way it wouldn't need the bike to be a longer wheel base.
It would remove some of the space in the trangle depending on the size of the battery. But it would be made to look like part of the stem and be intergrated from crossbar to crank.

 

[JuicyBike]

Either you like something, or you don't. Being half-hearted just doesn't do it for me.

 

[Alan B]

I find myself in complete agreement with you Overlander and I'm delighted I'm not the only one to hold that view.

They do say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I have always presumed that the style, (wrong word really) to which you allude is an oriental thing. Perhaps I'm wrong but they're still ugly!

Indalo

Totally agree. Is there any European input to the styling of the Chinese built bikes ?

 

[DJH]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Personally I don't mind the look of Juicy and Wisper bikes but then again I've not seen them for real. In the lower price range I think it's much more important to have a bike that works well rather than one that is built for looks. In the higher price range both should apply.

 

[neptune]

This is probably not the right thread to put this . A design idea I had was this . Instead of putting a battery in a bottle , why not make the frame top tube detachable , and put cells inside it ? The tube could still act as a load bearing frame member . It could be held in position by two threaded collars . Has it already been done ? Another way would be to cut a cell-sized slot in the top tube , and feed the cells in one at a time , like loading a bolt action rifle .