May 28, 20169 yr Good evening! I am looking for a good quality e-bike, mainly to commute to work, via roads, parks and towpaths. Mainly ridding on flat surface, apart from a couple of hills. Distance to work is about 10-15 miles each way, so I ideally need something that has a 40-50 miles range, or more. I will probably cycle 2 or 3 times a week, at least during the summer. I need something which is going to be reliable, and well equipped (like mudguards, carrier etc). My budget is £1500 - £2000, although I am willing to spend a bit more to get quality! Thanks! Ted
May 28, 20169 yr https://www.e-bikeshop.co.uk/Electric-Bikes-UK-Dealer/Full-Suspension-eBikes/Lapierre-Overvolt-FS-400-2016
May 28, 20169 yr Hi Ted if you're near Bristol, Cambridge, London, Oxford or York you could try a few options out at our stores: https://www.electricbikesales.co.uk/stores
May 28, 20169 yr A Raleigh Motus would do the job nicely. No more than £2K, and possibly a bit less if the OP wants to hunt around a bit. https://www.e-bikeshop.co.uk/Raleigh-Motus-2016-Electric-Bike
May 28, 20169 yr Author A Raleigh Motus would do the job nicely. Many thanks, it looks like the kind of bike I would need. As I live in West London, I need to try and find a dealer who has those in stock. Are those reliable? Looking at various messages on this forum, it seems that electric bikes are quite prone to failure.
May 28, 20169 yr To get a reliable 50 mile range you are going to need minimum 17Ah battery and not feeding a greedy motor. If your journey is 15 miles,can you not recharge at work? The Kudos Rapide has 10,4 Ah battery,good for 30 miles,price about £1300.00,it is often used as a ride to work bike. The London Electric Bike Company ,in Hampton Wick,usually has the Motus in stock,the equivalent KTM and the Kudos Rapide,you can try those in Bushy Park,part of Hampton Court. KudosDave
May 28, 20169 yr Author Hi Ted if you're near Bristol, Cambridge, London, Oxford or York you could try a few options out at our stores Thanks! I am in London, so could indeed visit the store. The Gazelle citizen could be a good fit, although I am not sure the battery capacity would be sufficient.
May 28, 20169 yr Author To get a reliable 50 mile range you are going to need minimum 17Ah battery and not feeding a greedy motor. All the bikes I see with a bocsh motor don't seem to come with large capacity batteries. It looks like my range requirement may be difficult to match. I don't really want to charge the battery at work, seems quite a lot of hasle, and also I would need a second charger, remove the battery from the bike etc.
May 28, 20169 yr Author When I search for 17ah bikes, I only seem to find Kalkoff or focus?? It seems those have a panasonic motor?
May 28, 20169 yr Your work is 30 miles or less round trip, so I'm not sure why you want a 50 mile battery. Bosch bikes come mostly in two battery sizes, 400 watt/hour and 500 watt/hour. Roughly, the 400 will do 40 miles and the 500 about 50. As regards reliability, the Bosch motor seems as reliable as any, and more reliable than some other motors. The rest is just bike bits which are usually well-proven.
May 28, 20169 yr Love my Haibike Sduro Trekking bought for similar reasons. To reliably make the whole journey on full power you'll need to charge before returning though.
May 29, 20169 yr All the bikes I see with a bocsh motor don't seem to come with large capacity batteries. It looks like my range requirement may be difficult to match. I don't really want to charge the battery at work, seems quite a lot of hasle, and also I would need a second charger, remove the battery from the bike etc. A second charger is not expensive,for most of the Kudos bikes only £20. Also it is very easy to remove the battery from any e-bike,no more than 5 secs. If in London it's a good idea to remove the battery,an e-bike without its battery is rarely stolen because it is unsaleable on e-bay! Remember that a 17Ah battery is heavy,you are going to be carrying that weight around even when you don't need the range. Things to think about. KudosDave Edited May 29, 20169 yr by Kudoscycles
May 29, 20169 yr All the bikes I see with a bocsh motor don't seem to come with large capacity batteries. It looks like my range requirement may be difficult to match. I don't really want to charge the battery at work, seems quite a lot of hasle, and also I would need a second charger, remove the battery from the bike etc. Hi Ted the citizen is a wonderful bike a true hybrid commuter and one of the best sellers at our London store at this price point. Almost 60% of our customers get 55 miles or more on a single charge from the 400wh Bosch battery. You can also try the Yamaha motor system on Haibikes and Bosch on Raleigh models. London store - https://www.electricbikesales.co.uk/index.php?route=pavblog/blog&id=31 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
May 30, 20169 yr Author Thank you all. I am looking ideally for something with a 50 miles + range, so that I am not stuck somewhere if I need to go a bit further after work, or forget to charge the battery once. Charging the battery each way seems to much hassle for me. Also, if those batteries are like my smartphone, capacity will surely degrade quickly, so I don't want to buy something already tight when new. From what I have read online, the battery weight does not seem to be proportional to it's capacity, so I may as well aim for large! This means 500wh would probably be the minimum, so the Motus is excluded. Time to visit a few shops in the area! I will also go and see the Kalkoff shop, as they appear to have a few large battery bikes, but probably exceeding my budget a bit. It should be fun.
May 30, 20169 yr Thank you all. I am looking ideally for something with a 50 miles + range, so that I am not stuck somewhere if I need to go a bit further after work, or forget to charge the battery once. Charging the battery each way seems to much hassle for me. Also, if those batteries are like my smartphone, capacity will surely degrade quickly, so I don't want to buy something already tight when new. From what I have read online, the battery weight does not seem to be proportional to it's capacity, so I may as well aim for large! This means 500wh would probably be the minimum, so the Motus is excluded. Time to visit a few shops in the area! I will also go and see the Kalkoff shop, as they appear to have a few large battery bikes, but probably exceeding my budget a bit. It should be fun. Battery weight is almost directly proportional to capacity, assuming you are comparing the same technologies. Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk
May 30, 20169 yr Author Battery weight is almost directly proportional to capacity, assuming you are comparing the same technologies. As an example, from the information I can find, I believe the Kalkhoff 11.6 Ah battery is 2.5kg, while the 17 Ah is apparently 2.94kg. So capacity is 46% bigger, while weight is 17% heavier. Does not look that proportional to me!
May 30, 20169 yr As an example, from the information I can find, I believe the Kalkhoff 11.6 Ah battery is 2.5kg, while the 17 Ah is apparently 2.94kg. So capacity is 46% bigger, while weight is 17% heavier. Does not look that proportional to me! Sorry my post above should have been more specific about battery technologies. What I really meant to say technologies and cell/brand types. So there's only two possible reasons for the Kalkhoff discrepancy above: 1. They are using inferior cells in the smaller pack. As a premium brand that would be a little surprising, but not unheard of. 2. The information is incorrect. It's be interesting to know which it is. Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk
May 30, 20169 yr So there's only two possible reasons for the Kalkhoff discrepancy above: 1. They are using inferior cells in the smaller pack. As a premium brand that would be a little surprising, but not unheard of. 2. The information is incorrect. It's be interesting to know which it is. ... or 3. Your statement was incorrect. I believe the weights quoted previously were about correct (for the large capacity ones), check yourself the weight of compatible batteries: https://www.fahrrad-kaufen-online.de/e-bikes-ersatzakkus/e-bike-ersatzakkus/search/kalkhoff-8/ 11 Ah -> 2.8 kg 15 Ah -> 2.9 kg 17 Ah -> 2.9 kg I agree that it makes no real sense either, if a 17 Ah has a lot more cells of the same type than a 11 Ah. I wondered the same when I bought my bike, in term of why the weight was not about proportional to the capacity. However, there is also the weight of the casing and battery management system to account for (identical between all batteries).
May 30, 20169 yr ... or 3. Your statement was incorrect. I believe the weights quoted previously were about correct, check yourself the weight of compatible batteries: https://www.fahrrad-kaufen-online.de/e-bikes-ersatzakkus/e-bike-ersatzakkus/search/kalkhoff-8/ I agree that it makes no real sense either, if a 17 Ah has a lot more cells than a 11 Ah. I wondered the same when I bought my bike, in term of why the weight was not about proportional to the capacity. However, there is also the weight of the casing and battery management system to account for (identical between all batteries). Which is why I said 'almost'. For the differences above to be down to the case/BMS then it would have to weigh 1.5k on its own. Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk
May 30, 20169 yr You said "Battery weight is almost directly proportional to capacity", and that's clearly not the case, at least for certain types of batteries/brands, as demonstrated. One thing is sure: a 17 Ah Kalkhoff battery does not weight "almost" 55% more than the 11 Ah version. Looking at generic bottle batteries as well, the weight does not seem to be proportional to the capacity either...
May 30, 20169 yr How do you explain the difference then? I'd be astounded if the case and BMS weigh 1.5k Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk
May 30, 20169 yr batteries are usually arranged in 10S4P (2kg + casing) or 10S5P (2.5kg + casing). Currently, Sanyo 3500mAH cells are the best I can get hold of. You get 36V 17AH in a 3kg 10S5P max.
May 30, 20169 yr How do you explain the difference then? I'd be astounded if the case and BMS weigh 1.5k I am not a battery engineer nor a manufacturer of those, so I don't know why the weight is not proportional. I have never pretended to know the answer either. Back to the original OP's query: my advice would be to get the largest capacity battery, within budget available, as the weight difference may not be that much, and weight on ebikes is less of an issue anyway (they are all very heavy compared to standard bikes).
May 30, 20169 yr Different cell types = different capacity for the same number of cells (and different price) Say the cells have a 5 gram difference in weight = 200 grams more on the battery Edited May 30, 20169 yr by anotherkiwi
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