Need help choosing between these bikes

[TheBag]

I've finally narrowed down my choice of ebikes based on lots of reading and plenty of help from the pedelecs community.

I've significantly raised my budget from under 1000 to around 1500 in order to get a decent bike so if there's any obvious bikes I've missed in this price range, let me know.

The choices are:
Cube Acid Hybrid One 400 29er 2019 - Electric Mountain Bike
Haibike SDURO Cross 1.0 700c 2019 - Electric Hybrid Bike
Oxygen S-CROSS MTB Electric Mountain Bike
905 SE Crossbar
905 Torque Crossbar
Woosh Rio MTB

There are a few various deals on some of these so price differences might not be as big as they look.

To clarify once more, I won't be doing many miles each day, probably close to 3 miles per day now that I think of it, but some steep hills on the journey which I don't want to be sweating buckets when I reach the top.

Who knows, I might actually enjoy cycling and decide to do more than just commute to the train station.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

 

[Amoto65]

Unless you are going to be going up very steep hills I would be inclined to go for the Bosch Activeline Plus motor rather than the CX motor they are generally regarded to be a better engine overall.

 

[TheBag]

That's really good to know. Do you know what the general complaints are? I just see bigger numbers and automatically think better

 

[Amoto65]

Mainly the fact that there is more resistance in the motor when pedaling above the 15.5 mph cut off.

 

[Nealh]

again, maybe I'm just being naive here but surely if the bosch motor fails and it's under warranty, they have an obligation to fix it for free? Are you saying that they may charge to remove it from the bike to diagnose, fix or replace the part?

Bosch will honour the warranty but bikes shops aren't dealerships, if you take the bike to another shop/dealer from the one you got it from then they are likely to charge labour for removing and refitting unless maybe it is a Halfrauds or Evans etc,etc.

 

[TheBag]

Mainly the fact that there is more resistance in the motor when pedaling above the 15.5 mph cut off.

How does the resistance impact the ride? Does it actually make pedalling harder or does it mean that the motor takes longer to accelerate? I would have thought that with more power/torque, it would make the ride easier

 

[soundwave]

you can remove the speed limit with a dongle if you want to do this id go with the cx motor.

 

[TheBag]

you can remove the speed limit with a dongle

haha, no - I literally mean is it harder to get going? I fully expect it can be de-restricted with a dongle although I have no intention of doing anything like that just yet at least. I think pedal assisted up to 15mph should be fine for my use case right now.

 

[soundwave]

any ebike with the extra waight you are going to feel it esp with no power just some motors have less resistance than others so the bosch active live well be less effort with no power than the cx.

 

[TheBag]

any ebike with the extra waight you are going to feel it esp with no power just some motors have less resistance than others so the bosch active live well be less effort with no power than the cx.

Sorry, maybe I misunderstood. I thought that the motor itself created some sort of resistance on the chain, not that the weight of it caused more resistance in the bike in general.

The cube bike with the CX motor is actually about 400g lighter than the one with the active line plus and about £250 cheaper, it's 2018 cross hybrid pro (cx motor) rather than 2019 acid hybrid one 400 (alp motor).

 

[soundwave]

you will have less resistance over the 15mph limit with the active line than with the cx motor.

 

[TheBag]

you will have less resistance over the 15mph limit with the active line than with the cx motor.

I'm getting even more confused now - how does this resistance manifest itself? Is it resistance in the pedals or resistance of the wheels etc? Do you mean that going over the 15 mph limit, I will notice more resistance even thought the motor isn't being used? I.e. pedalling over 15mph is harder? Or do you mean that if i de-restrict it, it will be slower to accelerate over 15mph?

 

[soundwave]

active line.


bosch cx

so with the cx there is more to turn over the 15mph limit

 

[TheBag]

But this should mean that pedalling isn't any harder, it's just that the motor has to work harder to go faster and if I don't de-restrict it, it's surely not an issue?

 

[soundwave]

a dongle does not give you extra power it just removes the speed limit.

so if the same rider raced both bikes he would avg a higher top speed on the active line than the cx on the flat.

with a dongle you would nuke both of them with high enough gearing to match.

 

[Artstu]

Mainly the fact that there is more resistance in the motor when pedaling above the 15.5 mph cut off.

I'm getting even more confused now - how does this resistance manifest itself? Is it resistance in the pedals or resistance of the wheels etc? Do you mean that going over the 15 mph limit, I will notice more resistance even thought the motor isn't being used? I.e. pedalling over 15mph is harder? Or do you mean that if i de-restrict it, it will be slower to accelerate over 15mph?

Blimey you're making a meal out of this.

 

[TheBag]

Blimey you're making a meal out of this.

Please feel free to enlighten me!

 

[TheBag]

a dongle does not give you extra power it just removes the speed limit.

I get that but the cx is a more powerful motor no? Maybe more powerful is a poor choice of words given the 250w limit but it had 50% more torque at least

 

[Nealh]

Without power the ALP motor will be easier to pedal then the CX motor, less moving parts etc,etc in the ALP less mechanical resistance at the crank.

 

[soundwave]

under the 15mph limit the motors can use way more power than 250w it is how they climb hills so good.

so as the cx has more torque it will climb alot steeper hills than the active line would run out of puff on the same climb.

 

[Artstu]

Please feel free to enlighten me!

As above when you are pedaling above 15.5 mph when the motor is no longer assisting you the extra gearing inside the CX motor creates a bit more drag than the cogs inside the active line. Even though the motor is now not powering, you still have to turn those cogs and the motor because they don't disengage above 15.5 mph.

I'd buy the active line anyway because it is less complicated. a newer design and it will take you further on a given amount of battery power compared to the CX motor.