No longer have a car, new to Ebikes...

Hi, new here.

I've not really cycled for a few years and was driving everywhere but can't drive for the next 18 months or so. So here is what I need:

• Budget £1000 max
  
• Fits someone 5ft 11, 11 stone ish
  
• Capable of travelling a 35 mile round trip on one charge
  
• Can handle quite hilly areas with moderate inclines and declines
  
• Reliable
  
• For a man
  
• Preferably a warranty
  

I'm still doing research on them but thats my criteria. The 35 mile round trip won't be every day, maybe once or twice a week. But most days I will need to do a 12 mile round trip.

Thanks in advance.

Hello Volusia25,

I would suggest the Woosh Karoo

It will easily do 35 miles on one charge. Some customers managed to squeeze more than 70 miles out of one charge. Price: £899 including delivery. Battery: 13AH with Samsung cells. Very low maintenance.

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

http://wooshbikes.co.uk/2015/karoo/woosh-karoo4.jpg

If you rather buy an MTB, then take a look at the new Woosh Rio MTB.

Price £1,049, 13AH battery.

http://wooshbikes.co.uk/?rio-mtb

http://wooshbikes.co.uk/2017/rio/rio-mtb.jpg

the Woosh Rio is a much more powerful bike in comparison to the Carrera. The Rio has more powerful motor, larger capacity battery, better crankset, lighter fork, better tyres.

The Rio also has sensors on the brakes and a throttle.

Is it quite new because I cant find many reviews on it.

The Rio is our newest model. Hopefully, there will be reviews in a few months.

Also how does your warranty and set up work?

The Rio is sold by mail order. It arrives in a big carton, you will have to put the pedals and put the handlebars back on. The bike is guaranteed for one year against all material defects.

Sounds like you will be relying on the bike, so service is very important to you.

I'm not the biggest fan of woosh bikes - as woosh will tell you - but one would knock a Carrera into the proverbial cocked hat.

A £1,000 ebike is not going to be the best quality, but with the Carrera you are stuck with Halfords' not so legendary service.

Anything goes wrong the staff will not have a clue, meaning it has to go through the customer unfriendly send it back routine.

At least with a woosh you have genuine telephone support, and they will send a spare part to you same day if it's something you can fit yourself.

Another make to look at is wisper, they sell through dealers and operate a loan bike if yours can't be fixed quickly scheme.

£1500 but will have to order it from Germany

Have to disagree with the Carerra 'slaters'. They do what you need from an electric bike very well. Admittedly the Halfords staff are not the most knowledgable on the subject but the few small issues I have had I just pop into my nearest one and they fix it there and then or swap the offending article for one in stock and away you go..Do that with Woosh etc !

I have 2 of them and am very impressed. Would never consider a mail order bike, for the reasons above.

Hmm thanks for the responses.

My situation is I was convicted for drink driving. Not proud at all, in fact still mentally struggling with the whole event, but I have to take my mind off it and make steps to continue life.

So the bike will be my main mode of transport since my village has no bus routes. Nearest city is 17 miles of hills, nearest town is 2 miles where I could lock the bike up and get a bus from there to the city but, with summer coming, I could do with getting fitter and getting a tan while im at it.

The halfords bike is nice but lacks lights and a pannier rack which would be nice. Since I was planning to go touring with a tent on my motorbike, obviously I cant now so i'd be relying on the bicycle for a similar experience.

With regards to quality, i've only ever owned £130 mountain bikes so surely even a £900 ebike would feel to me, superior to anything i've ridden before?

I'm based in South Leicestershire by the way, if anyone knows of good retailers to try.

I have noticed Woosh advertise a lot on this forum, but not prepared to order a bike with no reviews on it, plus some reviews on the FB page leave a bit to be desired

Have to disagree with the Carerra 'slaters'. They do what you need from an electric bike very well. Admittedly the Halfords staff are not the most knowledgable on the subject but the few small issues I have had I just pop into my nearest one and they fix it there and then or swap the offending article for one in stock and away you go..Do that with Woosh etc !

I have 2 of them and am very impressed. Would never consider a mail order bike, for the reasons above.

It sounds like you have a very good local Halfords - glad to hear you have had a good experience!

My experience with two Crossfire-Es (mine and my partner's) is less satisfactory.

When mine had a fault I was without it for 3 weeks. It came back still not fixed (subsequently refunded).

My partner is still waiting for her's to be fixed - she has been without it for several weeks now.

You pays your money and takes your choice. The Crossfire-e is a great bike when working though.

well you want alot for a bike that dont cost much ie 1000 quid range but with 17 miles of hills unless you can use a low power mode and can put the effort in then might come up short if you are not fit enough to do it.

you need to test ride some first cheap and expensive ones as you get what you pay for

With regards to quality, i've only ever owned £130 mountain bikes so surely even a £900 ebike would feel to me, superior to anything i've ridden before?

ill give this as a example of what you get for ur money bike parts wise.

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Fox-Racing-Shox-34-K-Float-27-5-650b-FIT4-Suspension-Fork-120mm-2017_93030.htm

if you look after them and service them they will last for years and years cheap forks wont as the service cost for a fox for is more than a cheap one costs.

With regards to quality, i've only ever owned £130 mountain bikes so surely even a £900 ebike would feel to me, superior to anything i've ridden before?

 

ill give this as a example of what you get for ur money bike parts wise.

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Fox-Racing-Shox-34-K-Float-27-5-650b-FIT4-Suspension-Fork-120mm-2017_93030.htm

 

if you look after them and service them they will last for years and years cheap forks wont as the service cost for a fox for is more than a cheap one costs.

Thats insane money. Mint condition used motorcycle shocks would be half that (for my motorbike). You could buy a runaround car for that money in fact

if you look after them and service them they will last for years and years cheap forks wont as the service cost for a fox for is more than a cheap one costs.

SW, what do you try to prove?

If someone wants to know how expensive the service parts are for fox forks, check the price list:

http://www.mojostore.co.uk/shock-parts-c102x2665091

you need a lot of training to service a fox float fork like the one SW linked to.

There is currently a thread about cost per mile to run a bike as a transport.

It is not cheap if you have to take your bike to a bike shop for simple maintenance tasks.

(crossed with the OP's post above)

well if you know shocks then decent ones cost money and cheap ones are just that.

what does a set of forks off a moto gp race bike cost

that is you need a lot of training to service a fox float fork like the one SW linked to.

i changed the seals my self they was 25 quid a pack and some fox oil and youtube

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/48V-1000W-LCD-Electric-E-Bike-Rear-Wheel-Kit-Bicycle-Motor-Conversion-Hub-/311702965224?hash=item4892f1cbe8:g:AHQAAOSw3v5Yq44K

add a bike and a batt and off you go

I dont understand where this thread is going? With maintenance and servicing I can do all that myself but if the retailer has a warranty, they can do it until it runs out. I'm used to working on cars and motorcycles so a bicycle is pretty simple for me. I'd likely sell the bike after 18 months anyway and go back to driving.

Volusia25, just to be clear on the warranty, the latter only deals with manufacturing issues. It does not cover the cost of maintenance and wear and tear parts like brake pads, tyres, lubricant etc.

No recommends or help from me as I think you are a total PRAT, in this day and age there is no excuse for being a drunk driver. Just last weekend a p*** crashed his car outside my house in to a tree and did a runner, the old bill were there for 3 hrs trying to sort out the mess, the car was un-driveable with nr side front wheel and suspension f***ed and the car half blocking the road.

N.B.

Edited as it seems to have offended a drunk driver.

Edited April 21, 20178 yr by Nealh

Reviews are not worth anything. Most people who write anything do it immediately before they've done any serious miles on it. Also most of them have never had an ebike before, or worse still, they had a go on some cheap rubbish , and then extol the virtues of their new bike.

Just about any e-bike can do 35 miles and cope with hills if you only weigh 11 stone,

The Carrera Crossfire is not bad for the money, but it seems to get too many problems from what I've read. Even the people above have mentioned taking their bikes back to get fixed. You can do without that on a commuter. The Crossfire isn't as easy to derestrict as other Chinese bikes. That's sometimes important for people that have to do long commutes.

The Woosh bikes represent state of the art Chinese bikes. I could review one without riding it because I've ridden so many electric bikes and I know how all the components work. Their bikes have about 25% more power than most because they run up to 20 amps, compared with most at 15 amps.

I wouldn't leave any e-bike tied to a lamppost all day. there's a fair chance that it won't be there when you come back to it. 17.5 miles is a stroll on an e-bike, and you'd probably enjoy it. Even when it's raining, if you have a decent cape/poncho it can still be quite pleasant. I commuted 15 miles each way for a few years and really got to enjoy my rides to and from work.

For fast commuting, you need a thin lightweight bike with 700c (28") wheels to cut down the resistance. That can make a difference of 3 or 4 mph compared with a MTB, which reduces long journey times a lot. There's not many OEM e-bikes like that. The Woosh Rio is one of them.

I would avoid a crank-drive bike. They're not too bad in the summer, but in the winter when you have cold hands, all the extra gear-changing can become very tedious and painful compared with a hub-motor bike, which you can more or less leave in top gear if you want, except for the steep hills. IMHO crank-drives are better for fun riding rather than commuting.

No recommends or help from me as I think you are a total PRAT, in this day and age there is no excuse for being a drunk driver. Just last weekend a paki crashed his car outside my house in to a tree and did a runner, the old bill were there for 3 hrs trying to sort out the mess, the car was un-driveable with nr side front wheel and suspension f***ed and the car half blocking the road.

Didn't fancy the help from a racist anyway.

You say your budget is £1,000?

I was the same when I went shopping for electric bikes, I thought I could get a good one for that.

But something like a Bosch crank drive motor and battery etc adds about £1,000 to the price of a bike, so if you buy a bike for £1,600 then your buying a £600 bike with a motor on.

Hub motors are cheaper but they still cost a fair bit along with the battery and other kit so a £1,000 bike is allowing, say, £300 for the bike itself.

I soon revised my budget up to £2,000 and would suggest that this is the right limit for a bike that is going to be used daily and needs to be reliable.

But the main thing is to try a few and, if possible, buy locally.

And you might want to buy a secondhand £100 non motorised bike as a spare .....?