Recommended ebike not for commuting

[ldc]

Hi,
I am looking for help choosing an ebike. Please advise on pros and cons, ideally you will have used or own the bike in question.

The budget is roughly 1200 maybe could go a bit higher

I will not use the ebike for commuting. I will only be able to use the bike on 2 or 3 days a week, for the moment, mostly on quite cycle paths/national cycle networks but also some hilly roads. I currently have an 18" carrera with 26" wheels, so a similar sized bike will be ideal. Tried a conversion kit and it didn't work, so I'm back to my original choice of buying a brand new bike. Preferably a front wheel 500w, but will happily have a rear wheel. I know the legal implications of a 500w hub and am just looking for recommendations on the bike please. I will be buying a bike in the uk/europe

Thanks in advance

 

[sjpt]

Woosh Rio looks a good place to start: https://wooshbikes.co.uk/?rio-mtb
Also Wisper 905 https://wisperbikes.com/shop/e-bikes/crossbar-ebikes/905-2019/ a bit more expensive.

Not sure why you favour a front wheel hub. A decent 250w hub should give all you need. You've already factored in the legal aspect, but most prebuilt bikes will have 250w anyway because of that.

 

[ldc]

Woosh Rio looks a good place to start: https://wooshbikes.co.uk/?rio-mtb
Also Wisper 905 https://wisperbikes.com/shop/e-bikes/crossbar-ebikes/905-2019/ a bit more expensive.

Not sure why you favour a front wheel hub. A decent 250w hub should give all you need. You've already factored in the legal aspect, but most prebuilt bikes will have 250w anyway because of that.

Thank you for feedback, I will have a look at those. Have you used or owned any of those bikes?

 

[sjpt]

Thank you for feedback, I will have a look at those. Have you used or owned any of those bikes?

No, that is based on personal experience with Woosh (XF07 front kit for tandem) and their excellent service, plus second hand experiences you will see throughout this forum of good service, good quality bikes, and value for money from Woosh and Wisper. Also most parts on those bikes are pretty standard and should be easy to repair (and if necessary fairly cheap to replace) for some time to come.

Oxygen are another company that shows up well, but as far as I know a little more expensive still.

 

[ldc]

No, that is based on personal experience with Woosh (XF07 front kit for tandem) and their excellent service, plus second hand experiences you will see throughout this forum of good service, good quality bikes, and value for money from Woosh and Wisper. Also most parts on those bikes are pretty standard and should be easy to repair (and if necessary fairly cheap to replace) for some time to come.

Oxygen are another company that shows up well, but as far as I know a little more expensive still.

Thank you once again, not looked at the woosh bike yet. Looking at the whisper bike, I don't understand "watt hours" and does the bike have only 7 gears??

 

[Gavin]

Thank you once again, not looked at the woosh bike yet. Looking at the whisper bike, I don't understand "watt hours" and does the bike have only 7 gears??

More gears just add more complexity and aren't needed on an ebike.

Watt hours is the measure of the battery capacity

 

[ldc]

More gears just add more complexity and aren't needed on an ebike.

Watt hours is the measure of the battery capacity

Thank you Gavin. I was thinking more what if the battery died or the ebike stopped working and I need to get back from somewhere. I might not need the gears often, but the one time I do??

 

[sjpt]

Thank you Gavin. I was thinking more what if the battery died or the ebike stopped working and I need to get back from somewhere. I might not need the gears often, but the one time I do??

As Gavin says 7 should be enough even without motor on most hills. The one time you do lose electrics you may have to get off and push up some hills; pretty unlikely, irritating but not a huge burden. What if the derailleur breaks or you get an unmendable puncture or a buckled wheel or ...??? (

If the chain breaks the motor will still help; and the chain is under less stress on a hub ebike than on a regular bike, and much less stress than on a crank drive ebike.

I see the rio has 8 gears.

That said, we are pleased still to have 24 gears on our tandem (with the Woosh XF07 front kit), but that is partly because the motor is not that powerful for getting two of us not that light oldies up a steep hill. b.t.w. front wheel on a tandem works better than on a regular ebike because of the different weight distribution on the wheels, plus it gives two wheel drive.

One thing to note is that the Rio has a large capacity battery (wh); battery capacity makes a big difference to ebike cost, as you can see looking at different sizes on the Wisper.

 

[ldc]

As Gavin says 7 should be enough even without motor on most hills. The one time you do lose electrics you may have to get off and push up some hills; pretty unlikely, irritating but not a huge burden. What if the derailleur breaks or you get an unmendable puncture or a buckled wheel or ...??? (

If the chain breaks the motor will still help; and the chain is under less stress on a hub ebike than on a regular bike, and much less stress than on a crank drive ebike.

I see the rio has 8 gears.

That said, we are pleased still to have 24 gears on our tandem (with the Woosh XF07 front kit), but that is partly because the motor is not that powerful for getting two of us not that light oldies up a steep hill. b.t.w. front wheel on a tandem works better than on a regular ebike because of the different weight distribution on the wheels, plus it gives two wheel drive.

One thing to note is that the Rio has a large capacity battery (wh); battery capacity makes a big difference to ebike cost, as you can see looking at different sizes on the Wisper.

Thanks

 

[ldc]

The woosh rio says its for riders 5ft 7 plus but a few sentences later says 5ft 4 and above.

 

[Woosh]

the Rio can be ridden by small riders, 5ft4 to 6ft.
Best fit: 5ft7.
For taller riders (5ft8-6ft2), I recommend the Camino and Gran Camino.
The difference between the two Caminos is this, the Gran Camino is built for heavy riders and tough riding with bigger tyres and bigger motor.

 

[Gavin]

I was thinking more what if the battery died or the ebike stopped working and I need to get back from somewhere

In reality that's a bit like saying "what happens if I run out of fuel in my car?" And the answer is....make sure you don't!

As @sjpt said, there are many other surprise factors that will immobilize an ebike (or any bike for that matter) far quicker.

I'm curious- you said you tried a conversion kit and it didn't work. What was the issue?

I ask because your budget of £1200 would get you a kick-arse conversion and you'd get to know every nut and bolt of the bike in the process making it much easier to fix at the roadside if you ever have to....

 

[ldc]

the Rio can be ridden by small riders, 5ft4 to 6ft.
Best fit: 5ft7.
For taller riders (5ft8-6ft2), I recommend the Camino and Gran Camino.
The difference between the two Caminos is this, the Gran Camino is built for heavy riders and tough riding with bigger tyres and bigger motor.

Thanks, are you official woosh representative?

 

[sjpt]

Thanks, are you official woosh representative?

Yes he is.

I mentioned the excellent customer service earlier. One area Woosh does sometimes fall down is the website. It is very difficult keeping those up to date (anyone who has tried will know) and I am afraid there are quite often inconsistencies/inaccuracies on their site. That's true of many sites, so double-check all details with them before any final decision; private message here or an email will usually get a quick response; I'm not sure what the state of their telephone answering is during covid.

 

[ldc]

In reality that's a bit like saying "what happens if I run out of fuel in my car?" And the answer is....make sure you don't!

As @sjpt said, there are many other surprise factors that will immobilize an ebike (or any bike for that matter) far quicker.

I'm curious- you said you tried a conversion kit and it didn't work. What was the issue?

I ask because your budget of £1200 would get you a kick-arse conversion and you'd get to know every nut and bolt of the bike in the process making it much easier to fix at the roadside if you ever have to....

The battery didn't work, but somebody has advised me the possible reason why

Yes he is.

I mentioned the excellent customer service earlier. One area Woosh does sometimes fall down is the website. It is very difficult keeping those up to date (anyone who has tried will know) and I am afraid there are quite often inconsistencies/inaccuracies on their site. That's true of many sites, so double-check all details with them before any final decision; private message here or an email will usually get a quick response; I'm not sure what the state of their telephone answering is during covid.

Yes the site, is not very easy on the eye but am interested in the RIO, especially as it's in stock, I am curious, although maybe I should ask woosh, why they don't offer extended warranties. what kind of inaccuracies are you referring too?

 

[sjpt]

what kind of inaccuracies are you referring too?

One is the one you mentioned somewhere above on this thread, of inconsistent description of the height for which the Rio is suitable.

Another one someone pointed out recently on a thread here (and now corrected) was a diagram highlighting the USB socket on the battery, when in the current version the socket is not actually powered.

Review - Woosh Rio MTB Review/Initial Impressions

I take your point and will correct the web page later today when I get to work. in the first year, the Rio MTB had the USB port connected. Then we change the battery factory. Since, none of the USB port got connected as all the lights are powered with AA and AAA batteries to avoid cabling.

www.pedelecs.co.uk

The cells on the 13ah downtube battery are Samsung 18650-26HM, not Samsung 18650-29E cells (mine were anyway, and 4p 29E cells would make 11.4ah and 5p 29E would make 17.4ah)

None of these is that serious, mainly caused by the difficultly a small team has trying to keep a website correct as spec details change etc etc; certainly not by intent to make obscure/confuse/mislead (unlike many websites). I don't want to criticise (otherwise I wouldn't have suggested the Rio in the first place), just to point out that care is needed.

 

[Woosh]

the cells in the 17AH battery in the Rio MTB are Panasonic 3400mAH NCR 18650B. it's lasered into the case.
edit
the 17.5AH HL battery is made with Samsung 35E.
it's difficult to keep the information up to date with so many shipments.

 

[PP100]

Accuracy is obviously very important but one thing I have become aware of, is the more information that is published, the more likely inaccuracies will be there.

For example during the mid 90s, I happened to work at an establishment that was for a time, front page news. What I found was that the tabloids actually reported events more accurately because they had fewer words to fill per page, while the broadsheets at the time had long articles,opinions and speculation , quotes from "sources" which often turned out to be misleading or plain wrong from what actually was the truth, or ended up happening.
Not exactly the same as keeping a website up to date , but there you are.

Whoosh do provide a lot of historical technical information on their site , which is good, and specs and standards change over time. From what I've seen they've been happy to correct things when pointed out eg there was a small discrepancy in one of their manuals . Again though, really useful to be able to read the manual onsite.
Wouldn't want them to be discouraged from putting the very detailed stuff out there because of a few errors, as I imagine it preempts a lot of email/phone queries from those who are bothered to read them, even if important details (or discrepancies) need to be confirmed at the contact/prospective sale stage.

 

[ldc]

the cells in the 17AH battery in the Rio MTB are Panasonic 3400mAH NCR 18650B. it's lasered into the case.
edit
the 17.5AH HL battery is made with Samsung 35E.
it's difficult to keep the information up to date with so many shipments.

Thank you,

Does this bike have brake sensors fitted? I have just read the manual and it's not clear if it does or does not

The Rio page has 2 pdf files a bike manual and an LCD manual but both files are the same?

The picture shows mudguards fitted and the description mentions it are they included as just below it says full-sized mudguards for £7.38

The manual also says if you use option 3,4,5 you will void your warranty, but does not say what they do?

How long does delivery take?

 

[Woosh]

Does this bike have brake sensors fitted? I have just read the manual and it's not clear if it does or does not

yes. The piston inside the fluid reservoir has a magnet, the sensor is at the end of a tube parallel to the piston that you see in this picture. The sensor is adjusted with a 7mm wrench.

The Rio page has 2 pdf files a bike manual and an LCD manual but both files are the same?

I have now amended the links on the web page, thank you for pointing it out.

Bike manual:

https://wooshbikes.co.uk/manuals/Rio-MTB.pdf

LCD manual:

https://wooshbikes.co.uk/manuals/Rio-KD58C-LCD.pdf

The picture shows mudguards fitted and the description mentions it are they included as just below it says full-sized mudguards for £7.38

The Rio MTB is supplied with short mudguards as in the pictures. A number of customers prefer full sized mudguards fitted so we can do that as well. They can be purchased on the net for about £10 and are easy to fit.

The manual also says if you use option 3,4,5 you will void your warranty, but does not say what they do?

I don't really know to be honest. Andy writes the manual and deals with warranty. I suppose they are options in the LCD settings.