Second-hand buying advice please - Carrera Crossfire 2020, EGO Movement Caesar...

[111]

Hi,

I've been looking at this site for a while, and there's lots of good advice on here so I thought I'd join to ask a specific question.

I'm looking at buying a second-hand electric bike, as I'm on a pretty limited budget. We live at the top of a hill (300ft elevation over a mile) and I'd like to attach a child trailer for our 2 young kids.

In my price range I've found a used Carrera Crossfire E, and an EGO Movement, and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience of either and would recommend? Presumably they'd be OK with a trailer attached?

- I've seen a few threads about reliability issues with the Carrera but I wasn't sure if that was more on the older model?
- I haven't found much info on the EGO Movement, and most of it is in German! But it looks well made, and seems to run on a Bafang hub motor

Also open to other suggestions under £500, which doesn't leave that many options I know!

Thanks in advance

 

[sjpt]

My reading of what others have said on the thread is that the newer Crossfires are not as bad as the old ones for reliability, but still not that good.

Battery condition is always the worry getting a 2nd hand ebike. If it's old it might have done a high mileage and be getting close to end of life. If it has long periods of rest and the battery hasn't been kept topped up if can also deteriorate. If it drops too far it can be impossible to charge it, or at least awkward. Take a very careful look at 'it's three years old but only done 100 miles'. Replacement batteries for generic systems are expensive; replacement batteries for proprietary systems are very expensive,

 

[111]

Thanks very much for the reply.

That's a good point about the battery life, and yeah it's definitely a risk buying second hand.

I'll ask a few questions of the seller about usage etc - do you know if there is a way of checking battery life other than an extended test ride, which may not be an option!

 

[StuartsProjects]

Do you know if there is a way of checking battery life other than an extended test ride, which may not be an option!

You could connect it to a known load, such as a lowish value high power resistor, and measure how quickly the battery voltage falls.

There are fairly low cost power meters that will measure Amp hour used for you.

 

[Bonzo Banana]

The way I'd buy a secondhand ebike is factor in the battery is toast and needs replacement even if it doesn't. Is it still worth buying if the battery fails in a couple of weeks because its end of life? An ebike is not like a normal bike the battery is a huge part of the value of a ebike and can fail at any point. The seller may have issues with the ebike related to the battery condition which is why they are selling, perhaps the ebike keeps cutting out especially on hills because some cells are failing and unable to deliver high currents. You get something like 400-500 charges before capacity reduces and for small battery packs which are discharged at higher rates it could be only 200-300 cycles before the battery has significantly less capacity. The smaller the battery pack capacity the more likely it will be end of life.

Also factor in price. Someone might want £800 for a Crossfire ebike that is 2 years old they paid £900 for but is now £1200 new but a similar standard bicycle could be bought s/hand for £100 and an ebike kit could be bought for £400 including battery.