I'll probably upset Tonaro owners now! One member in this forum has more knowledge of current and very recent e-bikes than anyone else, having owned and ridden a wide variety of them. With a friend they recently rode a pair of Tonaros on a decent length run and they found them low powered compared with the mainstream, and well down on the most powerful hub motor models.
Oh, surely not Flecc? Not long ago, some owners of these machines were telling us they were fantastic bikes and voting for them as the ebike of the year 2011.
I jest of course but this is one of the problems with ebike recommendations from owners in a forum such as this. When someone first rides an ebike, any ebike, they are usually impressed and use words like fantastic, etc. Unfortunately, the context in which those people are impressed needs to be considered. An ebike may well be described as fantastic if compared to say, riding a non-powered bike or a 25 year old donkey.
Fortunately, there are forum members for whom I have great respect who are able to give perspective to some of the outrageous claims made by delighted owners of what in reality are no more than basic but adequate ebikes. In cases where the delighted owner may claim previous experience of other ebikes, it's usually the case that the previous machines were similar, budget-priced, heavy Chinese imports.
Besides those forum members whose opinions I respect, I also read independent reviews from A2B magazine and any German material I can find on the internet as I think it helps to get a bigger picture and reduces the possibility of biased reporting of a product. Actually going into a bike shop, particularly when one turns up on an ebike, and test-riding their demo machines is a great way to gain perspective and doing so has certainly put me off two hub-driven bikes that I had previously thought seemed ok at the price.
I shan't mention the makes of those ebikes for fear of incurring the wrath of some owners who may well be delighted by their performance. Suffice to say they are still readily available and haven't changed much over the last 3 years.
As for new members of this forum looking for help in choosing an ebike, my advice is to weigh up any recommendations from existing owners in conjunction with information gleaned elsewhere. Then test-ride the bike of your choice with at least one other at a similar price. If possible, try something light (and probably expensive!) just to see why some bikes are a lot dearer. Do not buy anything from internet sellers without premises unless you are happy to perform repairs yourself and can do without a solid warranty.
Above all else, check out the price of a replacement battery so there are no surprises in store for you when that time comes round. Yesterday, I saw a full-sus MTB in Tesco for £45.00. It had pigeon-poo welding, gears and chainset that looked like they were made from solder with a name that definitely wasn't Shimano or S-ram. I overheard the person standing next to me say to his friend, "That's fantastic!" Well.....yes, I suppose it is fantastic in a way as a typical replacement battery for an ebike probably costs 10 times that amount!
Indalo
