What bike

[Garry Poulton]

OK, so I retired last year and I have been riding an old Ailen ebike for the last year or so. I now feel the time is right for a new bike but i have a budget of £1000 max. What do you advise, im 6' 2" tall and use the bike for leasure rides upto 30 miles or so mainly on country lanes and surfaced paths. I look forward to your suggestions.

 

[sjpt]

There are bound to be compromises at £1000. For an idea of what is around look at https://www.e-bikesdirect.co.uk/electric-bikes/bikes-under-£1000/. It may be worth stretching to £1200 if you can at all (eg Woosh range http://wooshbikes.co.uk/cart/). Or 2nd hand: we got a 2nd hand Raleigh Motus for just that kind of riding at just over £1000 a bit over a year ago.

You don't mention hills. That makes a huge difference to range. Also how much of your own work you want to put in. Lots of cheaper ebikes will have a low capacity battery and quote figures like 30 or 40 miles, whereas you may well get under half in real life. You'll probably need a 400wh (*) battery for 30 miles; more if you want the motor to do most of the work.

The Bosch range assistant (https://www.bosch-ebike.com/en/service/range-assistant/) will show you how much variation there is under different riding conditions. You'll have to fudge motor type, and scale down for battery capacity, but you'll soon get an idea for the difference between ideal and typical usage.

(*) where wh (watt hour) is not quoted, multiply aH (amp hour) by v (voltage, typically 36)

 

[Woosh]

slightly over your budget at £1,049 is the Woosh Camino with 36V * 15AH battery that should do 30 miles with ease.
It will suit 6ft2, up to about 16st.

useful features: fully equipped for all weather, very well waterproofed, internal cable routing, matt paint, suspension fork, hydraulic brakes, Selle Royale saddle, kickstand bell, lights, puncture resistant tyres etc.

Camino MTB electric bicycle from Woosh

The Woosh Camino, a very sturdy electric bike with hydraulic brakes 36V 15/17AH battery from Woosh. Price range: �£1049-�£1119.

wooshbikes.co.uk

 

[Garry Poulton]

Thank you both for your replying. I realise now l have looked around that I will need to up my budget. The Woosh Camino looks like a very good deal for the money. Are you likely to be getting any more of the higher capacity batteries?

 

[sjpt]

The Camino wih 15ah should comfortably do the 30 miles you mentioned unless it is very hilly or you really rely a lot on the motor. We get 30 miles on a 13ah battery on our tandem, slightly hilly (Winchester); but only using assistance levels 2 or 3 of 5.

 

[Garry Poulton]

Thanks, my regular ride which is 20 miles round trip has a couple of good hills and i only really need assistance on the hills. Most of the time i don't use any power.

 

[Woosh]

Thank you both for your replying. I realise now l have looked around that I will need to up my budget. The Woosh Camino looks like a very good deal for the money. Are you likely to be getting any more of the higher capacity batteries?

next arrival of 17AH Camino is in January.