E Bikes, which type to go for?

[Take2]

Just wanted to get the thoughts of you fungi’s on the subject of choosing an
e bike to take in the MH?
I’ve got a 5 Year old 20” wheeled folding rear hub job with the 10A brick battery down behind the seat. Weighs 23kg with battery and gives around 25 miles.
The likes:
Reasonable weight, easily stored in garage, not very appealing to thieves.
Dislikes:
The motor feels quite noisy in populated areas, seem to get overtaken by everyone.
Has anyone had the small 20” and a full sized 26”e bike that could shed some light on their pros and cons?
I’m thinking, possibly in error, that the larger e bike is more efficient than the smaller one. Giving better cruising speed and better range for the same effort??

 

[TheAleMan]

Thats me Steve, 10’000+miles to Croatia, Germany, Austria etc…and back

Ah you caught me..nice one again

 

[TheAleMan]

We’ve had both Cube and now Scott for my wife’s daily ride and happy with both although she prefers a full size wheel. Her first e-bike was a 20” wheel bike that she wasn’t too keen on although it did get used a lot and did conveniently fold.

I’ve also just gone electric for my commuter bike:

View attachment 691917

View attachment 691918

Started using it at the beginning of September and have to say it’s a great experience and makes commuting a pleasure and even fun. Still adapting to it, especially in this changing weather period but have managed an average of 36kmh over the first 1500km covered in the last 11wks.

I used to be an e-bike naysayer, not any more

Must say, I like the look of that..very nice.

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

Ah you caught me..nice one again

Sucker

 

[TheAleMan]

Sucker

Normal

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[TheAleMan]

Sucker

So I’m right then…it hasn’t moved

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

So I’m right then…it hasn’t moved

It has moved here and there

 

[VXman]

My electric 'moped'. ( Except mines in black) Officially limited to 28mph but mine does 45mph

Up to 40 mile range but with 2 up and going full speed it will be more like 20. 70k so good for in the back of the motorhome. Runs with 2 up on all but the most extreme hill. Us oldies can drive it on a car licence.

That is the difference between a scooter and a moped as I remember it.
moped is motorised pedal bike. ie it has pedals the ped bit.

Ah, but electric motorbikes limited to 28 mph in the uk are classed as mopeds (as are 50cc petrol motorbikes -) but no pedals required nowadays.

 

[John Barrett]

I've had a few ebikes before the current one. The first, a GIANT bike - 26" wheels, 7 years go and £1600 - was completely unreliable and was returned. The second was a Halfords 26" one, a Carrera Crossfire, and that was even more unreliable, so it was moved on. The third was a pair of folding little uns: low range and awfully bumpy on any sort of normal surface, sold when we got rid of our last motorhome. I now have one of these. which knocks everything I have ever owned into a cocked hat!

Voodoo Bizango-E Shimano Electric Mountain Bike - 17", 19", 21" Frames | Halfords UK

Shop the latest Voodoo Bizango-E Shimano Electric Mountain Bike at Halfords UK

www.halfords.com

 

[jumartoo]

Do people pay this sort of money for ebikes ?
If you both had one that’s a small fortune!
I didn’t pay that for my GSXR1000.

Unfortunately, yes. That's the price for lots of fun and outdoor activity.

It's our main activity, we use ours almost daily. I'm heading to 12,000 km on my mountain bike in 2 years, with time out x 2 for a broken shoulder and a broken wrist. Yes, biking accidents

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Soycd]

We’ve had both Cube and now Scott for my wife’s daily ride and happy with both although she prefers a full size wheel. Her first e-bike was a 20” wheel bike that she wasn’t too keen on although it did get used a lot and did conveniently fold.

I’ve also just gone electric for my commuter bike:

View attachment 691917

View attachment 691918

Started using it at the beginning of September and have to say it’s a great experience and makes commuting a pleasure and even fun. Still adapting to it, especially in this changing weather period but have managed an average of 36kmh over the first 1500km covered in the last 11wks.

I used to be an e-bike naysayer, not any more

We will probably switch to e-bikes in the next couple of years. That looks like the sort of thing I would like. How much does yours weigh? We'd be putting 2 on the back of a PVC eventually so weight is gong to be a key factor. I've also been looking at racks having seen the one below on a German van at a stelllplatz over the summer. I'd probably want to adapt it so I could roll the bikes up ramps for later years!

 

[Take2]

The latest and best ones are getting big and heavy. Ours are older 28" wheels with Bosch chank drive weigh 24kg. My mate has just bought a new Cube 29" wheels 280 Nm Bosch motor weighs 29kg but goes like the clappers.
My wife being on the shorter side finds her bike with 28" wheels bit high but its almost impossible to find any decent brand bikes with 26" wheels.

Thanks for that Lenny.
That 28/29” wheel seems big to me but then I’m probably a smaller fungi than you.

 

[Take2]

We have 2 Whispers. Mine is the folding one with 16” wheels, the Wife’s non folding with 20” wheels, both weigh within 1kgs of each other (21kgs with out the batteries). The Wife’s on with the larger 20” wheels is far far steadier and the more comfortable to ride. Hope this info is of assistance to you.

Thanks Derry, that’s interesting but I was wondering if there was any efficiency to be gained by…
Firstly changing to a larger framed/wheeled bike.
Also switching from my old tech cadence sensing to the crank motors torque sensors

Cheers

 

[LesW]

Do people pay this sort of money for ebikes ?
If you both had one that’s a small fortune!
I didn’t pay that for my GSXR1000.

We already had decent hybrid bikes bought from Halfords, they were about five years old when I converted them to electric.

Total cost for two reliable electric bikes came to about £2000, we don't do mountain trails, but do enjoy cycling round reservoirs and forest trails... They enable us to go further including up hills we might normally have to walk up.

They are both capable of more than 20 mph, but around 9-12mph is the norm for us.

 

[funflair]

Thanks Derry, that’s interesting but I was wondering if there was any efficiency to be gained by…
Firstly changing to a larger framed/wheeled bike.
Also switching from my old tech cadence sensing to the crank motors torque sensors

Cheers

I think you would notice a huge difference with the shift to crank drive and torque sensing, we have our first electric assist bike as a tandem and we have three power assist levels switchable from the handlebars and these assist levels can be programmed via an app so you can set your own parameters ie the torque level that assist starts, the speed it reacts to torque input and the maximum level of assist at each pre programmed level.

Ours is Shimano EP8 crank motor.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Coolcats]

Unfortunately, yes. That's the price for lots of fun and outdoor activity.

It's our main activity, we use ours almost daily. I'm heading to 12,000 km on my mountain bike in 2 years, with time out x 2 for a broken shoulder and a broken wrist. Yes, biking accidents

I found myself in a ditch at Hadliegh park with a cracked rib two weeks ago so you have my sympathy mind you e-MTB’s are a lot of fun

 

[Neil54]

Legalimit on a pulic Highway is 250W motor, anything else is private land only.
I fitted powered hubs to our bicycles and they are great.
Batteries cost more than the power wheel. About £450 per bike all up.

 

[Ridgeway]

Legalimit on a pulic Highway is 250W motor, anything else is private land only.
I fitted powered hubs to our bicycles and they are great.
Batteries cost more than the power wheel. About £450 per bike all up.

Yes in the UK, here we can have more fun and commuting with 850w motors is a lot of fun but my battery is only 1000w so needs an occasional charge.

ebikes are fun, recent discovery for me

 

[Anjistar]

I've just converted an old bike to an ebike by fitting a Tongsheng mid drive motor. It's torque sensing so works just like a Bosch bike. I paid extra for a large 19.2Ah battery. Total cost for the motor and battery was £800. Total weight 21kg. Range is between 60 and 100 miles.

Hi, would you mind telling me bit more about your conversion, please? Feel free to pm it to keep it off here, if you like. I have a road bike that I love, but need a bit of help on the mountains these days, and trying to keep the weight down for the rear door bike rack on a fiat Ducato van.

 

[Anjistar]

Just had a look at Ribble electric bikes they start from £1999 upwards and as I stated weigh about 16 17 k

Colyboy

And at least a year's wait, it seems.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Cyclewalkbob]

You need to decide what type and level of cycling you want to do.

if pootling down to the beach/town centre then don’t spend big money on an 700c wheel e-bike, a 20/24” wheel would be sufficient And easier to store in a garage.

if you are a keen road cyclist then the lightest e-bike you can find will help you get over those Cols. The Ribble withe the emotion motor in the rear wheel will give a reasonable amount of assistance where on the flat you don’t need the power then up the hills you can add in the power to give you a boost.

These come in between 13.5-15.5kg depending on the frame material choice Carbon/aluminium

We went with a mid motor as ill health restricted my cycling ability.

In the end we went with two Bianchi road bikes with the Polini motor which were the lightest mid motor road bikes we would find at 15.5kg and 16kg. We used to take the batteries out and use a special battery cover, to put them on the rear rack which took the weight down to 13/13.5kg which was an acceptable weight for the rear rack.

I cannot really comment on mountain bikes as this was not our field of cycling, but they are heavy and even with the battery out are still around 20kg. Just lifting those on a rear rack means you have to be fit!

Whatever you choose an E-bike makes life easier, it allows you to do the type of riding you used to do and at 70+ you can still do the hills like a good un!

 

[Nanniemate]

And at least a year's wait, it seems.

Look at isla bikes they have stock , I had the same issues last year

 

[Florence Pixie]

I have an ezego commute int. Very light. Cost £1399 I think.

 

[Canucks]

I've just converted an old bike to an ebike by fitting a Tongsheng mid drive motor. It's torque sensing so works just like a Bosch bike. I paid extra for a large 19.2Ah battery. Total cost for the motor and battery was £800. Total weight 21kg. Range is between 60 and 100 miles.

Likewise if you could provide more details, this is the route I'd like to take. Thanks

 

[Garry - June]

I'm interested by e bikes and laws in other countries. When we were in Italy there were those big e bikes with the big thick 'balloon' tyres really driving very fast - possibly 30 mph - without pedalling. Police didn't seem bothered that they were doing this through pedestrian zones. - it was quite scary! In the UK I believe it's limited to 15 mph and you have to pedal? Very few riders on all types of e bikes were pedalling very much.

Also, surely the bigger bikes become less efficient needing bigger batteries. Can't see the reason for the really big ones with massive tyres.

Logically the slighter the bike the better the range and speed ( battery size also comes into the equation obviously.)

We have 2x Cube hybrids and as you state legally they are permitted electric assist to a maximum of 15mph...this we found was too low for us and a limit which is actually an EU directive..in the US for example i believe its 20mph..may be wrong... anyway we have fitted "speedbox2" derestriction boxes, extremely easy to fit or remove if required, activated by simply pressing the walk button on the handlebar control unit , and available and purchased on Ebay from Germany...to say they have transformed our bikes is an understatement...we don't go crazy but they will now give electric assist for as fast as you can peddle, it now means we can cruise when out exploring at around 18-20mph which is far more comfortable for the wife and myself... yes i know its technically illegal before anyone tells me.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Coolcats]

Like a lot of battery fires always use the right charger for the battery on the e-bike (particularly if you are assembling / converting )

E-bike fires: why they happen, and how you can prevent them​

Fire investigators issue urgent warning over fires involving e-bike batteries​

E-bike batteries have caused 200 fires in New York: ‘Everyone’s scared’​

 

[RUDEBEAR]

I brought two folding bikes before lockdown and only used them few times, we go away with a new puppy so have no need for them anymore so selling them. Will be putting a ad on site and other places soon but just to see if anyone interested buying two bike in this thread then bike are :- looking for £350 each

Elife Royale 6sp 36v 250w Electric Folding Bike 20inch Wheel with FREE Elife Storage Bag

 

[LesW]

Likewise if you could provide more details, this is the route I'd like to take. Thanks

Another conversion to consider is Bafang.

Very pleased with our conversions.

 

[Tony50]

Haven't read all comments but, we have 2 Claud Butler electric bikes , with small wheels ,aI wouldn't buy another small wheeled bike again they wobble too easily especially when signalling, also ours are front wheel drive on a gravel hill they skid unless you stand and lean over forwards as you bike

 

[Andycap]

I bought a cube e bike five years ago with 400w battery still goes like a dream. the only downside to it is the weight it's a bit on the heavy side. I can still get 35-40 miles being careful.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[JonP]

It is (was?) possible to override the speed limit. I did but can still only get up to 20mph....but that'll do.

Have new Cube with latest Bosch engine which has different crank gear size (larger) to my 2015 Scott which enables you to easily power above 14.8 mph to 18-20 mph. If within budget worth getting.