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??

 

[Ridgeway]

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.

We also had the same between my wife’s Cube and now Scott and I was surprised at how much better the new Bosch drive is. A lot more torque and faster acceleration

 

[The Wino]

We got one each from decathlon this summer. I went for a hybrid with a rear hub motor Liz a crank motor and bigger battery as she wanted a comfortable ride more upright and less effort. They're pretty good we didn't want to go really expensive as we weren't sure how much we'd use them and my old bike was 30 years old and knackered so a conversion wasn't a realistic option and we wanted the convenience of being able to take them to a store if they need any maintenance. We paid less than £3000 for the two of them.
This is Liz,s https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/smart-electric-city-bike-920-e-connect-lf-white/_/R-p-305573this is mine

ELECTRIC HYBRID BIKE RIVERSIDE 500E

ELECTRIC HYBRID BIKE RIVERSIDE 500E null Give your rides more power. The Riverside 500 E electric hybrid bike offers electrical rider support for distances of up to 90 km.

www.decathlon.co.uk

 

[Lister]

I bought a 4 year old Wisper 806 folding 20" wheel bike with the small battery pack 21k or 19k without the battery. Went for this make because of the good reviews of the bike and factory back up. The reviews are correct, very pleased with the bike even had 2 bars left after a windy 25 mile ride. Had a problem with the resistor in the controller and posted the control unit .to the factory on Wednesday , it arrived back on the Friday

 

[Allybob]

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!

We have a memo van swing, which is slightly different to this model, and wouldn't have another. When the arm is swung out, the weight of the ebikes makes it drop a little from the hinge and it's very heavy and quite difficult to lift it back into the bracket to secure. There are some available that have a jockey wheel on the end which may make it easier to use.

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[Coolcats]

We have one of these, they are not cheap but are robust and easy to use

 

[Van Aert]

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.

It also voids your warranty but I guess you know that.

 

[bigtree]

I recently built up this mountain bike, feel I’m a bit young still to get an ebike.
Will be 67 next month.
It’s a Stanton Switch9er Ti,
Pictures are up behind Calpe.

 

[Ken and Carol]

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.

Hi Anjistar. There are two commonly available mid drive motor kits, the Bafang one and the Tongsheng TSDZ2 one. The Bafang operates using cadence sensor and is powerful and allows you to 'ghost pedal' while still going at 15.5 mph. The Tongsheng motor has a torque sensor which means you will have to put some effort in but your effort will be added to by means of the motor. It's just like riding a normal bike but you have bionic legs. And the range, with my 19.2 Ah battery is huge.
I ride none electric bikes every day but fancied an ebike for trips out with a friend who has a Specialised Vado SL and also for cycling to and from my local squash club - it's 20 miles away and cycling back after an hour's squash seems far less daunting now I have a bit (or lot depending on which of the four power modes I use) of assistance.
A good set of four videos to watch have been made by The Artful Bodger. Here is a link to the first one:

As long as you can remove your pedals, crank arms and bottom bracket you will be fine to fit the motor.
I opted for the downtube mounted battery (as does the Artful Bodger) and just had to learn two new skills. One of them was how to insert two rivnuts in my downtube. The rivnut tool, complete with lots of rivnuts, was only £20 from Amazon and I inserted three rivnuts into an old piece of aluminium to get the hang of it before drilling two holes into my downtube and inserting rivnuts into each of them. So far, so good, the battery has stayed exactly where it should. If you opt for the rack mounted battery (if you have the mounting points for a rack) you won't have to do any drilling. The handling of the bike possibly won't be as good though.
The other skill was a doddle and was how to link two wires together and heatshrink them afterwards. Again, the heatshrink kit was very cheap. You could just use insulating tape.
It's a fun project to do and there is a sense of satisfaction from cycling on an ebike you have created yourself. I call mine, Frankenbike.
If you need any more info, please ask.

 

[HymerB544]

I’ve come into this thread late, apologies . We always carried our carbon road bikes with us until last year when we decided to follow most of our friends and buy electric. But instead of buying the big and bulky “2 ton” versions we opted for bikes which still looked like road bikes. They weigh in at 14kg and have a 250w motor in the rear hub, battery in the down tube and our rear mounted Thule rack is more than up to the task of carrying them. I suppose it boils down to what you want to use your bike for, but these (Lapierre E - Sensium) suit us.

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[Anjistar]

Hi Anjistar. There are two commonly available mid drive motor kits, the Bafang one and the Tongsheng TSDZ2 one. The Bafang operates using cadence sensor and is powerful and allows you to 'ghost pedal' while still going at 15.5 mph. The Tongsheng motor has a torque sensor which means you will have to put some effort in but your effort will be added to by means of the motor. It's just like riding a normal bike but you have bionic legs. And the range, with my 19.2 Ah battery is huge.
I ride none electric bikes every day but fancied an ebike for trips out with a friend who has a Specialised Vado SL and also for cycling to and from my local squash club - it's 20 miles away and cycling back after an hour's squash seems far less daunting now I have a bit (or lot depending on which of the four power modes I use) of assistance.
A good set of four videos to watch have been made by The Artful Bodger. Here is a link to the first one:

As long as you can remove your pedals, crank arms and bottom bracket you will be fine to fit the motor.
I opted for the downtube mounted battery (as does the Artful Bodger) and just had to learn two new skills. One of them was how to insert two rivnuts in my downtube. The rivnut tool, complete with lots of rivnuts, was only £20 from Amazon and I inserted three rivnuts into an old piece of aluminium to get the hang of it before drilling two holes into my downtube and inserting rivnuts into each of them. So far, so good, the battery has stayed exactly where it should. If you opt for the rack mounted battery (if you have the mounting points for a rack) you won't have to do any drilling. The handling of the bike possibly won't be as good though.
The other skill was a doddle and was how to link two wires together and heatshrink them afterwards. Again, the heatshrink kit was very cheap. You could just use insulating tape.
It's a fun project to do and there is a sense of satisfaction from cycling on an ebike you have created yourself. I call mine, Frankenbike.
If you need any more info, please ask.

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation!

 

[Garfields]

There are a few with hang ups re assist to a maximum of 15mph..
If the limit was 20 there would be the same gripes
On the flat I can peddle ours at over 15 anyway which is fine I wanted the assistance for hills.
My old road bike I couldn't go up hill at 15 anyway
As others have said it's easy to "chip" them if people chose to.
Personally I'm getting too old for road rash at 20 + without leathers.

 

[Nanniemate]

Got 20mph out of mine without power was very surprised I could peddle that fast but the bike is light and fun

 

[Ridgeway]

Hi Anjistar. There are two commonly available mid drive motor kits, the Bafang one and the Tongsheng TSDZ2 one. The Bafang operates using cadence sensor and is powerful and allows you to 'ghost pedal' while still going at 15.5 mph. The Tongsheng motor has a torque sensor which means you will have to put some effort in but your effort will be added to by means of the motor. It's just like riding a normal bike but you have bionic legs. And the range, with my 19.2 Ah battery is huge.
I ride none electric bikes every day but fancied an ebike for trips out with a friend who has a Specialised Vado SL and also for cycling to and from my local squash club - it's 20 miles away and cycling back after an hour's squash seems far less daunting now I have a bit (or lot depending on which of the four power modes I use) of assistance.
A good set of four videos to watch have been made by The Artful Bodger. Here is a link to the first one:

As long as you can remove your pedals, crank arms and bottom bracket you will be fine to fit the motor.
I opted for the downtube mounted battery (as does the Artful Bodger) and just had to learn two new skills. One of them was how to insert two rivnuts in my downtube. The rivnut tool, complete with lots of rivnuts, was only £20 from Amazon and I inserted three rivnuts into an old piece of aluminium to get the hang of it before drilling two holes into my downtube and inserting rivnuts into each of them. So far, so good, the battery has stayed exactly where it should. If you opt for the rack mounted battery (if you have the mounting points for a rack) you won't have to do any drilling. The handling of the bike possibly won't be as good though.
The other skill was a doddle and was how to link two wires together and heatshrink them afterwards. Again, the heatshrink kit was very cheap. You could just use insulating tape.
It's a fun project to do and there is a sense of satisfaction from cycling on an ebike you have created yourself. I call mine, Frankenbike.
If you need any more info, please ask.

I knew “the thing” would come up at some point, come on Ken we need a pic and when are you riding it to Rome

 

[Ken and Carol]

I knew “the thing” would come up at some point, come on Ken we need a pic and when are you riding it to Rome

Hi Ridgeway, it definitely won't be going to Rome. I'm only using it for utility purposes and the odd ride with other friends who only ride ebikes. I'm definitely getting the hang of it though and have come to realise I can do as much 'work' and expend as many calories as I do on one of my other non ebikes but simply go much further for this same amount of work.
Here's some pictures of it as it was being converted

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[Tony50]

I’ve come into this thread late, apologies . We always carried our carbon road bikes with us until last year when we decided to follow most of our friends and buy electric. But instead of buying the big and bulky “2 ton” versions we opted for bikes which still looked like road bikes. They weigh in at 14kg and have a 250w motor in the rear hub, battery in the down tube and our rear mounted Thule rack is more than up to the task of carrying them. I suppose it boils down to what you want to use your bike for, but these (Lapierre E - Sensium) suit us.

Love the bikes and you get quality with those

 

[Antony 61]

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??

We just bought and returned 2 electric bikes from Halfords the assist cost £495 each came 4th out of 27 ebikes sold at Halfords in shop sign states upto 20miles web says 10-15 miles and after 2 test runs in low mode 10.1 miles all flat riding in medium mode 9.7 miles took them back they checked the bikes over as they thought about 18 would be right batteries were ok chargers were iffy so after charging them again (new chargers) we set of again only using low and medium modes(2 bikes) the results were almost the same Halfords refunded the full amount
Talking to Halfords tech afterwards only the Pendleton does miles it states 50 but does 25-30 mostly all bikes do between 10-18 miles weather dependent road conditions weight road surface wind All ebikes are tested in a perfect area indoors test track he even explained that it depends on where you are in the world due to atmospheric pressure we ended up buying 2 new bikes from them at £245 each nice tourers 21 gears and our twin bike cover works better

 

[Ridgeway]

Hi Ridgeway, it definitely won't be going to Rome. I'm only using it for utility purposes and the odd ride with other friends who only ride ebikes. I'm definitely getting the hang of it though and have come to realise I can do as much 'work' and expend as many calories as I do on one of my other non ebikes but simply go much further for this same amount of work.
Here's some pictures of it as it was being converted
View attachment 694453
View attachment 694452

View attachment 694454

Excellent, i see you’ve recycled those wonderful Ortieb pannier bags !! So happy i got mine after copying yours

 

[Bolti]

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.

Can I ask which size motor you went for, concerned in case the 250w is not up to the job would I be better with the 350 but then the battery would not last as long. Decisions.Decisions.

 

[Lenny HB]

Can I ask which size motor you went for, concerned in case the 250w is not up to the job would I be better with the 350 but then the battery would not last as long. Decisions.Decisions.

250w is the max for legal road use. The major manufacturers like Bosch have overcome this to a certain extent by producing 250w motors with far higher torque than was previously avalible.
I would have thought the kit manufacturers will follow soon.

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[sgl5gjr]

Mrs has a Raleigh Motus with a 500w battery, crank motor and up to 100 mile range... I just use a self powered bike

 

[Cyclewalkbob]

We bought two Bianchi E-bikes mine just 16kg and Yvonne’s sub 16kg. Full Polini 250w motor with 500w batteries. A range of around 100km + depending how you use the power.
We carried them on a Fiama Cycle rack attached to the back of the Motorhome.
I take the batteries out and use the designated battery cover which takes the weight down to around 13.5kg each which was fine for loading the bikes and well within the racks weight limit.

The only downside is we could have bought a small car for the cost of the bikes, but then we would not have so much fun and fitness if we had done that!

 

[LesW]

Can I ask which size motor you went for, concerned in case the 250w is not up to the job would I be better with the 350 but then the battery would not last as long. Decisions.Decisions.

I fitted a mid drive Bafang kit, 250w.. more than enough to get up most hills easily, with a 36v 17ah battery has a range of about 50-60 miles averaging about 10-12mph though a top speed of over 20mph is possible.

 

[Ken and Carol]

Can I ask which size motor you went for, concerned in case the 250w is not up to the job would I be better with the 350 but then the battery would not last as long. Decisions.Decisions.

I went for the road legal 250w motor. Powerful enough for every hill I've tried so far (up to 25%). I use the bike a few times a week mainly for shopping and a weekly 20 mile trip to my daughter's house. An amazing motor for just £350

 

[Ridgeway]

I went for the road legal 250w motor. Powerful enough for every hill I've tried so far (up to 25%). I use the bike a few times a week mainly for shopping and a weekly 20 mile trip to my daughter's house. An amazing motor for just £350

Ken forgets to say though that his legs are already packing 1000w with extended range

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[Hammie]

€705 in France. £599.12 currently

What does it weigh please? I am thinking about a folder for guests or my car. I’ve got a 30+ year old trek which I could lift with one hand, 26” wheel. It was like new so I put a switch on it which I’m pleased with

 

[Ridgeway]

We bought two Bianchi E-bikes mine just 16kg and Yvonne’s sub 16kg. Full Polini 250w motor with 500w batteries. A range of around 100km + depending how you use the power.
We carried them on a Fiama Cycle rack attached to the back of the Motorhome.
I take the batteries out and use the designated battery cover which takes the weight down to around 13.5kg each which was fine for loading the bikes and well within the racks weight limit.

The only downside is we could have bought a small car for the cost of the bikes, but then we would not have so much fun and fitness if we had done that!

View attachment 708940

They look very nice indeed and great to have some decent mudguards on them

 

[Coolcats]

They look very nice indeed and great to have some decent mudguards on them

They do look rather nice, there are loads of e-bikes out there to choose from Whyte they have a hard tail e-505 MTB which is a cracking peice of kit from this they have modified it to produce the e-506 which also has a decent spec and mudguards which I am thinking of buying for my wife. There is such a large range of options and manufacturers but I do t think people can go far wrong in whatever they get.

 

[kevenh]

They do look rather nice, there are loads of e-bikes out there to choose from Whyte they have a hard tail e-505 MTB which is a cracking peice of kit from this they have modified it to produce the e-506 which also has a decent spec and mudguards which I am thinking of buying for my wife. There is such a large range of options and manufacturers but I do t think people can go far wrong in whatever they get.

Ribble were the 1st manufacturer I was aware of making nice looking road bikes. Then - boom! - two others in this thread (sorry, 3 with Whyte just cropping up now! ).
I haven't checked the prices of the Bianchis but i think their regular bikes are at the premium end.

 

[Coolcats]

Ribble were the 1st manufacturer I was aware of making nice looking road bikes. Then - boom! - two others in this thread (sorry, 3 with Whyte just cropping up now! ).
I haven't checked the prices of the Bianchis but i think their regular bikes are at the premium end.

I think you can just make a list of manufactures, VanMoof look interesting and spotted an X3 in town the other day

Th thing that makes the bikes premium are what's bolted to the frame or at least that's what it appears to be

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[daventess]

Inetresting thread as we are looking for ebikes.

However, we want to try and get a two-seater one. There are some out there but they are (I suppose unsurprisingly) enormous. Has anyone else got a two seater?