Electric bikes
I'm sure this has been covered before but I can't seem to see any threads relating to electric bikes.
I am considering one [ a road & trail type] and wondered if any members have experience of them.
Expensive I know but...........
CUBE have been suggested as a good, reliable make.
Any thoughts
PilgrimPhil
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It’s probably not what you're looking for, Phil, but have you seen this club offer?
https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/membership/member-offers/Raleigh/
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We bought two carara crossfuse from Halfords last year, brilliant the wife and l have never looked back we had a wonderful time in Bridlington road all the way down the front to the south shore and back, a trip to Flamborough head, luckily it was that time in september when we had the indian summer. Admittedly they were expensive £3400 for everything we bought a few extras, l think the bikes were £1600 a piece one ladies and one gents. With having a Motorhome it opens up more sites for us where we can ride into villages, where as before we needed a bus route or walk their. The crossfuse can work has road bike or a track bike but would draw the line at mountains. We tend not to take them in the winter months has we usually stay at sites for a few days and tend to pick the walkable ones.My advice take the plunge l don't think you will regret it
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I have a Cube. It was a standard bike, but OH fitted a small electric assist for me some years ago. Very well engineered bike, good components, robust and comfy. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another Cube.
Friends have Cube ebikes, they have done thousands of miles, all sorts of terrain. They are big fans of Cube as well.
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Thanks for all those positive suggestions - very useful.
The search now begins for the "right one" for me!
PP
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I got a bike two years ago from Eco-volts who exhibit at The National (Rally) and girl-friend was impressed enough to get one as well a few months later. Her's is a folding model that can go on the back seat of a car if need be, while mine needs to go up onto the roof of the Land Rover. Now I've figured out an easy way to do, it the extra weight of the motor doesn't bother me.
Eco-volts is based in Chesterfield, and they build the bikes there rather than bringing in a foreign built thing in a box. Very helpful people and not charging the high prices one sees elsewhere.
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Make sure you get to take one on a good ride, test things out properly. A good bike shop will offer this. 😁
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I would both endorse that recommendation and modify it at the same time, stressing how important test riding is but also test riding several, not just the one, before commiting.
This is based on the "fact" that if you have not used a modern e-bike just about any you try will blow your socks off in the ease it brings to cycling and see you flashing the plastic, probably too readily.
What you will miss out on then is that they come in various designs and you could well find something better suited to your specific needs, than that first one you tried.
Fundamental is what you want it for and on what terrain you will be using it on. Whilst so-called mountain bikes [MTB] are "cool" these are not best suited to road use, whereas a good hybrid well suited for road use is capable of gravel tracks, like towpaths, forset trails etc. Just not sevre mud plugging, really rough terrain, boulders etc. You need to ask yourself if the compromises a MTB brings, plus of course being seen as "cool", is worth it for the uses you need.
Again try bikes with hub motors, ideally rear hubs, and bikes with "crank motors", they feel different and consider that the motor of the crank type can use the gears the bike has, so is inherently better if the terrain you could be using in on is particularly hilly.
It is ideal to test them in the role you are thinking you will be using them, here as hiring is now readily available doing that, say for a trip around Graffam water as an example with a mix of road and kind tracks, might guide your choice.
We came to them from a lifetime of "proper" cycling, but very glad of them today as we can continue whereas our age was telling more than a bit, using our trusted road bikes.
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Agree ocsid, try out several makes and models of course😁 and if possible over different terrain.
OH has an e road bike and an eMTB. Very different. He has hung onto his hybrid as well. This was his road bike, he fitted an electric assist to this as well. All very different to ride.
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If you go to any of the Warners Motorhome Shows look up AS Folding Electric Bikes or if not see their website www.asbikes.co.uk.
First class after sales service including advice and spares.
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While staying at Grafham water site at the end of 2017, we both trialed electric bikes for the first time, both mountain bikes and hybrids that were suitable for road and light trail such as towpaths, forest tracks etc.
We bought locally in 2018 going for 'Merida' with the crank motor as it sensed the user input with a torque sensor, and settling for Hybrids as we weren't going to see us careering down a mountain side any time soon. They are not foldable and I have a massive payload with upgrade to 305kg, so they travel within the caravan (minus the batteries)
They were brilliant this year, the cycle paths of mainland Europe, the canal towpaths of the 'Leeds and Liverpool' and of course locally. It truly has brought me back to enjoying cycling with the switchable option of making it as easy/hard as I decide when out and about.
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Hi PP, would agree with the comments suggesting you get as much ‘try before you buy’ experience.
I was first attracted to ebikes after using a friends whilst on holiday in France this year and finding it a revelation.
His bikes are a quite basic rear hub drive and the only downside was the hernia that lifting them onto the rack produced!.
I have always enjoyed cycling but the roads around me are not cycle friendly and I no longer feel that the roads are that safe, especially when out with grand children, so tend to use cycle paths and forest trails so his road bike type was of no appeal.
I started to look around and visited a couple of ebike outlets to look at what they had and to have a quick try out.
A friend has bought a Cube e MTB and was full of praise for it and this was the type that seemed to offer most scope for what I enjoy so this is what I looked at in detail as regards the different drives.
The Bosch motor seems to be very prevalent in the crank drive type and whilst looking at Bosch motor equipped Cube models was shown a Specialised Turbo Levo which immediately appealed on an aesthetic level-it looked fantastic.
I had a quick spin on this and a couple of other, Cube, models and to be honest I could feel only a slight difference. I was offered a free three day trial bit it was only available on the Cube.
The prices were significant so started to look around at the options of new versus s/h.
The first thing I noticed is that there are not that many recent crank drive MTBs around and those that are don't show much of a saving over the discounted prices possible on new models so decided to go for new and spent a lot of time looking at deals. It was interesting to see that bikes that had been discounted back in September had gone up in price but I decided to see what the Black Friday sales might bring.
I returned to my local dealer and the Levo I had fallen for was in stock, available and, as part of the Black Friday promotion, was ‘reduced’ by 30%.
This is now less than the sale price back in September and I will be collecting my new bike this week.
My advice, as with all things, is to check, check and check again then go for it.
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weve had ebikes for around 7 years...they are our primary transport on our MH tours....shopping, sightseeing, pleasure...we still love them.
OH had crank driven Panasonic motor Raleigh for six years and now has a Bosch motor Scott bike.
i got my Bosch driven Gepida nearly six years ago, have now done 15000 km. no real reason to change to change mine, battery still very healthy.
the bike looks like a bike and feels like a bike only heavier.
Orbea do a 'light' range which has a small, light rear hub drive and a lower range (lower weight, less range) battery and a light frame with no suspension which allows the bike to remain very 'normal bike like' yet has sufficient assistance and range to help with the tricky bits.
it also avoids the effect with heavy bikes (even my own) where the bike is easy to ride at 15 mph, even with low level assistance, but blooming hard to cycle at (say) 17/18 mph (unless downhill or wind assisted) as the bike is heavy.
if i change, ill give the Orbea a try....
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Thanks to you all for your comments & suggestions. They have been very useful and I am starting to get my head around the various terminology involved with e-bikes!
We have a reasonably local electric bike shop [in Fakenham] who have recommended the Haibike “Trekking” range as being suitable for the usage that I have envisaged.
“ocsis” description of “gravel tracks, towpaths, forest trails” is very much the type of biking we do. Thus a “hybrid” is going to be the one to go for.We are away over Xmas at Heathcote near Hartington which is close to Parsley Hey on the Tissington Trail and I knew hired bikes. Sods Law is that it is closed until 10th February 2020! I was looking to hire an electric one for half a day to see how I got on.
BUT there is a similar hire place at Ashbourne which seems to be open between Xmas & New Year, so that might be an option.Rutland Cycling has also been recommended by others, so that is probably worth a trip too.
Thanks again for all your advice.
PilgrimPhil
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There's also Peak bikes at Hassop Station near Bakewell that hire bikes out. It's a shop and service centre. Not sure if it's open or not over Christmas period.
edit - meant to also say that it's on the Mensal Trail so if they do then you have a ready made testing ground.
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Just ordered a Haibike SDURO Trekking 4.0 from the Norfolk Electric Bike company in Fakenham. Delivery on Thursday 16th Jan.
Will the dogs be able to keep up with me now!
PP
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I would advise to buy local to where you live. Wife and I bought a folding e bike each from halfords, handy to put in car. Both bikes started to cut out going up hill. Took them back to local Halford Ecu yes ecu on both bikes had gone faulty, repaired no problem. How would we have gone on if purchased online. We would have had a lot of messing about.
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Thanks for the update, Phil. Enjoy your new bike.😀
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