Help! 1st E-Bike, need help choosing

[Dan90]

Hi all,

Wanting to buy an e-bike for the work commute, about 5 miles, lots of potholes, steep hills and a short trail through some woods.

Things that might help.
Budget up to £4000 but ideally less and looking to purchase through a Cycle to Work scheme. I'm 5"11 and about 75kgs.

I've looked at the E MOVEMENT THUNDER V4.2, MULTITRACKS X1B, YOIKOTO E-SUMMIT, SPECIALIZED Tero 3.0 2022, TREK Marlin +6 2024.

But as it's my first time looking into e-bikes I've no idea if these are junk or decent value for money. Then there's what's legal and not so legal.

Recently had a go on a friends e-bike, just a cheap one from Amazon but it was a lot of fun with the throttle, really liked that, are those legal? Cause I'd love to find something I can just crank the throttle on the hills and breeze up them.

I have a lot of research to do but thought I'd ask here to try get some thoughts, maybe save me a bit of time.

 

[Peter.Bridge]

Hi all,

Wanting to buy an e-bike for the work commute, about 5 miles, lots of potholes, steep hills and a short trail through some woods.

Things that might help.
Budget up to £4000 but ideally less and looking to purchase through a Cycle to Work scheme. I'm 5"11 and about 75kgs.

I've looked at the E MOVEMENT THUNDER V4.2, MULTITRACKS X1B, YOIKOTO E-SUMMIT, SPECIALIZED Tero 3.0 2022, TREK Marlin +6 2024.

But as it's my first time looking into e-bikes I've no idea if these are junk or decent value for money. Then there's what's legal and not so legal.

Recently had a go on a friends e-bike, just a cheap one from Amazon but it was a lot of fun with the throttle, really liked that, are those legal? Cause I'd love to find something I can just crank the throttle on the hills and breeze up them.

I have a lot of research to do but thought I'd ask here to try get some thoughts, maybe save me a bit of time.

You can get a DVLA registered throttle with one of these

Tailwind Trail Crossbar eBikes | Wisper Electric Bikes

Wisper Tailwind Trail Crossbar e-bikes: designed for off-road adventures, featuring powerful motors & long-lasting batteries for extended rides.

wisperbikes.com

Or a bit cheaper but very powerful (I think you can use the throttle but you need to peddle first)

Gran Camino MTB electric bicycle from Woosh

The Woosh Gran Camino, a 27.5 electric mountain bike with hydraulic brakes 36V 15AH/17AH battery from Woosh. Price range: £1379-£1459. Great bike for trails.

wooshbikes.co.uk

 

[Peter.Bridge]

There's lots of beautiful mid drive mountain bikes in bike shops but the issue I see is that they use very proprietary technology (and batteries!) and potentially get very expensive / impossible to fix if you have any problems outside the warranty period. Woosh and Wisper really try to keep their bikes going outside the warranty period and, as you'll see from these forums will bend over backwards to help.
If you are set on a mid drive, I would be tempted to add a Bafang BBS01B kit to a new or second hand MTB. This is all generic Chinese technology and easy to source, generic cheap batteries (I would expect batteries to last around 5 years). You can either build this yourself or get someone to add the kit for you.

My opinion for what it's worth is hub drives are usually abetter choice and more relaxing for "utility" cycling Do you know how steep the hills are on your route? (Mapometer gives % incline). For very extreme hills mid drive is better. I (100kg) have cycled up hills that have sections>20% on a moderate powered hub drive but been out of puff at the top !

Woosh xf08c cassette with rear rack battery

Hi all So I wanted a "tootling about" pedelec to go with my BBS02B boardman conversion and I thought I would try doing this one myself (bit of a novice bike mechanic!). Not going to use it for commuting or in heavy traffic, just day trips on pretty deserted single track roads and maybe cycling...

www.pedelecs.co.uk

 

[Dan90]

You can get a DVLA registered throttle with one of these

Tailwind Trail Crossbar eBikes | Wisper Electric Bikes

Wisper Tailwind Trail Crossbar e-bikes: designed for off-road adventures, featuring powerful motors & long-lasting batteries for extended rides.

wisperbikes.com

I like the Tailwind Trail, looks great thanks. One question though. If down the line I wanted to take it onto private property and use a bigger motor and a half grip throttle, is that something that I can add? I'm sure there's compatability issues with other components, but just in theory?

In this case if I get a full throttle bike from Wisper with a thumb throttle, could I swap that out for twist throttle?

If you are set on a mid drive, I would be tempted to add a Bafang BBS01B kit to a new or second hand MTB.

Not at all set on mid drive, only just read up on the differences after reading your post but I think hub would be more suitable for me tbh. I also really prefer the intergrated battery look, just looks a lot cleaner imo, so that kinda rules out kits for me I'm afraid.

 

[Peter.Bridge]

There's also the wayfarer, which I believe has a more powerful motor

Wayfarer H9 Hub-Drive Crossbar | Wisper Electric Bicycles

The Wayfarer H9 Hub-Drive Crossbar is a versatile e-bike for touring, commuting, and exploring! Available in City, Adventure, and Mountain Bike versions!

wisperbikes.com

@Wisper Bikes may be able to help you with your questions

 

[Woosh]

Hi all,

Wanting to buy an e-bike for the work commute, about 5 miles, lots of potholes, steep hills and a short trail through some woods.

Things that might help.
Budget up to £4000 but ideally less and looking to purchase through a Cycle to Work scheme. I'm 5"11 and about 75kgs.

I've looked at the E MOVEMENT THUNDER V4.2, MULTITRACKS X1B, YOIKOTO E-SUMMIT, SPECIALIZED Tero 3.0 2022, TREK Marlin +6 2024.

But as it's my first time looking into e-bikes I've no idea if these are junk or decent value for money. Then there's what's legal and not so legal.

Recently had a go on a friends e-bike, just a cheap one from Amazon but it was a lot of fun with the throttle, really liked that, are those legal? Cause I'd love to find something I can just crank the throttle on the hills and breeze up them.

I have a lot of research to do but thought I'd ask here to try get some thoughts, maybe save me a bit of time.

The E MOVEMENT THUNDER V4.2 is a fat bike, 28kgs heavy to pedal if the power fails. Other than that, it looks like built with standard Chinese parts so repairs outside the warranty shouldn't be a problem. Battery is 48V 10AH, good enough for your short commute.
The MULTITRACKS X1B is a similar fat bike, 28kgs heavy bike, built with similar Chinese parts so repairs outside warranty shouldn't be a problem either. The brakes are cable operated so not good for a heavy ebike, battery is also 48V 10AH, good enough for your short commute. The picture on the web page is naff with the saddle pointing 20 degrees to the sky. Would you buy a bike with that saddle?
The YOIKOTO E-SUMMIT is again built with standard Chinese parts, lighter than the previous two, 23kgs as opposed to 28kgs but comes with cable pull brakes and 36V 10AH battery.

Your last two choices are heads and shoulders above the previous 3. I'd say forget the first three.
Still, they are entry level for MTB fun bikes.
The Trek Marlin +6 2024 have better components so that's the one I would go for.
Still, a commuter bike has different strongh points, so you should perhaps have two bikes, one for commuting and one for fun ride. A commuter bike should take you to work in all weather without mud, that is it should have mudguards, full chainguard, lights, bell, propstand and luggage rack. The motor should be placed higher to avoid splash when riding through puddles, placed at the rear for good traction on loose surface. Also, crank drives eat chains so for commuting, rear hub motor is best. Hub motors reduce chain wear.
A bike in between is the Woosh Gran-Camino. It has Suntour XCM32 100mm fork with 12mm bolt through wheel for light trail riding and is yet equipped for commuting in the rain.

 

[Dan90]

You can get a DVLA registered throttle with one of these

Tailwind Trail Crossbar eBikes | Wisper Electric Bikes

Wisper Tailwind Trail Crossbar e-bikes: designed for off-road adventures, featuring powerful motors & long-lasting batteries for extended rides.

wisperbikes.com

Thanks for all the useful info guys, it's helped a lot.

Think I'll go for this Wisper Tailwind Trail Crossbar, thanks Peter. If no one can see any issues with that I think I'll go ahead and get it ordered this week. Just need to speak to HR and get them on CycleScheme first.

As for twist throttles and stuff, I'll maybe look into it in future to see if I can swap out the thumb throttle. Just want to get out there and get used to cycling again

 

[guerney]

Wanting to buy an e-bike for the work commute, about 5 miles, lots of potholes, steep hills and a short trail through some woods.

Things that might help.
Budget up to £4000 but ideally less and looking to purchase through a Cycle to Work scheme. I'm 5"11 and about 75kgs.

How steep are the hills? When I get home after cheefully breezing up an unfamilair steep hill with almost zero effort on my Bafang BBS01B mid-drive conversion, I often look up it's steepness by searching for it's Strava entry and chuckle: Google the road name followed by "Strava", failing that search by area.

 

[Dan90]

How steep are the hills? When I get home after cheefully breezing up an unfamilair steep hill with almost zero effort on my Bafang BBS01B mid-drive conversion, I often look up it's steepness by searching for it's Strava entry and chuckle: Google the road name followed by "Strava", failing that search by area.

Can't seem to find it, there's lots of Strava routes nearby but none that go on that hill. All I know is that 10 years ago I had to get off my bike and push after about a quarter of the way up

Does anyone know how steep a hill would need to be before the Wisper Tailwind Trail would struggle?

 

[Peter.Bridge]

At a guess, for someone who is 75kg, I would expect it to cope with at least 15% hills with you pedalling, maybe steeper.

Mapometer gives % gradients

 

[Peter.Bridge]

At a guess, for someone who is 75kg, I would expect it to cope with at least 15% hills with you pedalling, maybe steeper.

Mapometer gives % gradients

One thing to bear in mind is a bike with a full battery will be more powerful than one with a nearly empty battery - I always have as big a battery as possible, I think it is worth the extra weight and I believe the battery is likely to last longer

 

[guerney]

One thing to bear in mind is a bike with a full battery will be more powerful than one with a nearly empty battery - I always have as big a battery as possible, I think it is worth the extra weight and I believe the battery is likely to last longer

Voltage sag is less of an issue ascending steep hills, if you have a large capacity battery.

Mapometer gives % gradients

This one is pretty easy for my 250W BBS01B 15A mi-drive 20" wheeled conversion with 36V 19.2Ah battery, even with a combined weight of over 182kg (me, bike, trailer and cargo). It gets harder with another 15kg, and it'd be easier if I used a smaller chainwheel than 52T (which I won't change, because I need speed over the flats):

 

[Dan90]

Thanks all, got my Cycle Scheme application done, hopefully approved tomorrow and I'll get the Tailwind ordered. Will report back if the hills causing my any trouble but I doubt it will!

 

[thelarkbox]

Welcome to the dark side hehehehehahaha!

 

[Dan90]

Awww man, my certificate is the exact price of the bike, I didn't factor in shipping cost. Would have had to pretend I was buying it and go through the motions before applying for my cert to know the total

Hopefully there's some way I can pay separately for shipping, sent them a message so fingers crossed.

 

[thelarkbox]

There must be some mechanism in place considering the volume of business this scheme generates.

hopefully it will be hassle free,,

 

[Dan90]

No luck DIdn't have a lot of time after work to explain the issue and now they're closed.

I'll call them on Monday, thinking I use my cert to order the 360Wh, ask them to upgrade it to the 540Wh and I'll BACS them the shipping costs. Hopefully that works, but not sure what happens if you don't use your full certificate balance on the initial purchase.

Really wish I thought of the damn delivery fees!

 

[Dan90]

What a disaster. Finally got my certificate value increased to include the delivery cost and now the price of the bike has increased by £100.

I'm done with Wisper. First not being able to help me out with paying the delivery cost separately and now this. It's just not meant to be.

 

[Wisper Bikes]

What a disaster. Finally got my certificate value increased to include the delivery cost and now the price of the bike has increased by £100.

I'm done with Wisper. First not being able to help me out with paying the delivery cost separately and now this. It's just not meant to be.

We’ve not had a price increase for ages Dan indeed prices are down on some bikes so something is wrong. Please drop me a line, I’ll sort this out for you.

All the best, David

 

[Saracen]

MID drive all t5he way just google MID drive or hub drive to see how many IN THE KNOW will say it beats hub hans down

 

[Saracen]

What a disaster. Finally got my certificate value increased to include the delivery cost and now the price of the bike has increased by £100.

I'm done with Wisper. First not being able to help me out with paying the delivery cost separately and now this. It's just not meant to be.

Can you not go to a proper local bike shop