Advice needed please

[MikeButterworth]

I’m 70, 6ft, and all my riding will be on roads, canal towpaths, and gentle off road on bridleways, etc. Now I’m prepared to pay up to about £ 2750 or so, and am going to test ride a couple of Haibike trekking 4, and 5, and Moustache Samedi bikes. But am I spending more than I need, ? Would a Freego Hawk or Wisper 750 torque do the job just as well whilst saving me about a grand?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Trevormonty]

Check Cube range of ebikes, they tend to best value bosch drive ebikes.

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Hi Mike, the bikes you mentioned are all good mid motor and are designed to go off road. The 705Torque is just as powerful, has a larger Battery capacity and probably more range, but is designed for metalled roads. It can be ridden on mild off road tracks. You choice of bike really depends on where you are going to ride it and in what conditions. My advice is always to try a few syles of bike and choose the model that suits you best,.

All the best, David

 

[Gaz]

Try as many different bikes as you can - it's the only way to really be sure. I have a seven year old Wisper 705SE and it's going great. It does essentially what you're going to be doing, except we have a disused railway line (The Cuckoo Trail) instead of canals. I wouldn't take it any further off road, nor up and down mountains, but it'll do what you're asking with aplomb, so yes, you could potentially be spending more than you need to.

Gaz

 

[Deleted member 4366]

But am I spending more than I need, ? Would a Freego Hawk or Wisper 750 torque do the job just as well whilst saving me about a grand?

I think you know the answer to those questions. It's obviously yes to both. It's the word "need" that swings it. If you changed it to "want", then the answers would be different.

There's no economic case for spending a lot of money on an expensive ebike. You will lose £1000 in depreciation, the moment you wheel a £2700 bike out of the showroom. You can buy two Elife bikes for that and have enough money left over to buy three more and enough spares to last you a lifetime.

Contrary to popular myths, there's no evidence that expensive bikes are any more reliable than cheap ones either, but you have to bear in mind that the cheapest Ebay electric bike, which would work well on roads, might shake to bits on a bumpy canal path. Some cheap Ebay bikes can handle bumpy canal paths very well though. Basically, you have to be sensible in your choice.

If you were pragmatic, you'd buy the Elife bike, but we're never pragmatic when we make these decisions:
https://www.idealworld.tv/gb/pp/elife-royale-6sp-36v-250w-electric-folding-bike-20inch-wheel-with-free-coyote-sierra-bike-helmet-442751?gclid=Cj0KCQiAhrbTBRCFARIsACY7MW1JmjNXILyhGuU8nJG7NcUABLm9AbjaYBojrL_tDCENz-Glv3Iuk4oaAlpLEALw_wcB

 

[Tugwell Gibson]

Maybe mike. There is a huge difference in the way these two sets of bikes work and feel. The haibikes have the motor by the crank directly driving the bike by the chain. It creates more torque but they do seem to have reliability issues and the chains get a lot of stress. The ride is more natural as it boosts you relative to the amount of torque you apply. However you have to apply that pressure.

The hub drives like the wisper and freego are easier to ride and more reliable. They generally work off a cadence sensor. Allthough the wisper uses Torque and cadence so you can have the best of both. The advadvantage of cadence is you can take it easy when you want and gear slections isn't as important.

There are some hub drives with the battery more central and have mtb qualities. Check out. Woosh, oxygen and kudos to name three.

 

[Trevormonty]

When comes to comfort on mix surface good suspension is very thing. All these bikes, includingHaibike have average coil forks. For £100-300 you can replace factory forks with good aftermarket Suntour or Rockshock airforks.
Suntour NCX or Thudbuster suspension seatposts are must upgrade.

If do upgrade fork, keep old one so you can fit it if you sell bike. This way you keep airfork for next bike.

 

[Paul Price]

I’m 70, 6ft, and all my riding will be on roads, canal towpaths, and gentle off road on bridleways, etc. Now I’m prepared to pay up to about £ 2750 or so, and am going to test ride a couple of Haibike trekking 4, and 5, and Moustache Samedi bikes. But am I spending more than I need, ? Would a Freego Hawk or Wisper 750 torque do the job just as well whilst saving me about a grand?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hi Mike

I recently purchased a kwikfold bike for considerably less than £2750 I use mine for leisurely bike rides on weekends and to commute to work. It serves its purpose well and has a 288 watt per hour battery. So on flat land 30 miles range is achievable. You can also use a promo code I found on their Facebook page