Commuter/hybrid for tagalong

[Tommy1]

Hi folks,

I'm looking at buying an e-bike. Details as follows.

I'm tall but light (6'2" and 70kg). My commute is only on the roads (quite busy ones in fact) and it's just 3 miles one way with 50 metres elevation gain. There is some prospect of increasing that commute to 5 miles one way tops. I would like to do urban and light trails at the weekends with my daughter on a tagalong which adds about extra 35 kilos weight.
Live in Western Ireland - rains a lot and really windy. So slippery/muddy conditions throughout the year and also a lot of head /sidewind. My budget is about £1200. It should be easy to maintain, as in I can change the tube myself if I get a puncture.

Woosh Karoo and Rio seem alright, but neither really fits exactly in terms of specs and frame size. I need a bigger frame, at least 20". Also, I am used to ride urban/light trail kind of hybrid with 700/35 tyres. Karoo has 700/28 which is too much on the road side, on the other hand, Rio is too much on the MTB side with 26/1.95.


Also, do rain and humidity influence battery life? Can the battery be damaged by this? How about e-motor and rain/humidity?

Appreciate your advice. Many thanks.

 

[Tommy1]

Any advice? It's been 10 months.

 

[vfr400]

You can change the tyres to anything you want, so whatever ones are on your preferred bike are irrelevant.

 

[Deno]

I think that you might struggle to get something decent in Ireland on that budget, even Halfords are charging more than that for bikes with dubious quality.

No experience myself but Whoosh seem to have the quality and low cost and seem to offer excellent advice and customer service too. They also offer to sell via a local bikeshop (for a fee obvs) so that you can get local support.

Are you planning to use the Bike to Work scheme?

 

[Tommy1]

Hey Deno,

I'm planning importing from the UK, so I don't focus on Ireland at all.

I can't use Bike to work as of yet, I used it 2 years ago and I think you can claim only once every 5 years. If I recall correctly, it was less than that in same scheme in UK when I used it there.

Cheers.

 

[Deno]

Yeah I used the Irish scheme and its essentially 500 quid off if you pay tax at the higher rate. Its every 5yrs alright although there is talk of it coming down to 2yrs. Also you could do what I did and use the wife's if that option is open to you. Also if you have an existing bike that you are happy with you could fit a motor kit to it - again Whoosh is yer man.

Have you tried an ebike yet? You get to the speed limiter very quickly so under the limit it doesn't matter much what tyres you have as its not a limiting factor. Most bikes will pull the trailer okay, I use a childseat on occasion, my view is that I need a sturdy bike with lots of tyre to do that safely. Nothing like a big squidgy tyre to get you over that slippery manhole cover safely. Obviously if you plan to push the bike over 25kph then drag becomes a factor.

 

[Dewey]

How about the Raleigh Array Crossbar, Hanna Cycles in Lisburn list it for a grand as a click and collect in store, unsure what their policy is on delivery. Or there are 4 Raleigh dealers in Dublin. The bike has 700x40C tires, a 20" frame that claims to fit up to 6'2", and a 4mph throttle you may find useful when towing a child trailer to help get going from a standing start or when pushing your rig up a ramp depending on whether it is a true zero-cadence throttle or one of those annoying pointless throttles that only works if you're pedalling turning the crank.

As for the rain, I've experienced no trouble riding in the rain with my ebike, I remove my battery and keep it under my desk at work and at home keep the bike under cover in a shed.

 

[Tommy1]

How about the Raleigh Array Cr

How about the Raleigh Array Crossbar, Hanna Cycles in Lisburn list it for a grand as a click and collect in store, unsure what their policy is on delivery. Or there are 4 Raleigh dealers in Dublin. The bike has 700x40C tires, a 20" frame that claims to fit up to 6'2", and a 4mph throttle you may find useful when towing a child trailer to help get going from a standing start or when pushing your rig up a ramp depending on whether it is a true zero-cadence throttle or one of those annoying pointless throttles that only works if you're pedalling turning the crank.

As for the rain, I've experienced no trouble riding in the rain with my ebike, I remove my battery and keep it under my desk at work and at home keep the bike under cover in a shed.

ossbar, Hanna Cycles in Lisburn list it for a grand as a click and collect in store, unsure what their policy is on delivery. Or there are 4 Raleigh dealers in Dublin. The bike has 700x40C tires, a 20" frame that claims to fit up to 6'2", and a 4mph throttle you may find useful when towing a child trailer to help get going from a standing start or when pushing your rig up a ramp depending on whether it is a true zero-cadence throttle or one of those annoying pointless throttles that only works if you're pedalling turning the crank.

As for the rain, I've experienced no trouble riding in the rain with my ebike, I remove my battery and keep it under my desk at work and at home keep the bike under cover in a shed.

Cool, cheers Dewey! Looks good and it's cheap, but is the rear motor OK vs Bosch crank mounted?

 

[Dewey]

Suntour hub motors have been around for about 10 years and based on various threads on this forum there were early quality control issues with the electrical connectors causing the power to cut out unexpectedly, but the system was updated in 2019/20 and appears to have been reliable since then. A 250w hub motor is going to output about the same amount of torque as an entry level Bosch Active Line mid-drive motor or Shimano e5000 motor about 40nm. You would need to look at more expensive mid-drive models to get higher power rated motors like the Bosch Active Line Plus (50nm), Bosch Performance line (63nm), or Shimano e6100 (60nm) in case you live in an area with steep hills.

 

[Nealh]

The torque figures are a bit of a red herring, the hub motor torque is direct and the mid drive is indirect.