Dawes or EBCO

[CameraDealer]

I need to buy my wife a new bike. She only uses it on our motorhome holidays, which are about two months out of each year, so it's silly buying an expensive one. Seven years ago I got her a Powacycle Windsor for under £600 and the battery has finally died, which is a shame as we're in France on the Ile de Re at present which is great cycling country. I'll have to rent a bike for her for a few days.

The Windsor's been great value and proves to me that for her purposes a modestly priced one is OK. I charged the battery every two months regardless of use following good advice from this forum when I bought it.

Anyway, I want a step-through and one that's available from a local dealer, so that buying and problem solving is easy.

I've seen (online) the Dawes Boost Suburbia and the EBCO Urban Commuter UCL-30. I can buy either for £1000. The EBCO is quite heavy at 28Kg, much more than her existing Powacycle but I cannot find out the weight of the Dawes anywhere. Dealers are idle and only list the spec given by the manufacturer, and as Dawes doesn't even seem to list these bikes on its UK website no dealers have the initiative to find out the weights and add it to their spec list - very frustrating!

So, does anyone know the weight of the Dawes?

Which of the two would you recommend?

Should I be looking at any others around the same price, but they must be available from dealers within a reasonable distance, no mail order?

Thanks in advance for what I know from before will be loads of good advice.

 

[pdarnett]

The weight of the ladies suburbia is 25.4kg (21.8kg w/o battery).

The internet is my king-fu!

Source: http://dawescycles.com/product/suburbia-e-bike-ladies/

 

[Alan Quay]

The internet is my king-fu!

....but predictive text is your wurst NME?

 

[CameraDealer]

I need to buy my wife a new bike. She only uses it on our motorhome holidays, which are about two months out of each year, so it's silly buying an expensive one. Seven years ago I got her a Powacycle Windsor for under £600 and the battery has finally died, which is a shame as we're in France on the Ile de Re at present which is great cycling country. I'll have to rent a bike for her for a few days.

The Windsor's been great value and proves to me that for her purposes a modestly priced one is OK. I charged the battery every two months regardless of use following good advice from this forum when I bought it.

Anyway, I want a step-through and one that's available from a local dealer, so that buying and problem solving is easy.

I've seen (online) the Dawes Boost Suburbia and the EBCO Urban Commuter UCL-30. I can buy either for £1000. The EBCO is quite heavy at 28Kg, much more than her existing Powacycle but I cannot find out the weight of the Dawes anywhere. Dealers are idle and only list the spec given by the manufacturer, and as Dawes doesn't even seem to list these bikes on its UK website no dealers have the initiative to find out the weights and add it to their spec list - very frustrating!

So, does anyone know the weight of the Dawes?

Which of the two would you recommend?

Should I be looking at any others around the same price, but they must be available from dealers within a reasonable distance, no mail order.

Thanks in advance for what I know from before will be loads of good advice.

Thanks, I'm glad that you found it because I couldn't. My first port of call was the Dawes site but it doesn't appear to have a section for electric bikes.

I looked under various headings but still no luck! I looked under City and Touring etc. and no electric ones.

I must try to work out the path from your link.

Edited to say: Still no luck! They list ladies' bikes for instance where everyone is supposed to be listed, but no electric one! What am I missing here? Where did you find it?

I'm in France currently so I'm assuming that they're not screening out products that may be illegal here. Seems fanciful I know but I'm grasping at straws!

 

[CameraDealer]

I have no idea where pdarnett found that weblink as Dawes e-bikes are no longer listed on their website. I emailed them and got a swift reply, which was:

'Thank you for your email, unfortunately our 2014 range of e-bikes are sold out and discontinued and there are no plans for future production.
Kind regards
Dawes Cycles technical'

So the Dawes is out! That leaves the EBCO, which at 28 kg is very heavy as I have to lift the bike onto a motorhome bike rack.

So, I'll ask the question again and see if I have any better luck!

Does anyone have a suggestion for a step-through-bike around the £1000 mark that is available from a reasonable network of dealers? I once had an eZee Liv and had to make a very long drive to get a fault remedied.

I'd hate to go for the EBCO to learn that there's another lighter alternative. I'm not being lazy by the way, I am still trawling the web, but many brands are unknown to me and I'd be happier with recommendations from experienced members.

Thanks

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You can get a Woosh bike. All the stuff on them is standard easily obtainable Chinese parts that any electric bike shop should be able to fix.

You keep the box that it came in. If anything goes wrong in the warranty period, you put it back in the box. Woosh will sort it and return it to you. To me, that sounds a lot easier than buying a branded bike with special components that nobody except an authorised dealer will stock or be able to fix, not that they'll be able to get the parts anyway.

At the moment, I'm trying to sort a battery for a guy. The story goes like this. He bought his A2B Metro thinking that he would be well-protected buying a recognised brand with BEBA backing and a local dealer. He got it home and found that the battery wouldn't charge, so he took it back to the shop. After three weeks they couldn't get the special battery, so they gave him one off a A2B Hybrid, which is unsuitable (it even has a label on it saying so). Not long after the warranty runs out, the unsuitable battery throws in the towel. He makes some inquiries and finds that he can get a replacement battery for £500. After a plea from me direct to A2B, they reduce the price to £400. Naturally the guy is very unhappy. His bike has only done a few hundred miles and he hasn't been able to use it for the last year.

If you want that sort of thing, carry on with your present ideas. I haven't heard of any unhappy Woosh bike owners.

 

[CameraDealer]

You can get a Woosh bike. All the stuff on them is standard easily obtainable Chinese parts that any electric bike shop should be able to fix.

You keep the box that it came in. If anything goes wrong in the warranty period, you put it back in the box. Woosh will sort it and return it to you. To me, that sounds a lot easier than buying a branded bike with special components that nobody except an authorised dealer will stock or be able to fix, not that they'll be able to get the parts anyway.

At the moment, I'm trying to sort a battery for a guy. The story goes like this. He bought his A2B Metro thinking that he would be well-protected buying a recognised brand with BEBA backing and a local dealer. He got it home and found that the battery wouldn't charge, so he took it back to the shop. After three weeks they couldn't get the special battery, so they gave him one off a A2B Hybrid, which is unsuitable (it even has a label on it saying so). Not long after the warranty runs out, the unsuitable battery throws in the towel. He makes some inquiries and finds that he can get a replacement battery for £500. After a plea from me direct to A2B, they reduce the price to £400. Naturally the guy is very unhappy. His bike has only done a few hundred miles and he hasn't been able to use it for the last year.

If you want that sort of thing, carry on with your present ideas. I haven't heard of any unhappy Woosh bike owners.

Thanks, that's certainly good advice and I'll look at them. You can imagine my reluctance to mail order I hope as my own e-bike when I had one developed a fault under warranty and it's a bit of a nightmare when you have to return it by carrier. So much easier to drop it in to a specialist dealer. But it's looking difficult to find the right one from a local dealer. You make a good point though about keeping the box.

Thanks

 

[trex]

if you are still on ile de Re, visit planete sport & loisirs, they have the Gitane 'Organ' e-bike for EUR990 - similar specs to the EBCO Urban Commuter UCL-30, much better finished than the Dawes Boost Suburbia.

http://www.planete-sports-loisirs.com/

The Gitan Organ:

 

[Deleted member 4366]

If you chuck the box, Woosh will send you a new one, but you have to pay for them to ship it to you, which seems fair to me. Dropping a bike off at a local shop might be easier, but it doesn't help if they can't get the bits. It's much better to get a bike with common motors and electrical bits.

Sorry, I forgot that you weren't UK mainland. That complicates things a bit.

 

[Alan Quay]

.......
The Gitan Organ:

That's an awesome name for a product!

 

[trex]

...
Does anyone have a suggestion for a step-through-bike around the £1000 mark that is available from a reasonable network of dealers? I once had an eZee Liv and had to make a very long drive to get a fault remedied.

I'd hate to go for the EBCO to learn that there's another lighter alternative. I'm not being lazy by the way, I am still trawling the web, but many brands are unknown to me and I'd be happier with recommendations from experienced members.

Thanks

Only Bosch bikes have a reasonably wide and well established network of dealers. At least, they are all trained by Bosch.
EBCO is only distributed in the UK, mainly via Halfords, if you have a problem abroad, not much use. Besides Bosch bikes, Kalkhoff is pretty well known, but you still have hundreds of miles between dealership, so the short answer is, buy a Bosch bike or buy mail order.
Buying from a shop means that the price has to be high enough to leave the dealer with some margin. Whilst you can shop on the internet for a £600 step through, you have to pay £1000 for the same in the shop. That's the reality.

 

[flecc]

The Juicybike step-though range fits nicely to your £1000 budget.

 

[CameraDealer]

If you chuck the box, Woosh will send you a new one, but you have to pay for them to ship it to you, which seems fair to me. Dropping a bike off at a local shop might be easier, but it doesn't help if they can't get the bits. It's much better to get a bike with common motors and electrical bits.

Sorry, I forgot that you weren't UK mainland. That complicates things a bit.

I'm only in France on holiday where the battery finally died on my wife's old Powacycle. I live in Lancashire! I'm trying to sort out a replacement so that I can order it as soon as we get home as we'll be off again soon.

 

[CameraDealer]

if you are still on ile de Re, visit planete sport & loisirs, they have the Gitane 'Organ' e-bike for EUR990 - similar specs to the EBCO Urban Commuter UCL-30, much better finished than the Dawes Boost Suburbia.

http://www.planete-sports-loisirs.com/

The Gitan Organ:

But are they sold in the UK should I ever need parts? I'm only in France on holiday. I got quite excited at first as I thought you'd written Giant which I know is a decent brand!

 

[CameraDealer]

The Juicybike step-though range fits nicely to your £1000 budget.

Thanks, they're exactly what I'm looking for and they have a store in Buxton which isn't too far from where I live should I have any problems.

Have they been around long? I'd like to buy from a firm with a solid foundation and where I can be confident of getting a replacement battery in a couple of years.

I shall now look at Woosh and Bosch as suggested above and research these as well.

 

[trex]

Gitane bikes are manufactured in France since the 20s, a very well known brands, widely sold in France by the 'Sport 2000' chain. You see their shops in most shopping malls. It's a shame that only Moustache is known here. France has many more indigineous brands and e-bike shops than UK, for a market about the same size as ours, so competition is much stronger between shops. Carrefour usually stock cheapies for about EUR400-500 - small light folders usually.
That model is at an attractive price, you won't find better in UK shops.

 

[flecc]

Have they been around long? I'd like to buy from a firm with a solid foundation and where I can be confident of getting a replacement battery in a couple of years.

They seem to be well based and are part of a larger organisation. Bob Wales who runs Juicybike is a member and has always very helpful in here, and a number of members have the Juicy models. Eco Republic in Buxton is their main dealer and Juicybike also have a direct contact number to their workshop team for technical advice and tips.

Like a large number of ebike companies they haven't been around many years but seem determined to be one of the established and lasting ones. They are members of BEBA (British Electric Bike Association) and are bound by their customer standards.

 

[RobF]

Giant make a few step-through ebikes.

You might be lucky and find one in stock at a Giant dealer.

If you order one, you would at least have a shop to take it back to.

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-gb/bikes/model/2014.liv.giant.twist.lite.1.w/15020/66807/

 

[CameraDealer]

I'm thinking of taking a chance and buying mail order after all. The Woosh Santana CD at £799 seems incredible value with its chain drive and a 15AH battery. The Juicy Bike equivalent is nearer £1000 with a 10AH battery and upgrading to a 14AH costs another £200.

Thanks for the advice and particularly to d8veh who convinced me to consider other options.

 

[Electrifying Cycles]

Ebco have a new bike with same size battery as UCL30 but £200 less and still with a 2 year guarantee http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/bikes/ucl-10/

Good luck with the new bike whichever one you choose.