Newbie who is on his third Pedelec

[Ian Armistead]

Hi all, not professing to be an expert by any means. But prior to buying an electric i did quite a bit of homework on which bike to buy & i will be honest in my opinion. Would like to hear from you guys as well of course but here goes. My very first pedelec was an izip & i realise now that they were really in thier infancy with regards to style & durability. It was a good workhorse don't get me wrong & got me to work for over two years, round trip being about five miles. It wasn't much over twelve months before i started having battery issues with the 24 v. The bike was £450 so i thought the battery would have done better & i had to have it re-celled at a cost of £80 but it was never the same & i ended up having to carry the charger in my bag & recharge it at work. So it was only doing 2.5 to 3 mile between charge. Anyway we move forward to November last year were i was doing alot of research on pedelecs. I found two that i liked online being the Whisper & the Cyclomatic but unfortunately my bike shop didn't deal with these suppliers. Now i thought your better off going through your bike shop in case there are any problems & when it needs servicing at least they are on your doorstep. So like showing a magpie something shiny, he showed me a Dawes Boost well compared to my old Izip this looked great so i agreed to buy it for £900. In now way am i calling Dawes but i have to be honest for the benefit of my fellow cyclists, i had no end of battery problems & its not good when it cuts out on you half way to work. After three times returning it to the shop i said i've had enough & what are you going to do about it? He was quite fair as i had rode it for three months & we agreed a trade in of £700. My first choice to swap was the Byocycle which was more my style like a mountain bike, the bad news no stock till June! Well i thought i can't wait that long whats the next option & he showed me a Raleigh Velo Trail in white. First off reservations about it being white but then i thought well you might keep it clean more often so i said ok order me one. It came into the shop & he built it for me, then i went in & first impressions were very good. He then said it doesn't have a throttle, at first i thought oh damn this isn't for me but i'll tell you straight i have ridden it now for three weeks & i am well pleased with what i have. When i had the throttle on the Dawes i was getting lazy, using the throttle on its own & not pedalling. With this the Velo you have to pedal but the power you get back with pedal assist more than compensates for no throttle. The drive is on the front wheel which i think helps as all the weight is in the back half of the bike. I find it very quick, regularly reaching 16 mph, along with 7 gears & sturdy brakes I personally have found this to more than meet my needs. The only downside if you go on a bypass or long rode without junctions it can get tiring. But round town were you need to stop etc it more than zips you around, highly recommended, thanks for reading.