Need help choosing a bike for 19 mile commute

[cyclebuddy]

By the way, BMZ contacted me with regard to supplying me with their batteries as they claim they assemble batteries for Bosch and quite a few European brands, guess where.

Without side-tracking this thread too much: My pair of household helpers... the oldest dates back to 2005 (when German stuff was actually made in Germany), and still running on its original BMZ batteries. They have been excellent...



My newer Bosch "professional" power-tool batteries on the other hand... one says "Made in Poland" the other "Made in Malaysia". My new Bosch "professional" rip-saw says "Made in China", and my Bosch combi-microwave "Made in Korea". Most "German" stuff is today, I think, no better than most Far Eastern... except without an inflated German price tag. But I won't bang on about that yet again.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I’m in two minds, I definitely like the idea of lower maintenance hub gears,

If there's zero maintenance on derailleur gears, how can hub gears be lower maintenance? Derailleurs might look complicated, but once set-up, they will give years of trouble free service. Many biased opinions on derailleur gears originate from trouble from the cheapest ones that you get on catalogue bikes that were never set correctly at the factory. You won't get any problems with the decent gears you get on a bike like the Oxygen, especially if you only ride it on the road. Personally, I think a crank-drive bike and normal hub-gears is a bad idea.

 

[jasono]

that's not hilly. Maximum gradient is only 5%.
You can use my Predictor to give you a rough idea:
http://wooshbikes.co.uk/clearway.php

That's a really useful tool.

 

[Auxtail]

I don't suppose you have considered a park and pedal commute. This might suit you if the last bit is into a busy town. Otherwise S Pedelec sounds the solution as you don't want to sit on busy roads at 15mph. The safety stats don't look good for cyclist then.

 

[Ryan Yorke]

- JuicyBike, thanks for the kind offer of testing some of your bikes, the Peak District is a little out of my way, but I’ll keep it in mind.

- Amps Electric Bikes, which RM models do you have available? Is there any way of knowing for sure how much use the batteries have had and the condition of them?

- Cycle Buddy, I have experience with Bosch power tools too, their quality has definitely taken a hit in recent years. Hopefully in a new market such as ebikes they still feel they have something to prove and won’t drop the quality for a couple of years at least! You say those household helpers date back to 2005, but judging from the pic they have to have come out of the 80’s

- d8veh, maybe you’re right, I’m sure I could manage to adjust the derailleur should it get knocked or need adjustment.

- Auxtail, unfortunately there isn’t such a scheme available to me, I live in a small town and my workplace is out in the sticks, mine will be more of a cross country commute than an inner city one. My most direct route is along a very busy A road at a distance of 17 miles, for an extra 2 miles I’ve found route that would only use around 3 miles of that A road, the rest on quite picturesque country roads, or for a total of 20.5 miles I can miss the A road all together. What is the general consensus of using s Pedelecs unregistered? Is it a risk worth taking, or is the risk of getting caught too high? I can’t imagine ever getting stopped and questioned, especially on my countryside route. A lot of people seem happy to run their bikes deristricted which obviously means they don’t meet regulations, is running an unregistered s Pedelec any worse?

 

[RobF]

You commit the same offence running any ebike with any motor that assists above 15,5mph.

Rightly or wrongly, many of us take a view along the lines that using a derestricted legal bike or an S-Pedelec responsibly is acceptable.

No one has ever been nicked for that as far as I can tell, but some will tell you it's only a matter of time.

To me, there is a difference between pedalling an unrestricted bike at 18 or 20 mph on an open road to barelling down your local high street at 30mph on a throttle with your feet on the handlebars.

I would be a bit more wary of using a derestricted bike/S-Pedelec on a commute because you will be using the same routes at roughly the same time each day.

 

[Wisper Bikes]

- Amps Electric Bikes, which RM models do you have available? Is there any way of knowing for sure how much use the batteries have had and the condition of them. of

We have a Charger Mountain, a Cruiser, an Avenue with Rolhoff hub, a Roadster and two Birdies left. Regarding the batteries, they are all showing max voltage still so I am able to offer the full manufacturers guarantee.

All the best, David

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I would be a bit more wary of using a derestricted bike/S-Pedelec on a commute because you will be using the same routes at roughly the same time each day.

That's a good point. The trick is not look like you're going fast. 18 to 22 mph won't be noticed by many, especially on an open road, but if you go blasting past fit cyclists at double their speed, they might feel that it's unfair and report you.

 

[Ryan Yorke]

Thanks RobF, that’s what I figured. Considering the bike will be my main form of transport I don’t intend on taking the mick! But reducing my journey time would be great even if it just raises my average by a few mph.
It is a good point d8veh, maybe alternating my route slightly could help? I do feel that dropping the kind of money for a RM or something should entitle me to be able to overtake someone on a sub £1000 pushbike fairly, but you’re right, I doubt they’d see it like that!

- David (Amps) my absolute dream bike would be the Charger dual battery HS, but would also consider the roadster, gear wise I’m pretty easy as I’ve heard pros and cons from both types. Are these models the HS versions or dual battery? If not dual, is it a case of just buying the extra battery, or is wiring etc not in place? Thanks

Also can anyone tell me how the RM bikes hold their value, am I going to take a huge hit, or will the high quality help recoupe some money? I have realistic expectations, but am I going to spend thousands on a bike that I’ll only get a couple of hundred back for in a years time?

 

[soundwave]

well i bought my bike 2nd hand with 160 miles on it and the rrp with dropper post was £5800.

i paid £3500 so that was a big loss but i got a bargain

 

[Danidl]

One of the early responses was the suggestion that the Raleigh motus road bike with Bosch motor would do the business. Particularly if you have charging at your work place... It seems to have got lost in the subsequent chatter. It is probably one of the lowest cost fully featured ebikes. It would do the round trip at a pinch..

 

[Trevormonty]

Something to be said for buying cheaper bike and seeing if you are willing to do this commuter run 5 days a week. You may find it to much. If can handle regular commute then upgrade to better bike in six months and keep cheap bike as spare. You will need spare as any bike doing this run will be off road at some stage for repairs/maintenance.

 

[RobF]

The dual battery is a factory fit, there's wiring and two keyed alike battery mounts.

The software is also a bit different, in that - cleverly - the system sips alternately from each battery.

Good for battery health, because as you may know it's not a good plan to leave an ebike battery fully charged for any longer that you have to.

I doubt you will find any dual battery Riese and Muller bikes in stock anywhere, much less a HS one.

As regards value, I expect Riese and Muller bikes depreciate same as any other.

Mine had a Rohloff gear hub - they fetch reasonable money on their own because they are very highly regarded by cyclists and a new one is about £1,000.

I think the only bicycle that fetches good money secondhand is a Brompton.

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Hi Ryan

The bikes I have are not HS and are single Battery. You can buy a second Battery but you would need to carry it on your rack and fit it when the first battery needs replacing.

All the best, David

 

[Ryan Yorke]

- Soundwave, tbh I feel anything over 50% is reasonable, but maybe yours is a special case with the mileage being so low, I fear mine will be a few thousand higher than that! Maybe the patient s/h route is the way to go?

- Danidl, the Raleigh Motus does look like a nice bike. I suppose the reason I overlooked it was that I didn’t see what benefit it would give me over the Oxygen for the higher price tag. I like the idea of the hub drive on the Oxygen removing the strain from the drive train. Although if you think it would be a better option I’d certainly be interested to hear why.

- Trevormonty, I would agree that buying a cheaper bike to see how I go would be sensible. However current circumstances mean that my only other option is a bus, a train, another bus and a walk - which I’m doing now. The option is there to use the train should I need to while the bike is being repaired etc, but it offers no flexibility should I miss the train or need to get to work at an unusual time, and is in itself a pretty miserable experience (and I might add the train fair alone will be over £2500 per year). So like it or lump it it might be a case of learning to live with it.

- RobF, I thought as much, it would’ve been nice if it was a simple job, but alas. It is the reduced battery wear as much as the extended range that appeals to me with the RM dual, I realise the same can be achieved with any ebike with a spare battery, but I’ve read a fair few stories of people having intermittent power failures caused by wearing out the battery connectors. I like that they can stay on almost permanently on the RM.
It seems my nearest RM dealer only stocks HS models, if that’s not the case I’m really struggling to find the standard ones on their site!

- David (Amps), Just out of interest, how much are you asking for the Charger and the Roadster?

Can anyone recommend any other brands that offer HS models that I could look into? I may not go this route, but I’d like to explore my options as much as possible
Thanks for all of your help so far

 

[soundwave]

https://www.focus-bikes.com/gb_en/bikefinder/index/index/c/e-mtb-fully-all/family/897/

 

[Woosh]

the Raleigh Motus does look like a nice bike. I suppose the reason I overlooked it was that I didn’t see what benefit it would give me over the Oxygen for the higher price tag.

Any crank drive is potentially capable of higher speed than the Oxygen if derestricted because of the gearing. A crank drive also climbs better at the same battery consumption.

 

[Auxtail]

https://www.bultaco.co.uk/
do some speed pedelecs. Look nice. Probably need to buy through a retailer to let them do the registration. Number plate etc. You will also need insurance and a license.

 

[soundwave]

that is a race class ebike https://www.motostrano.com/M1-Spitzing-E-Bike-Electric-Bike-p/m1rs.htm

 

[Ryan Yorke]

- Woosh, I see. Makes sense using the gearing to effect the motors usage rather than a fixed hub. I’m beginning to see that this, like all things using electric motors and portable batteries, is a game of trade offs!

- Soundwave, haha thanks, those are great bikes, but they make the RM’s look like chump change! Puts things into perspective I suppose. Are the RM’s fairly reasonably priced for HS Pedelecs then? Or are there comparabley priced alternatives?