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A kit is worth while if your donor bike is good quality and you like it. With 2nd hand most of factory middrives like bosch, Shimano, brose, yamaha come with 2yr warranty on drive and battery. Assuming warranty is transferrable, a <2yr one would give you some piece of mind. Do your homework on...

Maintenance is less on these brakes than disc brakes. They a design for city/trekking bikes to give reliable service with minimum maintenance. With disc the hubs and spokes have carry large braking forces between rim/tyre and bike, with rim brakes the force is transferred directly to frame from...

Derailleur parts might be cheap, but labour to fit isn't if you don't have DIY skills. If you are good at using gears and are not doing lot city ride with stop starts, derailleurs are fine. In case of my wife who is not great with gears a hub would be better. Been caught in wrong gear a few...

The price difference due to lower component spec as lower powered active drive, low end gears and fork. Active drive is great but 50% less powerful 50nm compared to 75nm for CX. If going off road CX is must. The altus gears while reliable are slow, clunky and not always positive shift, recently...

I don't yhing weight is so much issue but high gearing when battery goes flat. My Cube is running 15t (37.5) with 11-42 11spd. Manual bikes are typically 28 or 32 chainring. Sent from my SM-G570Y using Tapatalk

Good bike for what you want to do. Can't beat a good hard tail for do everything bike. Fit panniers, mudguards, more upright stem and you have a tourer. Go for 500WH battery if you can afford it.

Hubs gears allow you change when stationery, very useful when you stop suddenly. Also lower maintenance than derailuers. If you like Bosch drive try Shimano STEPs there is not much between them. Some of STEPs bikes come with Di2 hub drives which give electronic shifting and option to use like...

Bosch could easily make display do 10% increments by flashing bar when below half way on that bar. Eg Have all 4 bars solid for 70-79% and 4th flashing for 60-69%.

If you have good donor bike and you like it, a kit maybe better plus it works out lot cheaper. The Shimano battery comes with 2yr warranty. While cheaper battery may not last as long it is lot cheaper to replace. Riding experience is different between STEPs torque sensing and most kits cadence...

Any rider that can pedal a bike comfortably on flat at sedate 10-15km/hr, will be able climb all seal hills and most offroad hills with CX drive with MTB gearing. For offroad there is no going past likes of CX drive. If rider has physical limitations that precludes a MTB mid drive and need a...

Unfortunately this model has Impulse drive which has checked history. Any of Bosch drive bikes in their range would be better bet.

Merida do some hardtails with shimano STEPs E6000 mid drive. Only for light trail work, ie no jumps but OK for 4wd tracks. Equivalent to Bosch Active 50NM. Shimano also have MTB drive E8000 70nm, but Merida bikes with them are lot more expensive. For steep 4wd roads the more powerful MTB drives...

If buying two bikes (his & hers) try to get ones with same batteries. Frames and even makes can be different between riders. Being able to swap batteries is real benefit.

Corratec do strengthened step bike for larger riders, not sure if it is in UK. Prices tend to be competitive. Reise & Mueller also do CX drive Nevo for riders upto 1.95m, very well specced with price to match. Check out Cube Delhi range.

Active with 15t chainring and 9 spd 11-34(34) should climb almost any sealed hill without any problem. Part reason my CX is such great climber is low gearing 15t 11spd 11-42.

The CX drive will get you most hills without breaking a sweat if you take it easy and use low gear. Typically double your manual climbing speed without a sweat, triple if you are willing to put some effort in. I initially made mistake of going all out in low gear (12km/hr) on very steep off...

Check out this site for reviews and advice. http://ebiketips.co.uk/ As for step thoughs, you should try one, there is a reason they are so popular in Holland.

If wife wants IGH then it will have to be front wheel hub drive.

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Sounds like a good hub drive would suit you budget and riding expectations. The next big decision is cadence or torque sensing, they feel quite different and it comes down to personal preference. You both need to try each system.