Hi all
I joined this forum with two purposes in mind – first to ask questions and learn from others experience; secondly to share some of my experiences where I feel they may be useful to others.
This post falls into the later category for anyone interested in how one person with quite specific demands has set about making a decision to spend over £2k switching to cycle commuting. Please note that I have tried to be as objective as possible, but ultimately the information I have gathered and way I have written it up represents my personal take on what I have discovered and is open to correction or challenge.
First stage was desk based research. I trawled forum posts, on line reviews, bike specifications, stated performance figures and general internet chatter. Back in December I also started a thread on here asking how people make their e-bike decisions based on data (http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/5185-making-decision-based-data.html) from which I received some valuable advice. All these internet hours were valuable and helped me develop a list of what I wanted from a potential purchase and a shortlist of bikes to look at.
The list of wants and needs
The shortlist to test ride
A universal piece of advice on this Forum is try before you buy, so despite my temptation during the snowy weeks to place an order for a Wisper City S, which looked a likely winner from my desk research, I waited until I could spend some time test riding the various options. The weather improved, I booked a day’s leave and contacted Andrew at OnBike to arrange to visit and spend time trying some bikes out on the local roads and hills.
In order to keep this post to a reasonable length I have written up a more complete review of what I tried, the data I gathered and the observations and conclusions I arrived at in a document you can access HERE
Following the test rides at OnBike, and some longer rides on my commute route, I have now made my decision and selected an Ezee Sprint GTS, parallel wired to take a 14Ah and 10Ah batteries with a dial assist control in place of the throttle. The bike has hub gears with thumb control, front disc, rear roller brake and all the other spec items I wanted – its a very neat set up and I cannot wait to get started with it.
I must offer my thanks and respect to Andrew at OnBike for his help and patience over the past few weeks as I have sought to make my decision. He has answered my endless questions clearly and without prejudice in favour of one bike over another and has really helped me base my decision on some real data gathered in the field.
I have been impressed how realistic Andrew has been about managing my expectations and the claims made on some websites (and forum posts) about potential range, battery life, costs etc. After talking to Andrew I have made my decision clear in the knowledge that I will be making considerable demands of my equipment and that this will lead to costs along the way, including replacement batteries.
It is also incredible to note that he was prepared to allow me to take two of his bikes away, for several days, to try out on my commute route to gather the all important data and experience, it’s good to develop a trusting relationship with a shop you spend a reasonable chunk of cash with!
My employer has agreed to let me be the guinea pig to test run the cyclesheme salary sacrifice arrangements through our complex payroll section, so as soon as that’s sorted and my voucher arrives I`ll be back to OnBike to collect.
Hope my experiences are of interest and apologies for the length of post and review – I didn’t have time to write a short one!
All the best
Bob_about
I joined this forum with two purposes in mind – first to ask questions and learn from others experience; secondly to share some of my experiences where I feel they may be useful to others.
This post falls into the later category for anyone interested in how one person with quite specific demands has set about making a decision to spend over £2k switching to cycle commuting. Please note that I have tried to be as objective as possible, but ultimately the information I have gathered and way I have written it up represents my personal take on what I have discovered and is open to correction or challenge.
First stage was desk based research. I trawled forum posts, on line reviews, bike specifications, stated performance figures and general internet chatter. Back in December I also started a thread on here asking how people make their e-bike decisions based on data (http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/5185-making-decision-based-data.html) from which I received some valuable advice. All these internet hours were valuable and helped me develop a list of what I wanted from a potential purchase and a shortlist of bikes to look at.
The list of wants and needs
- 20 mile each way commute 5 days a week on a single charge per day (approx 8,000 miles per year)
- Commute time of less than 1hour 15 minutes, as close to 1 hour as possible
- Reliability, strength and durability with confidence in after sales support (good components)
- Maximum budget of £2k without cyclesheme or up to £2400 if using cyclescheme
- Acceptable looks, good ride comfort, full mudguards, rack and lights, disc brakes and front suspension. Preference for hub gears if available.
The shortlist to test ride
- A Panasonic based system – E-motion City 700 delux with cross bar
- A rear hub direct drive – Wisper 905se City S
- A front hub direct drive – Ezee Forza or Torq
A universal piece of advice on this Forum is try before you buy, so despite my temptation during the snowy weeks to place an order for a Wisper City S, which looked a likely winner from my desk research, I waited until I could spend some time test riding the various options. The weather improved, I booked a day’s leave and contacted Andrew at OnBike to arrange to visit and spend time trying some bikes out on the local roads and hills.
In order to keep this post to a reasonable length I have written up a more complete review of what I tried, the data I gathered and the observations and conclusions I arrived at in a document you can access HERE
Following the test rides at OnBike, and some longer rides on my commute route, I have now made my decision and selected an Ezee Sprint GTS, parallel wired to take a 14Ah and 10Ah batteries with a dial assist control in place of the throttle. The bike has hub gears with thumb control, front disc, rear roller brake and all the other spec items I wanted – its a very neat set up and I cannot wait to get started with it.
I must offer my thanks and respect to Andrew at OnBike for his help and patience over the past few weeks as I have sought to make my decision. He has answered my endless questions clearly and without prejudice in favour of one bike over another and has really helped me base my decision on some real data gathered in the field.
I have been impressed how realistic Andrew has been about managing my expectations and the claims made on some websites (and forum posts) about potential range, battery life, costs etc. After talking to Andrew I have made my decision clear in the knowledge that I will be making considerable demands of my equipment and that this will lead to costs along the way, including replacement batteries.
It is also incredible to note that he was prepared to allow me to take two of his bikes away, for several days, to try out on my commute route to gather the all important data and experience, it’s good to develop a trusting relationship with a shop you spend a reasonable chunk of cash with!
My employer has agreed to let me be the guinea pig to test run the cyclesheme salary sacrifice arrangements through our complex payroll section, so as soon as that’s sorted and my voucher arrives I`ll be back to OnBike to collect.
Hope my experiences are of interest and apologies for the length of post and review – I didn’t have time to write a short one!
All the best
Bob_about
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