Help me buy an ebike

[Mahi]

I am new to ebike, and to be frank, I didn't cycle much after my childhood. Having moved to a new town full of steep hills, I am thinking of buying an ebike but in budget as I may not use it for a longer time.

Does Apollo metis work better on hills? Halfords says it does, but what is everyone's opinion here? Or is there any other better one you would suggest in <800£?

Thanks in advance.

 

[flecc]

This idiot's ebike is quite happy in rain for many hours, with no ill effects - I've regularly ridden in the rain to leave my BBS01B converted bike in the rain while I garden in the rain for 6 hours or more, then cycled back in the rain. My bike has survived 13 seconds of complete submersion of the motor, controller and most of the connctor plugs. It's a matter of protecting where water ingress may occur: I covered connectors with 4:1 self-adhesive marine heat shrink and/or self-amalgamating rubber tape, silicone sealant was lightly applied to the rubber gasket between the controller and motor before bolting those tightly together, throttle was omitted, both ends of my gear sensor are covered with self-amalgamating rubber tape, and my display has a rain hat. 4,060km+ cycled so far, a large proportion of those kms when it was raining.

And my OnePlus phone has a small dry bag.

View attachment 55797

But look at all the work you've done to seal it. This is the trouble I think Paul refers to, most consumers rightly expect what they buy to operate well in the typical conditions they will be operating in, including bicycles in rain. In respect of rain pedelecs are often poor as the many posts about leaking displays and soaked non-functioning controllers show.

One well known and at the time popular pedelec I owned actually had the stricture in the handbook:

"Do not ride in the rain"

Imagine buying a motorcycle or car and finding that in the handbook! Or be told they should spend hours waterproofing it before use. It's like being told do not get your boat wet!
.

 

[Woosh]

The woman I told the story about simply didn't have space inside her small terrace council house to keep her bike inside. There was no communal bike shed outside. Her only solution was to throw a bag over it. She didn't have a bag so Hatti brought her one.
You can understand why I keep bags, my bikes come with 4 manuals and I have extensive FAQs on my website. Customers are co-operative but they must be told.

 

[Az.]

Her only solution was to throw a bag over it.

Not enough space to hang bike on the wall or under ceiling? Or store bike vertically?

 

[Woosh]

Not enough space to hang bike on the wall or under ceiling? Or store bike vertically?

Her £300 Angel weighs unfortunately 29kgs.

 

[guerney]

Her £300 Angel weighs unfortunately 29kgs.

It's getting crowded, I'm considering using two sets of pulleys per bike. One particular very suitable ceiling is high, may have to extend or replace the ropes.

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[Az.]

When there is a will, there is a way. I kept bike with folded handlebars on the corridor for few months because she'd was already full of bikes.

.. Wife didn't like it though

If right mechanism is used it should be easy to lift bike. Even very heavy one.

 

[Peter.Bridge]

I get the feeling that the UK bike is dominated by sports / leisure market compared to some other countries. Also In Europe (including UK), I think there is quite strong protectionist instinct.
I think in lots of other countries across the world e-bikes have been a bit of a quiet revolution and used much more for utility cycling and commuting and may be the sole motorised transport for a household. Obviously these aren't multiple thousands of pounds / dollars bikes , but need to be reliable and sturdy. Some of the snobbery in the UK seems a bit parochial and tied into our sports / leisure outlook on cycling.

 

[saneagle]

If my math is correct, this motor is 750W and yet still rated 250W.

Motors aren't power, so that motor isn't 750w.

A motor is a transducer. It converts electrical power to motive power and heat. In the case of the motor in your example, its intended use is to be provided with a MAXIMUM of 15 amps at 48v. The most motive power it would give out is about 560w, but much of the time it wouldn't be able to achieve that.

 

[flecc]

I get the feeling that the UK bike is dominated by sports / leisure market compared to some other countries. Also In Europe (including UK), I think there is quite strong protectionist instinct.
I think in lots of other countries across the world e-bikes have been a bit of a quiet revolution and used much more for utility cycling and commuting and may be the sole motorised transport for a household. Obviously these aren't multiple thousands of pounds / dollars bikes , but need to be reliable and sturdy. Some of the snobbery in the UK seems a bit parochial and tied into our sports / leisure outlook on cycling.

You are so right. Britain uniquely became this oddly sporting biased cycling nation that we are due to cycling actually dying almost totally out of existence here between 1955 and 1980. That was due to our recovering much faster following WW2 since we'd had far less war damage than mainland Europe but received the highest Marshall Aid for recovery, making us all much better off and motorised.

It was revived by the arrival of mountain bikes from the USA in 1980, gradually regrowing, but in that very sport/leisure biased way. Utility cycling which had been so widespread up into the 1940s has never truly returned, since those who would have been doing it had long been lost to the comfort of cars from which they refuse to be enticed.
.

 

[Peter.Bridge]

Yes, when I went into my local bike shop, the cheapest electric bike "in the sales" was £2000 (which had quite a small battery). I was thinking in countries with high e-bike use like China, Vietnam, India, Philippines, Taiwan that they couldn't afford European e-bike prices, but must still be getting e-bikes that are reasonably reliable and robust

 

[Az.]

Yes, when I went into my local bike shop, the cheapest electric bike "in the sales" was £2000 (which had quite a small battery).

Welcome to rip-off economy. You can go to bike shop and ask them why car tyre is cheaper than bike tyre. I bet they won't like that question. Prices in cycling industry are insane. More and more people can see that.

 

[sjpt]

Yes, when I went into my local bike shop, the cheapest electric bike "in the sales" was £2000 (which had quite a small battery).

And many such LBSs won't even let you have a test ride, or just grudgingly a 2 minute ride round the (flat) car park.

 

[Peter.Bridge]

And many such LBSs won't even let you have a test ride, or just grudgingly a 2 minute ride round the (flat) car park.

to be fair, the mechanics there are really good, help me out with any jobs on my ebikes that I either don't have the skills or tools, they inserted the Press Fit Bottom Bracket adapter on my Boardman and ordered and replaced a couple of spokes on my rear hub and trued the wheel at very reasonable prices

 

[AndyBike]

If you want to commute, let's say, 5 miles each distance, not too heavy slopes and besides this just replace the car for small grocery shopping or do a 20 miles weekend tour with your kids or your wife (or both) and if you have a hands-on mentality there is no need to spend a fortune.

20 miles ??? wow theres a journey. im a few miles each way shopping, and maybe 12-15 on the very odd weekend.

One thing you seem to be missing though is ,its nice to have nice things. I ride a full suss ebike because i like the comfort it offers. The components are high end because I can rely on them not just to work and do what they are supposed to do, but to last, so not be a drain on my resources from failing.

250w 85nm Bosch performance cx gen 4 motor, I can handle any hill no problem at all. and because the weight is pretty much centralized, theres no chance of a sudden 'wheelie' if I lean back.

 

[RollingChunder]

20 miles ??? wow theres a journey.

It's only a 2 hour journey at 10mph which is a very leisurely pace. More likely 1hr30. 45 mins - 1hr to a café and back is quite easy for the whole family with battery power.

 

[guerney]

20 miles ??? wow theres a journey. im a few miles each way shopping, and maybe 12-15 on the very odd weekend.

43 miles/69km is my longest ebike journey so far, took something over 5 hours and there were a lot of "Where the hell am I?" stops. 43 miles is the limit of my battery range because of the high power settings in firmware I won't lower... and it spluttered to a stop about 4.5 miles from my house - a very early morning garage stop for blood sugaring and caffeination powered the bike push mostly uphill home. Must buy a bigger battery than 19.2Ah....

 

[AndyBike]

43 miles is the limit of my battery range because of the high power settings in firmware I won't lower...

Yeah. F^&k that eco setting.

 

[Az.]

Must buy a bigger battery than 19.2Ah....

Or make some effort. My 15Ah battery drops one bar out of five on 65km travel.

 

[guerney]

Yeah. F^&k that eco setting.

Or make some effort. My 15Ah battery drops one bar out of five on 65km travel.

I don't do sweaty or eco - my bike is specifically set up so I arrive at work unstunk and full of beans. The only stink emitted will be caused by those beans.

 

[Az.]

I don't do sweaty or eco - my bike is specifically set up so I arrive at work unstunk and full of beans.

Don't you just use work as an excuse? I have a funny feeling this 69km trip was not a commute. It was a leisure trip, wasn't it? For sure you can sweat a bit on a trip like that and then take a shower when back at home.