Sadly after 10 years commuting and a crash last week I have decided to replace rather than repair my bike. I have an 8 mile extremely hilly journey so went for crank drive & lightest electric bike then available and when the battery is happy the bike has never let me down unlike the road surfaces which are full of gravel from potholes & diesel/oil from careless drivers. I would be grateful please for suggestions of which lightweight bikes than can do low gear uphill are thought to be value for money & currently available from SW England.
How to replace Giant LA Twist Lite?
- Thread starter Jocelyn
- Start date
The lowest cost option now is the new Woosh Sirocco CD to replace yours with another crank drive bike for your very hilly area. It's perhaps not as sophisticated in some ways as your Lafree Twist, but more powerful and has a throttle control as well as the pedelec control of power. At £799, it's cheaper than the Lafree was when it was first introduced 12 years ago at £850, so quite a bargain.
There are more sophisticated equivalents to the Lafree Twist, but inevitably they are much more expensive, generally between £1500 and £3000, depending on model type, facilities and style.
Highly experienced member d8veh is currently reviewing one of the Woosh crank drive bikes at the moment and you can read his reports to date on this thread link
Say if you want to go up-market and we can recommend many other crank drive models.
There are more sophisticated equivalents to the Lafree Twist, but inevitably they are much more expensive, generally between £1500 and £3000, depending on model type, facilities and style.
Highly experienced member d8veh is currently reviewing one of the Woosh crank drive bikes at the moment and you can read his reports to date on this thread link
Say if you want to go up-market and we can recommend many other crank drive models.
Thanks for prompt assistance - looks promising, be nice to hear if anyone has one in Bath or Bristol I could look at. Certainly looks good value, I'd be interested in what benefits paying say 300-400 quid more would bring please? I'm lost as to why similar bikes seem to vary so wildly in cost even up to 2k UKP
£300 to £400 more doesn't give many more options in crank drive bikes, and I'm sticking to recommending crank drive since I know that's what you are used to and realise just how very hilly your area's roads can be.
There's the Tonaro models from Powerpedals at between £1150 and £1290, but they are often rather heavy and will seem rather different from your Lafree Twist and predominantly throttle controlled. Rival company CycleZee also sell two Tonaro models at a lower £925 retail price. You won't find much choice in crank drives locally in the Bristol area, but Powerpedals are in South Molton, Devon so not a million miles away. CycleZee are only at Milton Keynes. Woosh are only at Southend or Cambridge.
Those give you a clue of one reason for the pricing variations, bikes sold through cycle dealers are of necessity much dearer since the dealer needs around 30% or so margin to both stock e-bike models and provide ongoing support to customers buying them.
Paying from £1799 gets you one of the AVE German made e-bikes using the superb Bosch crank drive system which will have all the sophistication and more of your old Lafree Twist, and with much more power. These are imported by EBCO and sold through dealers as well. They are also sold by three cycle dealers in Bristol which you'll see under South West on this EBCO webpage. The much higher cost of these bikes is largely in the high quality European manufacture of bike and power unit and partly in having them available locally to you with support. Check with those three dealers before travelling to see if any have AVE models in stock to see and try.
.
There's the Tonaro models from Powerpedals at between £1150 and £1290, but they are often rather heavy and will seem rather different from your Lafree Twist and predominantly throttle controlled. Rival company CycleZee also sell two Tonaro models at a lower £925 retail price. You won't find much choice in crank drives locally in the Bristol area, but Powerpedals are in South Molton, Devon so not a million miles away. CycleZee are only at Milton Keynes. Woosh are only at Southend or Cambridge.
Those give you a clue of one reason for the pricing variations, bikes sold through cycle dealers are of necessity much dearer since the dealer needs around 30% or so margin to both stock e-bike models and provide ongoing support to customers buying them.
Paying from £1799 gets you one of the AVE German made e-bikes using the superb Bosch crank drive system which will have all the sophistication and more of your old Lafree Twist, and with much more power. These are imported by EBCO and sold through dealers as well. They are also sold by three cycle dealers in Bristol which you'll see under South West on this EBCO webpage. The much higher cost of these bikes is largely in the high quality European manufacture of bike and power unit and partly in having them available locally to you with support. Check with those three dealers before travelling to see if any have AVE models in stock to see and try.
.
Last edited:
Whoosh!
Well Woosh by name & whoosh by nature, less than 2 days after my enquiry I now own a new Sirocco CD that was unexpectedly available locally - picking it up tomorrow. Deeply impressed by prompt info from the Pedelecs forum and whilst my feedback won't be as technical as d8veh's I'll do my best.
Well Woosh by name & whoosh by nature, less than 2 days after my enquiry I now own a new Sirocco CD that was unexpectedly available locally - picking it up tomorrow. Deeply impressed by prompt info from the Pedelecs forum and whilst my feedback won't be as technical as d8veh's I'll do my best.
Update
I have taken the bike on my usual hilly commute 3.5 times now without any power issues, in fact the last two times I had anticipated loss of power for the return journey as my previous bike only really did there & back again before needing charging and organised a potential pick up which wasn't needed. Power began to fade but not in a big way after about 33 miles on the odometer (my thanks to the manuals found on d8veh's thread for pointing out what the different nos. shown on the display meant). However, the indicator on the battery seems to be much more positive about the amount of charge left than the J-LCD display and I poodled around some more to see what happened. I couldn't lower the battery display indicator below one green & one red light however the J-LCD display showed no charge left at 37 miles which was pretty much my physical experience. I am very confused by these totals shown on the display though as by my usual reckoning I had cycled around 48 miles before 'poodling' around.
I really like the simplicity of adjusting the riding position and am getting on fine with the bike though find changing up gears much easier than changing down which I am finding works in a less clunky fashion if you change down before you usually think you would need to. I'm not keen on the throttle though - it's rather like having a fat handlebar grip that wobbles unless you hold it carefully. Also I miss the fitted lock the LA Free Twist had on the back wheel which was useful for securing it temporarily outside a shop. I remain very pleased by the lightness of the bike, it is very manoeuvrable and am not all surprised to discover that they are temporarily out of stock.
I have taken the bike on my usual hilly commute 3.5 times now without any power issues, in fact the last two times I had anticipated loss of power for the return journey as my previous bike only really did there & back again before needing charging and organised a potential pick up which wasn't needed. Power began to fade but not in a big way after about 33 miles on the odometer (my thanks to the manuals found on d8veh's thread for pointing out what the different nos. shown on the display meant). However, the indicator on the battery seems to be much more positive about the amount of charge left than the J-LCD display and I poodled around some more to see what happened. I couldn't lower the battery display indicator below one green & one red light however the J-LCD display showed no charge left at 37 miles which was pretty much my physical experience. I am very confused by these totals shown on the display though as by my usual reckoning I had cycled around 48 miles before 'poodling' around.
I really like the simplicity of adjusting the riding position and am getting on fine with the bike though find changing up gears much easier than changing down which I am finding works in a less clunky fashion if you change down before you usually think you would need to. I'm not keen on the throttle though - it's rather like having a fat handlebar grip that wobbles unless you hold it carefully. Also I miss the fitted lock the LA Free Twist had on the back wheel which was useful for securing it temporarily outside a shop. I remain very pleased by the lightness of the bike, it is very manoeuvrable and am not all surprised to discover that they are temporarily out of stock.
Glad you are getting on well with your new bike Jocelyn. You can add that AXA lock type to your bike, and the latest version is more secure than the one the Lafree had. There are various mounting options listed at the foot of the link article below, and as you'll see, you can get accessory cables or chains to extend its usefulness:
AXA frame lock
Also available from Amazon and the like at various prices, but not always easy to determine which version from such sources.
AXA frame lock
Also available from Amazon and the like at various prices, but not always easy to determine which version from such sources.
Thanks Flecc. For others the Woosh Scirocco CD is remaining spot on for getting up several steep hills on the way into & back from work and is currently doing ~48 miles before needing recharging.
There are a couple of minor irritations: one I believe are linked to its extremely reasonable price (following a puncture I had to replace a front tyre both inner & outer and was surprised by the thin tread) and the other: the way the power doesn't return for 2 pedalling cycles if you've braked or eased off the pedals for a few seconds. I am still regularly caught out when travelling uphill on the power and another road user does something that causes me to need to slow quickly, the resulting need to suddenly pedal uphill without power assist for a couple of turns is a wobbly, challenge. More practice needed I guess.
There are a couple of minor irritations: one I believe are linked to its extremely reasonable price (following a puncture I had to replace a front tyre both inner & outer and was surprised by the thin tread) and the other: the way the power doesn't return for 2 pedalling cycles if you've braked or eased off the pedals for a few seconds. I am still regularly caught out when travelling uphill on the power and another road user does something that causes me to need to slow quickly, the resulting need to suddenly pedal uphill without power assist for a couple of turns is a wobbly, challenge. More practice needed I guess.Figured out the milometer recording, it only records when the controller is switched on. I had been following earlier practice of switching power off when downhill or on the flat, now I leave it on setting no. 1 to make it quicker to boost when going from flat to uphill and haven't noticed any change in time the battery lasts for.
Related Articles
-
MTF Enterprises announces acquisition of EMU Electric Bikes- Started by: Pedelecs
-
Wisper 806T folding bike wins Which? ‘Best Buy’- Started by: Pedelecs
-
Sustrans calls for protected cycle lanes- Started by: Pedelecs
-
Amazon launch their first UK e-cargo micromobility hub- Started by: Pedelecs
