Need an e bike for commuting in London

[JohnCade]

I had a look at one in a shop. Didn't ride it though. It looked well finished. But with two speeds and a fairly low powered T/S controlled motor not much use to me where I live. It looks nice but with no mudguards or lights which are essential for commuting. Hydraulic brakes are a must with a heavy e bike too.

Although I always think looks are the last reason anyone should buy a bike or a car. It's the first reason for many people though.

 

[RobF]

Thanks a lot for the replies! You have given me a lot to think about, appreciate it

I will certainly test ride a few bikes before committing myself.
Planning on visiting 50cycles and the London Electric Bike Company this weekend.
Does anyone have an experience on the Momentum Upstart?
http://www.johnlewis.com/momentum-upstart-bike-black/p747495

The 9ah battery on the Upstart is not really big enough for your 30 mile commute, particularly as you plan to crack on.

Factor in inevitable capacity decline over a couple of years and you really will be struggling.

 

[trex]

you should also pay attention to the suspension. Commuting is diiffferent from leisure cycling. Your back and wrists may get painful with long hours sitting on the saddle.

 

[EddiePJ]

As Eddie says the KTM is a quality bike at a great price. Seconded.

Sorry Dave I deleted my original reply before being accused of being biased etc.

Kvothe, this was the bike that I had refered to. http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/exdemo-ktm-erace-p650-450-miles-on-clock-£1350-off.19672/#post-244735


.

 

[D8ve]

Thanks Eddie.
Some bikes are good but the price puts people off.
That bike was good and the price better, well worth jumping for.

Even if I think recumbents are best ;-0

 

[trex]

a good commuting bike in London needs to have a few extra considerations beside the obvious fast depreciation of commuting bikes in general. Factors like:

- how safe is the area where you are going to park your bike? simple things like saddle, lights, wheels and even QR skewer, if they are nice, they will disappear in minutes in some areas. After you spend £££ extra to take some weight off the bike, should you have to buy 10lbs lock and chain to secure it? Or will you have to remove the battery and carry it with you after parking your bike?
- is the parking covered? London air and rain are so filthy that your shiny new bike will look tatty in no time in the corosive and dusty London air and rain. There is one side benefit, the air can be so thick with oil residue that you probably won't need to oil your chain.
- do you think you will ever need to take the bike into your office, in trains and the underground or cars when you burst a tyre for example?

 

[EddiePJ]

trex, your post made for an enjoyable read, and certainly covered aspects that would never have even occurred to me.
The points raised carry across to even my infrequent trips to the local shops.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Yes, unless you have a secure place to keep your bike at your work-place, you can forget using an ebike for commuting.

If you don't have secure storage and still want to do it, you're much more likely to keep your bike if you have:

- generally a low spec bike
- cheap bolt-on wheels
- an easily removeable battery
- no quick-release saddle
- discrete motor like a Q100

Do you remember those old commuter bikes with pull-back bars, 3-speed Sturmey Archer gears and a fully enclosed chain case. That's the sort of thing.

 

[james@justebikes.co.uk]

I'd go for the Raleigh Motus.

But the motus had a bosch motor, no?

 

[james@justebikes.co.uk]

Yes, unless you have a secure place to keep your bike at your work-place, you can forget using an ebike for commuting.

Eddie I disagree. Most of our London customers leave their Sparta e-bikes on the streets at night, just 2 have been stolen on 8 years - one of those was returned by the cops 4 days later, the other (nicked 14 days ago) hasn't yet re-appeared. Manual bikes are dead simple to pinch, so often are, electric bikes are less attractive to thieves, Spartas with their built in mechanical locks and electronic immobilisers in the battery and motor and display are an even less attractive proposition.

 

[Cyclezee]

It has been said before that eZee bikes aren't sexy, rugged, functional and reliable with great performance yes, but sexy no.

If you want sexy and money is no object go for a bike like EddiePJ's.

If you don't want to get your bike stolen, go for an eZee Sprint Primo, never clean it, park it next to a bike like EddiePJ's which is in show room condition only better.
The eZee won't get knicked and you won't have spent a fortune

 

[Kvothe]

Hi all,

Many thanks for the replies!

Fortunately, I am able to take the bike into the office (on the 7th floor). Should be secure enough where it will be watched by 20 odd people including myself.

I will also be travelling along the train route, so in case something goes wrong, I can hop on the train and continue my journey.

I have tried the Kudos Rapide and the KTM Macina.
The crank drive system on the KTM felt more natural, where as the hub system on the Kudos took a few seconds to kick in (I suppose, I'd need to get used to the system). The Kudos was also noticeably louder.

I will check out the Kalkhoff range soon.
http://www.50cycles.com/electric-bikes/launch-offers/pro_connect_impulse_9.html
Any idea if this model is worth looking into?

Price wise, I'd rather not spend more than £1500 including all the accessories.

@Eddie, Thanks for the link. The bike looks good. However, I don't think I'd be able to get it under the cycle to work scheme.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[Kvothe]

Hi all,

I did a lot of digging on various ebikes on offer and now I'm even more confused

Test rode the Momentum Upstart this week. It looks like a well built bike but not too convinced on the automatic two speed system.

I like the look of Bruisch GT250, I noticed some minor issues on the 2013 model from the reviews on this forum. Any idea how the 2015 version fares?

The Woosh Krieger & Big Bear. They look good value, though a little heavy at over 24kg.

I came across Freego Raptor the 11ah version for £999. Not too sure on the single gear system. On the positive side, it's very light at 14kg.

Then there is the Kudos Tornado & Rapide. I have tried the Kudos Rapide. It felt okay.

Haven't tried the Kalkhoff range yet. I've heard very good reviews, but at a price.

I've had time to work on my budget and have a maximum of £1.5k to spend on a bike, including the accessories, such as lights, mudguards, etc.

I'm reluctant to buy a bike online as I'd like to try it out first. Hence, I'll visit several other bike shops across London over the next couple of weeks.

I'm happy to give conversion kits a go if I can't settle on a bike.
I suppose the question that I now have is, if I were to go down the conversion route and I around £1k to spend on a bike plus conversion kit, which conversion kit should I go for?

I won't be using the bike for off road, so I'd like to keep it "road legal".
A range of 20 mile on throttle only would be a great plenty.
Preferably disc brakes as I'll be riding in all weather.
Do people normally buy a conversion kit and then a donor bike or the other way around?

I suppose I'm asking too much here, but I'd like the bike to be minimalistic. i.e no wires dangling around.

Apologies for the long thread, but genuinely confused here

Thanks again for all the help!

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You have too much choice and not enough constraints, so it's going to be very difficult to find the right bike.

For conversions, most people start with a doors bike, butin many cases they have shortcomings. We had one where the guy had got a front hub brake, rear hub gears and a non-standard bottom bracket, which made it virtually impossible to fit astandard kit. You can make a really nice electric bike by choosing the right donor and kit. You need to be thinking about how and where you'ĺ be mounting the battery from the beginning. You can fit a front motor if you have hub gears, but then yiu're limited on power. For commuting, hydraulic discs are the best because they need virtually no maintenance and always perform consistently and reliably. You can buy them fairly cheaply on Ebay, so your donor doesn't have to have them, but it does need the mounting points.

One of the best kits is the Oxydrive kit. It has current control and speed control in the controller, so there'slots of optiins to set the power how you want it. Their top one with the CST motor can also go very fast (24mph) if you wanted to. The kit might be abit more expensive than some, but you get a reslly good battery and a lot of features in the controller. In fact I just checked the prices and see that they've made massive reductions that makes them an absolute steal. Reduced from £799 to £479 for a Bafang CST with 13ah battery.

 

[JohnCade]

Hi all,

I did a lot of digging on various ebikes on offer and now I'm even more confused

Test rode the Momentum Upstart this week. It looks like a well built bike but not too convinced on the automatic two speed system.

I like the look of Bruisch GT250, I noticed some minor issues on the 2013 model from the reviews on this forum. Any idea how the 2015 version fares?

The Woosh Krieger & Big Bear. They look good value, though a little heavy at over 24kg.

I came across Freego Raptor the 11ah version for £999. Not too sure on the single gear system. On the positive side, it's very light at 14kg.

Then there is the Kudos Tornado & Rapide. I have tried the Kudos Rapide. It felt okay.

Haven't tried the Kalkhoff range yet. I've heard very good reviews, but at a price.

I've had time to work on my budget and have a maximum of £1.5k to spend on a bike, including the accessories, such as lights, mudguards, etc.

I'm reluctant to buy a bike online as I'd like to try it out first. Hence, I'll visit several other bike shops across London over the next couple of weeks.

I'm happy to give conversion kits a go if I can't settle on a bike.
I suppose the question that I now have is, if I were to go down the conversion route and I around £1k to spend on a bike plus conversion kit, which conversion kit should I go for?

I won't be using the bike for off road, so I'd like to keep it "road legal".
A range of 20 mile on throttle only would be a great plenty.
Preferably disc brakes as I'll be riding in all weather.
Do people normally buy a conversion kit and then a donor bike or the other way around?

I suppose I'm asking too much here, but I'd like the bike to be minimalistic. i.e no wires dangling around.

Apologies for the long thread, but genuinely confused here

Thanks again for all the help!

I think you might be confusing yourself by reading too many reviews and not trying enough bikes. I think further up you said you'd tried the KTM and liked it. But reading between the lines you didn't want to pay that much. But apart from that one you've been trying cheaper bikes which you didn't like....But you've also been threatening to try a Kalkhoff for a long time now.

If you can go just above your £1500 budget, the Pro Connect 9 which you asked about a couple of posts ago, and which I think I recommended before that, is about the best value road e bike around right now. It's well built and specced and well finished, and rolls well at past the 17.3 mph cut off which not all e bikes do. Most of the Chinese bikes cut out at exactly 15.5 mph too unless you change it, and I think you wanted to be legal. It doesn't have a throttle but it starts off on the steepest hill on a push of a pedal and has all the power you will be likely to need.

Personally I don't rate throttles since if you get tired you can just ease off the pedals a bit and this bike will still move you along nicely even on a steepish hill. The main advantage of throttle is in hill starting, and to get you across a junction quickly from a standing start if the pedal response is a bit laggy. Not the case here.

 

[Kvothe]

Thanks @d8veh and @JohnCade !

I do want to try the Kalkhoff range, but 50cycles are currently closed, so I'm waiting for them to reopen, which I think might be this weekend.

In the mean time I figured I'd do some digging into alternatives, in case Kalkhoff doesn't work out.

Is this the Oxydrive kit that you mentioned? http://www.oxydrive.co.uk/electric-bike-kit/oxydrive-cst-ht-13ah.html it says £699?

 

[RobF]

Try this link:

http://www.oxydrive.co.uk/sale/sale-oxydrive-cst-ht-13ah.html

 

[Kvothe]

Try this link:

http://www.oxydrive.co.uk/sale/sale-oxydrive-cst-ht-13ah.html

Thanks Rob!

 

[RobF]

No worries.

Oxygen's web presence has always been a bit hit and miss.

But the guy who now runs the company is sound as a pound, if he says he will supply X goods for X price, that's what you will get.

 

[D8ve]

The oxidrive kit linked to is nice, do they also do a legal one?
That would have better range too?