Recommendations

[Ch1pp1e]

we are looking for a pair of ebikes for me and the wife.
I am 62 105kgs was reasonably fit until having both knee replacements over the last 2 years.
wife a little younger and a couple of stone lighter needs a knee replacement but still active in sport.
we live in a very hilly area on the edge of the Pennines, we need something to get us backup these hills around here. We will mainly travel on roads but living out in the countryside we will be using paths off road at times. We would also use some of the coastal paths on the east coast, our weekend retreat.
The thing that matters most is the hill assist with our dodgy knees.
budget max 4-5 k for the pair
Am I right in presuming crank drive is the best for hilly areas, all advice appreciate. We did visit our local motorbike shop that sells ebikes, but they weren’t very interested in helping us

 

[sjpt]

The Pennines are quite big; you may or may not be close to Juicy (https://www.juicybike.com/); they claim to know about hills! and are well recommended by many (I don't have any experience of them) Also look at offerings from Woosh for good value sensible bikes and excellent customer service, but Southend or mail order only, (http://wooshbikes.co.uk/) and Wisper (https://wisperbikes.com/) a little bit more expensive but quite a few dealers scattered around.

Crank drive can be best, but decent hub drives are pretty capable on hills as well.

Sensors is probably more important. With cadence sensors you can ghost pedal and get power out of the motor even without putting anything in, just keep pedalling. That can be really helpful with dodgy knees at the end of a long ride. With torque sensors you always need to put power in and it will multiply up (factor depending on setting). Typically in highest setting you will put in 1/4 and it will provide 3/4; some will give a bit more (maybe 4/5 to your 1/5). That is still fine for most people on most hills, but could be an issue with tired knees. Torque sensors rides a little more 'naturally', and give immediate power for hill starts. Cadence ones generally need around 1/2 turn of the pedals before they kick in. You'll get used to decent cadence ones in no time.

Most often crank drive have torque sensors and hub drive have cadence, but that is not always the case.

 

[vfr400]

we are looking for a pair of ebikes for me and the wife.
I am 62 105kgs was reasonably fit until having both knee replacements over the last 2 years.
wife a little younger and a couple of stone lighter needs a knee replacement but still active in sport.
we live in a very hilly area on the edge of the Pennines, we need something to get us backup these hills around here. We will mainly travel on roads but living out in the countryside we will be using paths off road at times. We would also use some of the coastal paths on the east coast, our weekend retreat.
The thing that matters most is the hill assist with our dodgy knees.
budget max 4-5 k for the pair
Am I right in presuming crank drive is the best for hilly areas, all advice appreciate. We did visit our local motorbike shop that sells ebikes, but they weren’t very interested in helping us

I think the Wisper watfarer series might be a good choice as you're quite heavy and have dodgy knees. They run at 44v, so you get 20% more power compared with equivalent 36v systems, and at 105kg with hills, you'll need all the power you can get. personally, I think hub-motors give a much more pleasant riding experience on the road and the Wisper has enough power to get you up the hills, so that would be my choice.

At a lower budget, Woosh bikes are pretty good. Go for one with the largest size motor.

If you don't care about budget, there are a whole range of crank-drive bikes. I'd go for one with the 2020 Bosch CX motor because it has adequate power and there are plenty of Bosch dealers to sort it out if you have problems. there's one downside to these sort of bikes, and that's that you have to pedal a lot, which is not so good if you have dodgy knees. The difference is not so noticeable on a short test ride, but will show itself on a longer ride. You can adjust how hard you pedal on bikes like the Woosh and Wisper, but less so on Bosch, yamaha, Shimano, etc.

The problem now is that dealers have very little, if any, stock, so you might have to wait to get the bike you want.

 

[Murombew]

Best bike reccommend form uber eats/deliveroo/stuart/just eat rider

haibike trekking 8.0 2020

2000+ miles only had to replace pads and crank arms (slide and fell on some smooth cobble ground resulted in bent cranks easily replaced )

worth the investment

 

[vfr400]

Best bike reccommend form uber eats/deliveroo/stuart/just eat rider

haibike trekking 8.0 2020

2000+ miles only had to replace pads and crank arms (slide and fell on some smooth cobble ground resulted in bent cranks easily replaced )

worth the investment

Uber eats riders don't normally have bad knees - not before they started with that bike , but maybe afterwards.

 

[Murombew]

Explain because i'd never type what your typing right now

 

[Murombew]

Uber eats riders don't normally have bad knees - not before they started with that bike , but maybe afterwards.

also this bike offer 340% pedal assist

 

[vfr400]

also this bike offer 340% pedal assist

You only get the 340% assist in certain circumstances. Even then, you still have to provide 100% yourself. The Wisper can give 4000% assist, using the same scale as the Bosch. In other words, more power for only 1% of max pedal effort.

Personally, if I were doing deliveries, a bike with a Bosch motor is the last type of bike I'd use. It doesn't even have a throttle. A hub-motored Wisper Wayfarer would be much more suitable. It's cheaper to buy, more reliable, more powerful, has lower running costs, requires a lot less pedal effort and most of all it's a lot more user-friendly. I guess the guys that voted for the Haibike never tried a Wisper. There are plenty of other good bikes like the Wisper.

I can remember when the Storck Raadar got voted bike of the year on this forum. What a disaster that turned out to be.

 

[MarkAlexander]

Depends on your budget but I am really happy with Yose power 350w conversion kit about £200 and about an hour to convert your own normal bike. Its pretty good on hills and I commute to work in hilly south wales 26km each way with a 15ah battery on a very cheap halfords hybrid.

 

[Mccaughey85]

Depends on your budget but I am really happy with Yose power 350w conversion kit about £200 and about an hour to convert your own normal bike. Its pretty good on hills and I commute to work in hilly south wales 26km each way with a 15ah battery on a very cheap halfords hybrid.

Do you have insurance on your converted bike. I recently bought a converted bike off a bloke who does conversions. Does bike insurance companies cover conversion e bikes.