What would be the Ford Fiesta of Ebikes?

[Caph]

If Ebikes became mainstream, what would be the cheap, reliable, goto ebike of choice for the masses?

I'd guess we're talking in the region of a £500 battery and motor fitted to a nice and reliable sub £250 utility bike (and to be fair, most bike owners don't own a £250 bike so I'm probably being overly generous here).

Would it be the obvious hub motor or could a crank drive feature at this level? An SB motor would be the obvious candidate but could anything else rival them at this price/reliability point?

 

[Fordulike]

I reckon the Cyclamatic range of bikes would fit the bill:

The Sports HQ - Search Results for cyclamatic

• 
  Good looking range of bikes

• 
  Reasonably priced

• 
  Proven reliability

• 
  Fairly powerful, suitable for most riders

• 
  Nicely balanced, easy to ride bike

• 
  Excellent after-sales from SportsHQ

• 
  Simple to maintain, clean, modify, etc...

• 
  Availability of replacement battery at a good price

I may be a little biased towards these little gems, but I have used and abused mine and it still keeps a going.

Used in a normal commuting role, without any mods, I reckon these would provide safe, sensible ebiking for years to come.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Cyclamatic for all the reasons above, plus, like the Fiesta, it can easily be tuned to give more power.

 

[flecc]

I think more like the price point Caph mentions to match the Fiesta sort of price position in the market, so one of the Kudos bikes in the £695 to £895 range at present. Of course with mass sales they might be even lower priced. Their longer lasting LiFePO4 batteries are an attraction for the mass market too.

In market position price terms the Cyclamatic matches cars like the Chevrolet Spark and the Matiz before it, the floor of the market but bargains like the Cyclamatic.

 

[eddieo]

Until the price point was mentioned (£250 for a decent bike) I would have immediately said the Wisper 905 SE

 

[Fordulike]

In market position price terms the Cyclamatic matches cars like the Chevrolet Spark and the Matiz before it, the floor of the market but bargains like the Cyclamatic.

I was forced to drive a Matiz as a courtesy car last year, and in my opinion the Cyclamatic is a Rolls Royce in comparison at any price. Apologies to anyone that drives one

 

[jhruk]

I reckon the Cyclamatic range of bikes would fit the bill:

The Sports HQ - Search Results for cyclamatic

• 
  Good looking range of bikes

• 
  Reasonably priced

• 
  Proven reliability

• 
  Fairly powerful, suitable for most riders

• 
  Nicely balanced, easy to ride bike

• 
  Excellent after-sales from SportsHQ

• 
  Simple to maintain, clean, modify, etc...

• 
  Availability of replacement battery at a good price

I may be a little biased towards these little gems, but I have used and abused mine and it still keeps a going.

Used in a normal commuting role, without any mods, I reckon these would provide safe, sensible ebiking for years to come.

The replacement Cyclamatic batteries are actually quite expensive. At the list price of £229.00 they work out at £119/100Wh. This is 20% more than regular batteries from Wisper or Ezee and nearly twice the price of some from Kudos or Juicy Bike. They need one of their regular discounts to make them competitive.
New bikes with discount look very good value though.

 

[flecc]

I was forced to drive a Matiz as a courtesy car last year, and in my opinion the Cyclamatic is a Rolls Royce in comparison at any price. Apologies to anyone that drives one

I don't know if it was the Chevvy or earlier Daewoo you had, and as an all-round car I wouldn't entertain either one, but as a town car the larger engined Chevvy Matiz is the best. I wouldn't swap mine for any of the other bloated "small" hatches around at present, with the sole exception of the not-bloated Hyundai i10.

Example. Yesterday "U" turned out of a parking bay in a narrow road where nothing else could do that, saving me a long detour through lights and heavy traffic congestion to return home. Seconds later nipped through a very narrow gap that it's 4' 11" allowed, leaving everything else following queued for a right turning car blocked by a never ending oncoming traffic stream. Horses for courses, and the Chevvy Matiz is the best there is for this type of course. And mine's in it's fifth year without a single fault of any kind.
.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I think more like the price point Caph mentions to match the Fiesta sort of price position in the market, so one of the Kudos bikes in the £695 to £895 range at present. Of course with mass sales they might be even lower priced. Their longer lasting LiFePO4 batteries are an attraction for the mass market too.

In market position price terms the Cyclamatic matches cars like the Chevrolet Spark and the Matiz before it, the floor of the market but bargains like the Cyclamatic.

It depends how you see the Fiesta. In recent years, the Fiesta has been pushed up-market. It used to be much closer to the bottom competing with the Mini Metro, vauxhall Nova and cars like that. When Caph mentions the Fiesta, does he mean the original concept or how it is today?
Secondly, the Cyclamatic, although cheap, is much better than what you expect, and it's similar to nearly all the other not too expensive Chinese imports. It has similar power to many of the 250w hub-motored bikes, but only 2/3 the range of the 36v versions. In a blind-fold test, I think it would be difficult to tell the difference between the Cyclamatic and many of the sub-£1000 bikes. I would say that the e-bike equivalents of the Matiz and the like are the £350 SLA batteried bikes that are still around, that do the job, but or not quite what you want.

 

[flecc]

That's what I was referring to with the Fiesta, like most it's been bloating in price and size for many years.

I definitely don't agree on the Chevrolet Matiz/SLA bike comparison, from my years with the Matiz it's much better in comparison against all the various SLA bikes I've ridden, most of those lumbering and very crude.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

The replacement Cyclamatic batteries are actually quite expensive. At the list price of £229.00 they work out at £119/100Wh. This is 20% more than regular batteries from Wisper or Ezee and nearly twice the price of some from Kudos or Juicy Bike. They need one of their regular discounts to make them competitive.
New bikes with discount look very good value though.

You don't buy the Cyclamatic replacement battery. Instead you buy a 36v 10aH lipo pack for £112 and then you can do over 20mph. Solder the shunt for 20amps and you can go up steep hills without pedalling as well.
That works out at about £28 per 100wH ( and you need a charger - about£30).

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I had a Citroen 2CV for a while and I actually quite liked it. I should imagine that a Matiz is a Rolls Royce by comparison. BTW, I also had a Reliant Supervan and Robin and loved them both. I've come to the conclusion that you can enjoy any vehicle for what it is as long as you're not a Pseud, Prude, Peacock or stuck-up Tw*t, which I'm not, thankfully. Neither is Flecc by the sound of it.

 

[Willin']

I had a Citroen 2CV for a while and I actually quite liked it. I should imagine that a Matiz is a Rolls Royce by comparison. BTW, I also had a Reliant Supervan and Robin and loved them both. I've come to the conclusion that you can enjoy any vehicle for what it is as long as you're not a Pseud, Prude, Peacock or stuck-up Tw*t, which I'm not, thankfully. Neither is Flecc by the sound of it.

Fully agree (having owned or hired a 2CV, Daewoo Matiz, Hyundai Atos, Kia Picanto and all sorts of .. ahem... low budget vehicles) with the above. My vote would probably go to the Cyclamatic as I know it above some others but certainly products from Juicy Bikes and Kudos would be strong contenders as well given their price and specification.

 

[Fordulike]

I don't know if it was the Chevvy or earlier Daewoo you had, and as an all-round car I wouldn't entertain either one, but as a town car the larger engined Chevvy Matiz is the best. I wouldn't swap mine for any of the other bloated "small" hatches around at present, with the sole exception of the not-bloated Hyundai i10.

Example. Yesterday "U" turned out of a parking bay in a narrow road where nothing else could do that, saving me a long detour through lights and heavy traffic congestion to return home. Seconds later nipped through a very narrow gap that it's 4' 11" allowed, leaving everything else following queued for a right turning car blocked by a never ending oncoming traffic stream. Horses for courses, and the Chevvy Matiz is the best there is for this type of course. And mine's in it's fifth year without a single fault of any kind.
.

Damn, I've slagged off the Pedelec Master's car. Blacklisted for sure now

Admittedly, me and the missus scrutinized one of those i10's at the dealership last year, and we were mightly impressed by the quality for the price

 

[Biged]

Admittedly, me and the missus scrutinized one of those i10's at the dealership last year, and we were mightly impressed by the quality for the price

So did we, and we bought one. It's the best little car out there.

 

[flecc]

I had a Citroen 2CV for a while and I actually quite liked it. I should imagine that a Matiz is a Rolls Royce by comparison. BTW, I also had a Reliant Supervan and Robin and loved them both. I've come to the conclusion that you can enjoy any vehicle for what it is as long as you're not a Pseud, Prude, Peacock or stuck-up Tw*t, which I'm not, thankfully. Neither is Flecc by the sound of it.

Absolutely, I judge by what something does for me, with no pretensions or delusions about image.

 

[Willin']

Absolutely, I judge by what something does for me, with no pretensions or delusions about image.

Me too - that's why I am quite happy with my Cyclamatic and my Tonaro (and I'm on my fourth Skoda Octavia over the last 13 years with nary a niggle over reliability and a queue of people wanting to buy my current Octavia Scout when I decide to part with it - they'll be disappointed).

 

[flecc]

Damn, I've slagged off the Pedelec Master's car. Blacklisted for sure now

Only one of them! Still my other car to go.

Admittedly, me and the missus scrutinized one of those i10's at the dealership last year, and we were mightly impressed by the quality for the price

They are great and I might even have swapped my Matiz for one, but sadly it's inches wider so no point in losing a town advantage. When my local Sainsbury's underground car park is full as often happens, there's three corners between pillars and walkways I can just squeeze into, where even the Smart Fortwo can't due to it being too fat.

And the other thing I don't know about the i10 is how it is on speed bumps. Probably by accident rather than design, my Matiz shrugs them off even at 40+, and at 30 I scarcely notice them. That's important in my London borough where I've got them everywhere and even on my main approach road to home

 

[jhruk]

You don't buy the Cyclamatic replacement battery. Instead you buy a 36v 10aH lipo pack for £112 and then you can do over 20mph. Solder the shunt for 20amps and you can go up steep hills without pedalling as well.
That works out at about £28 per 100wH ( and you need a charger - about£30).

Some of us might do that but I expect the majority of buyers would go for their advertised replacement. I would think their margins must be a lot higher on the replacement battery than on the complete bike - which looks a bit of a bargain when discounted.

 

[JuicyBike]

In a blind-fold test, I think it would be difficult to tell the difference between the Cyclamatic and many of the sub-£1000 bikes.

That's not a test I'm willing to offer-up a Juicy Bike for!