Rupert1

Just decided to go down your recommended route but when I tried to order the Marin they only have 15" frame size, even for me to small. I am 5' 8" 29" inside leg. Any other recommendations keeping as lightweight as possible, or is there any sign of your lightweight bike yet?

OK many thanks for your answers. I had a job to find the weight of the bike but have come up with 11.4kg. Will contact you soon about kit.

Why do you recommend this bike for your kit.

So no weight advantage over your Karoo

What would be the weight of the Marin plus you kit, including battery?

My wife is also 5' 2 and weighs about 8st. She to looked at both of these bikes and went for the Petite which you can get with a large battery. Do not see the weight distribution thing, with bikes this heavy it makes little difference.

To busy where we live this weekend but off back to euroland next week. Moselle, Black Forest, Swiss alps.

Having said my wife weighs around 8st I weigh 11st 12lbs and the petite goes just fine with me on it.

My wife has a Woosh Petite, she to is 5'2" and weighs about 8st. It will cope with the distances you quote, she has the 15ah battery. It comes with a good leaflet on basis maintenance and repairs and Woosh themselves are very helpful.

I ride parts of this route on a regular basis from Kinmel Bay. I would tend to avoid now until end of August unless you go early morning or late evening. The problem is people with dogs wandering all over the place with those expanding dog leads and no control. It is a good easy and scenic cycle route mainly flat. The only steep climb is coming from Rhyl just after the limestone quarry jetty, on my standard bike my old knees stopped climbing this but my Bermuda sails up it.

Sure they do, but they are not old, unfit blokes, suggest you to read my report of this. How many watts, no idea.

My Woosh Bermuda climbed a major Pyrenees col in June, you can read my report on this in thread entitled 'France on a Woosh' so cannot see it would have much trouble on a climb as short as the one you describe.

Thule told me no, it is not advisable to carry any bike over the individual load rating of the rack, so 15kg a bike means just that. I have a Thule 916 rack that is rated at 30kg a bike, bought it from Decathalon for £260 including postage

Since starting this thread I have done a lot more miles on my bike and now understand things a little better, at least I think so. I am back to the alps in September and intend to find a 2000 mtr col to have a go at but a couple of things that came out of this thread worry me. A couple of people mentioned the danger of the motor overheating, although it showed no signs of doing so on the Aspin. If I stopped say at about 1500mtrs to give motor and myself time to cool down how long should I give it? Also the battery capacity, again a couple mentioned it would be better to use a lower gear and take more time, does anyone know if this is a fact or just a bit of guess work. I have tried to prove this to myself in the last month but cannot find a long enough climb near where I live to be conclusive.

I am an ebike novice but like a throttle, I find it usefull when making hill starts. As for the cops stopping you it will not happen. Ignore the cheap Chinese electrics jibe, some people just like living in the past.

If you met Eric you would never know. He still lives in a cottage at the village of Tremadog with his Australian wife Ann and runs a small cafe. I knew him well when I had a cafe in the nearby village of Beddgelert, I moved away some years ago to the North Wales coast. This area of North Wales now has some great bike tracks in the forests for anyone in the area, details from local tourist offices.

OK Eddie, thanks. I do in fact know the area you are talking about pretty well. Went there twice with a friend to do the north wall but weather intervened both times. Another old friend of mine, Eric Jones, did the first British solo ascent of the north wall.

No offence taken Eddie and I take your point. We are back over in euro land in September, alps this time, and will try and record any climbs in a bit more detail as I had not realised it would cause this much interest. My main point is though that to ride an ebike purely on the road you do not have to spend a fortune.

Not trying to start a competition here fellows just reporting what I did and how the bike performed. Sorry I did not record exact details of elasped time, speed etc but you can assume no records broken or claimed. Just an old bloke on a cheap bike out for a ride. Will try to be more explicite in future but probably will not bother.

Not to sure I am afraid, no watch on. I would say a bit over an hour. Should explain battery may not have been fully charged although it did show four lights. We only have mains electric supply about once every three days and although it had not been used for a couple of days the battery had been in motorhome locker for this time with no top up.

It had just gone off but did flicker back to life on the way down. As I have said just a novice on this stuff but the battery is 14.5v. I did use a lot of assist am quite happy with the batteries perfomance. I wonder how many who are saying it should do better have actually tried this stuff. However in my case I had no intention of going further. Under normal flat road conditions, top gear, middle level of assist it certainly goes what I would call a long way, will try one day and run it out to see.

First not sure where to place this posting but no doubt it can be moved if required. My wife and I have just returned from six weeks in France and I took an ebike for the first time to try as additional transport with our motorhome. The bike is a Woosh Bermuda with a 15a battery, I posted a bit about this a few months ago and still as an ebike novice I hope my views do not upset anyone but they are just my opinions. First few ride were along pretty flat canal and river cycle paths, of which there are a lot in France. The bike made short work of this and I was doing rides or around twenty miles, battery indicator showing just one light out after each ride. We stayed for a few days in the Tarn Gorge and I decided to give the bike a stiffer test by riding up one of the roads out of the gorge. The one I chose was out of the village of Malene and is about two miles to the top. The first few hairpins are very steep and I used full assist and down to second gear, after this it eased a little but still steep, I used 2nd and 3rd gear all the way to the top. Arrived ok but pleased as I am a not very fit old bloke and would not even attempt this on a normal bike, two bars on the battery gone after two miles though, although one flickered back coming down. A few more rides then we arrived in the Pyrenees and I decided to attempt a col used on the Tour du France, the Aspin. Did not start right from the valley but around six miles from the top. This is pretty steep all the way especially in the numerous hairpins and again I used 2nd and 3rd gear with maximum assist most of the way, surprised to see other ebikes on the way. I made it, pretty ‘wacked’ but the bike got me there, something I never dreamed I could do only few months ago after giving up my standard bike last year. Battery only just made it though, almost completely flat after six miles but fortunately all downhill on the way back. A few observations that may be of use to other novice riders. If you are going to tackle big climbs, certainly more than one take a spare battery. If anyone tells you cheap bike with a hub motor will not climb ignore them. The Woosh is a heavy old lump, cost less than £1000, and performed really well, unless you are a serious off roader I cannot see it is worth the average user spending much more than this. I do not see how a more expensive bike could have done any better. I understand you pay more money you get better components but do you really need them, not to climb hills that is for sure. Out of interest just after we entered the Pyrenes we encountered a bike race and stopped at the finish to watch. To my surprise ebikes came through the finish and I wandered across to speak to one of the officials. He told me they had a class for ebikes and tried to explain the rules but my French is not good enough to get them all so will not try to explain on here. The number of ebikes in France is astonishing and in places nearly equalled normal bikes with many being used on motorhomes as we did.

I am off to France on Saturday but on Thursday had a moment of panic when my front brake started juddering badly. On inspection I found the lower fixing bolt had gone missing, contacted Woosh and a new bolt plus the spacing washers, I forgot to ask for these, arrive this morning, Friday, by special delivery. Great after sales service.

I have a Bermuda and near me is a steep hill, about 1 in 5, it is short but with a bit of effort on my part the Bermuda goes up ok.

I have just purchased a Thule 916, takes two bikes up to 30kg each. Decathalon have them at a good price, £260 with postage.