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I was looking earlier this year to add to my stable of e bikes that I retail. having sold quite a few hundred ebikes I didn't want to get my fingers burnt, and have customers complaining about unreliable bikes. Back-up from the supplier was important, and feedback off forums like this one. I chose the Wisper because they still have a throttle which many of my customers like, and the Raleigh Dover, which although it has not got a throttle the system is so good I do not think it needs one. Obviously Kalkhoff is similar to Raleigh but so far with more models. The important thing is a good dealer near you, because like has been said on here, even new cars still go wrong sometimes. I am not saying these are the only top bikes, but just wanted to add my thoughts on the matter. Most of my customers will not even mend a simple puncture, they just want good reliable transport. Good luck with the search, but I can imagine you are far more confused than when you started, it is a mini minefield out there.

As a retailer I am stuck in between the suppliers and the customers of electric bikes, so get proper feedback on the shop floor. I have sold nearly 400 electric bikes. I decided to get into them early as I could see great potential, and a good niche market for my shop, as our competitors had the high end cycle market well covered. I would say 50% of my customers were virtually non cyclists before they got an electric bike, i.e. lost their driving licence, told to get exercise by the doctor, and some that just found riding in the wind and up hill to much hard work. The remainder are made up of different types, office workers not wanting to arrive all sweaty at work, couples that enjoy a trip to the local a few miles away that did not want to risk being caught being drunk in charge. There are also regular cyclists that would like a light weight electric bike with a small amount of assistance. So how can I sell more bikes and make them more popular, my target market is different to most, as my shop is on an island with 60,000 people. Most of my new customers, usually know someone else with and electric bike and that is why they have come to us. I feel the main way I can increase use of electric bikes is to offer a product which in the first instance must be more reliable, which is why I have taken on two up market brands of late. Price is a factor, most of our early bikes were £450 to £600 but gave some headaches, and customers are soon to spread the word if you have an unreliable product on a small island. They quibbled at having to pay around £1000 to £1500 for a new upgraded bike, until they rode one. The biggest damage to the electric bike industry has been done by cheap poorly built bikes sold on-line, and no matter what is said on here by enthusiast which is what many users are on this forum are, electric bikes are not always that simple to fix by a normal cycle mechanic, so if the bike gets a fault it is difficult to get repaired and the customer will never by another one. The other problem was that there were many companies suppling bikes to cycles shops, we trusted them that they would supply a reliable product, as in the early days we were all a little green about electric bikes in more ways than one. I eventually stopped dealing with these suppliers who even had a job supplying new batteries, let alone parts and helping with fault finding. I saw a few bike shops give up on electric bikes due to early problems like this. So yes I feel the market will naturally increase, but some damage has been done, and many of the suppliers using this forum are addressing that by the great back-up they now offer to direct customers, and cycle shop owners. Demo days are a great idea, and a dedicated mag would be wonderful. The latest range of £2000 plus electric bikes, will help the image of the industry, but not sell in great numbers, after all most people hanker after a Ferrari but drive a Ford. That is not to say that one will not find its way into my shop in the future though.

No problem Orraman. I do see the point of it, with a mixed forum like this, I do tend to use the forum to gain great advise. If we all work together, it is all for the good of promoting the use of electric bikes. Keep up the great work.

Have added my status as a cycle shop owner to comply with the terms of this site.

Wow I didn't realise I had such talented customers. I am so glad you love the bike, we were very impressed when we first saw them, especially after selling cheaper electric bikes for so many years. They are so reliable and well built. It just goes to show that it is so true, that you only get what you pay for in life. I think the happiest person is my mechanic though, lol.

I hope you are happy with your Raleigh Ebike.

I actually spend most of my time in Brittany, although I do own a cycle shop in the UK. There are always electric bikes for sale in some supermarkets, and the post office now have custom built electric bikes for deliveries. So they are slowly creeping in. The overheads when running a business here is quite exspensive, If it wasnt I might concider opening an electric bike shop. Mind you my French would have to improve.

if sports HQ are the sole inporters, I am sure they set their own RRP which could be inflated to make the bike look a bigger bargain when it is discounted, I mean have you evet seen a sette suite for sale at less than half the RRP! saying that it looks a good buy at that price, as a second back up bike Zombie. I wish I had a 40% Margin on the electric that I retail.

It probably closed because people went to Halfords for cheaper parts! You cant always compete with a multi national for its buying power.

I do not think better brake pads will make a big difference, but sometimes cheap outer brake cables tend to crimp slightly under pressure. So better quality outer brake cables might help, especially on the back brake. of course better levers will help as well, but you would lose the cut out. You could also try having a little play on the cable. Obviously these bikes are sold at a price point, more expensive bikes have better cables etc. Although many people on here might not agree, I do think the powacycle is not a bad bike for the price. I have sold plenty of them and to be honest they have given me a lot less problems than similar products in that price range.

For one, you do not have to click on the links, secondly I do not think that many people do. You also neew hundreds of thousands of clicks to make any real money. But whatever they do make, good luck to them, for all the wealth of free information that you get on here, and yet you still complain. Its seems to me that kettle, black! comes to mind , you do not mind all the free infomation that is availible all over the web, as long as someone else pays to put it there. A little give and take and everyone gains. I just wonder how long the economy would really last, if eveyone expecte d noone to make a profit.

Try finding a fault on some cheap ebike bought off the INTERNET. Could take you two hours and still no joy, so you ask the customer for £50 for your time, but the bike is still not working. If you do get it going after finding some poorly soldered wire, after dismantling half the bike, for sure as eggs are eggs that he will be back the following week telling you his bike has broken down again and he has already paid you £50 to fix it last week so sort it. Which is why I carefully choose the electric bikes I sell and repair. Yes we have some repairs that cost us a lot more in time than we charge the customer for, but that is par for the course, you win a few you lose a few. With overheads being as they are, you cannot affort to waste time sorting out problems for internet suppliers. Once you lay a finger on someones bike it them all of a sudden becomes your responsibility, the same goes for cheap bikes in a box sold on the internet for £75, sometimes even we cannot get the gears working without new parts. Ok a chain and a punture seems simple enough and sorry for the rant, but you have to look at both sides of the coin.

Flec I was just comparing the Raleigh Dover at £1799 to the Kalhoff pro connect at £1750. The Raleigh has suspension forks and seat post, and the rest of the spec seems similar, so it seems it is slightly better value than the Kalhoff, or at least equal. Or am I missing something.

I got this reply from Scott UK ; That is correct we will not be selling the E Bikes this season. They will only be sold in Germany and a few other European countries.

I did read somewhere that they were only going to supply Europe and not the UK though.

Am I a Businessman ? Yes I do in fact own a cycle shop, and I have seen only two of my customers on here and as I am based in the Channel Islands I am hardly here to promote my shop as we do not, or ever would sell electric bikes on line. One thing that I have learnt in business, is that customers need back up, and you cannot just walk in to any cycle shop and expect them to repair your electric bike, so aftersales is a very important part of my business. I use this forum to keep up with the latest updates and to gain as much information as I can to help with electric bike repairs, because the product user is the best feedback that you can get. I chose two extra suppliers that use this forum simply because they did, and were not afraid to face the public, I take my hat off to them. Some suppliers choose not to come on this forum and one of them for sure has a similar attitude when it comes to aftersales, they seem to be invisible. Yes I do want to make a profit, it is not a dirty word, but I have about six electric bikes in my store that I took back from customers because I realised they were not up to the job. If I had been using this forum before I imported the bikes, I wouldn't have bothered dealing with them. These bikes will be used as spares to minimise my losses on them, but my customers are now very happy with the different makes that I ended up supplying them with. I have sold nearly 400 electric bikes, so if I lose on a few, that's part of life being in business, and sometimes you cannot always charge the customer for repair time when trying to find some tiny electrical fault. So again, that is par for the course. I feel my customers gain from me using this forum, so please do not even think of banning 'Businessmen'!

There was also the basic version, not the LPX model.

Can anyone recommend a good solar charger for electric bikes.

There are two versions, the LPX has the lighter better battery. I have sold about 60 of these with not to many problems, had the odd control box fault.

I own a bike shop and have fitted a few kits to customers bikes. Basically unless you are quite handy with spanner I would try to buy an electric bike off the shelf. One problem we had was the size of the battery we could fit, so they had a poor range, and the customer kept coming back complaining. Secondly some kits will not fit on some bikes without a lot of modification, and you will not know that till the kit arrives, and you have wasted some money already. Also your bike looks like a low priced full suspension bike, the worst sort of bike to try to fit one too. It is not up to the job, with the cheapest of components on it. I really do not want to put a downer on your project, and I am not trying to sell you a bike , because I am sure I am not in your area. I just wanted to warn you about what you could be getting into. Many people on here have fitted kits, so it is not out of he question, but just think twice, before you part with your cash.

As a retailer, we do not discount electric bikes from their RRP. The reason being is that this is not a stack 'em high , sell 'em cheap product. We started with the low end bikes, and that was a massive learning curve in fact, I still have bikes in my store room that I will not sell to customers, after realising that they were not up to the job, and all we would get is complaints and a bad reputation. So we stuck with the best low end bikes and sometimes we spend hours and hours finding a fault, which we do not charge the customer for. However, we do have to make a profit, so that is what the normal mark up is for, to cover the good and the bad. When you have to face your customers daily and want to continue in business, service is king, so that's what we try our very best to do. We have recently taken on two high end brands, which will mean less headaches and probably more profit, which means we can offer our customers an even better choice of bikes and carry a better stock of parts. Customers are king in this competetive world, but they can't have it both ways!

The cruise has no gears, which will make you use the motor more, and it has a low enough range as it is. The Trails is OK, quite a reliable bike, but dont expect the batteries to last too long, being only 24 volts.

A few months ago I posted on here about which higher end bikes to stock for my shop on in the channel islands, and I recieved some really good feed back. I ended up having a visit from Lloyd with a demo model of the brilliant new Raleigh Dover, which we have been appointed sole dealer for. Yesterday we recieved our first Wispers and were equally impressed. Having sold nearly 400 electric bikes, mainly Powabyke and Powacycle, we have had a good learning curve, and many satisfied customers, but it was time to offer a little bit of cream with the dessert. Once again thanks for all the advice.

I have just had this sent in an email! Any truth in it.

Thanks for all the input, I Had decided to add Wisper to my range of electric bike to give my customers a choice of an upmarket bike. My decision was based on the excellent after sales that wisper seems to offer, which is important for us as dealers. Saying that having personally met Frank from powabyke, and sunk a few beers with him after a cycle show, I can say he is one of the nicest guys in the trade. I wish him well with his new bosses, and hope to do even more business with him in the future, no powabyke seem to be on an even keel again.