RobF

Your weight won't be a problem for a good quality bike, although I would avoid a rear hub motor. Plenty to chose from at your budget or very close to it. This Cube is one, but if you look elsewhere on the Tredz site there are others. Do you know where you can use your voucher? Some seem to be restricted to certain retailers. There's a lot to be said for buying from a local bike shop. If they don't do Cube, they should be able to sort you out with another decent quality bike with the Bosch, Yamaha, or Shimano crank motor. https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Cube-Touring-Hybrid-One-400-Easy-Entry-Womens-2020-Electric-Hybrid-Bike_218691.htm

Kalkhoff is a well established good quality German brand. There were lots of problems with their Impulse ebike motor. But the bike you are thinking of has a Bosch motor. Nothing to suggest it will be anything other than at least as good as any other Bosch powered ebike.

To be fair, the Tern is a semi-folder inasmuch as the handlebar stem flops down onto the crossbar to make a slightly more compact package. My AVE MH7 is a similar design, 20" wheels, balloon tyres, and a stem that folds. Makes it a bit easier to lift into the back of my hatchback, but it still weighs plenty.

Thirty miles round trip is a long way for a daily commute. An hour plus each way on the bike would be too much for me on top of a day's graft. You may be made of sterner stuff. Both bikes have the same motor, but the Supercharger with its bigger wheels would handle the job better. The Tern is not a folder, it's a rigid frame 20" wheel cargo bike, so will certainly be sturdy enough for the job. But you will find it's slower than a big wheel bike.

I wonder if it would locate as well, particularly from side to side, on a non-R&K rack. Having said that, my bag from Evans is located by velcro straps. Been on the bike three years and hasn't fallen off yet.

It uses Rixen and Kaul's Klickfix system so you would need a Rixen and Kaul rack. Riese and Muller ebikes, and some others, fit them as standard. The rack has a plastic slot about half way along which the red plastic fitting in the OP's pic slides into.

Schwalbe Big Ben Plus is a good semi-slick replacement for an MTB tyre because it has a similar, podgy profile. https://www.schwalbe.com/en/tour-reader/big-ben-plus

Perhaps it doesn't matter, but that seems odd to me. There was no retail option of the second tray and wiring, but no battery. Seems more likely the dealer flogged the second battery separately. Changing the oil is fiddly but doable. The twist shifter gear change on Rohloff is a bit clunky and needs a relatively firm hand. Electric shifting would sort that. There is a small amount of drag on the hub, not so important on an ebike, but the derailer version would be more free running. On the plus side, the evenly spaced gears are a joy to use after Shimano hubs which all have uneven gaps. Rohloff indexing is internal, which means it is always correct, unlike Shimano hubs which need occasional tinkering with cable tension. The Rohloff is also famously robust and reliable.

The mileage is recorded in the motor/controller. If you fit a new Intuvia it will read the existing mileage on the bike. What do you mean by a spare battery bay? The twin battery system includes extra wiring in the loom and software which sips from each battery alternately. If this bike is a genuine factory twin battery bike which is simply being sold with one battery, all should be well. Although I would rather test the bike with two batteries in place before parting with any money.

It's a relatively free market. I have bought from Rose in the past. Their slogan 'bike assembly in Germany' is accurate, and I see you use something similar. But let's not kid ourselves, every bike sold by the likes of Rose and woosh is a bike sale lost to a local bike shop.

Says a direct seller whose business model is to bypass dealers. Nothing wrong with that, but you are in a glass house when it comes to throwing stones at the conduct of a retail customer. Give the OP a break.

Too many variables to give anything other than general advice. I have the same CX motor and there's no doubt it uses more power than other Bosch motors I have. About 30 miles from a 400wh battery is all you might get. The Active Line Plus will be more economical, but by how much is hard to say. What you really need is a bike with the 500wh battery which would reach the lower end of your target range, and might get closer to the top end.

I've only seen the Ideal World bikes once a few years ago, but that £1,300 eLife sounds close to taking the mick. There are woosh bikes which would slaughter it in terms of price and performance. At the bottom end of the market, the cheaper Halfords bikes looked surprisingly decent to me.

Again as I posted previously, dealer margins on ebikes are generally lower than on pushbikes. Having said that, my local bike shop has just been promoted to 35 percent on Haibikes because they've sold a few. They get more than that on Cannondale pushbikes, partly because they've stuck with the brand through thick and thin over many years.

As I said, twenty quid: https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/sram-gx-eagle-12-speed-chain-637106

That's why you buy a bike with a sensible spec. Or not, as the case may be.

I cannot agree about chain wear, in any event, how long is a chain supposed to last? More than 4,500 miles on my Charger and counting. Even if the chain needed replacing now, so what? About £20 for a reasonable one, less if you trawl about for an offer. Consumable item, not worth worrying about.

I did advise the OP to 'leave some meat on the bone'. Exact dealer margin is the unknown quantity, it could be 35 or 40%. Nor does the dealer require pity, he will be perfectly capable of looking after himself. It's only buying a bike, ask for £200 off, get offered £100 off - or whatever - job done.

Can't recall, but all the chains were successfully rejoined so the failure cannot have been catastrophic.

Asking for £200 off and being prepared to settle for £150 is a reasonable strategy.

I've known of a chain snapping three times. When I was resting at the top of Ditchling Beacon, a roadie pushed up the last few yards after snapping his chain. He was able to rejoin it using my chain breaker. A lady rider in my cycling group snapped her chain riding across a car park. The third was a pal of mine whose chain snapped on flat a flat road on the Isle of Wight. That was another rejoined with my chain breaker. Seems to me there's very little connection to strain. Two of the three instances in my sample happened under next to no load.

Motor replacement cost is a fair point. I've not worn out a Bosch motor yet, although I've only done 5,000 miles on one before I sold it. The Charger has done about the same. Croxden's Delite has done nearly three times that. Third party service of Bosch motors in now available at a reasonable price. But if it's new motor time, the hub will be cheaper.

As regards how much discount you can reasonably expect, margins on ebikes tend to be smaller than on pushbikes. The bike shop may have about £300 in a £1,100 bike. You sound like a reasonable buyer, so will accept you need, to use an American phrase, to leave a little meat on the bone for the retailer. What they are prepared to accept is up to them, but I doubt they will want to sell the bike for less than £150 gross profit. I reckon a £150 discount for cash would be fair to both parties.

I can't see there being a lot of difference between hub and crank as regards motor maintenance. Both require very little. I submerged the Bosch motor on my Rose bike in a ford that turned out to be bit deeper than it looked. I was expecting to be riding unpowered to the bed and breakfast we were heading for. Bless it, it survived unscathed. Bosch describe the system as 'splash proof', a definition I comfortably exceeded. I've ridden all of my Bosch bikes in heavy rain on the road and on cycle tracks, so they would stand up to a year round commute. Only snag I've had is condensation in the display when I had to leave the bike out in heavy rain.

You need to use the phrase 'I will give' and stick to it. Trying to bargain without placing an order is waste of time for both parties. In other words, pick a deal/discount and make it clear to shop you will buy the bike if they agree. Waving the cash in front of the salesman's nose at this point - literally smell the money - was the old fashioned way of doing it. I have pulled out my debit card and placed it on the salesman's desk to reinforce the point of me being a serious buyer.