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ow want to make sure that I buy the correct bike that has to be better than what i have got with my £1500 budget.

 

if you want speed, then crank motors or direct drive motors have the edge over hub motors. If you want speed and lightweight, then crank motors are best.

An 8-Fun BBS02 18A 500W will give you 120 RPM at the cranks, about 28mph. In view of the high mileage you do, I think a 750W direct drive kit is best for you.

Yes I definitely want to try and pedal beyond when the bike cuts off which does feel like cycling through water past 15.5 mph. I just feel that I could cycle a bit faster if the bike would let me which is frustrating when so many cyclists are overtaking me each morning. The bike does need to be solid as part of my route takes me off road along rough ground and comfort is also important as I quite like the seating position of the freego eagle but maybe that is also making me cycle a bit more leisurely. I have got used to the throttle which is useful when negotiating traffic through London.

 

appreciating all the suggestions here. It was an easy choice when I first purchased the bike as it was used so was a good price. Now want to make sure that I buy the correct bike that has to be better than what i have got with my £1500 budget.

 

A Kalkhoff Pro Connect 9 is a bit over your budget at £1600 or so but was available at ten percent off until two days ago. It wouldn’t surprise me if you got a similar discount if you mention that you are a member here. 5o Cycles is trying to move on the 2015 models because completely new ones are on the way.

 

Good one year old Kalkhoffs can be got for a thousand pounds or even less at times. You also get a lot of people with inflated ideas of s/h values too. The two year warranty is transferable as long as you have the original invoice which not many dealers allow. BTW a member here was selling a Sahel i360 at a good price in the classifieds a week or so ago. He might have changed his mind though but you could PM him.

John, do you have any info on the different Kalkhoffs for next year - is it the integrale or are there others?

No I don’t have any special info. But I assume from what Tim at 50 Cycles let drop here in a couple of posts that the whole range will be going that way. I might take longer than one year to change them all over though.

I notice that 50 cycles are still using the 2013 agattu, which is the model I have, for their front page image banner, which is a bit strange since the model has been discontinued for some time. It is probably their most attractive design to date, which might explain it, although the Integrale is growing on me.

Have been looking at the Oxygen Emate MTB and the Cyclotricity Revolver and also looking at the oxydrive conversion kit and bafang bbs01 as I have a mtb sitting in my garage spare. Price wise the conversion kit is looking ideal but would it be better to get the complete bikes instead. What would be the advantages of a kit vs the bike. Also of the two Oxygen vs Cyclotricity which is better?

A cheaper option if your donor bike is nice a conversion is worth considering , you will lose your front derailleur and chain rings if you fit the BBS or keep them using the Oxydrive. For on road the Oxydrive will be nice but if going offroad then the BBS is better in my opinion as I have both.

Regarding the other option then I think the Oxygen is a no brainer, the Bafang CST is awesome but it is ( 13ah version) twice the price of the revolver, hill climbing is excellent and is no slouch on the flat and a nice looking bike.The components are better with better front forks and nice hdb's. The revolver uses a direct drive hub which is good on the flat for speed but may lack the climbing ability.

Edited September 6, 201510 yr by Nealh

I was looking for the conversion as I tend to put my rucksack on the panier and have got quite use to the step through bike so when I look a the Oxygen I struggle to come off the bike when the rucksack is at the back. So I was looking to put the battery on the pannier rack and maybe fit to a step through bike. I also don't like the way my current bike which is a hub motor gives me all the power is one go. It is all or nothing and I prefer to be able to control how the speed is output. Do the newer hub motors do this?

No newer controllers don't do that. Chose a sine wave controller over a square wave one. Chose a LCD with seperate buttons which you can place near the gear shifter. Choose a PAS disk with at least 10 magnets in it.

 

I use the assitance level buttons like a gear change, examples:

 

You are in heavy traffic and first at lights put the bike in a higher gear and assitance level 5 and accelerate away at top speed.

 

You are in heavy traffic and behind lots of other bikes/cars whatever, bike in mid gear and assitance level 2 and pull away slower in full control of your speed.

 

I don't have a front derailleur mounted at the moment so I use all the 6 gears and assitance from 0 to 5 depending on slope or required speed. My 1st gear is a huge granny gear for getting up steep hills without the motor.

Just to make it clear, the controllers with LCDs control the power much better than those without. To get even better control, you need a controller that uses current control rather than speed control. Current control is sometimes referred to as "torque simulation". The Oxygen one in the kits and Emate MTB has three levels of current control as well as six levels of speed control.

 

If you don't mind doing a bit of wiring, you can change your present controller to a S06S or S06P (depending on whether your motor has hall sensors) and a LCD from BMSBattery. The cost is about £65, or you can get them from Panda bikes in the UK for about £100.

I have used mapmyride on some of my journeys and actually my average speed over the distance is actually much lower than I expected, around 12mph. I am also noticing my battery range depleting more and more so feel it is getting very close to needing a new bike. I had considered a kit but a bit worried about it being fiddly. Which bikes that would be good hill climbers and also have a throttle apart from Revolver and Emate. I also want to try and realistically reach 19-20mph if I could. I had tried the revolver but didn't find it comfortable.