Hi All, I’m looking to buy an e-bike to commute with this month, my journey will be 8 miles round trip, 5 days a week on a combination of city roads and cycle tracks. Mostly flat, just one short hill on route. I am male, 5 ft 10 and 13st 4lbs. I’m 53, and at the lower end of the fitness scale. My budget is £1200. thanks in advance for any options you can recommend I look at.

https://wooshbikes.co.uk/?faro

 

Quite a light bike, thoughtful commuter friendly spec with good customer service / support

 

https://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/woosh-faro-review.37721/

 

For riders < 100kg

Edited May 10, 2025May 10 by Peter.Bridge

Hi All, I’m looking to buy an e-bike to commute with this month, my journey will be 8 miles round trip, 5 days a week on a combination of city roads and cycle tracks. Mostly flat, just one short hill on route. I am male, 5 ft 10 and 13st 4lbs. I’m 53, and at the lower end of the fitness scale. My budget is £1200. thanks in advance for any options you can recommend I look at.

For that sort of riding, you don't need anything special. If you don't know how to fix stuff and do basic bike maintenance, you'd be better off buying from a local dealer or a reputable mail order ebike supplier, otherwise the cheap Amazon and Ebay bikes are perfectly adequate.

 

The most important thing is that you buy an ebike that has standard electrical stuff - no special in-frame batteries, phone apps or weird and unique features, otherwise your bike will metamorphose into a garden trellis after some time.

If an off the shelf solution is required Woosh and Wisper are well regarded, too many other brands employ sharp tactics as outlined above custom shaped batteries to fit into the frame at a 2-3x premium cost for replacements, or safety precautions employing battery coms which will brick your battery at the drop of a hat and stop you using a quality generic replacement as it cant talk to the rest of the bike.

 

If at all diy inclined? The best vfm however is a conversion of a good quality donor bike. a 2nd use bargain from ebay with all the bells n whistles and a £350 (cheaper than when i bought mine) conversion kit and a morning tinkering should see you right

Here's my best value for money choice. It has a 48v battery, so 30% more power than the 36v ones for easy hill-climing and lazy commuting (don't forget to click 48v version as 36v has 24" wheels). It has all standard well-proven and reliable Chinese parts so easy to replace or upgrade anything you want. Most of the reviews are good, and the bad ones are clearly from people, who don't have a clue about bikes, which just goes to show that if you know nothing at all about bikes and your totally ham-fisted, it's best to stay away from on-line suppliers.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/VARUN-Electric-Removable-Battery-Mountain/dp/B0CVVXRKZJ/ref=sr_1_34_sspa?crid=2IS4HTXWREGB1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.x5moppWtnpsrs8bLm8psN7MPJr_Z2utulQY8b97YovbGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.1COsOllT65-sBnNB-yriKx_S5DGEeua35RrEhhQPQAs&dib_tag=se&keywords=electric%2Bbike&qid=1746886303&refinements=p_36%3A-50000&rnid=389114011&sprefix=electric%2Bbike%2Caps%2C85&sr=8-34-spons&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.d7e5a2de-8759-4da3-993c-d11b6e3d217f&xpid=kAi0B29RUr9NI&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGZfbmV4dA&th=1&psc=1

Edited May 10, 2025May 10 by saneagle

if you know nothing at all about bikes and your totally ham-fisted, it's best to stay away from on-line suppliers.

 

That said, never to old to learn the basics. Most of it can be learned by watching a few YT vids and trial and error.

Fiddle+fettle will teach you pretty much as much as you need to know

That said, never to old to learn the basics. Most of it can be learned by watching a few YT vids and trial and error.

Fiddle+fettle will teach you pretty much as much as you need to know

That's what I'd have thought, but the evidence indicates that some people just aren't up to it. If you read the reviews on Amazon, you'll see that some said they couldn't figure out how to clamp the seat or handlebars so that they wouldn't turn by themselves, even though there's an explicit video instruction on how to assemple the bike. We can learn from watching videos, but some people don't get it. The problem is that they have no frame of reference, so they don't really get what they're being told or what's important.

some people just aren't up to it.

Like my ex son-in-law who installed a lampshade up side down, bulb hanging down in fresh air and the shade pointing upwards. How many lamp shades had he seen in his life time and still couldn't figure it out.

These look ok with hydraulic suspension and hydraulic disc brakes and 540wh battery

 

https://www.infinityebikes.co.uk/product/eleglide-m2/