E Bikes and Campers

[Deejossi]

Please remove if I’ve put this in the wrong place on the forum... still learning

I was wondering if any of you have e-bikes for exploring or just in general. I’m thinking of getting one when we pick up our camper next year and would really like to know people’s thoughts/experiences?

 

[spook]

Hi i have one its a e24 eco folding one type ,, got it for a trip to France this yr,, best thing ,,i took with me great fun

 

[Tombs]

Think I can help, owned and ran a shop selling e-bikes up until 2016.
Depending on your budget you'll need to decide between a crank or hub driven motor. Both can do the job of assisting you when you ride but a hub motor can feel like its doing all the work and tends to give you a pulling or pushing sensation depending which wheel the motor sits in. I found that most cyclists who buy an e-bike like the feel of a crank motor as it felt more natural when they pedaled and I personally preferred them over a hub. The range tends to be better on a crank too, all depends on the size of the battery but expect a minimum of 40 miles on a Bosch crank e-bike on medium to high settings. Hub e-bikes tend to be less expensive but I am noticing this year and next that some brands are tweaking their prices (KTM, Raleigh, Cube) to suit a smaller budget. I advise searching for a decent local bike shop that stocks a range (not just one or two) of e-bikes and try a few.
Things to look out for.
You'll want the battery and system that's 36v or over, 24v systems are gutless hill climbers in comparison and very old tech.
Decent Warranty, particularly on the battery, a minimum of 2 years at least. If they go wrong (and the Chinese batteries go wrong often) they can be very pricey to replace, on some models £300 and up!
A dealer that can fix it if things go wrong with the electrics, I was Bosch trained so I could deal with issues that arose with their systems. I had e-bike owners come into me with 3-month-old e-bikes that were broken bought over the internet and the seller was no longer in business or refused to help them. £600 to £1500 gone!
Any questions, just ask

 

[Deejossi]

Hi, thanks so much for replying.
I really appreciate your input.
I’ve narrowed it down to the Trek Neko + (which I loved riding) but I prefer the look of the Trek Powerfly and they both retail at a similar price point. I haven’t tried riding the Powerfly tho as they didn’t have one to try.
I’ve looked at Specialized, Cube and Hai bikes but have no clue really which are better/worse indifferent, over priced...
It’s all a bit too new

 

[Dogs Dung]

Hi i have one its a e24 eco folding one type ,, got it for a trip to France this yr,, best thing ,,i took with me great fun

View attachment 14476

Is that chateau de chateloupe?

 

[Tombs]

Hi, thanks so much for replying.
I really appreciate your input.
I’ve narrowed it down to the Trek Neko + (which I loved riding) but I prefer the look of the Trek Powerfly and they both retail at a similar price point. I haven’t tried riding the Powerfly tho as they didn’t have one to try.
I’ve looked at Specialized, Cube and Hai bikes but have no clue really which are better/worse indifferent, over priced...
It’s all a bit too new

As the price goes up it's the components that improve, brakes, gears, grips etc. The electrics pretty much stay the same, there are 4 or 5 versions of the Bosch engine, the torque and power output increases as you go up the range. I sold Haibike's, part of the Raleigh group, they're assembled in Germany, a good brand but aimed at the serious mountain biker who wants top componentry. Any of the brands you have mentioned are a worthy contender.

Both bikes (Trek Neko+ & Powerfly) are good bikes, slightly different as one is a mountain bike the other a hybrid, hybrid is a nice compromise if you plan to do a mixture of road and off-road. Shimano steps system is a good system, they were late to the ebike party (launched 2015), the Bosch system on the Powerfly (2017 model) is the top of the range and has more Torque, pretty nippy over the Shimano system, again its all subject to what you feel comfortable on. I personally would lean towards a Bosch but that that's me,

 

[Phil_G]

Mines a home-build, using a Chinese kit comprising front wheel & controller for £180.
I use R/C batteries, its a 5 amp hour, 10S lipo. Its great fun, in normal use you tend to
accelerate for a few seconds then freewheel for ages, so the battery can be made to last all day
if you're careful. The batteries are in the cross-bar bags and the bag across the bars holds the speed controller:



The Chinese wheel has been perfectly reliable in 3 years of heavy use (touches wood)
If you already have a favourite bike, a conversion is a cheap and easy option.
Cheers
Phil

 

[former member]

Mines a home-build, using a Chinese kit comprising front wheel & controller for £180.
I use R/C batteries, its a 5 amp hour, 10S lipo. Its great fun, in normal use you tend to
accelerate for a few seconds then freewheel for ages, so the battery can be made to last all day
if you're careful. The batteries are in the cross-bar bags and the bag across the bars holds the speed controller:

View attachment 15980

The Chinese wheel has been perfectly reliable in 3 years of heavy use (touches wood)
If you already have a favourite bike, a conversion is a cheap and easy option.
Cheers
Phil

That is awesome; nice one!

I’m a little way off needing electric assistance but it’ll happen one day...

 

[andys]

Mines a home-build, using a Chinese kit comprising front wheel & controller for £180.
I use R/C batteries, its a 5 amp hour, 10S lipo. Its great fun, in normal use you tend to
accelerate for a few seconds then freewheel for ages, so the battery can be made to last all day
if you're careful. The batteries are in the cross-bar bags and the bag across the bars holds the speed controller:

View attachment 15980

The Chinese wheel has been perfectly reliable in 3 years of heavy use (touches wood)
If you already have a favourite bike, a conversion is a cheap and easy option.
Cheers
Phil

Resurrecting a year old thread @Phil_G , I’m getting keener on doing this and was wondering if you’re still happy with this and whether you have any words of wisdom for someone looking to get one of these kits? Also, what’s the charging like? Does it take long ? Can you do it in the van?

I’ve got a cheap mountain bike but I’m not looking to do mountain biking, no gnarly downhill riding, nothing competitive, definitely no road riding unless it’s to get to a trail. I just want to do trails, bridleways and empty farm tracks, all of which there are plenty of round here. Before I get accused of being an old lady, I’m 55 with patched together arms following a nasty off road motorbike fall and I (with threats from family) dont want to go through another injury and recuperation so I’m looking for a gentler way of getting around but with a lot less pedalling. I’ve had to move the front brake to the left side in a dual setup as I don’t have enough strength in my right hand to pull the lever hard enough, but other than that the bike is standard. I watch Andy Kirby’s YouTube channel and I love his bike but I’m not ready for that serious level of investment yet.

Edit: I would also struggle to use a motorbike style twist grip throttle for any length of time too if that would affect how it is setup

 

[Phil_G]

Hi Andy, yes I use the bike every day to the corner shop, but charging isnt really plug-&-play like a commercial ebike, I'm an R/C flyer so I'm used to charging lipos safely, the batteries are removed from the bike and charged outside in case of fire just the same as I do with my model flying batteries.
In use its a 10S 5Ah but actually two fives in series, for charging I parallel them to a 10Ah 5S and balance-charge at 5A ( 0.5c) so it takes 2 hours.
Twist-grips have been outlawed since I built the bike, it has to be pedal switched now.
As a project, its in two parts. The bike bit is easy, fitting the motor etc, but the battery side you do have to know what you're doing, lipos can very quickly become incendiaries. Most commercial ebikes use LiFePo4's which are much safer. I have an alternative LiFePo4 pack but its 12S to make up for the lower cell voltage. If you're not comfortable with the battery side (and it can be scary) I'd go for a commercial ebike.
The CCC mag has a few reviews this month and most of the MTB mags are doing ebike reviews now.
Cheers
Phil

 

[andys]

Thanks Phil, sounds like there’s a fair bit more to it than I thought, I’ll do some more reading. I always forget I’m in the CCC, I’ll have to download the mag and have a read through. Cheers

 

[Phil_G]

I was looking at Roo Dog bikes at Towsure, they seem reasonable value.

 

[Gazzarn]

Thanks Phil, sounds like there’s a fair bit more to it than I thought, I’ll do some more reading. I always forget I’m in the CCC, I’ll have to download the mag and have a read through. Cheers

Hi Andy just reading this thread as I’m a keen cyclist now converted to e cycles. I’ve been riding road and mountain bikes for 15years but have recently bought my first e-bike after having a blast on my mates Haibike Sduro full 7 e-bike. What can I say what a machine so comfortable to ride for 4 hours!
I ended up buying a Haibike Sduro hardseven 1.0 and done 100s of miles in my first few weeks of ownership- can easily do 40 miles on a charge.
Anyway that’s just been nicked out if my garage so I’ve ordered the new 2019 specialised turbo Levo FSR which I’ll get in Feb-March time but reviews are outstanding for it so can’t wait.
Advice would be deffo go for the crank motor shimano steps, Bosch, Yamaha or Brose motors all very good you won’t be disappointed. Get yourself along to Evans cycles and you can take them out for a blast free of charge get some photos up if you get one and good luck

 

[andys]

Hi Andy just reading this thread as I’m a keen cyclist now converted to e cycles. I’ve been riding road and mountain bikes for 15years but have recently bought my first e-bike after having a blast on my mates Haibike Sduro full 7 e-bike. What can I say what a machine so comfortable to ride for 4 hours!
I ended up buying a Haibike Sduro hardseven 1.0 and done 100s of miles in my first few weeks of ownership- can easily do 40 miles on a charge.
Anyway that’s just been nicked out if my garage so I’ve ordered the new 2019 specialised turbo Levo FSR which I’ll get in Feb-March time but reviews are outstanding for it so can’t wait.
Advice would be deffo go for the crank motor shimano steps, Bosch, Yamaha or Brose motors all very good you won’t be disappointed. Get yourself along to Evans cycles and you can take them out for a blast free of charge get some photos up if you get one and good luck

Thanks @Gazzarn I've read through some reviews of the bikes you and Phil mentioned and I am getting more keen on the idea. I like your suggestion of going to Evans and trying some, daft as it sounds it never even occurred to me that ordinary bike shops would sell them!

However, I started off looking at a cheap stick on motor that I could add on to my own bike, once it gets to spending £1500-2000 or more, then it becomes a serious purchase and has to take its place in the queue with several other things that or on my wish list so I'm not sure how far I'll go with it now. Also I must admit that having watched videos of much more powerful e bikes, I sneakily thought I might be able to have the odd dirt bike style blast without my daughter being any the wiser, but if they're restricted to 250W motors now then I guess I'd probably be a bit disappointed there.

Anyway thanks for the advice, it'll be another thing I'm mulling over when I should be working

 

[Gazzarn]

Thanks @Gazzarn I've read through some reviews of the bikes you and Phil mentioned and I am getting more keen on the idea. I like your suggestion of going to Evans and trying some, daft as it sounds it never even occurred to me that ordinary bike shops would sell them!

However, I started off looking at a cheap stick on motor that I could add on to my own bike, once it gets to spending £1500-2000 or more, then it becomes a serious purchase and has to take its place in the queue with several other things that or on my wish list so I'm not sure how far I'll go with it now. Also I must admit that having watched videos of much more powerful e bikes, I sneakily thought I might be able to have the odd dirt bike style blast without my daughter being any the wiser, but if they're restricted to 250W motors now then I guess I'd probably be a bit disappointed there.

Anyway thanks for the advice, it'll be another thing I'm mulling over when I should be working

Andy, once you have a blast on a few you’ll be hooked but like you say they arnt cheap! I bought Haibike off gumtree for a grand which was a very good bargain. Look about and you’ll get a decent second hand one for a fraction of the price good luck

 

[Martinf]

I’ll do some more reading...

Have a look at the information on the ‘a to b magazine’ website. Comprehensive information from a resource that isn’t trying to satisfy any manufacturer

Electric Bicycle Zone | A to B Magazine

 

[andys]

Right this a real newb type of question but how do you tackle rough ground on a hard tail mtb? On an off-road motorbike I would obviously spend most of the time standing up on rough ground, on my (cheap and nasty £99) pedal mtb I have front and rear suspension, but the ebikes I’m looking at are hardtails and obviously the only time you get assist is when pedalling. Do you stand up to pedal all the time? Do you sit down and if so does your coccyx take a beating? Are there sprung seats to help?
Told you it was a newb question

 

[Gazzarn]

Some good comparisons on this clip @andys

 

[andys]

Well that escalated quickly. From considering spending £150 and being unable to comprehend spending more than £500 on a pedal bike I've done some umming and ahhing, some sitting on bikes, some trying out, getting addicted - and get my first proper bike in my life next Tues - Haibike Sduro Fullseven LT 4.0
Bizzarely I'm as excited as getting my van...

Thanks @Phil_G , @Gazzarn , @Martinf , for blowing my budget completely out of the f%&*king water

 

[Peatey]

Well that escalated quickly. From considering spending £150 and being unable to comprehend spending more than £500 on a pedal bike I've done some umming and ahhing, some sitting on bikes, some trying out, getting addicted - and get my first proper bike in my life next Tues - Haibike Sduro Fullseven LT 4.0
Bizzarely I'm as excited as getting my van...

Thanks @Phil_G , @Gazzarn , @Martinf , for blowing my budget completely out of the f%&*king water

Im glad to see someone else has no will power just like me