eBikes

[johnsue]

We are in the process of looking at these bikes to purchase for ourselves & in particular the ebike by Raleigh model Dover deluxe premium, which was advertised in the MMM June edition. Could anyone give advice or recommendation please on ebikes. We live in Gloucester so would be looking for a local supplier if possible.

We are motor homers & are looking to upgrade from traditional cycles to a good quality ebike, which will give opportunity to enjoy usage when the terrain & weather conditions are more challenging.

 

:-)

[Brian Kirby]

Not specific to the bikes that interest you, but if you carry them on a rack on the rear wall of your van, do check the weight of the bikes (which can be quite high even with the batteries removed) the load capacity of your bike rack, and that it is securely fixed.

I would also suggest you consider security of bikes carried this way.  Bike racks offer little actual security: they are made of light gauge aluminium that is easily cut with a hacksaw or pipe cutter, and many require only two bolts removed to release the whole rack complete with bikes.  Only a few minutes, very quiet, work and £1,500 worth of bikes suddenly have new owners.

[bertieburstner]

the Raleigh bikes are £1,700 each! (lol)

[enodreven]

Hi,

 

Staying on the subject of security of bikes, how do people get on with high value bikes when using them to visit places, any tips on security would be very helpful.

[bigmoney2]

This is a good site for e-bike info.

 

http://www.atob.org.uk/Electric_Buyers'_Guide.html

 

The Dover sound good.

We bought Kalkhoff Agutti's last year. Not cheap but we tried them out at Loughboro, then tried a Giant at Rutland water and there was no contest comfort wise, would recommend suspension models.

Others we ruled out as the power was on all the time, we can turn it on/off on the handle bars, which is becoming the norm now I think.

Saw a nice loking bike in Halfords recently which was about half the price of ours, it looked like the battery control was on the handle bars, so may be worth a look.

 

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/categorydisplay_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_categoryId_211566_langId_-1

 

One drawback was that I couldn't add mine to my house insurance, and independant insurance is expensive.

 

As already mentioned they are quite heavy and we bought a tow bar mounted rack from Thule designed for electric bikes, then had to have tow bar fitted to the van, which all added to the expense.

But we are very pleased with them.

 

Jules

 

 

[flicka]

Hi John & Sue

There is a previous thread that discusses the Raleigh & other models, that should be of interest to you.

 

http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=20113&posts=27

[vicwo]

I helped a young woman last year who was on the same site. I spotted her some 8 km away with a flat battery. she suffers MS so she was in a pickle i cycled back and returned with my Smart car that has a bike rack.

This year i was on the Scarbrough to Whitby trail and a ladys bike had wiring problems. the bike was far too heavy to pedal.

Last year i paid out £1400 for a Wisper bike only a week before going away. I decided to leave it at home and took my trusted mountain bike for reliability. I returned from France and went out on the Wisper. It had done 15 miles from new and it stopped with a wiring problem. so if that had been day one on my hols what about the next 4 weeks. I am a keen cyclist and go out most days and my wisper will be used in the UK only. At least i can fix a mountain bike myself.

 

Regards Vic

 

 

[Jasper]

We've got 2 esee liv plus bikes. Done many many miles on them with no problems at all. They are brilliant. Generally do about 25 - 30 miles on a battery charge and that is often pulling a dog trailer and with a dog basket on the back rack. They are not too heavy for the cycle rack especially when the batteries are removed. We love cycling but due to a rapidly failing body we would not be able to get out without the aid of the motors! Go to pedelecs.co.uk forum for advice on ebikes. They were brilliant in helping me decide on which bikes to get.

 

 

[Jasper]

PS we use an alarm lock (amongst other high security locks) when leaving the bikes. We know this to be reasonably effective because we forgot to remove it once when driving off!!

[johnsue]

Thanks all for your info.

Brian, you mentioned security - for our motor home we have the Thatcher strikeback 700 which also includes additional 'wailer' wrap around cable for the bike rack, which hopefully when or if set off will deter ,we would also look to purchase an alarm lock as mentioned by Jasper when away from the motor home.

The model bike rack we have the Flamma pro c carries a max 60kg which will cover the 23kg x2 bikes.

Flicka, thanks for the previous thread which was very useful & bigmoney2 for the website on the e buyers guide very informative.

We will now look at the Kalkhoff in addition to the Raleigh. Appreciate these 2 are expensive but we do enjoy our cycling but being in our 60s do get caught out both in UK & Spain on hilly terrain sometimes.

If anybody has actually got the Raleigh dover would be interested in your comments as appreciate model only came out this year.

[neil malcolmson]

I am also thinking about an ebike.

 

Your thoughts on this please people.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-EVEREST-ALUMINIUM-ELECTRIC-BIKE-BICYCLE-E-BIKE-/230476125678?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item35a97295ee

 

I am 18 stone and would not do more than about 6 miles

would this be up to the job or would I be wasting my money ?

 

Thanks Neil

[Mel B]

Before buying any bikes you need to check what has already been mentioned above, but also:

 

Insurance: Would they be covered by your home and/or van insurance for their full value? Most policies have a maximum limit per item and an overall limit. If they would be covered, what restrictions would be placed on them? Eg do they have to be locked to something immovable (a motorhome might not qualify!).

 

Charging: How are you going to charge them when they need it? If you use sites and have electric hook up that's not a problem, but it you rarely use sites you need to think about ways to charged them via your van's systems - it can be done, but may incur extra expense for inverter, extra leisure batteries etc, to be able to do this.

 

Pedalling: As has been said, some are not at all easy to pedal without power assistance as they can be quite heavy ... would you be able to do this if they ran out of juice/went wrong? A lot of people try these bikes using the power, but I see very few who try them just pedalling as a normal bike with no 'power assistance' at all.

 

:-S

[johnsue]

Thanks Mel 3 good points. At moment we are just doing research before visiting specialist e bike shops we will then trial first.

On insurance we are just about to renew the van insurance at end of october, currently with Comfort,so will look in to that. Anybody out there who has expensive bikes, appreciate recommendation.

Should be ok on the charging side as we have a Sterling pro combi 2500w inverter & Sterling battery to battery charger with a Nasa Marine power management monitor.

What we hadn't considered, never having ridden electric bike was how they perform using as traditional cycle, which is what we use at the moment. Did expect it to be heavier but would still hope to use as traditional cycle for the exercise. Guess we'll find out when we actually visit retailers & try out.

Thanks again everybody for your threads.

John & Sue :-D