I have to admit I was always an Ebike hater, and in many respects I suppose I still am….however a riding friend of ours rode one for the last couple of years after lung cancer and it meant he was still able to ride. Its got me thinking about one for the better half, especially now the kids are far more independent, as we’d love to be able to go biking together, but she’s always struggled with anything even mildly not flat, which puts her right off. So an Ebike is looking like a proper good option – I feel dirty even typing it. Anyone got any good options, ideally no more than £1500 or so, full sus would be great though I suspect a hardtail would be more sensible at this sort of budget. Anyone else done a similar thing for their missus?

I’ve not looked seriously but is £1500 even going to get you something with a suntour fork?

They are great for what you propose. Only issue might be that she’ll be waiting at the top of every climb for you. As above the specs are pretty poor on the finishing kit but that should be fixable.

I bought the Mrs an e bike, a Raleigh strada green frame, flat barred hybrid with cyclocross tyres

She loves it and often nips out and does a 30 mile ride on it by herself

It was about £1500

If I had to buy one again now, I’d look at bergamont bikes
Saw one last week hardtail with Bosch motor and battery for £2000 – which is ridiculously good value. In stock at VOLTZ bikes in blidworth Nottinghamshire – speak to Dave

1st get over yourself with the stupid hate, it’s bike with electric assistance, try one, you’ll be surprised how much fun they are.
From experience, I’d go for a bosch “gearbox/crank” unit if you want something decent for off-road use that’ll last, this will more than likely be in excess of £1500 for even a HT. It’ll be that much unless you go 2nd hand but even then they hold there value well & TBH I’d want the warranty for piece of mind.

No no women love battery powered stuff they can ride….She will love you for it.

Cheers folks, im struggling not to be looking at the Spesh Levo FSR..at £3-4k depending on spec, they actually look really good…these things matter! Id argue its the first e-bike ive seen that doesn’t scream ‘E BIKE’ in looks. I think a trip to the LBS is called for as I know they sell Specialized.

Bosch central drive are the gold standard for ebikes. simple and intuitive to ride, high quality.

Local ebike shop has them starting at £1700 but think of that as a £400 bike with a £1300 ebike motor.

IMO cheaper ones especially wheel mounted motors are not as good by a long way. I rode a specialized one with a factory fit rear wheel motor – simply not as nice to ride as the bosch

As per my other thread I put a sunstar kit on my bike – for a variety of reasons I wanted a retrofit kit rather than a full build and this is the best retrofit kit

The Levo motors get mixed reviews, I nearly went for one for my wife, went for the cube reaction with the Bosch motor, don’t seem to have any problems with them

I got my wife one, a Levo Turbo FSR. It has allowed us to do the rides again that she was finding to hard to enjoy. She now waits for me at the top of the climbs with a big smile on her face. Worth every penny for the fun she is having again.

Mrs M has a Cube EStereo that she loves (me not so much on the climbs)

This is cheap, last years model, but I’ve just noticed it’s out of stock!,,,,,sorry, but if you can find one are are great e bike
http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Cube-Reaction-Hybrid-HPA-Pro-400-27-5-2016-Electric-Bike_85110.htm

http://wing-ebikes.co.uk/?page_id=5160 for a Voodoo Wazoo e-bike and several other models, that can have the road legal 15mph assist unlocked for off-road use.

Not sure what the problem is in this country with e bikes, we went to Germany last year and the majority of bikes we’re e bikes, and a lot of people were out cycling, can’t be a bad thing surely

Just got a giant full e-2 from winstanleys

Yamaha motor 27.5 full suntour suspension

All good so far, they are very tall though had to sent it back for a small, my wife is 5’9″

n0b0dy0ftheg0at

Still illegal tho unless its on private land with the landowners permission. Illegal on bridleways and so on.

I did derestrict mine to see what its lie. 40 mph on the flat on a bicycle was a bit daft.

Keep it legal folks.

I’m looking forward to seeing more people cycling – e bikes can only help right?

I’d get one for my wife but in reality she wouldn’t use it enough to justify the cost, and I’d then have to work out where to store it (I’m already n=x where x is the number of bikes I have room for)

In a few years time then hopefully there’ll be a few more second hand ones on the market

I’ve wondered the same question, however I’m still hopeful that if I can get her out on the bike a bit more she’ll learn to not hate hills quite as much. She’s light and generally fairly fit so should be decent on hills (better than me in fact) but she really, really hates them!

we’d (sic) love to be able to go biking together

yes

Hopefully they’ll get regenerative charging as soon as it becomes easy/cheap/light

I was a bit of a hater too, right up until Rutland Cycling out at Grafham did an e-bike taster day and I got my GF to come along to it.

She does a bit of road biking, but it’s painful (she broke her back a few years ago) and she doesn’t like going out on trails because she gets a lot of pain and can’t keep up with people.

Her first lap on an e-bike was a revelation for her. She spent most of the first half laughing (which was cruel, ‘cos I was blowing out my hoop trying to keep up with her) and loved being out. They she tried a full sus e-bike and loved it even more.

Yes, they are expensive (the one she wanted was about 3.5-4k, but it means that she can come out with me, keep up, have fun and not get her spine rattled to bits.

Is it cheating? Maybe, but it does mean she can get out and _we_ can go mountain biking together.

When on holiday in peaky we met a couple who were both in their 60’s who were on E bikes. They really loved them, they had ridden around Ladybower and were buzzing. I was well impressed and decided right there that when the time comes that me or the mrs can no longer pedal as well as we can now I won’t hesitate.

Benp1 – you can get regenerative braking on ebikes now but it really doesn’t add much to range