[Closed] Best value Trail ebike

Best bet is to work out what shops are local to him that specialise in ebikes, then see what they can get. Best value overall tends to be the likes of Cube, Giant, etc, you can pick up a decent Stereo 140 ebike or giant trance for 5-6k with good kit, or you can go up to the likes of Orbea and so on and check out their range.

First thing i'd do is work out the best local dealer and what they stock though, long distance can save a few quid, but warranty gets messy and support can be spotty.

I'd be looking at the YT Decoy Pro @ £5399

The "best value" isn't necessarily the one with the best components for the price, don't get hung up on 'glitter'.

I’d be looking at the YT Decoy Pro @ £5399

A riding pal has one, and it feels 'dead' compared to another pal's Spesh.

Worth a look - https://singletrackworld.com/charged/2022/02/new-canyon-neuronon-range-starts-from-3749/

I’d be looking at the YT Decoy Pro @ £5399

I know very little about ebikes, but having owned and had warranty issues with a non electric YT I wouldn't touch one with a bargepole

I’d be looking at the YT Decoy Pro @ £5399

YT moved to the core range a while back, think the one you've pictured was the race version at 7k! You can still pick up the Core 2 for 5.6k though, nice bike, but again, long distance buying is for certain people, lots aren't really wanting to build the bike themselves or deal with warranty issues via DPD or the likes, so that needs to be factored in to any purchase at this price!

A riding pal has one, and it feels ‘dead’ compared to another pal’s Spesh.

I was also gonna suggest a Levo @ £5250

I'm a Spesh fanboy - have a Kenevo.

Also had an analogue YT Capra and it was ace - bloke I know has a Decoy and he loves it as far as I know

YT have a UK store now AFAIK

YT moved to the core range a while back, think the one you’ve pictured was the race version at 7k!

It was on their website, but guess it must have been the outlet page - just been back on, but the website is being flaky. Think they've borrowed the STW hamsters

Personally, I wouldn’t touch anything with the the Shimano motor; lots of horror stories out there about warranty being refused and as far as I know the third party repair centres won’t touch them.

Spesh has the best after sales care and warranty in my experience. If you’re anywhere near Halesowen give Rich at Raceco a shout.

When I was looking, Cube had some of the best component spec for the money.
I bought an Orbea.

You can get a Cube Stereo 140tm or the 160tm with decent kit on it for £5500. He might have to wait a bit though.

Thanks all.
Any experience of the Vitus ebikes?

The “best value” isn’t necessarily the one with the best components for the price, don’t get hung up on ‘glitter’.

I totally agree, those Cube look great value spec wise, but the reviews suggest they ride poorly.
The Vitus is a good bike, has issues (battery cover & headset IIRC), the main one being CRC/Wiggle support or lack of.
I wouldn't rush to buy any e-bike mail order (my 1st was.. 8 week without a bike, while they warrantied it) and again I think the shimano system is flawed and not well supported.

I love my Levo and will be replacing my 19 with a 22 (£6750 version with the 700wh battery), as the only alternative (I rate) is the Trek Rail, which I'm not that keen on, but is probably the best Bosch system e-bike available (KTM are great value but the geo is pants).
Buy local for decent support or buy from somewhere that give decent support (Race-co/Berkshire/Don Skene).

Whyte e150 but no idea if there are any out there

Thanks all.
Any experience of the Vitus ebikes?

Mctrail has one seems to be getting on okay with it after an "unconventional" start.

Orbea Rise H30 £4800ish. 5 weeks in and very happy. Does exactly what I wanted it to.

4 of us have ebikes and only one hasn’t had a motor replaced, all been in the bike shop more than once. I’m all for value etc but I’d recommend seeing what ebike you can find local. I’ve got 4 bikes and the ebike is the only one I’ve bought from a shop.

Seconded. RaceCo & in particular Rich have provided excellent customer service to myself and riding buddies. I have a 2022 Levo Comp and am loving it so far.

Hey Zippy. The 2022 Comp with the 700 wh is what I went for. Absolute beast of a thing (purchased from RaceCo). What I would add, as mentioned with others, is 100% buy from somewhere where you can get it to should it need aftersales support. I loved the look of the Canyons but the thought of having to box it up and get it back to Germany in the event of an issue vs driving 20 minutes to the dealer was an absolute no brainer for me.

3 of us took a punt on the vitus ebikes (2x e-sommet vrx and 1x vrs) as there was nothing to touch them from a geometry, spec, value battery size and availability point of view at the time. We are all very impressed so far in their abilities and that is across a range of abilities and preconceived views of what a good mountain bike was.

Main concern was distance purchase and warranty issues but I purchased the shimano workshop dongle to cover diagnostic issues.

I’d suggest localish or recommended shop if possible as could well have issues.
Be aware that out of warranty shimano motors are a lot less rebuildable.

Suggestion: Warranty on motors is 2 years, but on 2019/20 Levos I believe it is 4 year (*motor only, orig receipt reqd, please check with specialised before purchase) warranty, so if you can get a good one of them from 2020 (*and it’s not been chipped etc)it’ll still have about 2 yrs motor warranty and it’s a bike that there are lots of spares about for and with some very highly rated dealers with a motor that can generally be rebuilt.

Orbea Rise h15. Good components for about £5400. Waiting for mine. It's the alloy frame. Don't trust myself with carbon as I have too many offs and as it's an eBike I don't think the little bit of extra weight matters.

@tommyo

3 of us took a punt on the vitus ebikes (2x e-sommet vrx and 1x vrs) as there was nothing to touch them from a geometry, spec, value battery size and availability point of view at the time. We are all very impressed so far in their abilities and that is across a range of abilities and preconceived views of what a good mountain bike was.

Main concern was distance purchase and warranty issues but I purchased the shimano workshop dongle to cover diagnostic issues.

Thanks for the info re Vitus.
Where did you get that from? Thought they were dealer only?

I got it from highonbikes

It is a SM-PCE02 just be warned that there are different size di2 cables and the one that arrived didn't match my bike! I had to get an adapter and length of correct cable which caused more delays and angst that I had bought a useless to me dongle!

Works fine now and software is free to download.

I am currently in the process of moving to an Ebike and I can honestly say its a minefield so many new bikes coming to market. The one thing I did notice though was the specialized warranty which by reviews for Ebike's is awesome, I've not seen a report where motor not change under warranty. I certainly want to try something different but will most probably stick with specialized just because of warranty and the Levo has some awesome reviews. Pricing is not great but at least you can find deals on older models 2021 etc not sure where your based but Certini have been great with my last purchase.

I’m on my 4th ebike in 5 years, each one has done 2500 miles ish. All but one have had bosch motors and been 100% reliable. The one that wasn’t bosch was Specialized and had 2 motors in two months before being rejected and back to a bosch.
I’d always say regardless of motor but from a local dealer so you have a place to go if it does go wrong. A lot of issues are with people jet washing them as they aren’t IP rated for that. Always hand wash and that’s one issue removed.

I currently have a trek rail 5 and they are under £5k new and perfect for trail centres. Tbh I also still have a Spesh HT and that also works very well at any trail centre and they are £3k new.

I have a Trek Rail 7, though pretty non standard with Bonty carbon wheels, dvo jade coil shock with 60mm stroke so gives about 157mm travel and also Yari with splug damper and 170mm spring.

Loving it!
suprisingly agile but can hang with the big travel boys no problem.

My local shop in Dorking is 500m metres away and a Trek dealer - so nice to have the support.

When I was looking I thought the Giant Trance looked good. The reign would be my choice but for average trail riding I'd say trance. Prices seem fair and a place like Rutland cycles probs (I guess) can provide a decent customer service.

Such variation available in bikes though at that price point in terms of power of motor/battery and bike weight

Personally I’m looking at an Orbea Rise H15

But from some of the stuff above apparently I shouldn’t be

I don’t think with ebikes it’s quite so simple just to recommend to a mate, I think they need to do their own world of research!

I’m on my 4th ebike in 5 years, each one has done 2500 miles ish. All but one have had bosch motors and been 100% reliable. The one that wasn’t bosch was Specialized and had 2 motors in two months before being rejected and back to a bosch.

What's been so wrong with them that you're constantly changing?

And at £5k a bike, that's a lot of cash paid out...

Thanks all.
Have suggested he looks at the LBS's.