MegaSack DRAW - 6pm Christmas Eve - LIVE on our YouTube Channel
<p style="text-align: left;">Hi all, my company finally has increased the CTW limit to £3k so I am considering using it this year.</p>
My commute is around 7-8 miles. Its a short commute considering but before anyone says ride a normal bike... I have a replacement knee which I don't want to wear out too early and I think I would be much more inclined to commute often if I knew I could have a bit of help when tired! Enough waffle, back to bike options....
My commute could be road, track or through the woods. So I don't really want a dedicated road / hybrid commuter.
I am swinging towards something like the new trek marlin 8+ but £3k seems steep for spec although looks nice.
Another options to consider I may have missed?
Should be fine(Has a bosch motor) unfortunately they've chosen to fit it with the worlds worst(and possibly heaviest) fork, so at least budget a replacement into your add ups. Plenty of very good fork deals about currently
Plus, the tyres are probably the offroad specific(not checked) so maybe a pair of schwalbe marathon plus mtb would be much better suited for multi surface.
<p style="text-align: left;">Cheers... Yeah quite a poor spec for £3k but not really sure if there is anything comparable out there at the £3k limit.</p>
Spesh does a turbo tero but spec looks worse (but £500 cheaper which might offset a new fork)
Kinesis Rise, but cost starts going up. I also don't think it's in the road/gravel target area.
Cube hardtails are very goodvalue for money. You have to go to the posh versions for a decent fork tho
https://www.cube.eu/de-en/cube-reaction-hybrid-one-750-lightgrey-n-rose/634073
Again with the shitey fork, but 750w/h battery.
I test rode that- the fork was awful. I ended up with the pro which at least has a thru axle and air but still a shite fork
Recommend what you have - Orbea Kemem SUV. Absolutely love this bike as my nearly daily commuter. Shimano motor has been faultless in 2,700km since last November. Full Deore 10sp Linkglide drivetrain, decent Magura brakes, Z2 fork. Useful integrated lights. Quality Ortlieb Ql3.1 rack. Think of it as a gravel bike rather than an MTB and it's brilliant
Oh the joys of picking your first Ebike.
The real struggle, especially if you are experienced fettler and buyer of choice bits, is how crap the component choice are for the thousands you're spending.
If you think you can go fully rigid...
https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/ribble-gravel-al-e/
...absolutely loving mine.
More than capable of what your commute involves.
Light enough to ride without exist (if you run out of juice, or have sections where you don't need it and want to extend the battery range)
Due to the dropped chainstay, you'll need to apply frame protection to the underside - this caught me out as I'd not had dropped chainstays before.
