[Closed] Would an e-bike (or similar) help my wife?

A friend of mine couldn't ride a bike due to bad knees, and is now happily pedalling around on an eBike.

Don't know what was wrong with his knees though.

Be worth trying but bear in mind she'll still have to pedal so there will still be wear and tear/surfaces rubbing on each other even with an assisted bike

Halfords were doing a Carrera ebike around 1k. Having worked on a few I can say they are absolutely awful. All the budget goes on the electric bit so the rest of the components were horribly compromised. Wouldn't last 5 minutes off road & the brakes just not up to par for an e-assisted bikes weight and potential power

Most bikes around this price will suffer similarly

Yes you can get ebikes for that sort of budget.
But, I honestly wouldn’t.
Rocketdog +1.
As for trying one, do you have any friends who have one?
Might be worth speaking to her gp too, the bike still needs to be pedalled, it’s just (quite a bit) easier.

My OH has

a Carrera ebike around 1k

It's basically a £375 Carrera Vulcan with £800 of electric bits bolted on (and a 170mm rear end).
Contrary to Rocketdog I'd say it was pretty well put together. The brakes are Clarks hydraulics with big rotors, the suntour fork bounces up and down, the wheels still spin etc. Even the pedals are some metal Wellgo flats rather than the BSO plastic jobbies. It weighs a ton, and the motor is in the rear hub so it would ride horribly in the dirt, but for just riding around it's been great. Halfords don't do a women version of it though, so budget for things like a saddle and in our case some On-One fleegles and foam grips.

In "sport" mode you still have to pedal, but it feels more like just spinning the pedals, there's no effort involved. So it probably depends on whether it's the movement or the load that aggravates her knees.

You could always look for a throttle controlled e-bike? They're illegal, but unless being a dick who would know.

Thanks for all your replies, food for thought. I’d seen this Pendleton bike at Halfords. The bike she’s got is (I think) the non e bike version of this. So it doesn’t matter too much if it’s not a great bike, just if the cost is worth the help it gives her. We’ll only go on paths, road and tow paths anyway, so nothing much off road.

A mate had to give up riding 10-12 years ago due to knee problems. He then bought an early ebike when they became popular, got him back into riding and is now doing the local 20 mile loops again on his current one.

He also lives halfway up a notorious local hill climb, I'd buy an ebike if I lived there.

We live in Lincoln, so it’s pretty much the flattest place in the world, but even the slightest incline causes her agony!!

Decathlon have a couple of options. I've been eyeing up the 'ELOPS 900 E Step' which is a ladies Dutch style e-bike,for my missus, another standard bike with an e-hub in the back, but I think that's par for the course bellow £2k.

Her knees are fine, she's just lazy and a bike that's a bit more of a shopping trolley than an MTB would suit her. Decathlon do have other E-Bikes too now...

Tbh, if you live somewhere flat, either of the bikes linked to above will probably be fine for pootling around.
It is a couple of years since I actually looked properly at ebikes, I stopped looking when i got mine, but the ones available at that price back then were crap.

Worth keeping an eye on places like Rutland cycles as they sell off their hire bikes at the end of the summer if you can wait. My parent's picked up a pair of Trek Powerfly's for about the same price as the Halfords Carrera's.

I've never examined them but I've seen adverts for contraptions that you bolt onto an existing bike to make them motorized.

Guy I work with has a volt ebike, folding ones, for his motorhome. Him and his missus use them all the time, and are only interested in the type of cycling that your wife does too, and they love them. Knowing him as I do, he wouldn't have spent a fortune on them!. Worth a look.