cheap electric bike option to get my wife to the station

Evening all,

I’ve had a Swytch conversion on my wife’s old Trek for a few years now but it’s finally given up the ghost.  What are my best options for a cheap electric bike to get her to the station so she stops using the car!  It’s not far away (2miles) but it is all up hill on the way back and she’s not a cyclist.  I find it unpleasant and I like hills…

I really don’t want to spend more than £500 so do I get a secondhand full e-bike or another conversion kit? I have another bike I could put it on…

Cheers

How safe and secure is leaving a bike at your station as that would determine the apparent worth of a bike I would be leaving there?

https://www.evanscycles.com/brand/muddyfox/electric-avenue-hybrid-bike-700516#colcode=70051603

£400…available on Cycle 2 Work if that helps…but no rack or mudguards or lights supplied, and single speed. Black or dark grey frame, so I’d wrap the whole thing in the 3M looks-black-reflects-white adhesive tape/sheets.

3M Scotchlite 580/680 Black Reflective Tape

What died on the Swytch kit, by the way?

20% of all Halfords electric bikes today.

Pedal sensor and battery seems to run flat very quickly. I would be keen to try and get sore pedal sensor but cannot find where to buy spare parts which is annoying

Stay clear of the Muddy fox. I had one on 4 week loan and it went back after one. The gearing is so high and the motor pickup so slow it’s near unusable.

Any ebike locked at our stations will be stolen within a day….

Angle grinders in regular use as well as pipe cutters to cut through the bike racks themselves.

BTP have decided investigating bike crime is not an efficient use of resources (official policy), so the CCTV footage is never looked at.

The Swytch website/ordering process sucks but you can get a pedal sensor here: https://www.swytchbike.com/shop/page/2/

They have the latest gen batteries (Air/Max) for sale also, which you can also buy on Amazon now too. May be more tricky if you need an older one though as you’d need the attachment mount also by which point you’d almost be cheaper buying the whole set up again.

Stay clear of the Muddy fox. I had one on 4 week loan and it went back after one. The gearing is so high and the motor pickup so slow it’s near unusable.

Ahh, that’s unfortunate. You could change the front ring easily enough, couldn’t you? Or is it a one piece crankset? Anyway, if the motor is not great, that won’t fix it.

I was assuming it would basically be like riding a Lime bike – not exactly a dream ride but fine for a couple of miles.

Thanks for the link to the spares btw! Might try spending £35 first before binning it

You probably could change the gearing and that would likely improve the motor pickup as they always seem to work better with a higher cadence but that’s more cost for what is still a very basic bike.

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politecameraactionFree Member
https://www.evanscycles.com/brand/muddyfox/electric-avenue-hybrid-bike-700516#colcode=70051603

£400…available on Cycle 2 Work if that helps…but no rack or mudguards or lights supplied, and single speed. Black or dark grey frame, so I’d wrap the whole thing in the 3M looks-black-reflects-white adhesive tape/sheets.

We bought one of these 2 years ago, still going strong.  Very different experience to thepodge – it doesn’t look too much like an ebike which is a postitive, it’s easy to ride for my better half as she doesn’t really get on with gears, motor feels strong enough and picks up really well – and the couple of times I’ve ridden it, it doesn’t disengage too harshly when above 15.5 etc.  For an easy bike to get to the station and back I’d recommend it, but you’d want to maybe disguise it as suggested above.

Unfortunately Ebikes have become the latest currency of the crims. I would not be leaving one locked up anywhere, especially a quiet place like a railway station.

But that said, maybe a folder where you can remove the battery and maybe carry that along.

Or just get a taxi.

Easier to buy her an angle grinder by the sounds of it. *rolleyes (emojis are broken now it seems)