Hi All

I am contemplating getting an E-Bike for scouting out lanes for riding on my Enduro Motorbike. Don’t tend to go out on my own on the Enduro bike but would like to get out and check things out. Reason not to do it on a normal mountain bike is just range, would be good to get further so I can check stuff out.

Rode MTB for years mainly natural but lots of weekends away to trail centres and trips to Alps and a trip to Whistler in the past. Used to do the odd uplift day too. I am older now and not so brave but I can ride a bike.

I am so out of the loop on all things bike now days, all my bikes have the wrong sized wheels for a start.

What would people recommend, Is 5K a sensible budget or do I need to spend more ?

Cheers

Bazzer

You’ll get a decent bike for 5k, whether you can find one in stock is another matter!

Cheers, I am not in any hurry and if I don’t need to Spend 5K I am happy to spend less 🙂

I have a rather nice Trek Rail 7 (medium frame) ebike for sale.

I can post up a link if you interested

Might be slightly small for me at 6ft I would think but post the link, be nice to have a look 🙂

Edit to follow

i got a decent ebike brand new for £3300 (focus – jam2 plus teh extra battery) in Nov 2020. if you just want to get about then you might not need to spend 5k. if you want better forks/shock then 5k is about right.

https://www.emtbforums.com/community/threads/2020-trek-rail-7-medium-£3750.23411/

But why not save £5000 and just check trails out on your enduro bike?
Or, if you want something lower profile, buy a s/h trials bike which you could get for a lot less than 5k. That’s what I’d be tempted to do.

But why not save £5000 and just check trails out on your enduro bike?

Mainly because quite often I don’t have someone else to ride with. I am not keen to go out on the Enduro bike on my own for a few reasons. Its good to have someone to help pull the bike out if you get stuck somewhere, If you find yourself somewhere difficult its easier to pick up a push bike and walk it out. If you injur yourself its easier to get assistance and someone to take a push bike home than it is an Enduro bike.

Also a push bike is allowed to ride places an Enduro bike or a Trials bike isn’t so can take a more direct route to places and avoid road links a bit easier.

I do also think it would be fun and I do have friends I used to mountain bike with I could get out with.

But I do think 5K is a lot when a new Husqvarna FE350 only costs about £9.5K 🙂 An S-Works E-bike is 13k 😀

I just bought a YT decoy shred, really enjoying it.

First ride on the Rail last night.

THE most fun I’ve ever had on 2 wheels!.

You don’t have to justify yourself to anyone Bazzer, if you want an ebike just get one. On STW if you ask for advice on something someone will always come along and recommend something opposite of tell you that you are wrong.

For 5k you can get some decent direct sales ebikes (canyon spectral and torque ON, commencal, yt), also focus, Whyte and trek have options in this price range. Availability is pretty limited tho. It took me a good couple of months of searching to get a Whyte e180.

If you find yourself somewhere difficult its easier to pick up a push bike and walk it out.

That’s sort of true, but e-mtbs are bastard heavy. Ideally you don’t want to be either riding one without motor assistance or pushing it and particularly not picking it up. Stiles and e-bikes do not mix well ime as a recent convalescent borrower of one.

Don’t believe all the stuff about e-bikers being fat and unfit either. A lot of them are very fit, but just don’t want to waste that fitness climbing hills unnecessarily.

Ideally you don’t want to be either riding one without motor assistance or pushing it and particularly not picking it up.

actually – pushing an ebike is fine, because they all have a walk mode these days.

But yes, lifting one over gates and stiles gets old pretty quickly.

Yeah there is a difference manhandling a 30Kg bike out of somewhere to trying to get a 100KG enduro bike stuck up to its axles in mud 🙂 Also if you are not Graham Jarvis even getting it turned around somewhere narrow can be tricky.

I don’t plan on stopping running and riding normal bikes just fancy getting further afield than I can get on a normal bike to check out new byways, so hopefully won’t end up being the e-bike stereo type 🙂

I do also fancy riding an E-Bike for fun the Enduro is great and I love it but its very different to a pedal bike and there are more limits to where you can ride it than there are with an E-Bike.

For reference, my Orbea Wild fs H25 was around 4.6k so within your budget.
It’s an incredibly capable bike.

I did put some Zeb Ultimates on it straight away though so the price certainly ended up on the fatter end of 5k.

If you end up being a 2-battery rider or don’t want to charge the battery in the bike or leave it in the cold, then bare that in mind when choosing a bike. Two batteries is usually a good day out.

The Whyte for instance is a pita to change the battery apparently. Read up on it in reviews.

The Trek is easier but still the battery cover bolts to the battery so if you want a quick change you’ll want to buy an additional battery cover which isn’t too cheap.

The Merida E160 is a great bike. Battery cover comes off with an Allen bolt I think.
Marin is a good one too. A mate has the bottom model.

My Orbea is dead easy. A twist lock bayonet thing and the cover pops off. A review or two said they’ve lost the cover riding. I added a little velcro strap around the downtube to avoid this. Keeps water out better too.

Cheers for all the feedback guys.

At the moment the Levo and the Wild look like candidates.

Levo appeals with the 3 year warranty, Wild looks better value.

Both look great.

Levo will need the 3 year warranty 😉

I’m on my 3rd Bosch motor bike with no issues, I had a new Levo and it had 2 motors in 6 weeks. Warranty was great as was aftersales service, being stuck and walking home 3 miles wasn’t but luckily I was only 3 miles from the van

But I do think 5K is a lot when a new Husqvarna FE350 only costs about £9.5K 🙂 An S-Works E-bike is 13k 😀

You’re not wrong there – for what I paid for a s/h RM Altitude I could have bought a very, very tidy 2017-ish trials bike.
Which I was seriously tempted to do, but nowadays there’s hardly anywhere to practice that’s any good anywhere near me. Long gone are the days when any disused quarry, out of the way woods or river bed was fair game.
Now that the haters are everywhere it’s even hard to find good comp. venues.

I bought a Levo Comp this afternoon, I really wanted a Bosch powered bike but I tried a Whyte, Orbea and the Specialized. The Levo just felt like home, I rode the others again back to back to try and convince myself it was marginal but the Levo just felt like the way forward.

I do think its going to be a lot of fun 😀

Its charging now 🙂

Fantastic, enjoy!

I’m sure you will enjoy it. 👍 Get some photos up.

Had my Levo for a few years and ridden it everywhere. Tend to do 50 50 between it and the Enduro.
Going up to Scotland next weekend instead of the Alps. Will be the first time we aren’t taking both bikes but need a bit of extra space in the camper garage to put our daughters bike in.

If I had to get another it would be the same as I cant fault it