What Drop Bar E-bike for Commuting?

Due to an operation I have been informed that I will be unable to drive for 6 months, but will still need to get to my office (about 12 miles away, no direct public transport) once I am allowed back to work.  Noting I did cycle to work a couple of times per week when younger and fitter I’m considering an e-bike for the commute, so I’m less tired when working.

As someone who would want to cycle in whatever the weather and hence would want the bike to take full length mudguards, what would people currently recommend?  I’m thinking of a budget of £2000-£3000 on bike to work scheme.

I’ve considered the Ribble CGR AL e-bike and the Van Rysel E-EDR AF, but would like to try before I buy, and both these would be bought based on size guides.  As a size guide, my current commuter is a 54cm Genesis Equilibrium disc and my old road bike was a 54cm Cervelo R3.

I would prefer a local shop (based in Nottingham), but will consider mail order bikes where service is good.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Others will probably be able to give you more help than me but….

What sort of 12 miles are we talking about? Lumpy or Flat, country lanes or urban with lots of start stop.

Not looked further than the Ribble but the battery is pretty modest. To be honest I’d probably go for something a little more hybrid with a bigger battery, a rack and guards and lights already in the package and probably flatbar. Depending on what you are expected to wear at work, in all but the worst weather if you had a chainguard too you could well let the motor take the strain and not get too sweaty on the something a bit more upright in your normal work clothes. You don’t don’t need to worry about weight or being all aero – there’s a motor doing a load of the work so you’ll still be rattling along near the legal cut off speed for E assist. Think Dutch commuter rather than weekend warrior. Something from the Cube Reaction Hybrid range maybe.

My wife used to do a 8 mile each way commute on her step thru ebike in her normal work clothes – a skirt mostly with a cape if the weather was average.  Took it steady, nice and upright for comfort and a good view of the traffic, panniers when she needed to take stuff in. Lights powered off the main battery so you didn’t need to worry about charging them up.  As faff free cycle commuting as you could imagine. That extra 4 miles might make the difference to your thought process though.

The route is undulating with a long stretch of open road, rather than urban riding, and I am lucky to have showers and changing facilities at work.  The preference for drop bar was driven by the ability to change position and the prevailing winds in winter, but I take onboard the suggestion to go full e-bike with larger battery, rack, guards and panniers.

The beauty of an ebike for commuting is the prevailing winds are now an irrelevance!

Buy a £700 Merlin e bike. Bank the rest of the cash. On crap days get a taxi. The saved money can be donated to something more worthy than an expensive commuter bike.

The 15mph assistance limit is a lot more annoyng on the road. The Cube Reaction Hybrid or mid-motor trekking bikes will be 22kg upwards. They feel sluggish and annoying above the limiter. I’d go for something lightweight that you can easily pedal for when you are above the limiter. Your original suggestions look pretty good in that respect.

Sonder El Camino might tickle your fancy. Starts at £2,700 for flat bar or £3,000 for drop bar.

i can vouch for the above statement

My Boardman ADV 8.9e spends most of its time beyond the limiter, where it is certainly a bit slower than my gravel bike, even “only” at 16kg.  Also as above, when weather is bad or headwinds, just sit under power and let the bike work.

I like the idea of the Ribble ebikes, just to get that weight down a little more

Nottingham isn’t a million miles from the Ribble showroom in Birmingham, so consider a visit – check if they have bike fit facilities first.

I did this at the Bluewater showroom before buying my Gravel Al-e (very similar to the CGR Al-e. The range on these is more than adequate for a few days of commuting (depending on your usage patterns, if course) so I wouldn’t worry about bigger batteries, as this is just more weight to propel, when above the assist cutoff. Full mudguards are fine on mine.

As above, I suspect you’d find that at average drop bar road speeds you’d be riding unassisted anyway, just with a nice boost on the climbs.  I’d agree it might even be less irritating to do it on a more utilitarian e-bike that doesn’t feel so hamstrung at ~15mph.

I used to do 13-15miles each way daily and it was hard work for a fortnight or so but soon I was looking for longer diversions to mix it up a bit.  I’d give it a go on whatever the most commuter-y bike you currently have is. You can either chill out and put an e-bike level of effort into it and it’ll probably only make 10minutes difference over that distance, or ride at a normal speed and just see how fit you get.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions so far, only 3 weeks until I’m allowed back on a bike, then I’ll test out my Genesis and see how I get on. I have the insurance payment from my Cervelo (driver admitted liability) so I have some scope and time to decide.

A Swytch kit on the Genesis?

Electric assist and drop bars – waste of time. Get a cheap, comfortable, heavy, fat tyred, ebike or a conversion kit and let the motor take the strain. 1000’s of delivery drivers cant be wrong (and me as a fat, unfit commuter)

Go back to physical riding when you are recovered. Or carry on ebiking and tell everyone it is just as demanding as riding a normal bike whilst shivering.

Sonder El Camino might tickle your fancy. Starts at £2,700 for flat bar or £3,000 for drop bar.

Mrs BWD has an El Camino as a commuter. It has a rear hub drive motor, so the weight distribution is a bit rear-endy, but positive points include having the same geometry as the standard Camino, so nice and stable on the road. Seems to work just fine. I’ve ridden it briefly, but it’s too small for me, but seemed smooth and, erm, assisted. Takes the effort out of hills and headwinds, above 16mph it’s basically a heavy cross bike, but it’s a commute, so she mostly chills, she says. At weekends, means she can kill me if we go out for a casual ride and she opts for assistance rather than legs…

Means she can do her hour-ish commute briskly and still be normal in the evening/office rather than going into dog-tired zombie mode.

A few finnicky things: it needs a pair of 17mm spanners to remove the rear wheel if you flat – running the standard tyres tubeless, so far that’s not been an issue.

The bolts in the rear drop-outs are slightly too short and fall out, Alpkit/Sonder sent me some longer ones. I’m guessing current ones get those by default. The Sonder Spitfire bars are a weird shape and don’t suit her – or me – the drops are ‘wrong’. The battery’s not removable, so if you want to charge it up during the day, you need to find somewhere the bike and mains electricity can be close together.

She likes drop-bars, they work for her. If you like flat bars, go with flat bars is my take on that.

Alpkit/Sonder has demo bikes at its stores, I’m assuming that includes the El Camino, so you can test ride before buying (or not).

Nottingham isn’t a million miles from the Ribble showroom in Birmingham, so consider a visit – check if they have bike fit facilities first.

Used to be a Ribble store in Nottinghams Victoria Centre,  has it gone?.

If you guys are commuting faster than 15mph with loaded panniers in traffic as well, something seems wrong somewhere.

Long term but part timer Ebike commuter here (Trek Conduit 1st gen Shimano Steps). I used to commute the 8mile each way to work on a blinged out fast gravel bike. On the narrow 30mph A road sections my speeds were high and I was keeping up with traffic fully in the primary position.

Long story but I needed an easier / less energy intensive commuting method so bought a 700c flat barred / mudguard commuter. I was very disappointed with the above 15.5mph cut off – the bike was too heavy / draggy to maintain higher speeds. I felt vulnerable in heavy traffic by not being able to keep up. I hacked the software and changed the rear wheel size so it then did ~22mph which was better in traffic.

Uphills it was good and downhill the weight didn’t matter, it was just the cut and thrust bits of A road heavy traffic commuting that it was far worse.

Over time my route changed to avoid the A road sections as the quieter alternative routes were hillier but this was fine with the ebike. If I’d been open minded enough in the first place to change my route I wouldn’t have felt the urge to hack the limiter.