Anyone got any experience of electric bikes?
I live close to work and the route includes a few steep hills. A bike would make sense, and an electric one even more sense. I've more or less narrowed the choice down to a Powabyke folding machine.
Apparently it's Chinese, crude and heavy, but compared to others in the same price range (£700 ish) seems to offer good value. Anybody tried one ?
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IIRC the Powabyke has lead-acid batteries, which are what make it so heavy. Bear in mind that these are power-assisted bikes, and you want to be able to pedal it as well! No first-hand experience, I'm afraid, but the holy grail of pushbikes is lightness...
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Illegitimi non carborundum!
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At £700, a secondhand motorbike would be better, especially for those steep hills!
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a mate of mine has an electric bike and is pleased with it. He says it is best to assist with the pedals to get up hills at an acceptable pace, and it comes in handy for trips to the pub.
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Try here www.atob.org.uk/Electric_Buyers\'_Guide.html
The magazine is well worth the subscription as well.
Simon
Northants
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don't know why, linabove cut and pasted from site is u/s. Try the homepage at www.atob.org.uk and self navigate to the stuff on electrics.
Simon
Northants
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Looking at this again and at the petrol pushbikes thread I am struck by the cost of such machines. As JBJ says the holy grail of bikes is lightness. For £700 you could get a pretty damn good lightweight utility bike, a reasonable one for half that. The hills would soon seem less steep (as might the waistline!)
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SB. Had already checked the very good AtoB site, that's where I got most of my info.
JBJ and SB both mentioned that a light bike is best. One road tester of the Powabyke said that running out of battery power would lead to hard work pedalling it back home. Could be a hint there !
I thought about a moped or motorbike but then I would have all the hassle of riding gear, tax, insurance etc - and overnight parking. I don't have any sort of secure parking and with a folding bike I can take it indoors and recharge, and know it might be there in the morning.
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