Best e-bike for hilly terrain?
Discussion
Having recently moved to a quite hilly part of Wales Mrs B and I are looking for our first e-bikes to ride on the roads. I had my eye on a Van Moof S3, which is a brilliant design and they've dropped the price to under £1800, but I'm now being told that these are really city bikes that won't be able to hack the hills we've got round here. Plus I'm not sure about the long-term resilience of the electronic gears.
Can any PHer give us advice on some good bikes to look at? I'm inclined towards crank motors rather than hub ones and Mrs B would prefer detachable batteries (although this wouldn't be a deal breaker for me as we can easily wheel the bikes into the house for charging). Oh yes, and being skinflints we don't want to spend more than £2k each.
Can any PHer give us advice on some good bikes to look at? I'm inclined towards crank motors rather than hub ones and Mrs B would prefer detachable batteries (although this wouldn't be a deal breaker for me as we can easily wheel the bikes into the house for charging). Oh yes, and being skinflints we don't want to spend more than £2k each.
Edited by Blackpuddin on Tuesday 8th September 16:44
How hilly is hilly? How far are you looking to ride in one go?
The Fazua crank drive motor on my Boardman will tackle 10% hills fine in top gear. If you want to smash up the hill at 15mph you need to really put the work in, but if you just want to get up the hill you can happily spin away without feeling like your at death door.
Range is also better measure in meters gained than distance, with a 250watt hour battery I recon the bike will climb about 3000ft 100-0%.
As well as been able to use gears on the bike, crank drive motors are also suppose to be more efficient than hub drive motors.
Most eBikes under £2K are hub motored ones, but there are some crank drive ones at that price - like the Boardman.
The Fazua crank drive motor on my Boardman will tackle 10% hills fine in top gear. If you want to smash up the hill at 15mph you need to really put the work in, but if you just want to get up the hill you can happily spin away without feeling like your at death door.
Range is also better measure in meters gained than distance, with a 250watt hour battery I recon the bike will climb about 3000ft 100-0%.
As well as been able to use gears on the bike, crank drive motors are also suppose to be more efficient than hub drive motors.
Most eBikes under £2K are hub motored ones, but there are some crank drive ones at that price - like the Boardman.
The Boardman seems to be a way over £2k now - £2200 - or am i looking at the wrong bike? HYB 8.9E? https://www.boardmanbikes.com/gb_en/bikes/e-bikes/
The hills round here are mainly in short spurts but the Van Moof is maybe a bit too city-ish. And I am more than a bit skeptical about the electronic gears.
Thanks for the other suggestions, I'll check them out.
We're not Strava-istes, we just want to amble round and explore a bit. I'm in the autumnal years.
The hills round here are mainly in short spurts but the Van Moof is maybe a bit too city-ish. And I am more than a bit skeptical about the electronic gears.
Thanks for the other suggestions, I'll check them out.
We're not Strava-istes, we just want to amble round and explore a bit. I'm in the autumnal years.
Edited by Blackpuddin on Tuesday 8th September 21:01
Blackpuddin said:
The Boardman seems to be a way over £2k now - £2200 - or am i looking at the wrong bike? HYB 8.9E? https://www.boardmanbikes.com/gb_en/bikes/e-bikes/
The hills round here are mainly in short spurts but the Van Moof is maybe a bit too city-ish. And I am more than a bit skeptical about the electronic gears.
Thanks for the other suggestions, I'll check them out.
We're not Strava-istes, we just want to amble round and explore a bit. I'm in the autumnal years.
Boardman will be onsale at somepoint, I paid £1960. The hills round here are mainly in short spurts but the Van Moof is maybe a bit too city-ish. And I am more than a bit skeptical about the electronic gears.
Thanks for the other suggestions, I'll check them out.
We're not Strava-istes, we just want to amble round and explore a bit. I'm in the autumnal years.
Edited by Blackpuddin on Tuesday 8th September 21:01
Good luck with the search, lots of eBike options these days
.gangzoom said:
Blackpuddin said:
The Boardman seems to be a way over £2k now - £2200 - or am i looking at the wrong bike? HYB 8.9E? https://www.boardmanbikes.com/gb_en/bikes/e-bikes/
The hills round here are mainly in short spurts but the Van Moof is maybe a bit too city-ish. And I am more than a bit skeptical about the electronic gears.
Thanks for the other suggestions, I'll check them out.
We're not Strava-istes, we just want to amble round and explore a bit. I'm in the autumnal years.
Boardman will be onsale at somepoint, I paid £1960. The hills round here are mainly in short spurts but the Van Moof is maybe a bit too city-ish. And I am more than a bit skeptical about the electronic gears.
Thanks for the other suggestions, I'll check them out.
We're not Strava-istes, we just want to amble round and explore a bit. I'm in the autumnal years.
Edited by Blackpuddin on Tuesday 8th September 21:01
Good luck with the search, lots of eBike options these days
.https://greatebike.eu/e-bike-apache-matta-tour-mx-...
What ever bike you get do make sure you can get support if needed. It took Halfords 6 months to get my bike working properly, plenty of other people with other brands of eBikes seem to have similar issues. These things are more complicated than regular bikes, so having local support you can access if it does wrong is a good idea, especially as at £2K its still by no means cheap for a pedal bike.
I'm really glad you said that because Mrs B is keen to take advantage of a small discount by getting the bikes via some pals in France but I don't feel comfortable with that.
The more I read about that Van Moof the more I don't fancy it because although they look great from a distance they seem to have real problems with quality control. If the basics like paint and non-bent wheels aren't right, it makes you wonder about the four-speed electronic transmission. Well, it makes me wonder about those things anyway.
Still haven't found anything that fits our bill but will continue the search.
The more I read about that Van Moof the more I don't fancy it because although they look great from a distance they seem to have real problems with quality control. If the basics like paint and non-bent wheels aren't right, it makes you wonder about the four-speed electronic transmission. Well, it makes me wonder about those things anyway.
Still haven't found anything that fits our bill but will continue the search.
Well it's both up and down as we'll be doing circular routes from our house. Mainly single-track metalled roads.
This Cube bike looks good to me.
https://www.e-bikeshop.co.uk/Electric-Bikes-UK-Dea...
This Cube bike looks good to me.
https://www.e-bikeshop.co.uk/Electric-Bikes-UK-Dea...
Ashtray83 said:
I have a Specialized Levo ht and done over 1k miles and had zero issues and feels like the thing will climb up anything It’s a little over 2k now.
Looks good, a bit more offroady than we need maybe, 2021 models are £2350. Thanks for letting me know about it, I assumed Specialised would be miles over budget so that's good to know. Barchettaman said:
I have a cube e-hybrid and it’s got me up some stupidly steep terrain. It has the Bosch middle motor.
The key is to have a low enough crawler gear to keep the pedals spinning, that keeps the assist feeding in, Bosch job done (pun intended).
That looks like a good 'un, what model is that please? What I'm finding with non-current bikes is that they're often no longer available. I'm finding it frustrating seeing bikes advertised on Google, with prices suggesting they're available, only to go to the site and find that they're not. I guess they leave these bikes on there to attract people to the site but it's just a time-waster for me. The key is to have a low enough crawler gear to keep the pedals spinning, that keeps the assist feeding in, Bosch job done (pun intended).
My wife recently bought a Wisper Wayfarer, and it copes with the shockingly steep Dorset hills very well (we’re just outside LymeRegis). Mid drive type (motor in the crank), and with the big 700wh battery, it’s worked out very well. She wanted a ‘step thru’ type with both front and rear rack (front rack awaiting delivery) as it’s going to be used as a utility/shopping bike, so function trumps form. Very pleased with it.
They do a ‘cross bar’ version as well.
They do a ‘cross bar’ version as well.
Edited by Tim O on Thursday 10th September 15:35
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