[awjr]

Buying an eBike is a lot about choosing the motor you want then hunting down a bike that uses the motor. I would strongly suggest that you buy from your local bike shop and buy the brand that the bike shop normally stocks.

My pick was the Brose mid-drive motor available in Tour 50nm/City 75nm/MTB 90nm models. I then bought an ex-demo one off model from a localish bike shop. https://www.ebike-manufaktur.com/en/e-bikes/11lf-shimano-deo...

Problem with battery meant it took 11 weeks to get it back on the road as the shop did not have a relationship with the bike manufacturer.

The bike however is phenomenal. I weigh 130kg and it takes me up ANY hill in Bath. There's a couple of 1 in 3s that I can cycle up one handed.

[switch007]

What makes it worth 3100 EUR?? That's seems a lot of money even for an electric bike. (I'm guessing your ex-demo was a bit cheaper)

[awjr]

Cost me £1700 (about €2000). High-end Mid-drive motors pushing 75nm+ are expensive. Bosch Pro CX line and Shimano Steps are the other two types available. If you start looking around, you see the cheaper mid-drive, i.e. Bosch Active Line starting around £2000 and are suitable for lighter people. The high end motors are usually combined with high end parts and bigger batteries. Thus you end up with bikes costing between 3-4k.

It's saved me an absolute fortune. In fact after owning it for a month, my wife wrote off my car. We just took the insurance money and didn't buy another car going down to a one car family.

[hycaria]

Interesting. How do you keep it from getting stolen ?

[awjr]

Electric bikes are not as easy to take apart and sell on. (I'm sure I'll be proved wrong.)

I have a gold standard D-Lock that is side mounted on the frame (weight not an issue) that I use when parking up. There is also a dutch style rear wheel lock mounted to the frame I also use. The battery has a key that keeps it locked to the frame. The head unit for the eBike display is removable and I take that with me whenever I leave it locked up making the motor unusable.

Basically you're trying to steal a 25kg (55lb) bike with multiple security features and relatively unique electric parts that people would be wary of buying due to lack of guarantees.

Sometimes if I'm popping into a shop/café, I use the bike stand, lock using the dutch lock, and just take the head unit off. I'm guessing somebody could pull up in a van and just lift the bike but the opportunistic 'snatch' is so not going to get very far.

[revelation]

Not having and using a bike is costing you many times that.

(Though if you don't need the e-thing 310€ will get you started)

[awjr]

I'd recommend multiple bikes. Ebikes can be inherently boring to go for a long ride on as you are essentially free-wheeling. Nothing quite like the quiet of the road as you are cycling along. Ebikes always make a whirring noise.

As a way to get from A to B quickly, nothing beats them in a city.

I did an Air Pollution piece for the BBC comparing exposure of somebody walking, cycling, and driving in and around Bath. As the cyclist, they told me I was travelling around the city a bit too fast for the pollution monitor to get all my data correctly. ;)

[ghostly_s]

High-end non-electric bikes are in a similar price range...

[analog31]

I don't have an e-bike, but a friend got one. In addition to the motor, his advice was that you should choose the control system. There's a small handful of companies that make the controls, and his impression was that he preferred the behavior of one particular brand over the others.