I think we want to buy his n’ hers e-bikes to complement the fairly recent purchase of a camper van. Even though we try to be very lightweight and agile in the camper it’s a pita when you need to spend even 10 mins packing it up and another 10 setting up again just to nip out somewhere. We are happy to walk for anything up to an hour to go to the pub or a shop but we reckon an e-bike each would make our life in the camper so much easier. An hour’s walk becomes 15-20min ride while a half day out on the e-bikes would get you 20 or so miles without breaking into too much of a sweat.
We’ve got a couple of old normal bikes. Mine a clunky bitsa mtb with most components being from the noughties, the wife’s a heavy steel framed step thru shopper with a basket. We are fairly fit and agile but not bike fit at all both only really using the bikes for less than a mile at a time for the past few years. So we fancied an upgrade to a couple of e-bikes.
We think we want to go down the less is more route with just enough electric assist to make life easier but not do all the work. We’ve test rode a couple (a Ribble and a Specialised), both very similar Hybrid style bikes with 250w/35nm motors and 250wh / 320wh batteries respectively. The bikes look great, ride lovely on the short test rides, and the electric assist seems great. We very nearly bought two of the Specialised. BUT…. I had this nagging doubt. All the reviews and the salesman’s spiel was about urban use, lightweight, gentle e-assist, and capable of gentle trails. But, is that enough? Would I be better getting a bigger motor and bigger battery, albeit for increased overall weight. Plus the somewhat skinny tyres and no suspension of hybrid bikes means trails are never going to easy rides, even a pedal across a campsite field isn’t going to be the easiest ride.
For similar money to the Specialised Turbo Vado SL I can get any number of hard tail mtb or hybrid bikes with 50nm+ motor and 500+ wh batteries.. but they weigh 24kg or more (the Vado weighs 15kg) and look pretty shite to me.
Our bike carrier can take 2x30kg bikes so only the clunkiest of bikes would exceed that.
There’s also the question of charging. I think a compact inverter will let me charge from the van’s leisure battery but two 500wh batteries will pretty much drain it I reckon or would be a big load on the van’s alternator if I only charged while driving. However 2x 250wh is half the demand and probably within the vans capability. So we’d need a hook up for the more powerful bikes I think.
I suppose my main question is, would we regret only getting relatively modestly powered e-bikes, or should we go full fat from the outset. The budget is limited but could stretch to around £3k per bike.
Is there anywhere where we could go and test ride for an hour or so several styles and powers of bikes? Happy to pay a modest sum if I got that back if I made a purchase.
Thanks
We’ve got a couple of old normal bikes. Mine a clunky bitsa mtb with most components being from the noughties, the wife’s a heavy steel framed step thru shopper with a basket. We are fairly fit and agile but not bike fit at all both only really using the bikes for less than a mile at a time for the past few years. So we fancied an upgrade to a couple of e-bikes.
We think we want to go down the less is more route with just enough electric assist to make life easier but not do all the work. We’ve test rode a couple (a Ribble and a Specialised), both very similar Hybrid style bikes with 250w/35nm motors and 250wh / 320wh batteries respectively. The bikes look great, ride lovely on the short test rides, and the electric assist seems great. We very nearly bought two of the Specialised. BUT…. I had this nagging doubt. All the reviews and the salesman’s spiel was about urban use, lightweight, gentle e-assist, and capable of gentle trails. But, is that enough? Would I be better getting a bigger motor and bigger battery, albeit for increased overall weight. Plus the somewhat skinny tyres and no suspension of hybrid bikes means trails are never going to easy rides, even a pedal across a campsite field isn’t going to be the easiest ride.
For similar money to the Specialised Turbo Vado SL I can get any number of hard tail mtb or hybrid bikes with 50nm+ motor and 500+ wh batteries.. but they weigh 24kg or more (the Vado weighs 15kg) and look pretty shite to me.
Our bike carrier can take 2x30kg bikes so only the clunkiest of bikes would exceed that.
There’s also the question of charging. I think a compact inverter will let me charge from the van’s leisure battery but two 500wh batteries will pretty much drain it I reckon or would be a big load on the van’s alternator if I only charged while driving. However 2x 250wh is half the demand and probably within the vans capability. So we’d need a hook up for the more powerful bikes I think.
I suppose my main question is, would we regret only getting relatively modestly powered e-bikes, or should we go full fat from the outset. The budget is limited but could stretch to around £3k per bike.
Is there anywhere where we could go and test ride for an hour or so several styles and powers of bikes? Happy to pay a modest sum if I got that back if I made a purchase.
Thanks
