electric bikes

DH has one, in fact it’s manufactured near us. Loves it and uses it all the time.

My daughter had one. I tried it once and found it great!

Thanks - OldMeg, which one is made near you (if you don't mind giving approximate location)?
If you are in the UK then I would love to get a UK made bike. I read the EMU reviews- they are not sold anywhere near us, but if I go ahead, I might ring them to see if a trial could be arranged somehow. Very happy to look at others.

I don't have one but love the concept of being able to bike when I choose and turn on the power when I'm tired

DH is picking his new electric bike up from Evans Cycles at 10am in the morning. They have a promotion on at present with £250 trade in on any old bike (regardless of condition so long as you can actually ride it). The also offer a free 20 minute trial ride on one and he took advantage of that and went up Portsdown Hill, Portsmouth at 15 miles per hour using it! That's a long, steep hill so he was very impressed.

Apparently you have to keep pedalling or the motor switches off but it's all so much less effort. I suspect that his other 6 bikes currently in the rack in the garage might well be disposed of it once he gets his electric one.

Well, amazing coincidence, we tried out electric bikes two days ago. We hired them and went over twenty miles. We don't own bikes and last cycled, say, at least a year ago.
I had a Raleigh step through, husband had a men's model. Both had the big wheels, not the smaller foldaways.
The electric part was by Bosch, they were assist bikes meaning we had to keep pedalling and if we stopped pedalling, the assist did too.

They were easy to use, once round the car park on a trial run and we had the hang of it. Hill starts were so easy and much safer at road junctions (no wobbly moments). There were five levels of assist and eight gears, often we didn't need the assist at all.
We sailed past some other cyclists who'd stopped us earlier to ask about them. As we passed by, one shouted 'point made'!
I wouldn't have liked to have had to lift the bikes onto a car (roof mounted) bike rack, they were quite heavy. But getting them onto a low mounted model which fits to a tow bar would be quite feasible, even for me.

After the ride, we felt we'd had a reasonable amount of exercise without being exhausted. It was comforting to know on the way home that there was plenty of charge left in the batteries to use maximum assist if we'd needed it.

My dream is to own a Gtech electric bike. They are over £1000 with accessories though! I have several of their home and garden items and know the batteries hold their power really well. I sold my ordinary push bike some years ago as this village is all hills and I used to arrive at my destination a sweaty mess! I hope you find a suitable one, good luck.

I have cycled all my life not long distances though and not racing just around and about I too started thinking about electric bikes a few years back but got no further than looking and thinking I was told they are heavy and wondered how I d manage that as my bike is light and I not sure I d manage anything heavy

A friend of mine got an electric bike recently and is delighted with it. It’s a Pendleton Somerby, from Halfords. She broke her leg badly a few years ago and has problems walking, but this bike has been great for her, as her leg was not up to hills on a normal bike. I went out with her and was surprised how little she used the motor- only for hills. I gave it a brief try, but prefer my regular bike for now, but it was very easy to control the motor and easy to cycle normally without.

She feels that the exercise has helped her leg greatly and I could see how much further she could go, compared with her old bike. This model is not too expensive. (I don’t have any connection with Halfords so not trying to advertise ?)

I've had a 'Giant' one for more than 10 years now and absolutely love it. If I could justify it I would love an updated model.
I have a basket on the front and panniers on the back plus 2 bungees and can get most of my shopping on.
A few thousand miles and it and me are still going strong.

Thank you all so much! I'm afraid that it will be a few weeks before I take it further. I'll report back.

Where do you live? - we have one for sale!

State of the art Riese & Muller, which has been ridden 3 times, each for a very short distance. It is pristine! OH bought it for himself, but his PD proved too much for it. Bit sad.

why did Other Half's Prostate Disorder stop him riding a bike?

Am struggling with some of the TLAs in these Forums. I get OH, DS and DD (I think) but some of the others I am struggling with is there a Glossary of Terms please?

Well I had to look up TLA, FrayedEdges, haha! There is a tab at the top entitled 'Acronyms' which liststhe more commonly used here, though there are many more that people use which are not listed!

Oh, and just FYI, it wasn't his prostate disorder, but Parkinson's Disease.

frayed edges perhaps you are confused? PD usually means parkinsons disease which has all sorts of implications for cycling

I have a German Kalkhoff which is fitted with panniers which I use for heavy shopping. Invaluable for our very hilly town. They are considered the best make and this one has served me well for over 12 years now. It is the step through model. Completely trouble free apart from the odd puncture. It has had no intervention apart from 2 routine professional services. I also have a mtb that is non electric, but that is much lighter and has very different gearing and suspension.

Whatever you buy, try first. There are many cheaper e-bikes around, but you get what you pay for.

I would love one of those electric bikes but I do not think that me, London and any type of bike would do very well.

I used to cycle everywhere from being a child, right through to a youngish mother. I loved my bike, but haven't ridden one for years. My DH has relatives who own electric bikes and they sing their praises. I live in a hilly place near Hadrians Wall so if I was to have another bike I'd like an electric one.

Ours is still for sale!

I am sorry I was flippant about the PD, hope I did not offend.

TLA (Three Letter Acronym) is a very old Computer Programmer joke! As in 'I cant understand the documentation it is full of TLAs' lol