Electric Bikes

uptomyeyeballs

SailorSam wrote: »

Do you mind me asking what it costs ?

It's about £13.50 / month. This covers 3rd party accident liability and recovery, as well as theft as long as an approved lock is used.

thescouselander

SailorSam wrote: »

I can't see how you work out it's cost £1 a mile to run.
The Op still has his bike and it's probably still worth £1k, so it's cost about £600 for the year.
What's that about the same as it would have cost to get the bus, and a lot less than if he drove a car.

Uptomyeyeballs, what have you done about insurance. i've looked at electric bikes (i like the Oxygen), and wondered if my house insurance policy would cover it.

I was just comparing the going rate for the OPs bike vs the amount of milage they said they had done so far. Obviously if they got the bike cheaper or continued to ride the bike the cost calculation would work out differently - I wasn't assuming any residual value for the bike either.

Horizon81

Mate of mine bought an 'Ezee Torq' electric bike. It provided a few laughs in the car park but the battery broke after a few months and it never got used again. Just a fad.

uptomyeyeballs

I think ebikes are no different to any other purchase ie. you get what you pay for. Some are better than others. I don't have any experience of Ezee Torq bikes, so can't really comment about their quality/reliability. I've only had this current problem recently with the Wisper battery, and i've actually had the bike since August 2009, so 18 months of use so far. I did 1600+ miles last summer, and probably another 500 before that.

I'm not sure if you should include depreciation in the cost of running the bike. People don't do it for their cars, after all you'll lose £5k on a new car just by driving it of the forecourt, so why do it for bikes? It costs 3p per charge, every other day. A new battery is going to be the biggest outlay overall, but a battery should normally last 2-3 years, so can be budgeted for (£3-5 a week). My warranty replacement battery is being delivered today and i'll be travelling to work again at the start of May. Looking forward to it.

custardy

uptomyeyeballs wrote: »

No pics of me on the bike unfortunately. The bike did that mileage last year whilst I was cycling to work and back, between May and October. The battery was replaced under warranty, free of charge, because a fault had developed on it (great after-sales at Wisper!).

On the subject of cost, the alternative is the bus (don't have a car). This would currently cost £5.40 per day, so the bike is much cheaper for me once I'd bought it. Once i've used it this year, it'll be 50p per mile, and so on. The bike frame will last years, and replacing the battery will only really need to be done every 2-3 years on current usage, although a new high capacity battery can be £500, so best to budget for it. No V.E.D. to pay though.

I lost 20 lbs in weight over the period last year, so the bike is still doing good in terms of fitness for me. I have dodgy knees and the area where I live is very hilly, hence the choice of an electric bike. I only tend to use pedal assist where I need it, otherwise motor is turned off. It still gives you a workout, believe me!

The range per charge is about 40 miles, but it depends on wind, road surface, weight carried, etc. Overall, i'm pleased with it. As I say, it gets me to work and back without much problem, and also gets me outside into the fresh air. I'm not really interested in being a lycra clad speed merchant, so that's why I chose it over a conventional model.

I know Im late to the party here but theres a bit of a conflict for me with these bikes
you have a electric motor to help on the hills
but are pushing a bike thats easily twice the weight(23-24.5kg) of a bike half its price?
you could get a road bike thats half the price and under 10kg
just seems a bit chicken and egg that you feel the benefit of thje motor on the hills as you are pushing a behemoth on the flats