I am going to buy an electric bicycle - a Wisper 905 - unless you convince me not to.

[mrs quoad]

i think you'd be shocked by a what a modern £6-800 hybrid would do let alone spending the full grand.

Arrrr...

The distant start of my cycling career...

I was - certainly - shocked by how good a £700 hybrid was.

Would you like to buy a second-hand one, Maurice?

 

[mrs quoad]

sheer out fast road bike with mudguards
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/charge/juicer-mid-2010-road-bike-ec020528
enough left over for a messenger bag
or you can buy that ugly thing and have real cyclists mock you and after a year be left with a load of junk when the battery dies

I (L) my Charge

Fixed gear, admittedly, but very very similar frame. I suspect virtually the same

 

[moose]

I think you should get it, Maurice. Cock a snook at all these macho cycling apes, and arrive at t'blacking works unruffled, sweet-smelling and serene. As for maintenance, there are experts you can pay for That Sort Of Thing. I'd have one meself if I didn't have to carry a plethora of laptops to work and back.

 

[gentlegreen]

macho cycling apes

Miss out the "macho" bit (and thereby any implied athleticism) and that's me to a tee.

 

[Boycey]

I think you should get it, Maurice. Cock a snook at all these macho cycling apes, and arrive at t'blacking works unruffled, sweet-smelling and serene. As for maintenance, there are experts you can pay for That Sort Of Thing. I'd have one meself if I didn't have to carry a plethora of laptops to work and back.

 

[fredfelt]

There was a chap who I used to regularly cycle past on the way to work who had an electric bike. Don't see him any more, I guess he has a proper bike now.

 

[fredfelt]

Sounds interesting though. I understand why you feel an electric bike might help. If you do get one please report back! 9 miles is a bit of a trek for a commute - but if you decide to do it by push bike I recon that very soon you'll soon start to enjoy the extra fitness that it will undoubtedly bring you (assuming that you are not doing lots of sports at the moment).

My trip to town on the weekend is 10 miles. On the way back i often wish that I had a helping hand, especially after a couple of beers!

 

[ymu]

How feasible would it be to make some of the battery part of the frame?

There's a few which don't look anything like electric bikes at all.

This one has the battery in the frame:

These ones disguise it as a water bottle:

And this one has stackable batteries in the rear rack:

There's problems though. The infineum (last image) batteries bounce out of the slot if you hop off a pavement. The Powabyke (second image) is delivered with a battery shaped more like a rocket because they can't actually make them the shape used in all the marketing. Cytronex do have the water bottle shaped battery on all their models but they're a newish company and reliability is uncertain. The iZip (first image) has had some good reviews regarding sturdiness, but you can't easily take the battery out so you need to be able to get a power cable to the bike.

We've thought about it for lugging stuff up and down the towpath and for trekking back long distances to retrieve the car when we've moved the boat a long way, and to ease me into tackling longer hillier distances since my back injury. Not sure any of the above are worth the money given the reliability reports.

The Wisper 905 is ugly, but it is one of the better ones out there for features and reliability IIRC. Best range with the upgraded battery, off-road button to delimit the speed, decent sized wheels and fairly solidly built.

 

[fractionMan]

There's one that I see parked at work that has a Lithium Ion battery (usually removed).

Lots of them have li-ion batteries now, which makes a massive difference. They're lighter per amp hour, can stand more recharge cycles and don't completely screw up (sulphate) if they go flat.

 

[London_Calling]

Also, you really need decent showering facilities at work to contemplate that journey on a bike, you could get away without using a two-wheeled hairdryer.

 

[fractionMan]

We've thought about it for lugging stuff up and down the towpath

Which is what I'm thinking about as well. I looked into electric bikes this time last year but they were all a bit crap. Looks like they're getting better.

The Wisper 905 is ugly, but it is one of the better ones out there for features and reliability IIRC. Best range with the upgraded battery, off-road button to delimit the speed, decent sized wheels and fairly solidly built.

The off-road button makes a hell of a lot of sense!

 

[ovaltina]

the batteries are propietry components- you can't just strap a car battery to it when it dies (and they do die

This is what would worry me, going by mobile phones and ipods, batteries are bound to lose power over a few months leaving you with a heavy bike that doesn't go up hills.

Better off getting a normal bike and building up your leg power by parking it halfway, then three quarters, over a few months? Your legs won't need replacing every year (hopefully).

 

[gentlegreen]

Also, you really need decent showering facilities at work to contemplate that journey on a bike,

No you absolutely don't. My journey is half that but I max it out every day and am very free-flowing in the sweat department.
I point blank refuse to use the ones at work. The fumes from other people's bathroom products make me gag if I don't hold my breath when I walk past.

I've been doing it 22 years - a washbasin, two flannels, shower gel and a clean tee shirt is all you need. (and I work in the sort of environment where stinkiness is noticeable). I use the equivalent of a janitor's cupboard.

Probably helps if you have a reasonable diet.

Anyone with a tendency to whiff might need to take more than one bath a week.

 

[Dovydaitis]

im happy with my little Beryl. She cost me a grand total of £55, she aint the lightest of bikes and is a mountain bike but she gets me to work every morning (8 miles) and takes me wherever i wish to go. she has even been on the train when ive gone a lot further afield. there is a bloke on a sakura leccy bike whom i regularly go past on my way home

 

[fractionMan]

This is what would worry me, going by mobile phones and ipods, batteries are bound to lose power over a few months leaving you with a heavy bike that doesn't go up hills.

Better off getting a normal bike and building up your leg power by parking it halfway, then three quarters, over a few months? Your legs won't need replacing every year (hopefully).

If you never let the battery go below 50% (ideally 60%) before recharging they will last for years.

 

[ymu]

The typical figures for battery life are 1000 recharges, 20,000 miles. That's 10 miles every single day for 5 years. And replacement batteries most likely will be available when they die.

 

[weepiper]

we had one of these in the shop today to get a smaller cog fitted

It was actually a pretty well-conceived bit of kit really quite a respectable weight for these things (website says 20 kg including the battery), well specced, decent wheels, XT v-brakes, Alfine hub gears, 26v Lithium Ion battery, shitloads of juice. I had a wee shot and the pedal assist was really good, the motor assists more if you're pedalling harder, and it made short work of the nearest thing to a steep hill I could find near the shop. The owner was a lady who'd got a driving ban and had a 20-mile commute to do. I reckon it was actually a pretty good buy for her purposes. Best part of 2 grand though.