Cycling UK Forum

Hi,

I was wondering if anybody has any advice on where is the best place to source an electric bike - not convinced by the local bike sheds as they seem a bit short of knowledge compared to traditional bikes.

Any help gratefully received !

Regards

James

After doing a lot of research I have ordered from here. https://www.gudereit-uk.com/

Speak to Duncan, he is most helpful and a real person with huge kowledge of the bikes and the country where they are made - Germany. I had quite a few conversations with Duncan before ordering and delivery is scheduled for end of August. I've got a normal German trakking/commuting bike from Ortler and can vouch for German engineering. Being married to a German I am of course biased!

Hope this helps.

Thanks I will give them a go.

Regards

JB

gremlin wrote:After doing a lot of research I have ordered from here. https://www.gudereit-uk.com/

Speak to Duncan, he is most helpful and a real person with huge kowledge of the bikes and the country where they are made - Germany. I had quite a few conversations with Duncan before ordering and delivery is scheduled for end of August. I've got a normal German trakking/commuting bike from Ortler and can vouch for German engineering. Being married to a German I am of course biased!

Hope this helps.

That is a very interesting link @gremlin. Gudereit seem like a real high quality company. I'm a big fan of German engineered products. So well made and reliable. I had been wondering if any e-bike manufacturer produced a bike with a rohloff hub (I have 2 x Thorn non e bikes with Rohloff gear hubs that are fantastic) and for it to also have belt drive transmission.The company state theirs is the only one!

Just a few observations though. The Gudereit uk website shows Shaldon, Devon and Disley near Stockport as being UK Dealers. The Stockport dealer is my nearest at just 23 miles away from where I live. When I visited their website I noticed that every model of the Gudereit e bike range was shown as out of stock. There was no information or pictures on the bikes at all! I hope it isn't a case of great product, poor sales/after sales provision.

More generally, I see the total weight of all their range is in excess of 22kg. The OP needs to consider if an e bike is required just to give assist occasionally (e.g. when climbing hills or when tired) of if e assist is required all the time. If it is the former a 20kg+ bike would be extremely heavy to cycle unassisted even on the flat. The other question I would ask is how difficult is it to remove a rear wheel and fix a puncture on a belt drive bike? Would the belt need re-tensioning and is it all a bit of a ffaf, especially if cold, wet and dark at the roadside. I have a 10 year old Trek Soho bike that is belt driven with a nexus hub gear unit. I used it as my commute to work bike for 8 years until I retired. Fortunately, I never had a puncture.I enjoyed riding it immensely. But I've never really understood why after all this time, belt driven bike sales have not really taken off!

I have a nice German Bike. A Kalkoff Intergrale i8. I does not have a Rohloff but it does have a belt drive and a Shimano Alfine 8 speed hub. I find I don't need the 14 speeds of the Rohloff with an e-Bike. The gearing was sufficient to take me over Hardnots pass without getting off complete with paniers.


https://www.kalkhoff-bikes.com/en_gb/kh ... -excite-i8

But I've never really understood why after all this time, belt driven bike sales have not really taken off!

Price, I imagine.

Oldjohnw wrote:

But I've never really understood why after all this time, belt driven bike sales have not really taken off!

Price, I imagine.

I don't think a belt drive bike is any more expensive than a chain driven bike assuming all other things are broadly equal i.e both types of bike having the same in gear hub unit etc. I can understand why speed orientated/competitive road bike users don't like belt drive as there is a slight 'drag' effect which is detrimental to speed. But this is imperceptible to the non competitive leisure cyclist. I consider the virtual nil maintenance of the belt and longevity over the chain to be a huge plus factor.

How about tabulating the advantages and disadvantages of belt drive?

Jonathan

Jdsk wrote:How about tabulating the advantages and disadvantages of belt drive?

Jonathan

I think there have been other threads on this but I'm too lazy to look.

I don't want to encourage thread drift from the OP topic.

I somehow missed this thread when it started. One good place to buy an ebike is Woosh (https://wooshbikes.co.uk/). They are almost at the opposite end of the price spectrum to Gudereit mentioned above. They only sell direct, but their bikes are good quality and they give excellent support. (The OP didn't say what sort of price range he was interested in.)

Sadly more and more local bike shops are not providing the support they should; this is true for general bikes but especially true for ebikes where many LBSs just don't have the knowledge. This is yet more true for the more upmarket e-bikes with drives such as Bosch or Shimano; where often the manufacturer doesn't let the bike shop do much more to the electrics than plug a computer into the bike to update the firmware and provide diagnostics.

I bought an Ortler from Bikester. Very happy, great bike.

Al

Hi,where are you based.? ON-BIKE Worcester are Brilliant,for really helping to find you the right bike for you.Nothing is to much trouble,You’ll be in pressed with the Service.ask for Martin.if you want to contact me 07970-461589 Regards Darrell.

Where to buy depends on the type/style of bike, the terrain to be ridden and price range you plan on spending.
Buy mid drive then you are beholden to that specific bike shop (in most cases) for after service, and once the manufacturer 2 year warranty elapses they become expensive to repair in the main. One can only used locked in brand batteries so unable to use any old generic type.
Buy a hub motor bike then in general repairs can be done at home cheaply and new electronic systems can easily be replaced for well less then £100.
Both types of bike offer a different riding style, it may depend if you want a sportier ride or a more leisurely ride.

Littgull wrote:

gremlin wrote:After doing a lot of research I have ordered from here. https://www.gudereit-uk.com/

Speak to Duncan, he is most helpful and a real person with huge kowledge of the bikes and the country where they are made - Germany. I had quite a few conversations with Duncan before ordering and delivery is scheduled for end of August. I've got a normal German trakking/commuting bike from Ortler and can vouch for German engineering. Being married to a German I am of course biased!

Hope this helps.

That is a very interesting link @gremlin. Gudereit seem like a real high quality company. I'm a big fan of German engineered products. So well made and reliable. I had been wondering if any e-bike manufacturer produced a bike with a rohloff hub (I have 2 x Thorn non e bikes with Rohloff gear hubs that are fantastic) and for it to also have belt drive transmission.The company state theirs is the only one!

Just a few observations though. The Gudereit uk website shows Shaldon, Devon and Disley near Stockport as being UK Dealers. The Stockport dealer is my nearest at just 23 miles away from where I live. When I visited their website I noticed that every model of the Gudereit e bike range was shown as out of stock. There was no information or pictures on the bikes at all! I hope it isn't a case of great product, poor sales/after sales provision.

More generally, I see the total weight of all their range is in excess of 22kg. The OP needs to consider if an e bike is required just to give assist occasionally (e.g. when climbing hills or when tired) of if e assist is required all the time. If it is the former a 20kg+ bike would be extremely heavy to cycle unassisted even on the flat. The other question I would ask is how difficult is it to remove a rear wheel and fix a puncture on a belt drive bike? Would the belt need re-tensioning and is it all a bit of a ffaf, especially if cold, wet and dark at the roadside. I have a 10 year old Trek Soho bike that is belt driven with a nexus hub gear unit. I used it as my commute to work bike for 8 years until I retired. Fortunately, I never had a puncture.I enjoyed riding it immensely. But I've never really understood why after all this time, belt driven bike sales have not really taken off!

Duncan is based in Shaldon and is the CEO of Gudereit UK, so I would recommend speaking to him first. Their marketing, with images and video could certainly be improved and i would imagine this will happen as they become more established. There are some Youtube posts on their models, but again these could be improved. If you have not seen them, Reisse und Muller, another German brand also sell a Rohloff belt drive bike, but they are considerably more expensive. They have numerous retailers in the UK.
I did look for a Koga with Rohloff and belt drive, but they only offer the Enviolo hub. Having a Koga with a Rohloff and chain as my touring bike, I am surprised they are not offering the Rohloff/belt combination on an E bike. The Rohloff gearing might well be overkill on an E bike, but i personally would not change from a Rohloff.

The question of punctures on Rohloff/belt drive bikes is one i certainly need more information on and will be asking about this when i pick up my new e bike. I would hope it is no more difficult than a Rohloff/chain type puncture, which i find easy enough. Being on holiday at the moment and at the local reservoir yesterday (near Dortmund) I saw numerous Reisse und Muller and Gudereit E bikes, as well as many other popular German brands like Kalkhoff and Cube. Like you I am a massive fan of German engineering and cant imagine a situation where the after sales and product reliability will be any thing other than first class.

gremlin wrote:

Littgull wrote:

gremlin wrote:After doing a lot of research I have ordered from here. https://www.gudereit-uk.com/

Speak to Duncan, he is most helpful and a real person with huge kowledge of the bikes and the country where they are made - Germany. I had quite a few conversations with Duncan before ordering and delivery is scheduled for end of August. I've got a normal German trakking/commuting bike from Ortler and can vouch for German engineering. Being married to a German I am of course biased!

Hope this helps.

That is a very interesting link @gremlin. Gudereit seem like a real high quality company. I'm a big fan of German engineered products. So well made and reliable. I had been wondering if any e-bike manufacturer produced a bike with a rohloff hub (I have 2 x Thorn non e bikes with Rohloff gear hubs that are fantastic) and for it to also have belt drive transmission.The company state theirs is the only one!

Just a few observations though. The Gudereit uk website shows Shaldon, Devon and Disley near Stockport as being UK Dealers. The Stockport dealer is my nearest at just 23 miles away from where I live. When I visited their website I noticed that every model of the Gudereit e bike range was shown as out of stock. There was no information or pictures on the bikes at all! I hope it isn't a case of great product, poor sales/after sales provision.

More generally, I see the total weight of all their range is in excess of 22kg. The OP needs to consider if an e bike is required just to give assist occasionally (e.g. when climbing hills or when tired) of if e assist is required all the time. If it is the former a 20kg+ bike would be extremely heavy to cycle unassisted even on the flat. The other question I would ask is how difficult is it to remove a rear wheel and fix a puncture on a belt drive bike? Would the belt need re-tensioning and is it all a bit of a ffaf, especially if cold, wet and dark at the roadside. I have a 10 year old Trek Soho bike that is belt driven with a nexus hub gear unit. I used it as my commute to work bike for 8 years until I retired. Fortunately, I never had a puncture.I enjoyed riding it immensely. But I've never really understood why after all this time, belt driven bike sales have not really taken off!

Duncan is based in Shaldon and is the CEO of Gudereit UK, so I would recommend speaking to him first. Their marketing, with images and video could certainly be improved and i would imagine this will happen as they become more established. There are some Youtube posts on their models, but again these could be improved. If you have not seen them, Reisse und Muller, another German brand also sell a Rohloff belt drive bike, but they are considerably more expensive. They have numerous retailers in the UK.
I did look for a Koga with Rohloff and belt drive, but they only offer the Enviolo hub. Having a Koga with a Rohloff and chain as my touring bike, I am surprised they are not offering the Rohloff/belt combination on an E bike. The Rohloff gearing might well be overkill on an E bike, but i personally would not change from a Rohloff.

The question of punctures on Rohloff/belt drive bikes is one i certainly need more information on and will be asking about this when i pick up my new e bike. I would hope it is no more difficult than a Rohloff/chain type puncture, which i find easy enough. Being on holiday at the moment and at the local reservoir yesterday (near Dortmund) I saw numerous Reisse und Muller and Gudereit E bikes, as well as many other popular German brands like Kalkhoff and Cube. Like you I am a massive fan of German engineering and cant imagine a situation where the after sales and product reliability will be any thing other than first class.

Very useful information and interesting points you make, Simon. I can see why you are excited about getting your Gudereit e bike. It looks a superb machine. Yes, I too have wondered whether Rohloff hub gears are overkill for an e bike but like you I would be very reluctant to 'sacrifice' having it for a less durable unit. My two Thorn bikes with rohloff hub gears are an absolute joy to ride. I have them very low geared as I live in a very hilly area in the Pennines so thankfully still manage to get up 25%+ hills. The dilemma I have though is that although I have a good level of fitness, at 66 years of age my arthritic knees are slowly worsening. I'm having to 'restrict' my long day rides of 60+ miles to flatter terrain to save straining my knees. So at this stage of my cycling life what I really could do with is a 'lightweight' quality e bike where I would just use the electric assist for long or steep climbs. Such as a Ribble or an Orbea (unfortunately they only do derailleur models). I don't feel I yet need an e bike that is high quality (and so high cost!) but so heavy it will require constant use of the assist mode. However, if my arthritis accelerates I might find that the heavier e bike is needed sooner rather than later but I could't justify splashing out large sums of cash on both the lightweight occasional assist bike and the heavyweight constant assist bike within a couple of years of each other.

Good luck with your new bike Simon,e and I'm sure you will get endless hours of pleasure with it.