eBike like my Specialized Tricross for £3k

[a06275]

I'm seriously considering taking advantage of my employer's cycle to work scheme this month (window then closed for 12 months), and buying an ebike for myself. I used to ride a reasonable amount about 10 years ago (would do 30-40 miles most weekends), but since then I've gained weight, wife, house, and kids and lost fitness, hair, and free time. The children are now older and so need less constant attention, and I'm also now doing multiple things to improve my health, so resuming cycling would be another thing I can do.

When I used to cycle, it was all road cycling and, because of my weight, I bought a Specialized Tricross cyclocross bike which I adored. I loved the hand positions from the drop bars, the speed of the road-style wheels and the extra robustness that the cyclocross-optimised frame gave me. Fast forward to a couple of years ago and I tried an ebike on a Center Parcs holiday and found it as helpful as I hoped while still involving enough effort on some of the hills to really feel like I was doing much more than just sitting on a couch in front of the telly.

So, does anyone have any idea how to combine these? It seems pretty easy to find a good touring ebike (Trek Allant+ 7 looks great), and it seems slightly less easy but still feasible to find a decent road ebike, but trying to get the assistance level/range (i.e. 75+Nm/500w) and robustness of a touring bike with the drop handlebars of a road bike seems very difficult, and any desire to add cyclocross mid-bar brakelevers seems pretty much impossible.

I'm going to be using the Halfords Cycle2Work scheme, so it limits slightly what I can get, but not that much ... obviously Halfords, plus Tredz and then most local shops seem to be included as well.

All advice welcome!

[amoto65]

Have you had a look at the Specialized Creo? I bought the gravel version a few months ago and it is fantastic, It copes with all the climbing I do around the Peak District albeit a it expensive. If you are going to use Halfords you could check out the Boardman range, Orbea and Ribble are also quite good.

[amoto65]

Also mid-bar sub brakes can be added to the Specialized in tandem with the standard levers.

[Jdsk]

Recent discussion of the Orbea Gain:
https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=141084&hilit=orbea

Jonathan

[StelvioStu]

One option may be to buy a kit and add it to an existing bike or one of your choice?
I've recently added a rear hub kit to my steel framed Rourke that I've had for several years. It's a lovely comfy bike to ride but I wanted some assistance to get me back into cycling as I'm in my 60s now.
The kit has transformed the bike, probably only done 200 miles so far but just the job for me. I normally use level 3 (of 5) and this lets me average about 15mph, generally kicking in just on the climbs or against a headwind. Range good too at that level, 40 mile ride and still about 50% remaining if one believes the meter. Level 5 takes my average speed up to about 20mph but obviously range is affected and I feel like the bike is doing too much. I want some exercise after all

[Grandad]

Level 5 takes my average speed up to about 20mph

Assuming that the motor cuts out at 15mph you must be either fitter than you think or are going downhill

[StelvioStu]

"Assuming that the motor cuts out at 15mph you must be either fitter than you think or are going downhill "

Sorry, I should have mentioned that the kit is slightly above the legal allowance for wattage. 350 ipo 250W, but please don't tell.

For £350 it has transformed a great bike into a power assisted great bike. The only "watch out" I would say is that the hub width of my kit is 135mm. My bike's was 130mm which meant I needed to stretch it a bit. Fine on a steel bike but wouldn't recommend with anything else.

[hemo]

"Assuming that the motor cuts out at 15mph you must be either fitter than you think or are going downhill "

Sorry, I should have mentioned that the kit is slightly above the legal allowance for wattage. 350 ipo 250W, but please don't tell.

For £350 it has transformed a great bike into a power assisted great bike. The only "watch out" I would say is that the hub width of my kit is 135mm. My bike's was 130mm which meant I needed to stretch it a bit. Fine on a steel bike but wouldn't recommend with anything else.

Sounds like you have a speed control kit, each PAS level has a max set speed so one has to keep changing levels to get the speed.

I use current control and get the same max speed in all assist levels, if I want power for hills I simply up the level.
Mostly I ride in PAS 1 as I obtain the same speed as in PAS 5, the difference is PAS 1 uses only 13% power /watts available and PAS 5 100% current. Mine cuts at 16.7mph but rides nicely above the cut off, no one is going to be done for riding at about 18 -20 mph on an ebike. Up to 17.05mph assisted one is with in 10% tolerance of 15.5mph speed limit.

Even the Dalston guy with a 1000w bike that accidently killed the women who walked in to his path wasn't done for speeding.

[StelvioStu]

[quote][Sounds like you have a speed control kit, each PAS level has a max set speed so one has to keep changing levels to get the speed.uote]

I'm very new to this but yes, it sounds like my PAS type is the speed control kit. My kit (obviously Chinese) is a Yose 350W kit you can see on eBay with a nice write up done by somebody on YouTube. Also have a thumb throttle fitted but rarely (never) use it. I just like pedal assist.

Just for my interest, I have a 19km route which I plan to do 3 times in each of the power levels (3,4,5) and compare the averages on Strava. I've done level 5 and it works out at 30.7 kph (19.2 mph). Only done one circuit on level 3 but that came in at 24.7 (15.4), just want the weather to warm up a bit.

[StelvioStu]

I must learn how to add quotes properly

[hemo]

I thought that was the kit you had, they are very popular for the price.
Pre 2020 kits used the KT current control kits with 270rpm hubs, but for 2020 they changed over to Lishui speed control kits with slower wound hubs which give better torque. If you ever try current control you may find them more pleasant to use.
If you have 700c rims then the max speed suggests the hub is a 230rpm wound motor for 19mph.

[a06275]

Thanks for the replies all. Sounds like it won't be easy to get exactly what I want. If I go more road-bike then I'll lose the power and battery life; if I get all the power and battery-life, I'll end up with a straight-bar'd tourer. Maybe I'll enjoy that more ... the Trek Allant and Haibikes look very good. Have ended up getting the voucher for £3.5k and it'll last for a total length of 8 months, so plenty of time to choose the right bike once it's a bit safer to visit the bike shops!

[stodd]

Good luck choosing something, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. One word of warning. Not sure how serious the risks are, just pointing them out.

Lead times are very long on most ebikes at the moment; that will probably reduce but ...??? Do you have to spend the voucher by 8 months? If you pay for the bike in full in advance and the seller goes bankrupt before delivery it could be an expensive mistake, and with the voucher you probably won't have credit card protection either. So don't hang about too long choosing.

[bikercolin]

I went from a Diverge to a Cain.
I have to say I prefer the ride on the Cain. I have ridden the Cairn over 2000 miles with no great issues including touring the Pennine Way this year.