Hello all, I hope you can grace a ebike newbie with some knowledge.
I stumbled across EBR as my quest for ebike knowledge expands, and this seems like the right place to ask. I’m sure you’ve had tonnes of “what bike should I buy?” questions posted on this form, but after doing a search I didn’t see any that fit what I was looking for. So, I am looking for a bit of guidance.
Scenario: I hate commuting (well, city driving in general), and since changing office jobs a few years back to a locale that’s much further from home than my previous job, I haven’t been able to ride my standard hybrid Trek bike to work at all, mainly due to sweatiness upon my arrival and no available shower. I’ve considered other modes of transport, such as a 2nd cheap/small/fuel efficient commuter car, or a moped, but now an ebike has my interest.
While the primary goal would be arriving to work in a reasonable amount of time and not a sweaty mess, it will also likely be used for other trips (and fun!) as well, I would be happy with 75-100 rides out of it per year, mostly commuting (tough to ride here in the winter). The ride to work is roughly 12-14km (pending route), major hills can be avoided, and is a mix of standard urban setting (bike lanes, roads, etc).
I am 6’2” and 200lbs, here are the bikes I am currently considering (all prices CDN, all models are new):
Rad Power Rad City 4 ($2k)
EBR seems to give Rad lots of love, but I can’t find much love for them elsewhere. While the price is attractive, I’m a strong believer of “you get what you pay for”. The hub motor seems less desirable then a mid-drive from what I’ve read, this bike is quite heavy compared to the others below, and while I originally thought I wanted a class 2 bike with a throttle, after trying a class 1 I could see why its not necessary (plus may be illegal is some areas) but again, the price. I have no Rad shop near me so this would be a sight unseen online purchase. Is this worth considering, or is a local shop-sold bike at 2x the price a better bet? (IE the below)
Scott Sub Active eRide step over ($3800)
This bike intrigued me until I did some more digging on Bosch motors, I didn’t realize that this used the “weakest” (Active Line) motor vs some others I was looking at. That said, do I need a step up? Or would something like this work for me? It also had a integrated rear wheel lock that I liked, which used the same key as the battery.
Cube Touring Hybrid One E500 ($3850)
This one is similar to the Scott (no rear lock though), but the fellow at the shop said this was an overall better bike… also has a Bosch motor one step up from the Scott, the “Active plus”…
Cube Touring Pro E500 ($4350)
This is the only one I’ve test-rode so far and was surprised at the punch the more powerful Bosch Performance Line motor had, it had a better display (Intuvia, vs Purion’s on the others) and a more solid frame vs the Scott and the Cube Hybrid One. Plus, the salesperson told me that this frame could accept mountain bike tires if I wanted, which I could see making use of. However Cube’s removable battery set up seemed a bit cumbersome to me, and this is getting up there in price.
Trek Verve+ 3 Step over ($4200)
I am partial to Trek bikes, I’ve had a few, however this one seems to be similar spec to the Scott Sub Active and Cube Hybrid One (same motor as the Cube), but for more $. However the Trek removable battery system seems to be super easy to use vs Cube’s, but no front suspension on this one.
Trek Allant+ 7 Step over ($4800)
Again I like Trek, but this one may be too steep for me price wise ( I am open to being sold). It seems similar to the Cube Touring Pro, but has a more powerful motor (CX), has front suspension (unlike the Verve+ 3), but strangely has no chain guard.
Bulls Cross Lite Evo Diamond ($4k)
I’ll be honest, I have no idea what a “Bulls” bike is. I literally stumbled upon it this weekend on a local shop’s website. It seems to have pretty good specs (and a CX Bosch motor) compared to the others above, and a claimed 215km of range on a Bosch Powertube 500w on the shops' site (can that be right?). I can’t seem to find much online about them, other than their own website, even the Bulls form here on EBR seems to be very quiet. Is this worth taking a closer look at?
Other bikes I’ve considered:
Cube Kathmandu One E500 ($4600)
This may be overkill for what I need, but it has a more powerful motor (CX) then the Cube Touring Pro. Price is steep.
Pedego City Commuter Mid-drive ($4k +/-)
Pedego actually just opened up a local-to-me shop this month, however I don’t like the placement of the battery on most of their bikes, and the Trek and Cube bikes look much better, with the prices being comparable.
Any thoughts you can share would be appreciated. Is there any others I should consider? Is there something im (likely) missing? Things important to me are power, price, reliability, and features, not necessarily in that order, I am not much of a do-it-yourselfer so I am unlikely to do any major tinkering or mods after the fact. I am hoping to make this buy in the next few weeks before the weather is nicer and stock is depleted and I’m stuck without a bike.
Thank you in advance!
I stumbled across EBR as my quest for ebike knowledge expands, and this seems like the right place to ask. I’m sure you’ve had tonnes of “what bike should I buy?” questions posted on this form, but after doing a search I didn’t see any that fit what I was looking for. So, I am looking for a bit of guidance.
Scenario: I hate commuting (well, city driving in general), and since changing office jobs a few years back to a locale that’s much further from home than my previous job, I haven’t been able to ride my standard hybrid Trek bike to work at all, mainly due to sweatiness upon my arrival and no available shower. I’ve considered other modes of transport, such as a 2nd cheap/small/fuel efficient commuter car, or a moped, but now an ebike has my interest.
While the primary goal would be arriving to work in a reasonable amount of time and not a sweaty mess, it will also likely be used for other trips (and fun!) as well, I would be happy with 75-100 rides out of it per year, mostly commuting (tough to ride here in the winter). The ride to work is roughly 12-14km (pending route), major hills can be avoided, and is a mix of standard urban setting (bike lanes, roads, etc).
I am 6’2” and 200lbs, here are the bikes I am currently considering (all prices CDN, all models are new):
Rad Power Rad City 4 ($2k)
EBR seems to give Rad lots of love, but I can’t find much love for them elsewhere. While the price is attractive, I’m a strong believer of “you get what you pay for”. The hub motor seems less desirable then a mid-drive from what I’ve read, this bike is quite heavy compared to the others below, and while I originally thought I wanted a class 2 bike with a throttle, after trying a class 1 I could see why its not necessary (plus may be illegal is some areas) but again, the price. I have no Rad shop near me so this would be a sight unseen online purchase. Is this worth considering, or is a local shop-sold bike at 2x the price a better bet? (IE the below)
Scott Sub Active eRide step over ($3800)
This bike intrigued me until I did some more digging on Bosch motors, I didn’t realize that this used the “weakest” (Active Line) motor vs some others I was looking at. That said, do I need a step up? Or would something like this work for me? It also had a integrated rear wheel lock that I liked, which used the same key as the battery.
Cube Touring Hybrid One E500 ($3850)
This one is similar to the Scott (no rear lock though), but the fellow at the shop said this was an overall better bike… also has a Bosch motor one step up from the Scott, the “Active plus”…
Cube Touring Pro E500 ($4350)
This is the only one I’ve test-rode so far and was surprised at the punch the more powerful Bosch Performance Line motor had, it had a better display (Intuvia, vs Purion’s on the others) and a more solid frame vs the Scott and the Cube Hybrid One. Plus, the salesperson told me that this frame could accept mountain bike tires if I wanted, which I could see making use of. However Cube’s removable battery set up seemed a bit cumbersome to me, and this is getting up there in price.
Trek Verve+ 3 Step over ($4200)
I am partial to Trek bikes, I’ve had a few, however this one seems to be similar spec to the Scott Sub Active and Cube Hybrid One (same motor as the Cube), but for more $. However the Trek removable battery system seems to be super easy to use vs Cube’s, but no front suspension on this one.
Trek Allant+ 7 Step over ($4800)
Again I like Trek, but this one may be too steep for me price wise ( I am open to being sold). It seems similar to the Cube Touring Pro, but has a more powerful motor (CX), has front suspension (unlike the Verve+ 3), but strangely has no chain guard.
Bulls Cross Lite Evo Diamond ($4k)
I’ll be honest, I have no idea what a “Bulls” bike is. I literally stumbled upon it this weekend on a local shop’s website. It seems to have pretty good specs (and a CX Bosch motor) compared to the others above, and a claimed 215km of range on a Bosch Powertube 500w on the shops' site (can that be right?). I can’t seem to find much online about them, other than their own website, even the Bulls form here on EBR seems to be very quiet. Is this worth taking a closer look at?
Other bikes I’ve considered:
Cube Kathmandu One E500 ($4600)
This may be overkill for what I need, but it has a more powerful motor (CX) then the Cube Touring Pro. Price is steep.
Pedego City Commuter Mid-drive ($4k +/-)
Pedego actually just opened up a local-to-me shop this month, however I don’t like the placement of the battery on most of their bikes, and the Trek and Cube bikes look much better, with the prices being comparable.
Any thoughts you can share would be appreciated. Is there any others I should consider? Is there something im (likely) missing? Things important to me are power, price, reliability, and features, not necessarily in that order, I am not much of a do-it-yourselfer so I am unlikely to do any major tinkering or mods after the fact. I am hoping to make this buy in the next few weeks before the weather is nicer and stock is depleted and I’m stuck without a bike.
Thank you in advance!
No experience with Shimano. No experience with Bosch.
