Need advice on first e-bike purchase

slomo4398

New Member
I am a 58 year old newby to electric bikes. I am looking to purchase my first electric bike. I do not want to spend more than $2,000. I have ridden bikes all my life. I commute daily to work on my bike and I do some occasional mountain biking. The idea of pedal assist while mountain biking intrigues me a lot. I think it would get me into the back country more (and farther into the back country). But I am also concerned that electric bikes are not allowed on many trails. So I am looking for advice on which bike would be best for commuting and some trail riding. Thanks.

Some bikes that look intriguing:
Haibike SDURO HardNine 4.0
Magnum Peak
Voltbike Enduro
 
Wow, they have ignored your post.
Haibike gets compliments here, but you're not going to get one for $2000. The hardnine does come in different sized frames, to fit your body type. A 29" wheel, I guess you're long legged? Those are for big people, not for me. mid drives are very popular, but they do wear out chains, and don't have a 3 speed front sprocket to get up the grade home if something fails out on the trail. I had to pedal my experiment home twice, once for bad battery, once for bad motor or controller.
If you need maintenance help, consider buying whatever is available at a dealer near you. I'm 180 miles from the nearest dealer, I would be completely on my own. Your town may be more with it.
The front suspension of the haibike looks helpful. I found a hard frame even with 2.1" diameter tires is too jiggly above 10 mph on real pavement. 27 mph required glass smooth pavement, I couldn't watch fast enough to avoid huge shocks on bad pavement.
I'm age 67, tried to double my range (30 miles pedaling) by going electric with a front power wheel kit and a 15 AH 48v battery. I bought the wrong kit, got 60 miles before I blew up something. The good thing about geared power wheel, there is no drag if the kit fails. 6 lb battery is not going to get you very far out, IMHO. Mine was 14 lb.
So buying an assembled bike gets you a warrenty. However shipping a bad bike to factory would be a **** though with no dealer around. Buy what the dealer sells. My boat anchor only cost $260, I can throw it away and try again this year. Beats keeping a huge cardboard box for a year and repacking a bike in it without a huge staple gun.
In your price range there are giant and trek, which do have large dealer networks. Look around at those and see if you can find something that suits you.
 
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