I have been doing a lot more research into Electric Bikes since my last post and have found a firm called
https://www.electricbikesales.co.uk/bristolstore . They have stores in Bristol, Cambridge, Oxford, London & York. The previous shops I have visited, at best, let you have half an hour to try the bike, and that, from what I read, is generous.
This distributor encourages you to hire the bike for a longer trial and will refund the hire fee if you purchase it. I borrowed a Gazelle CityZen C8 from them on Sunday and have had two days using it fully. It is an electric assist bike and has 4 levels of assistance. You have to pedal as well to make the motor work and you can choose more help for hills or a headwind, etc. The more help it gives you, the lower the range you can ride. The bike is quoted as having up to a 90 mile range. This is theoretical and is the case with most of them. Air temp, headwinds, size of rider, terrain, etc all play a big part.
It rides like a normal hybrid bike, just heavier. On the Eco mode, the lowest level of assist, it was saying about 80 miles range. One long hill at the highest level of assist and this falls markedly.
I've had two 30-40 mile rides on it and learned a lot about how to get the best out of it. I wouldn't have found this out in a half hour test.
I've been up a couple of hills that I haven't managed since I was a teenager and enjoyed the assistance that the motor gives.
As someone posted earlier, the motor in the pedal crank area is audible, but it can then make use of the gears that the bike has. This bike has 8 hub gears, which means that the range is extended. A front or rear hub motor is quieter, but then has to rotate at the speed you are doing without being able to utilise the gears to reduce the motor's operating speed.
My rides were along the cycle path from Bristol to Bath which is pretty flat and then back to the hills in Bristol, the other was around Bristol, Portishead, Clevedon, Nailsea which was a much more varied terrain involving a fair number of long hills.
It is well worth trying out a bike properly before buying. They are expensive and you want to make sure it will do what you need. I borrowed an electric bike at work with a range of up to 30 miles but that wouldn't take me into work and back without recharging at each end of the journey.
