The right e-bike

THE RIGHT E-BIKE

First pick a bike that suits the surfaces you will traverse.

You may wish to purely ride on city streets or solely faraway singletracks. Perhaps you’d like to commute and still be able to ride the river trails on weekends. Better yet, you might wish to explore the New Zealand Cycle trails in your holidays. We have bikes for every gradient from purely off road to strictly on-road.

This is your first decision in finding the right e-bike, consider how much you will ride on-road vs off road. We recommend you buy a bike that suits the riding you will do most often. Bikes suitable for gravel trails will have wider tyres and usually front and/or rear suspension. Bikes for street only will have narrower tyres and sometimes only a rigid front fork. You can use the filters on the shop page to choose which terrain suits your style.

Now consider what demands will you place on the motor and battery.

Think about your typical weekly use. How far will you need to ride daily? Are there steep hills or is it flat as a pancake. Higher quality motor systems perform better when tested against steep Wellington hills. If you have a long commute or want to go touring on your e-bike you may need a large battery capacity or a dual battery system. If you just want to run errands around the flat parts of town then you might get by on a more affordable mid-drive motor system, with a smaller battery capacity.

The harder you work your ebike the larger the battery and the more powerful a motor you will need. Fortunately, no one ever complained about too powerful a motor or too much charge in their battery. If in doubt, go up a grade. For more information about what sort of range you can expect from your e-bike, click here.

Think about what riding position you find comfortable.

When riding an e-bike there is no need to be tucked down low into the wind as the motor simply pushes you through it, but if you’re an experienced rider you may find that a sporty riding position is more familiar and comfortable. If you’re new or newly returning to cycling you might prefer an upright step-thru bike, generally new riders feel safer riding upright. Perhaps you’d like a mix of both in which case a mid-step frame will typically give you that semi upright riding position. The riding position on most bikes can be customised somewhat with adjustable handlebars and seat positions. We can help you with this in-store. Use the frame style filters in our shop pages to choose your desired riding position.

Now that you know the style of bike you want, how much will you carry with you?

Perhaps you only need to carry a laptop in a pannier, or perhaps you’d like to use your bike for everything including dropping off the children to daycare or adventuring with your longboard and camping gear. This is where we determine whether an ordinary e-bike, Utility bike or Cargo bike might liberate your life a little extra. If you want to carry all your children you should check our page about Cargo Bike children-carrying capacities here. If you just want to carry a pannier, then just ensure your bike comes with a rack, or ask us if one can be fitted. Generally standard racks will carry up to 25kg. We also have a range of baskets to fit the front of most of our e-bikes.