Hello again.
My own bike is single geared, Chinese made, lead acid powered and about the cheapest on the market so far as I know.
I bought it from a man called Ernie near Stoke-on-Trent (I managed not to mention milk floats - just!) after finding him on ebay.

It cost me the grand total of £269.00

He had others - 5 and 6 gear made by the same manufacturer - for £299, but when I tried them I found that for me there didn't seem to be much point in having the extra gears because I wouldn't be using it without the motor and would only need the pedals for speeding me up a bit and getting me up the hills. Also, the single gear one was the only one that had a "proper" frame that I thought would be easily secured with a standard padlock.

The single gear model that I bought has front and back lights and a horn as standard. The 5 and 6 gear models also had brake lights and rear indicators which I would have liked.
When I first tried the bike I was a bit disappointed at the lack of speed and power. I am quite small and light but I still found I had to pedal assist even up quite moderate hills, so I very nearly didn't buy one at all. However, at the price asked I thought I'd take a risk and see how I gone on with it in practice.
It's about two and a half miles from home to work, not far but quite hilly. I find that I save a couple of minutes on the journey, but the main advantage is that when I arrive home I am still feeling quite fresh and don't have to throw myself into a chair to recover from the journey. I also find that when it is wet I don't arrive at my destination all covered in sweat, which is nice for me and the people I work with.

The manual says that it should be good for 25km/hr and do around 40km on a charge of the battery. I never expected this and sure enough it does, I guess, about 18km/hr and around 25km on a charge. The distance between charges isn't a problem - I recharge it overnight about every other day. I sort of wish it was a bit faster though.
When I was looking for bikes on the internet I came across some that had an over-ride button to get more power when using it "off road"(There is a limit on power and speed when using the bike on a public highway.)
I'd be quite interested to try one of these in "off road" mode. Meanwhile, I potter along quite comfortably, being overtaken by almost everything else on the road including even half keen pedal cyclist. Still, it can be quite relaxing to sit back and watch the world go by.
There are two methods of powering up - one is a twist grip as on a motorbike and the other is just to start pedalling which makes the motor cut in. On mine I don't quite get full power without using the twist grip, so I tend to use that pretty well all the time even if I am pedalling. There is a safety cut out which engages whenever the brakes are applied. I don't know if that is standard on all electric bikes but it seems like a good idea to me.

To return to the front page Click Here

To go Lance's page Click Here

To go to the links page Click Here

You can email me at

All the best