E-bikes?

We looked at them, Micky, but discounted them due to their weight. They’re probably fine in a MH garage but heavier than I’d want to carry on a bike rack. The lightest seem to be around 22kg and, even if you remove the batteries, they are still weighty due to the motors. 

Cheers Tinny, I appreciate this, one reason for downsizing our van is to increase payload plus the extra exercise the bikes provided will hopefully mean Mrssf and I will actually loose weight. Probably not as much as 44kg collectively mind!

Micky, youre right, theres a lot to digest due to different drive systems, front hub, rear hub or centre crank drive...Panasonic, Bosch, Yamaha, Kalkhoff's Impulse etc....

there are so many variables and price is a key one (possibly as in choosing a MH) as more options become available.

rather than bang on about our bikes, I would just recommend two things...

one, have a read of a website like pedelec.com to get into the mode and two, visit somewhere like 50 Cycles (several stores around) as they only do electric bikes and get out and try a few different styles.

Ive done nearly 11,000km on mine in under 4 years and OH probably as many (or even more) on hers as she's had it for 6 years. 

re: weight, there are low height towball mounted racks that make for very easy loading, our pals have one.....however, ours live in a garage.

"re: weight, there are low height towball mounted racks that make for very easy loading, our pals have one...."

The drawback there is needing a towbar which will further reduce the payload.

It's a difficult one for sure.

Saw this conversion on yahoo news .new rubbee x e bike conversion  for your existing bikes

A couple of posters on here have converted their bikes. Maybe they’ll see this and post.

We are on our 3rd set of Ebikes.

First set was 12 years ago full size bikes and we carried them on a tow ball mounted bike rack on the back of the car while towing a caravan.

The second set was 20" wheel folding bikes carried on a fiamma bike rack on the rear of the MH (still have them)

The 3rd set of bikes we have recently bought are again full size 1 x 26" 1 x 28" pedelec bikes from 50 cycles, also carried on the rear rack of the MH.

The new bikes are the lightest ones we've had so far at 21 kg without batteries. We don't have a weight problem with our MH so its not an issue for us.

I had  good  folding none electric bike and looked into converting it to electric. A kit cost just as much as some of the cheaper electric bikes which I eventually decided to buy instead. I get on fine with the one I bought from >A S Bikes<

peedee

true, re payload, though i would hope a 6m van (PVC or coachbuilt) would have sufficient payload to carry this, but may depend on the model...

i was also thinking of weight with regard to lifting, obviously a low rack is easier that getting them up onto a higher mounted Fiamma rack.

if i wanted electric bikes as my 'other' mode of transport, i would ensure the van could cope, for us to have a van that couldnt do this would be a deal breaker.

depends on how M gets on with bike and van investigations....

just need to get that balance right...

It's priorities again. For us, the lekky bikes were little more than an idle thought but it sounds as if they could be more important to Micky.

I'm not sure that a high level rack could take the weight of two e-bikes quite apart from the lifting issue.