grannygears

Hello, I am brand new to the e-bike community and I am looking at buying a commuter style e-bike in the near future. I am located in southern Ontario Canada so my availability to boutique brands might be limited. I am looking at the Aventon Level 2 and reading about it as much as possible. I am also looking at the Ride 1 Up 700 series but I'm not sure about availability in Canada. That is the "style" of bike that I am looking for, a comfortable, sporty hybrid style with slicker tires for pavement and gravel pathways.

I am not looking for a foldable, or athletic hybrid, or drop bar road bike. I guess it's as close to a comfort hybrid or hybrid style commuter in a normal pedal bike.

My budget is about $2000 US I guess, that puts me at $2600 Canadian give or take, I can get a Aventon Level 2 for that price here in Canada.

Please give me some suggestions on any other manufactures or models I should be looking at. How do the big bike companies e-bikes like Cannondale, Specialized, Giant compare to companies that just make e bikes like Aventon?

What are some features that I should be looking for as well as mileage and components? I should also mention I am looking for a step over style as much as possible. I am 40 years old and fairly fit and active. I do not need a foldable or step through frame. Thanks

2old

Basically, many non-big bike company e-commuters are hub driven and OEM's are mid-drives. Hubs are excellent for commuting unless you're adding off road or steep hills into the equation. IMO, for a newbie, a local shop is preferable. Bottom line: in your situation, I would buy locally or the Velotric Thunder 1ST ($1299 US).

veganbikes

I would look at something with a Bosch set up. It will be initially above your current budget but in the end will be cheaper and with much better support and long term availability.

If you can find a Gazelle dealer the Medeo T10 would be a good long term bicycle it has decent parts on it and is Bosch equipped and is from one of the oldest bike brands in the world and is generally cheaper than say a Trek or similar bike. Plus with your local shop you have actual support from them rahter than with some of the online brands a lot of shops won't service them and a lot of online D2C brands won't provide decent support to their own products.

Darth Lefty 

I think to get a premium name brand bike with a Bosch motor you’d have to shop at twice your price. That’s premium for you.

Cheaper brands like RAD certainly exist and will get you down the road just fine.

grannygears

The Gazelle Madeo T10 is a $4500 bike here in Canada.

veganbikes

Maybe in initial cost, yes but long term cost it will be much lower with much better support and reliability. The T9 at least comes with a Bosch motor so not the ideal commuter but would be a step up from random online brands.

fooferdoggie 

but long term reliability is pretty iffy. with a commuter you need reliability.

cat0020

IME of commuting in NYC metro for the last 10 years, I'd suggest getting the cheapest, most reliable bike you can find to use as a commuter.
If you have a safe place to store your bike each time you step away from it, then you think about upgrading to a better bike.

There are good reasons why delivery folks on ebikes pick the cheap Chinese hub motor ebikes to earn their living while operating 24/7, in all weather.
Those ebikes take a beating, often neglected and keeps on ticking. I have no doubt they get abused plenty.
When bicycling is about utility, getting to places you want/need to be, have risks of getting hit by motor vehicles, riding over potholes or stolen by thieves; think about the priorities of the ebike you want.

I'm in my late 40's, I don't need a folding or step-thru frame, but I use them for my daily commute.
Smaller the bike, smaller the target for motorists to hit. With my folding bike, I store it indoors, less risk of getting it stolen.
If weather gets real bad, I take the folding bike onto the subway or bus.
Being fashionable, performance oriented cycling is not what I commute on bicycle for.

grannygears

I guess I should provide a little bit more information about myself and my current situation. I am a generally fit 40-year-old male and I also own a Cannondale gravel bike which I put about 50-100 km on every week. So I do own that bike if I want to get some real fitness or workouts in.

My current work and home situation allows me to have my bicycle locked in a safe manner at all times. I will buy a proper lock and take the proper precautions when out in the public.

​​​​ I am trying to do as much research as I possibly can but most of my local shops are bicycle dealers and carry the specialized, Trek, Cannondale, Kona varients of e-bikes. I am trying to do as much research as I possibly can about the e-bike specific companies.

Regardless of budget, can anybody out there suggest some nice commuter style e-bikes with a Bosch mid drive motor? I took a look at the gazelle t10 and it is pretty much exactly what I am looking for. Might have to save up a little bit more!

grannygears

I have one good local dealer within about an hour drive from me and he's only 5 mins from my house. Here is a list of the brands that they carry:

-Velec
-Pedego
-iGo
-Fuell
-Trivel
-Magnum
-Elby
-Emmo

Does anybody recognize any of these brands? For the most part, they seem to be Canadian companies.

2old

Many (all) the names are recognizable and many seem to be of the "stamp them out and put whatever name is paying the bill on them". However, in the US, Pedego is mostly sold at authorized dealers only. They usually are more expensive, but have superb customer service FME.

poiuyt

I would recommend to have a look at Tern. They are "compact cargo", but can be used for commuting as well. They are quite expensive, but if you also want to use the bike for groceries and hauling stuff (or riding kids to school), they are great. They somehow compete with a second car, and for some people this argument offsets the higher price tag.

Since you write "regardless of the budget", one I like is the Orbea Kemen: it's more expensive than the Gazelle (CAD 5k for the base version - it's Shimano, not Bosch that being said): quite light for a bike of this category, it's more a "hardtail MTB with fenders" than a city bike (so less upright position, but without being "agressive" either). Rides well on pavement, and quite capable off-road in dry conditions as well.

BenzFanatic

Just popping in to say that with ~60 miles on my Aventure I'm loving it on road and gravel; super comfy and fast as heck. But if you're going to encounter any heavy foot-traffic, I'd say go with something 1/2 the size.

For me one of the major deciding factors was that there are several official Aventon dealers or whatnot in my area, so our situations differ some.

Smaug1

I have an Aventon Level.2 and I really like it. I chose it over the Pace series because it came with all the commuting accoutrements. (rack & fenders)

I'm finding the reach to the bars is a bit much. I'm leaning more than I want to. It's fine for my 2 mile commute, but when I go for longer rides, my hands get numb, even with gel-padded gloves.

Aventon quality has been very good; a little better componentry than on my Lectric and on par with my wife's Electra Townie GO!.

If I were to do it again, I would go for the Pace 500.3 and add the rack & fenders separately. It's got a more upright seating position and all the other nice features of the Level.2. (torque sensing, nice integral lighting) The rack, I wound up replacing with the Topeak MTX rack, so I can use the excellent trunk bag with fold-down saddlebags.

Here are a couple of quick (unsponsored) YouTube videos I did on my Level.2:

75 mile review - 100 mile update -
I'm around 300 miles now; time for another update soon.

My local bike shop owner said he could fix the bars for me for around $50. I think I'm ready to take him up on it. It'll be a taller stem with an adjustable angle. I think I'll add some of those bar ends so my hands can be at a more comfortable angle than straight across. I've got the seat and seatpost set up so I can do dozens of miles at a time; I just need to fix the seating position now.