Home > electric-bikes > Electric Bike Buyer’s Guide (UK)

Cytronex is a small British manufacturer based in Winchester. The bikes are typically mid- or top-end sports bikes from such manufacturers as GT and Cannondale, electrified using the exquisite little Tongxin motor fitted to the Nano-Brompton, powered in this case by a water bottle-sized battery. The result is light and unobtrusive, and the Cytronex bikes have acquired a reputation for being superb sports electric bikes – economical, fast, silent and fun to ride. As a rule, they are 100% legal, but Tongxin produce motors of different speeds, so in a matter of minutes you can change the 15mph front wheel for a version that will propel the bike some way above the legal limit for, er, off-road use. The very light battery and motor give Cytronex a real advantage where weight is concerned, and the company claims that its Super Six model is the world’s lightest full-size electric bike.

If you are looking for a sports commuter bike, this should be at the top of your shortlist. The only real disadvantage is a relatively limited range from the smallish 148Wh battery, one of the very few NiMH still on sale, but also one of the most reliable and long-lasting. In any event, these lithe sporty bikes go much further than you might expect. Prices are very good for such a high quality product.

Full review of the Cytronex.

The Moustache is a French electric bike that has it all – German Bosch crank-drive power unit, French style and very reasonable prices. We tested the cheapest 9-speed version at £1,950, and that really seems to have everything you need: big gear range, fitted battery-powered lights and effortless power. It’s come straight in at number four on our Buyer’s Guide, which is unprecedented, but it won’t suit everyone. Derailleur gears aren’t ideal (there’s a NuVinci hub too), and neither is the chunky styling, but if you are in the market for a top-end crank-drive, we strongly suggest you put the Moustache on your short-list. Our test bike is still remembered with affection by all who rode it. Il est très chic!

We have a full review of the Moustache City 26 in A to B issue 91.

For three years after its inception in 2007, the Nano was one of our top recommendations, but it later moved down to a 4-star rating following persistent feedback of battery issues and other quality control problems. For 2012, the Nano is back as Nano 2.0 – lighter, slicker, and hopefully more reliable. The key change is to Ping batteries, with a promise of a revolutionary fixed price battery repair scheme once outside the 12 month guarantee period. If it fails, it will be repaired for £40 and returned to you post free (presumably only in the UK). The Nano 2.0 also has the control electronics positioned low down near the front pannier block rather than high up on the handlebars. This looks clumsy if you ride without a front pannier, but you’re unlikely to because the pannier holds the battery…

Generally, we don’t recommend folding electric bikes, but this one is light (12.5-14.5kg according to Brompton model, plus separate battery pannier), whisper quiet, climbs big hills, and goes up to 45 miles on a charge. Our only real worry is that everything depends on the reliability of the new battery, and they just haven’t been around long enough to judge.

Incidentally, the Nano kit can be fitted to any bike for a hundred quid less than the Brompton version. A nice option (Brompton included) is factory fitting of the kit for an extra £60… well worth it for the electrically or mechanically challenged.

A folding electric bike that outclasses all others by a substantial margin.
Full review of the Nano-Brompton. We have also published two follow-up tests (see back issues), and a full review of the Nano-Brompton 2.0

Having got its fingers burnt early on in the evolution of the electric bike, Raleigh was reluctant to return, but when its German cousin Kalkhoff began selling hundreds of thousands of electric bikes on mainland Europe, and a growing number in the UK, there just had to be a Raleigh-badged version eventually. It came a couple of years ago, but poor Raleigh is in trouble again, because it’s been sold to Accel, so Kalkhoff has gone from being a cousin to a competitor. What this means in the longer term, we don’t know, but for now, there’s only a cheaper 3-speed Raleigh-branded Agattu available. Like the Kalkhoff bikes on which the Raleigh variant is based, these machines will benefit from being fitted with the new Derby battery range, principally the big 486Wh example.

Not content with simply ‘badge engineering’ the German brand, Raleigh has gone on to develop and specify its own entry level machines. This new range – the Velo-City with Nexus 7-speed hub, and Velo-Trail with 7-speed derailleur – look set to send shock waves right through the electric bike market. At £1,100 and £1,200, the two bikes undercut and out-specify many other Chinese machines, yet they come with a two-year battery warranty, trip computer and the sort of dealer backup only Raleigh can provide. Raleigh electric bikes were formerly listed as a 5-star option on the Buyer’s Guide, but the uncertainty has knocked them down to 4-stars…

We have a full review of 8-speed Raleigh Dover and 360. We also have a pre-launch review of the Velo-City.

The Ion overflows with high-tech features, and does just about everything short of make the tea and giving you a nice massage when you get home. This electric bike isn’t particularly fast, doesn’t go very far on a charge (although there is now a bigger battery option) and won’t stomp up 1:6 gradients, but it’s a pretty bike, it feels fast, and it oozes that indefinable IT factor. Not cheap to buy, but when you ride it you feel good, and in our book, that is enough to put it close to the top of the pile. Made in the Netherlands, the Ion claims to be the biggest selling electric bike in the world, thanks to massive home sales, but it’s been a slow seller in hillier places, which is not perhaps surprising because it has a gear-less motor. One question mark is over the odd electronic system that (for example) needs resetting via a dealer lap-top if you take the front wheel off. Bit of a problem unless you happen to live near to one of the handful of UK agents. Until recently, most Ion variants were fitted with reliable NiMH batteries, but they now use Li-ion like almost everyone else. There are several other Sparta bikes now, but they’re more conventional, with Li-ion batteries under the rack, rather than in the frame.

Full review of the Sparta Ion.

The Gazelle is the Rolls Royce of the Euro-roadsters, and sells in big numbers in its home market, but has proved less successful in the UK for a number of reasons, principally because prices rose into the stratosphere a year or two back, although they’ve now fallen so sharply, the Gazelle is amongst the cheapest Euro-bikes. Gazelle uses its own power system, with a front wheel motor and torque sensor. This arrangement presumably suits the Dutch terrain well enough, but we found it rather under-powered and lacking in range, althjough there are now several battery options. On the positive side, Gazelle bikes are solid, well-equipped and extremely comfortable to ride, and that may well be enough to tempt you, especially if you live somewhere flat. The company has rather shot itself in the foot vis-a-vis the UK market by making a mess of distribution, leaving all sorts of outlets selling the bikes at all sorts of prices. Forget the rest and visit Cycle Heaven of York – not the official distributor, but by far the best and most knowledgeable outlet for Gazelle.

Full review of the Gazelle Easy Glider. We have also reviewed the Chamonix Innergy in A to B 82, and a BionX-adapted Fuente Pure in A to B 85, see back numbers for details.

Trek was a big bicycle manufacturer, with zero knowledge of electric bikes. Coming late to the party, it decided to team up with BionX to produce an electric variant. Canadian company BionX produces innovative high-quality equipment, using a silent gearless motor with regenerative braking and four levels of assistance. Unfortunately, Trek has put the battery on the rear rack, and gone for a relatively small 260Wh battery to keep weight and cost down. That will limit range a bit, hence our 4-star rating. And watch out for the near four-figure replacement cost of the batteries… eek! It’s a unique machine, but sales seem to have been disappointing, and we’ve noticed shops selling off 2010 and 2011 stock at bargain prices, suggesting a general lack of confidence.

We have not yet tested the Trek, but the BionX system is reviewed in A to B 85, August 2011

Gepida is a relatively modern bicycle company formed in 1994. Previously unknown in the UK, it seems to have made a good Euro living by manufacturing roadsters in post-Cold War Hungary, and flogging them to wealthier places that like good solid roadsters. Since then, of course, Hungary has ceased to be a cheap labour zone, and Gepida now buys in frames from the Far East like almost everyone else. Seeing its key German and Dutch markets going electric at an alarming rate, the company began experimenting with power-assist, but the first generation Fekete seems to have been quietly filed away under ‘dud’ or at least ‘brave try’. The solution was to team up with someone big and experienced, like Yamaha, desperate to get back after embarrassingly walking away from electric bikes a few years before. This fruitful partnership produced the Reptila 1000 in 2009, and there will no doubt be other variants to come.

Clearly, with Yamaha’s electronics genius and Gepida’s long(ish) experience in building the sort of roadsters the Germans and Dutch enjoy, the Reptila wasn’t going to be a bad bike, but it has its faults. Yamaha has failed to grasp the trend towards larger batteries, and these days a battery of 212Wh is rather disappointing. This wouldn’t matter if the bike was strikingly economic, but against the Panasonic it feels somehow poorly tuned, as though the motor, gearing and frame are not quite working in harmony. This combination of a small battery and ill-sorted electrics and transmission produced a test mileage of only 16 miles when we tried the bike in June 2009. The relatively weak performance may account for the bikes being widely discounted in the UK… never a good sign. Reptila has responded by producing MTB and beach cruiser variants, the Sirmium and Nedao respectively, but this is rather missing the point. Despite the niggles there’s a good bike trying very hard to get out of the Reptila, and such things as batteries and software glitches are easily fixed. The Gepida Reptila may yet blossom into an electric butterfly.

The BionX is a French Canadian system that has been around for many years, first with a NiMH battery, and more recently with lighter, but less reliable, Li-ion. For a long time it looked as though this clever system wasn’t going anywhere, possibly because French Canadians can be a bit prickly with the English-speaking world, and because the Canadian hardware looked expensive in a sea of Chinese imports. BionX has finally accepted the inevitable and outsourced manufacturer to China, opening the floodgates to wider adoption of the system, which is now fitted by Trek, Kalkhoff, Airnimal, Birdy and no doubt many others, as well as being available as a retro-fit kit from BionX itself.

The essence of the BionX is a completely silent direct drive motor that can provide power or ‘regenerative’ braking on demand. The disadvantage of direct drives is poor hill-climbing, although the latest High Torque BionX motors really have cracked this one. The original BionX had a rather limited range, but it’s an efficient system, and used with sensitivity, power consumption can be very low. That said, the cheaper models have quite small batteries, so you have to go for something expensive if you want 30 miles+ range. And the price of replacement batteries is astronomical. It’s the kit and battery cost that prevents BionX being a 5-star system, because in other respects, it really does set standards for others to follow.

We have two road-tests of the BionX system in A to B 45 and 85 (see back issues).

Ezee flirted with cheaper models such as the Rider, a budget bike aimed at the Powabyke, but became best known for the sexy Forte and  Torq – lighter, faster, more conventional looking bikes. The early Torq was an absolute delight to ride – fast, near silent and sexy. An all-time classic, and winner of the Tour de Presteigne three years in a row, but it is now looking a bit middle aged: heavier, more power-hungry, and slower. We thought the new-style Forte and Forza failed to hit the spot too, but you might disagree.

An early adopter of lithium-ion batteries, Ezee suffered more than most from reliability problems, expensive batteries and short guarantees. The situation never really improved, and sales plummeted, with two changes of distributor in a couple of years. After a year or two in the doldrums, Ezee once again has a UK distributor in mid-2012, and the bikes are looking better value than they were.

Second hand Torqs and Sprints can be picked up very cheaply, but you’ll need £400 to £500 for a replacement battery.

Since axing the Lafree, Giant just doesn’t seem to have been able to get it right with electric bikes, the models changing on a more or less annual basis. The Lafree was followed by the Suede, which was slow, unreliable and an indifferent hill-climber. The 2007-2008 Twist was similar to the Suede, but better made, and offering a lot more range. At first it shared a number of ideosyncracies, but it gradually improved, just in time to be replaced by the over-priced and frumpy Twist Freedom and Express.

The bikes are now called Escape and Esprit and are better, but they are essentially Dutch bikes: large frames, rather weak motors, and precise power cut-off at 15mph. Prices dropped a great deal, but have now crept back up.

We have one road-test of the Giant Suede and one of the new Twist (See back issues)

We were convinced that Wisper bikes were 100% Chinese designed and built, but the British distribution and marketing company has assured us that it had some design input, and provided documentary evidence. They’re so keen on the British connection that they now stick Union Jacks on everything! Like Ezee, Wisper has gone for a slightly more knowledgeable, male, techie audience, and its bikes tend to come in black, silver and white, oozing testosterone. Prices tend to reflect this, but the marketing is clever, and the target audience seems to love them. Recent price increases by the cheapy brands have left Wisper looking quite reasonable, so there isn’t much in it these days. We’ve been told about a few reliability issues, but nothing like the Ezee battery debacle, and Wisper quietly joined Ezee in offering a two-year guarantee, which helped to quell the natives.

For prices and stockists, see Electric Bike Price Guide

The Heinzmann motors are designed and made in Germany and have a deserved reputation as the best hub motors around – they’re relatively quiet and very reliable, but expensive against the vast array of Chinese hub motors flooding the market. Heinzmann was very late coming over to Li-ion battery technology, but that gave the company plenty of time to study the strengths and weaknesses of the technology before taking the plunge… something many Chinese manufacturers should have done. Battery capacity is on the low side, but we can safely assume that Heinzmann Li-ion batteries will last longer than most. The Heinzmann motor and batteries are also available in kit form, with numerous speed options and two battery capacities. At something like twice the cost of a typical Chinese kit, the Heinzmann isn’t a cheap option, but it’s much better. The problem for Heinzmann is that the Chinese are improving rapidly, and the Heinzmann does nothing a Chinese bike can’t do.

The motors are also available built-up into a bike – the Heinzmann Estelle. Typically German, the Estelle is a competent and well-equipped machine, but currently quite expensive in the UK. The bike is available in three distinct styles: Comfort, an attractive step-thru city bike, the Tour, not at all what it sounds, because it’s actually a VERY low step-thru city bike, the Elegance, a comfortably suspended machine for tracks and trails, and the Sport, again something of a misnomer because it’s styled a bit like an MTB with mudguards. Interestingly, the Elegance and Sport are available in Speed trim to suit the fast E-bike category in Germany and Switzerland. In this form, they are throttle controlled up to 12mph, but will go much much faster as pedelecs, hitting a maximum of 23.5mph. Great fun if you can afford it, but not strictly legal in the UK. See above for our views on the legislative nonsense that makes these bikes illegal across the rest of Europe.

Heinzmann has changed UK distributor twice in the past few years, and this has done irreparable damage to the brand here. Writing in 2012, there doesn’t seem to be a distributor at all, but the Electric Bike Co says it will import bikes for £90 a go.

We have a number of road-tests of the Heinzmann (see back issues).

Powacycle has long been regarded as the best of the many cheaper newcomers. Prices start very low, but ignore the cheap, cheerful jobs and take a serious look at the Salisbury and Windsor (effectively gents and ladies roadsters). Prices have crept up to very nearly £800 for 2012, which slightly takes the edge off the cheepie gloss, but in a world of fast-changing models, badges, distributors and battery guarantee periods, Powabyke has stayed remarkably steady. The Salisbury and Windsor won’t set your world alight, but they give reliable and practical transport at a reasonable price. You can also be confident that they’ll be there tomorrow to honour the guarantee.

We have one road-test of the Windsor in A to B 56.

The Woosh Elios

There are numerous Chinese electric bikes about, most of them overpriced and under-specced. Byocycle and Juicy Bikes stood out for a while as being relatively cheap examples of these generic Chinese machines, but both have bumped up prices for 2012, and Woosh is now looking a better bet. If you’re buying a bike at this lower end of the market, compare spec and go for the longest guarantee, biggest battery and cheapest price. Ignore the hype – the technology is all much the same.

We have one road-test of the Byocycle Byocommuter in A to B 72.

Until very recently, Powabyke was unique amongst electric bike manufacturers, having survived from the very earliest days of the genre, and selling one of those 1990s bikes today. The ‘classic’ 6-speed Euro, City and Tryke featured steel frames and lead-acid batteries, and were heavy and crudely made by modern standards, but they survived because they were solid and trusty, and there was a good dealer network should anything go wrong. In recent years, we’ve been a bit dismissive, but we’ve seen the hi-tech stuff come and go, and the old Powabyke kept plodding along, doing very nicely by all accounts. Sadly the last of the breed has now been despatched – a bit like having your favourite elephant put down.

The replacement ‘X-byke’ models couldn’t be more different: light, conventional frames and a small water-bottle lithium-ion battery. When the X-byke was launched in 2009 it was criticised for the small capacity of its new battery and archaic DC motor, retained from the older bikes. The 2011 models come with a smaller, lighter motor, but the promised bigger battery seems not to have materialised, leaving Powabyke on very dodgy ground.

We have road-tested the Powabyke Classic, Folder, Euro, X-Bike and Commuter.

Thompson market a range of well-equipped, bargain-basement Chinese electric bikes. We’ve moved them up the ratings, because they’ve proved a reliable company and their cheapest lead-acid bikes have been around a long time, meaning spares are easily obtained, and the basic batteries are cheap to rebuild. The frumpy, heavy Euro-Classic is the cheapest electric bike around with a reasonably large bike. A good cheap retro choice for older, less active folk.

We have road-tested the Thompson Euro-Classic, Euro-City and Euro-Tourer.

For prices and stockists, see Electric Bike Price Guide

There are now so many cheap Ebikes flooding in from China it’s impossible to rate them separately. However, there are three broad classes:

• Wierd, dodgy-looking little folders.
  Keep well away – they are heavy, unreliable and with limited range. It will be one of the worst things you’ve ever wasted £300 on.

• Super-snazzy MTB-style machines.
  Sheep in Wolf’s clothing. Mostly heavy, crude and impractical. Aimed at people with more money than sense and selling like Hot Cakes, which is a bit depressing.

• Facsimiles of successful machines.
  Less clear cut (see Powacycle above), but we haven’t yet found a copy of – for example – the Kalkhoff or Nano-Brompton that was worth buying. Electric bikes are high-technology machines… it’s generally not worth buying something from a market trader (we may be proved wrong though).

For prices and stockists, see Electric Bike Price Guide

Electric bikes out of Production (or no current UK distributor)

Giant’s first Lafree was a dreadful thing, but the classic machine, produced between 2000 and 2006 was a superb bike. Just to confuse you, this started life as the Lafree Twist, became generically known as the Lafree, but the Lafree branding was later dropped, so they became Giant Twists. Giant has now withdrawn the bike, but it’s still tops in our book, so still a 5-star electric bike. The Lafree (sorry, Twist) is a proper bike, with power-assistance. Designed by Giant’s Dutch arm, this attractive machine looks like a Dutch roadster, and includes such features as a step-thru frame (or not if you prefer), lots of practical accessories, hub gears and quiet trouble-free Panasonic motor assist. At around 20 miles, range is better than average, and the battery is one of the smallest and lightest around, so if you can afford it, buy two. Efficiency surpassed only by the most modern Panasonic drive bikes like the Kalkhoff.

Problems? After four years, the bikes themselves are proving extremely reliable, but there have been a few battery and charger faults. Giant had to withdrawn the original Panasonic charger, replacing it with a Metco unit while the problem was fixed, but the last machines were back to Panasonic. Watch this if buying a second hand bike, and go for the 5- or 7-speed SRAM hub, which is much better, and generally worth more.

Developments for 2006 included a larger battery, retrofittable to all models and complete destruction of the Lafree range. Still that’s multinationals for you. We’ve heard that secondhand prices are holding up well, and we’d consider the Lafree a good buy for anything under £800. Like all thoroughbreds they can be a bit highly-strung, and we’ve had a report or two of complete electronics failure – with spares being run down, this could be a problem.

We have several road-tests: E-series (this is something different), Lite, Comfort, Comfort ST, and Comfort at 2,000, 3,500 and 5,000 miles, and how to keep a secondhand machine on the road.

The fascinating Gocycle entered with a rather lowly three stars, but we hoped to upgrade it as the machine improved. Designed (but not made) in Britain, it was bursting with technology, from a magnesium frame, to quick-release wheels on monoblade forks. Range was reasonable, and it was a perky performer, but early examples suffered from a few software and hardware glitches (including rapid wear of the QR wheel splines), and the bike was fitted with a basic 3-speed hub gear and simple on-off switch, so it was not as capable as it could have been. Minor grumbles aside, it was a uniquely sexy machine, and although folding was a bit slow, it was light, and could be packed into a small car in five minutes.

Unfortunately, it was withdrawn for a major revamp last year and has yet to make a reappearance in 2.0 form, leading to speculation that it might have disappeared for good.

We have one road-tests of the Gocycle in A to B 73 (See back issues). This test was based on a rather brief acquaintance because Gocycle initially refused to let us have a bike, then sent one round for a two hour trial with a chaperone. What did they think we were going to do, eat it?

Ezee flirted with cheaper models such as the Rider, a budget bike aimed at the Powabyke, but became best known for the sexy Forte and  Torq – lighter, faster, more conventional looking bikes. The early Torq was an absolute delight to ride – fast, near silent and sexy. An all-time classic, and winner of the Tour de Presteigne three years in a row, but it is now looking a bit middle aged: heavier, more power-hungry, and slower. We thought the new-style Forte and Forza failed to hit the spot too, but you might disagree.

An early adopter of lithium-ion batteries, Ezee suffered very badly from reliability problems, expensive batteries and short guarantees. The situation never really improved, and sales plummeted, with two changes of distributor in a couple of years.Writing in 2012, the bikes no longer appear to be on sale in the UK.

Second hand Torqs and Sprints can be picked up very cheaply, but you’ll need £400 to £500 for a replacement battery.

This might have been a 5-star bike, but Schwinn’s first electric venture using the excellent motor shared with Nano-Brompton and Cytronex, was flawed by duff electrics and was soon out of production… our test bike failed twice under load… The Tailwind was relaunched with the nifty but very small Sanyo Eneloop fast-charge battery. This charged in 30 minutes, which is great, but the battery was just too small for practical use day-to-day, unless you were planning very short journeys. So Schwinn seems to be going down the plug ‘ole yet again, and the Tailwind – officially £1599 in the UK – was popping up for less than £600 in late 2010/early 2011. Things have now gone ominously quiet.

We have one test of the Schwinn Transit in A to B 62- see A to B Back Numbers

When we tested the original Curry back in 2001, it was made in America, but production shifted to the Far East, then something corporate happened and the venture split in two, with two different designs coming out of different factories, with different names and specifications… To make matters worse, there have been endless debates over who might or might not be the UK importer, resulting in a number of possible contenders offering a number of different kits… Most bikes offered a crude, but functional, direct spoke-drive or a toothed belt drive. From 2007, the brand settled down as Izip (also Meerkat, just to confuse you), a (mostly) budget-priced range, made goodness knows where, but still carrying the trademark external motor. Today the company has begun to go over to more conventional hub motors and Li-ion batteries, but there appears to be no importer for the UK, but it may well come back.

We have road-tested the Izip.

For prices and stockists, see Electric Bike Price Guide

Great things were expected of the EV Global, the U.S. parent of these bikes, but the market never took off there, so sales languished. The bottom-end Enviro was actually a Far-Eastern badge-engineered machine, albeit quite a nice one, but the LE and SX were everything you would expect from a U.S. manufacturer – big, brash, stylish, well-equipped and fast, but with limited range.

In European trim, the power was capped to 200 watts, and top speed from a heady 18mph to 15mph, to keep within the law. With rather low pedal gearing, these machines were more moped than bike, but stylish and classy all the same.

For specification and distributors, see Electric Bike Price Guide

For prices and stockists, see Electric Bike Price Guide

The motor and battery appeared to be identical to the Bliss (see below), but the GR-8 was a bigger, more rideable, folding bike. Styling-wise, it worked better than the Bliss, although there was something uncomfortable about the proportions. Weight was tolerable at 26kg, but it was a bit feeble and our test sample failed.

For prices and stockists, see Electric Bike Price Guide

We have road-tested the Bliss.

Like the Thompson range, these two bikes – the Retro and Cruiser – are cheap and cheerful Chinese imports. However, the Retro is the crudest machine we’ve seen, and they’re not quite so cheap, so you won’t be quite so cheerful. The well-equipped Cruiser might be worth looking at, but bear in mind that the low saddle and even lower gearing make pedalling almost impossible. And don’t expect to stop in a hurry.

For prices and stockists, see Electric Bike Price Guide

We have one road-test of the E-bike Retro and Cruiser.

Daum has reportedly pulled out of bike manufacture, but licensed it’s fabulous crank-drive to other manufacturers, notably Kalkhoff.

For prices and stockists, see our Electric Bike Price Guide

Another Panasonic crank drive, but no longer imported into the UK.

For prices and stockists, see our Electric Bike Price Guide

Beautifully made in Japan, the Step Compo was an electric folding bike that really worked. Plus points include superb styling, good folding and light weight, bad points have to include the four-figure price tag and limited range from a microscopic battery.

Why the past-tense? It’s out of production, but Honda never tell us anything, so we can’t be absolutely sure… And beware of Chinese imitations, which look just as pretty, but are heavy, with limited range.

We have one road-test of the Honda Step Compo.

The Sparc is a great idea. It’s a combined hub gear and electric motor, saving both space and weight. The weak points are limited power and relatively noisy operation, but the small battery was upgraded in 2005, and new electronics mean a bit more oomph. The Sparc-powered Dahon Roo will now whip the skin from a rice pudding with ease, but don’t expect to climb any steep hills unless you’re willing to pedal fairly hard. On the positive side, the whole bike weighs 18.1kgs, making it one of the lightest around, and of course, it’s a folder. Our only real grumble is with the price.

We have tested the 2002 and 2005 Dahon Roo EL.

An interesting one this. The S-Drive (or, more correctly Schnachner) was broadly similar to the Heinzmann, although designed in Austria and made in the Far East. The motor was noisy, slow, and tended to shred it’s drive gears. On a more positive note, it was an efficient system, and the dashboard ammeter helped you ‘drive’ the motor, giving world-beating economy… in excess of 40 miles on our hilly test route. The present situation is unclear, and the bikes seem to have disappeared.

We have road-tested the early version of the S-Drive.

For prices and stockists, see Electric Bike Price Guide

The basis of the design is a simple, quiet, reliable motor driving straight onto the tyre. Powered by a similarly cheap, reliable lead/acid battery, the Zap (either a complete bike or easily-fitted kit) is a surprisingly good performer, outpacing all other friction drives. There are one or two disadvantages – the friction roller tends to slip in the wet unless you choose the tyre with care, and the roller wears out fairly quickly, although later models are ceramic rather than steel. Otherwise, a great little performer for the price. Out of production for a while, the Zap reappeared, but has now finally bitten the dust, overwhelmed by much cleverer technology from China.

We have tested the Zap kit and Zap/Brompton adaption.

TGA was a slightly mysterious outfit based in Essex, that later moved it’s base up the road to Suffolk, where the company now concentrates on selling mobility trikes. Until very recently, it still built a few ancient electric bikes and trikes. With the accent on crude, but simple technology, (allegedly a lorry windscreen wiper motor driven by car batteries) the machines should be reliable, and are certainly easily fixed when things go wrong. For a few hundred pounds, you could buy a kit of parts to convert a conventional bike, but TGA has now been overwhelmed by better, lighter products from China.

China exports vast numbers of electric bikes, both good, bad and ugly… some of them effortlessly achieving all three. The SolarTracker SLB machines was better than most, being neatly styled, but like the Powabyke, too expensive. When we tested it, the power output was (deliberately) set very low, but it got better.

We have one road-test of the SolarTracker SLB-2000.

Oh dear oh dear. It’s almost beyond belief that a machine this poor could have made it on to the market, but here it is – Italian with US characteristics. Without dwelling too long in this dreary place, the Oxygen is over-weight, over-priced, unstable, under-powered and much else besides. In the test, we summed up by saying ‘…the wrong sort of motor, drawing too much power from the wrong sort of batteries, mounted in the wrong place…’, which just about covers it. Still, the Italians are very good at photographing attractive young ladies, so we must forgive them.

We have tested the Oxygen Atala once, and will almost certainly never return.

Aprilia’s Enjoy has been withdrawn, and we’re not surprised. It looked the part, thanks to some wicked Italian styling and lots of techy bits, but it was inefficient, over-priced, poorly designed and generally a bit of an also-ran. And you needed a mortgage for a replacement battery…

We have one road-test of the Aprilia Enjoy Race.

We liked the tiny motor and NiMH battery, but the Bliss proved a bit disappointing. It was reasonably light, but horrible to ride, poorly geared and over-priced. And the claims are unrealistic – it will not do 20-30 miles. It survived our test, but we wish it had broken down and gone back where it came from.

We have one road-test of the Bliss.

This sounded jolly clever – you whip off the back mudguard from a standard bike and mount the battery/motor unit over the wheel. In practise, the friction drive slipped wildly in the wet, the system was horribly heavy, and the frumpy lead-acid batteries provided a laughably short range of just a few miles at lethargic speed. This was a seriously inefficient machine – ETC has now ceased trading.

For specification and distributor, see Electric Bike Price Guide

We have one road-test of the ETC kit.

Sir Clive Sinclair has a track-record of superb technical and design innovation, but since the not-quite-right C5, his record on transport has been less than meteoric. The Zeta power-assist attachments were noisy, underpowered and effectively useless. They have now been withdrawn. We’ve awarded one star because they were cheap, so if you insist on buying one you won’t have wasted too much money.

We have tested the Zeta kits.