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We're looking for an ebike for my other half but I know absolutely nothing about them.
Is there anything to look out for with regards batteries and motors? Currently looking at the Trek Powerfly 5 which has the Bosch Performance CX motor and the Bosch Powertube 625 battery. Are these any good? Is there any benefit of Bosch over Shimano systems or vice versa?
Anything else we need to look for apart from the longest warranty we can get?
Bosch is a good motor overall, just now is a tricky time to judge anything, as stock is low and repairs are taking longer due to lack of motors/wiring/etc, so again, not a great time to judge how warranty would be, but bosch is a well used and well understood one, Trek make good bikes and their ebikes are some of the best, if you can, buy as local as you can, if you can get it via a Trek shop even better, as you will then have easier access to spares and repairs if anything goes wrong.
As for other systems, they're all much of muchness, Shimano EP8 has had a few problems with reliability and usability, Brose have similar reliability issues, but quick warranty, i have the giant with yamaha and it works well, but see a few others have issues with water ingress causing failures, i also had a Bosch CX4 that failed on me, but again i think that was more bike than motor, they couldn't warranty due to lack of bikes/replacements, so refunded, wouldn't put me off bosch in future, just luck of the draw, just make sure you have support nearby, nothing worse than having to package and send the entire bike across the country to get a fix.
My brother has the Trek Rail full suspension bike, with the bosch battery.
One of the only current ebikes that ‘look good’ in my opinion and the thing flies uphill!
Bosch comes out top in most reviews but it does depend on what you want to use it for a bit. If it's just to get you up hills to have another go at a descent then my guess is that any of them will do this job quite well. As above choose a local supplier over the type specifically in that scenario. If you are going to commute on it then I would go with the Bosch myself. Water ingress seems to be the most common cause of failure and the Bosch seals are reportedly better than most... Be sure not to direct any jets of water at the seals, even from a hose pipe, would be my advice. Use a soft brush and a bucket of water for cleaning around these areas.
What sort of riding will it be used for?
Check the warranty is it 2 years, or 2 years rolling.
Regarding out of warranty motor repairs, you can get your Bosch rebuilt, there don’t appear to be any people doing shimano, so I’d be sticking to Bosch.
Thanks for all the tips.
By chance we popped in to a local shop which had stock of the bike we were looking at. Half an hour later it was bought and should be collected this week!
The bike's got the Bosch motor and battery and it's a two year warranty.
The shop seem to be pretty on the ball and know their stuff, glad I found them actually as they seem like a good place and nice and local to boot.
there don’t appear to be any people doing shimano
Other than the Shimano centres across the country.
Shimano service centres aren't repairing faulty motors,and I don't know of anywhere that does,Shimano seem to regard the motor has a consumable part
Shimano seem to regard the motor has a consumable part
Indeedy they are, which is shame, as they do have great reliability IME, until they break. Bosch and Brose should be the same according to manufacturers, but there are ppl repairing them "out of warranty"... that is simply not happening with shimano.