[Closed] GTech eBikes

They do a trial period I believe plus demo days? Or they did when I was looking a few years back. I didnt get one, its preferable to have gears if you have any hills + plus the range was a bit poor.

I have seen the trial period offering but I don't think he'd return it even if it wasn't quite right. He'd keep it then eventually stop using it instead.

I wouldn’t buy any ebike that didn’t have a decent motor in it. So Bosch, Shimano, Yamaha or whatever Specialized are using. The rest just don’t match up.

It weighs 16Kg!!

On that topic, does anyone have any experience with the Carrera/Suntour ones in halfords? The OH wants one, doesn't need to be a 'mountain' bike so the heavy hub isn't an issue. But I'm a bit concerned by the 38t chainring. Suppose I could swap to an 11-42 cassette but that would mean new mechs, etc as well.

I wouldn’t buy any ebike that didn’t have a decent motor in it. So Bosch, Shimano, Yamaha or whatever Specialized are using. The rest just don’t match up.

thisisnotaspoon - Member

On that topic, does anyone have any experience with the Carrera/Suntour ones in halfords? The OH wants one, doesn't need to be a 'mountain' bike so the heavy hub isn't an issue. But I'm a bit concerned by the 38t chainring. Suppose I could swap to an 11-42 cassette but that would mean new mechs, etc as well.

I got overtaken by a chap on a Carrera hybrid on the way home t'other day which was concerning till I heard the motor whine! Cheap hybrids seem to be the perfect use of an eBike to me.

Since it's all quite new tech I'm wary of random e-bikes, if he has any issues with it no lbs will touch it.

On that topic, does anyone have any experience with the Carrera/Suntour ones in halfords?

Yes. It had total failure within 12 months/1000km & I had to ride it home from work in the pissing rain with no assist. I was not impressed. It was away for about 3 weeks & looked like they had swapped out pretty much everything.
Google shows no hits for suntour bits in the uk, you are at the mercy of halfords. I wouldnt buy one again.
I did get mine super cheap though. When it fails again I will see if I can fit a homebrew kit onto it.

I've had a ride around the car park on one, and without having any idea about the price I suspect it probably works quite well for the intended application. Disclaimer: I had a ride because somebody I know works for Gtech and has it as a company bike, but that's not influencing me particularly. The trouble some of us lot have is looking at bikes from the perspective of proper cyclists, when for a casual rider things are different. The fit seemed to be average upright cycling position (I'm 5'9" and fit was fine - I'd ride a 17" or 18" performance MTB, sizing isn't performance MTB) - if he's anywhere near average size it will fit him, perfect fit isn't actually all that important for a casual cyclist just getting about. The single gear is quite high, which will probably suit a non-cyclist not into pedalling fast - that might seem an issue on uphills, but on uphills you just get the motor to do the work whilst you gently push the pedals around.

I've no idea how the tech (or pricing) stacks up compared to the alternatives, but don't dismiss is because it isn't what you'd want from an e-bike.

I've had a ride around the car park on one, and without having any idea about the price I suspect it probably works quite well for the intended application.

The Gtech bike starts at £1k. A proper hybrid eBike with gears, a decent motor and range in various sizing can be had from £1.2k

The fit seemed to be average upright cycling position (I'm 5'9" and fit was fine - I'd ride a 17" or 18" performance MTB, sizing isn't performance MTB) - if he's anywhere near average size it will fit him

Thanks, sounds like it would fit better than his current bikes

PeterPoddy - Member

I wouldn’t buy any ebike that didn’t have a decent motor in it. So Bosch, Shimano, Yamaha or whatever Specialized are using. The rest just don’t match up.

this

BB mount motors are far better than hub motors.

Could convert an existing bike, which means no ned for pedelec :

https://www.bikerumor.com/2017/03/22/the-urbanx-front-wheel-adds-electric-power-to-most-bikes-at-a-reasonable-cost-and-weight/

If you think a properly fitted lightweight bike would do him better, get raiding the classifieds etc. and build/buy him something to convince him. It's the only way he'll learn.

Otherwise, his money innit.

In all honesty, it looks fine to me. Not mega-good, but it's not total crap. A rear hub motor will be fine for the occasional rider - the ones I've tried wouldn't suit mountain biking but for cutting about in town they're alright.

I'd consider, if the budget is a grand, one of these though. Not pretty, but Giant's front hub motor set up has been around for over 5 years now and is very reliable. It's not what you or I would ride, but it does the job well.

https://www.rutlandcycling.com/372062/products/giant-ease-e-plus-2017-electric-hybrid-bike-grey.aspx?origin=pla&kwd=&currency=GBP&gclid=Cj0KCQiAv_HSBRCkARIsAGaSsrD9bddqsmQ26inZljcPOWv4U8-ZfUScfy7t_nt1MfYtJ1sJCNDl4zUaAhJtEALw_wcB

When you can get a bike with a bosch bb mount motor for under 1500 then why get a gtech for not much less when its a much lessor bike?

Looks a bit "Sunday supplement" if you know what I mean; pitched to get the baby-boomers to part with some of that pension pot/equity release money, maybe used for two weeks in the summer then forgotten in the back of the shed forever more...

GTech are flogging the returned bikes on eBay; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gtech-eBike-Sport-refurbished-with-1-year-warranty-direct-from-Gtech/372189495657?hash=item56a8390169:g:euAAAOSwicpaVPvk

oldtalent - Member
On that topic, does anyone have any experience with the Carrera/Suntour ones in halfords?
Yes. It had total failure within 12 months/1000km & I had to ride it home from work in the pissing rain with no assist. I was not impressed. It was away for about 3 weeks & looked like they had swapped out pretty much everything.
Google shows no hits for suntour bits in the uk, you are at the mercy of halfords. I wouldnt buy one again.
I did get mine super cheap though. When it fails again I will see if I can fit a homebrew kit onto it.

But did it get to Morzine on a single charge?

doomanic - Member
GTech are flogging the returned bikes on eBay; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gtech-eBike-Sport-refurbished-with-1-year-warranty-direct-from-Gtech/372189495657?hash=item56a8390169:g:euAAAOSwicpaVPvk

Thanks, I had seen these too. A 40% reduction in price for a refurbished version of a product is a real indicator of its quality....or not! I think £575 is a much more realistic price.

Edit: It's gone up to £595 since I first saw them!

[quote=cookeaa ]Looks a bit "Sunday supplement" if you know what I mean; pitched to get the baby-boomers to part with some of that pension pot/equity release money, maybe used for two weeks in the summer then forgotten in the back of the shed forever more...

It's the obvious market for such bikes - TBH it's a much bigger market than all us serious riders even if we weren't being all critical. Who else would they pitch it to?

[quote=dmorts ]Thanks, I had seen these too. A 40% reduction in price for a refurbished version of a product is a real indicator of its quality....or not! I think £575 is a much more realistic price.
Edit: It's gone up to £595 since I first saw them!

I'm not sure it's an indicator of anything other than typical margin, which I imagine is similar to any other e-bike. Or more realistically it's an indicator of how much they think people will readily pay for one of those through that supply route - I imagine the price is fairly dynamic responding to supply and demand. Because they don't want to be using up storage space on those and they have to shift them quickly. It's about business rather than anything to do with the product.

I'm not sure it's an indicator of anything other than typical margin, which I imagine is similar to any other e-bike. Or more realistically it's an indicator of how much they think people will readily pay for one of those through that supply route

I don't see any other eBikes in the £1k range being sold off so cheaply that's all.

I get your point though, they are just a direct to market box shifter and we are 2 weeks-ish after Christmas, with their return period being 14 days

It's the obvious market for such bikes - TBH it's a much bigger market than all us serious riders even if we weren't being all critical. Who else would they pitch it to?

I have to agree with you there, and they've sort of got the product about right, it's a simple V-braked SS hybrid with a motor assist hub and what appears to be an easy to remove/recharge battery it's about as close to an idiot proof E-bike as you are likely to manage.

The belt drive probably adds a fair chunk to the COGs Vs a simpler SS chain drive, but that's down to knowing their target market would rather not bother with lubricating a chain... one thing I find off though, why no guards as standard? I mean I'm sure it looks "Cleaner" for the lack of them but again it would make sense to me given the target market, [i]"normal people riding in normal clothes"[/i] probably won't want road spray all over their Khaki slacks and pastel blouses when it drizzles here in blighty...

Overall though yep, as a product it still makes far more sense than strapping a big motor to some [i]Enduro Weapon[/i] to make a £6K E-Gnarpoon for tubby IT managers to display on the roof of their German Saloons... 😉

I was with someone on the mtb version for a local ride. He needed to switch the battery part way round. He didn't seem like he was running in turbo mode, though I think he wasn't particularly fit

He seemed to enjoy it though and made him get out

It may be refurb, it may be direct from GTech but it's still 2nd hand and in a world where shiny and new is considered a major benefit, it's worth paying the RRP for some people and they won't look at a nearly new as if it's something beneath them. Crazy but true. 🙄

But did it get to Morzine on a single charge?

What an odd question, probably would if I fitted a diesel engine.

First rule of ebike buying is to squint your eyes and forget it's an ebike! Presuming your are on this forum because you know a little bit about bikes and their components look at the rest of it and assess if you would buy it as a bike. So many of them have components that you would simply not tolerate on a conventional bike. This bike as a complete entity is an expensive purchase so the basics will need to last. If the remainder of it is not of sufficient quality that you would have bought it as a bike, you should not buy it as an E bike.

Second rule of E bikes is to stick to the known brands of motors.

Third rule of E bikes not to compare the cost to the cost of the bike. A big ass motor and a bunch of laptop batteries are going to cost. Buy cheap, buy twice.

Serviced a couple, they are pretty awful. Build quality on the frame looked bad. Power seems to be On or off, lack of gears was frustrating. Most of the hub motor bikes we've seen have spoke issues.decent ebike can be had for a lot less ££ this season. I'd look elsewhere

The G-Tech we had in for service was rubbish. Poor build quality and the test ride was not pleasant due to lack of gears and low power.

The Bosch motors seem to be very unreliable. We've seen several where the BBC or motor bearings have just eaten themselves requiring new motors. One of my friends is on his 4th in less than a year. Plenty of stuff on the Internet about it as well.

I have one of the Carrera ebikes and it's now 27 months old with over 4000km on it. It has had issues, but as I worked at Halfords at the time it was quick and easy to fix, generally the early ones went into error mode due to a connection problem. This was rectified with the update about 18 months ago. The hub motor means you are not putting the power from the motor through the BB, chain and cassette so they tend to last longer and all the parts are more easily changed/serviced than a BB motor. All the parts are quickly and easily available. I'd buy one again, but only because I can still get it cheap!

From what I've seen from selling/servicing ebikes and riding with people who have them, if I wanted an e-mountain bike it would be Specialized, for commuting or leisure it would be a Shimano powered one.

This bike as a complete entity is an expensive purchase so the basics will need to last. If the remainder of it is not of sufficient quality that you would have bought it as a bike, you should not buy it as an E bike

Yes, most if not all of the money on the GTech seems to have been spent on the motor and battery. The underlying bike doesn't look up to much.

a decent battery is £500. a motor £300 for a crap hub motor. £500+ for a good hub or bb motor. So a £1000 ebike is going to have very cheapand nasty components.

I don't see any other eBikes in the £1k range being sold off so cheaply that's all.

It may be refurb, it may be direct from GTech but it's still 2nd hand and in a world where shiny and new is considered a major benefit, it's worth paying the RRP for some people and they won't look at a nearly new as if it's something beneath them. Crazy but true.

It's just like the Dell Outlet, and all the sellers that sell 'refurbished' Dells which are really stock from the Dell Outlet.

Stuff that gets returned, even if perfect, can't then be sold again as new, so off it goes to be listed as refurbished, even if nothing was done to it. If it was DOA then the dead part is replaced and then it's tested again just as for new product.

Discounts can be just as high but it's often exactly the same as a new Dell.

Think I've had 4 (or maybe 5) perfect Dell laptops through the outlet or places like x-stock or euro-pc, all discounted heavily, all mint and all with full Dell 3 year onsite warranties.

Had a thought about the GTech bike specifically. It weights 16kg and has a single gear (don't know ratio though). You could easily get a geared non-electric assist equivalent that weighed 10Kg.

So, some of the GTech's motor power is used just to move that extra 6kg around. Therefore in reality, what's the net gain of the power assist?

First you could look at both bikes being in the same gear. Then you could add in the mechanical advantage of the gears of the non-electric assist bike

My hypothesis is that the net power gain given by the motor of the GTech will be minimal when compared to a lighter, non-electric assist, geared bike.
eBikes with gears would be different and make much better use of the motor power.

EDIT: although with the rider weighing 75kg upwards, the difference of 6kg might be minimal 😕

Just my tuppence worth, but here's my story... Being young (30s), I don't 'need' an bike, but I love tech and have just moved out of London (phew!) but didn't want to get a car so thought this might be a clever way of getting around. Looked at ebikes and there seemed to be three choices:

1) (heavily advertised) gtech bike - circa £700 through work.
2) Carrera, with its faulty, cut-out battery, complete with denial from Halfords
3) A £3,000 bike with 'x' gears and 'y' brakes

Went for the gtech bike and I honestly think it's brilliant. Here's why... There is no chain. I don't want to become a bike-person, fiddling with oil and screwdrivers in my (non-existent) garage. There are no gears. There wasn't on my box when I was 8 and that seemed fine. I just wanted to get on and press play and that's exactly what I have. Now I've taped over the garish logo, it looks exactly like a bike. As a vain (still, just about) young man, that was massively important. I bought a spare battery off eBay and I can happily tootle along for miles and miles and miles.

As a consequence, I've not spent much money and I cycle for pleasure almost every day.

They're £595 on eBay now and I'd recommend them to absolutely everybody.

Happy trails folks!

I was looking at cheap e-bikes for my mum to get around town. AT 73 and about 45kg there's no way she's gurning up the Linney on an SS even with 250W assist - if you even get that.

I have ridden one. I borrowed one from a friend to ride round South London. It was alright but very underwhelming. As it was the only e-bike I have ever ridden, I have nothing to compare it with. There was no surge of power and I really only noticed there was a motor on one longish hill. I certainly wouldn't want to gof far anywhere with proper hills

My hypothesis is that the net power gain given by the motor of the GTech will be minimal when compared to a lighter, non-electric assist, geared bike.
eBikes with gears would be different and make much better use of the motor power.

Not ridden a gtech bike, but you're a mile off the mark for the ones I've ridden. My parents have a Trek Powerflys and even in 'eco' with the minimum assist they go uphill like you're riding a 15lb road bike, with a tailwind, and an engine, despite weighing quite a lot (40lb?). With the full 250w and 'turbo' mode you barely touch the pedals and it'll leave all but the fittest riders behind.

Some here on pinkbike, but [url= https://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/2269599/ ]Surely not £500 with a bosch motor!!?[/url]

I don't want to become a bike-person, fiddling with oil and screwdrivers in my (non-existent) garage.

WTF are you doing on this forum then ?

Oh I see, just joined to post this - hmmm.

Some here on pinkbike, but Surely not £500 with a bosch motor!!?

The battery is than that, at least one of the pics is a cheap hub motor'd bike so I guess its that one for 500

^^^ if you google “cyclesportandleisure” you’ll find the actual company’s eBay store, and the actual prices for these bikes (£1-2k mostly)

'WTF are you doing on this forum then ?

Oh I see, just joined to post this - hmmm.'

Wow. Why the hostility? I prefaced my comment with 'just my tuppence worth'. I'm not a cycling person, I admitted that. I just thought the OP would like to hear a subjective review of a bike they were talking about.

More and more people are interested in this stuff, yet don't want to become MAMILs or have sweaty dreams about gear ratios. Jeez....

My hypothesis is that the net power gain given by the motor of the GTech will be minimal when compared to a lighter, non-electric assist, geared bike.
eBikes with gears would be different and make much better use of the motor power.

Not ridden a gtech bike, but you're a mile off the mark for the ones I've ridden. My parents have a Trek Powerflys and even in 'eco' with the minimum assist they go uphill like you're riding a 15lb road bike, with a tailwind, and an engine, despite weighing quite a lot (40lb?). With the full 250w and 'turbo' mode you barely touch the pedals and it'll leave all but the fittest riders behind.

Hmm, I think you've missed the point I was trying to make. I see 3 sets of bikes here, the Gtechs, 'proper' eBikes with gears and traditional geared non-electric assist bikes*.

So my hypothesis is that the net power gain given by the motor of the GTech will be minimal when compared to a lighter, non-electric assist, geared bike.(mainly because the bike has gears and is lighter).
I add the caveat that eBikes with gears (which the GTech doesn't have) would be different and make much better use of the motor power.

Your experience goes along with my caveat.

EDIT: *just bikes then 🙂

WTF are you doing on this forum then ?

Actually answering the OP's question. He seems to be the only person here who owns one, and has given his opinion.
Your replies a disgrace TurnerGuy 🙁

WTF are you doing on this forum then ?

Actually answering the OP's question. He seems to be the only person here who owns one, and has given his opinion.
Your replies a disgrace TurnerGuy

To be fair, who joins a forum populated by;

MAMILs [who] have sweaty dreams about gear ratios.

*ironic use, we'll see if he recommends a gtech lawnmower.

My mum bought a Pendleton ebike from halfords for about 750 quid. She absolutely loves it and at 70 means she can ride to the local supermarket up a hill she would otherwise have taken the car.

I don't think the average person really requires 250 Watts of bosch power when pootling around town..

Actually answering the OP's question. He seems to be the only person here who owns one, and has given his opinion.
Your replies a disgrace TurnerGuy

joins explicitely to give a glowing review after several iffy ones - I'd trust that.

joins explicitely to give a glowing review after several iffy ones - I'd trust that.

Thing is there weren't any iffy reviews. Aaracer rode one around a car park and said it seemed ok. And a couple of bike shop types had worked on one and not been impressed with the build quality. But no one has actually owned and lived with one untill hoverboys input. And reading his post it doesn't really look like something a Gtech employee would write .

And reading his post it doesn't really look like something a Gtech employee would write

I have to say I read his post and wondered if anybody was going to out him as a Gtech employee!

Either way, I think there's an interesting perspective between cyclists and non cyclists on this - it may be that he's being totally honest and his expectations are lower, the power makes more difference as he's not putting the same amount in himself, and he's never ridden a decent bike.

It weighs 16Kg!!

My 3spd ute/cargo bike weighs 25kg, and the only motor is an ageing lard-arse. Can still wind it up the hills with another 10kg of groceries

The only Gtech thing I can comment on is a rechargeable vacuum/sweeper. It's great, has proved effective and reliable and the charge lasts ages.

OP, Maybe join the pedelec forum for some advice? http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/

[quote=dmorts ]Had a thought about the GTech bike specifically. It weights 16kg and has a single gear (don't know ratio though). You could easily get a geared non-electric assist equivalent that weighed 10Kg.
So, some of the GTech's motor power is used just to move that extra 6kg around. Therefore in reality, what's the net gain of the power assist?
First you could look at both bikes being in the same gear. Then you could add in the mechanical advantage of the gears of the non-electric assist bike
My hypothesis is that the net power gain given by the motor of the GTech will be minimal when compared to a lighter, non-electric assist, geared bike.
eBikes with gears would be different and make much better use of the motor power.
EDIT: although with the rider weighing 75kg upwards, the difference of 6kg might be minimal

Well you seem to have made the first point I was going to make with your last sentence - 6kg is <10% of the typical load, it's really not going to make much difference to how the bike performs. Meanwhile for a typical Gtech owner even 100W would double their power output (I've no idea how much it does have, I guess 250W, which will mean they'll be going up hills at 15mph which they'd otherwise be walking - so much for no net gain).

As pointed out I'm the only one on here apart from the newby, and I've already stated my connections and why I got to have a go on one. The net gain of the motor is significant - it was quite fun, press gently on the pedals and whizz off. I've not ridden any other e-bikes, but I think you and others are also making a bigger thing of the gears than the reality. I was surprised just how high geared it is, but I reckon that makes sense given that you don't actually need to shift down gears for most hills - the motor will push you up them in that gear with you pushing no harder than you have to on the flat. There is no "mechanical advantage" to gears for the majority of the riding most people will do on a Gtech, I'm sure the motor efficiency is fine with the available gear.

So, as already pointed out, you're way, way off the mark here.

I note that I'm not suggesting it's a fabulous bike, and it probably wouldn't suit most people on here, but for the typical owner and as cheap bikes go I expect it's fine - nowt wrong with V brakes (and the ones on the bike I tried worked fine) and from experience the dodgy bit with cheap hybrids tend to be the gears...

Hoveboy, yesterday

[img] [/img]

Just noticed this:

Therefore I think the Gtech bike will probably be too big, as I'm taller than him and would think 20" frame is too big for me

That pretty much answers any question as to whether the bike is suitable. I would say not, at face value (of course depending upon your methods of sizing.)

You should have probably read my reply that the sizing was fine for me at 5'9" (and is fine for its "owner" who is a female a couple of inches shorter). It's not sized like a 20" performance MTB which would be for 6ft+ riders.

OK, my hypothesis of normal lightweight bike vs. The GTech is probably wrong then. Also I now realise I misunderstood this

The single gear is quite high, which will probably suit a non-cyclist not into pedalling fast

[quote=dmorts ]Also my dad said it was easy to pedal with the power off, because I asked what he'd do if it ran out battery.

I'm kind of surprised by that - but then I didn't try it power off, and I guess that on the flat there's probably not any noticeable drag, and it seems that people who don't ride bikes much tend to like quite high gears even for unpowered bikes - so it probably feels fairly similar to any other cheap bike. So he's probably right. Of course I could be wrong about the gearing, it was just a car park test and I suppose on the open road the gearing might not feel anywhere near so high - I expect it's plenty high enough for an average person to go 15mph almost anywhere though, which is all you really need on an e-bike.

Of course I could be wrong about the gearing, it was just a car park test and I suppose on the open road the gearing might not feel anywhere near so high - I expect it's plenty high enough for an average person to go 15mph almost anywhere though, which is all you really need on an e-bike.

No, I think you're right. If you were going to choose a single gear ratio it would make sense to be a higher gear. The power assist then kicks in to help the initial setting off and get you up to cruising speed*

Also bear in mind my dad only had a brief test ride, seemingly similar to yours. So the gearing might not actually be as easy as he thinks.

*the public hire bikes in Copenhagen are like this, my only eBike experience

HUb gear ebikes do not use the bikes gears at all so it makes no difference if you have a single speed or 30 gears to the rear wheel torque from the motor

Thing is there weren't any iffy reviews

hmmm...

the range was a bit poor.

Serviced a couple, they are pretty awful. Build quality on the frame looked bad. Power seems to be On or off, lack of gears was frustrating.

The G-Tech we had in for service was rubbish. Poor build quality and the test ride was not pleasant due to lack of gears and low power.

The Bosch motors seem to be very unreliable. We've seen several where the BBC or motor bearings have just eaten themselves requiring new motors. One of my friends is on his 4th in less than a year. Plenty of stuff on the Internet about it as well.

The underlying bike doesn't look up to much.

Do they come as standard with Air-Ram technology?

I've read a bit on the pedelecs forum.

The general consensus for the GTech Sport/City eBike is great zipping about on the flats but can struggle on steep hills and in general hills really sap its power. I get the impression there are alternatives that would deal with hills better.

[i] I get the impression there are alternatives that would deal with hills better.[/i]

Something like..
[img] [/img]

I run a market research company. I'm nothing to do with Gtech.

Thanks to the couple of people who were pleasant and kind and recognised that I was only writing my thoughts and experiences on the bike I own.

I am now, of course, leaving this site, never to return. Some of the responses on here were disgraceful.

****ts.

🙁 🙁