Challenge - Find my mother an eBike

[Boopop]

Mother Boopop wants an eBike to get to folk club. She's found this, which seems pretty good value for £1k.

I've found this, which is outside of her budget but I think is better value with its mid-drive motor and hub gears for her use case.

I think she'd benefit from the hub gears and the mid-drive, plus I think it looks better too...although I suppose it doesn't have a front suspension fork.

I keep hearing of the bike industry being in a terrible state and there being some big bargains out there. I've just spent an hour looking and I can't quite find what I think what would be perfect for her. Here's what she needs and what I think she should have.
Needs:

• Built in lights
• Rear rack
• Mudguards
• Hydraulic disc brakes

What Boopop would like it to have:

• Hub gears
• Mid drive

Yes, I know I'm asking a lot for those extras, but I think she'd really benefit. Any ideas? Cheers!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Hi!
No ideas because I'm not interested in Ebikes (yet), but I probably could be your Mother's age
Now, I like the second bike better than the first, purely based on the look of it.
Question:
Why does your Mum need all the stuff listed in your first list?
She is not commuting or using the bike for the weekly shop, you said it's just to go to her club, correct?
I would say mudguards are essential in the UK, a rack desirable if she's anything like me - I like to stop to buy stuff, like to carry extra layers, etc, but then I'm a commuter/utilitarian cyclist.
If she's not like me, one could dispense with the rack, use a rucksack.
If you have a rack, you need good, waterproof panniers too.
Why build in lights? Imo nowadays battery light are perfectly adequate, most commuters use them (in the UK).
Why disk brakes?
Imo desirable but not essential, unless your Mum's club is down an alpine like descend.
Hub gears are good, but not essential either, unless she's planning to cycle in all weathers.
I would focus on the look/colour of the bike , on the easiness of taking off the back wheel in case of a puncture (essential imo), on the reliability of the bike in general, no use if it's cheap but keeps breaking down, she will lose interest if it happens a lot - again imo.

 

[Boopop]

All reasonable questions. I think it all boils down to convenience. This'll be a bike to get her from her home in Thornton to St. Annes and back on Fylde coast, so a 20 mile round trip. It'll be replacing what was a car journey she used to make, so I think convenience should be key. She's also already got a Burley Travoy trailer which I got her for the bargainous price of £80 which she could use to take her guitar. Of course an eBike will help with that

Let's go again:
Needs:

• Built in lights - convenience. If you're getting an eBike, so far as I'm concerned you're already carrying a massive battery so you may as well have built in lights so you don't have to worry about charging USB lights
• Rear rack - she's already got great Ortilieb pannier bags for her other bikes, so this is a bit of a no-brainer.
• Mudguards - she will potentially ride it in the rain, or at least wet roads, so this seems sensible.
• Hydraulic disc brakes - I wouldn't want to put her through v-brakes, and hub brakes seem uncommon on eBikes. Hydraulic > better than mechanical disc, and the bike she's already found (the first one) has hydraulic brakes so any other bike we reccomend instead ought to match that.

As for hub gears - they're lower maintenance. Mid-drive, better eBikes have mid-drive motors, and they make it easier to change a flat tyre.

I think I've convinced her to spend the extra and I've said I'll put £100 towards the better bike above as a combined xmas/birthday present, so we'll probably go with that one unless any kind soul can find something even better. We've had a phone call in the past hour or two and decided we'll give it two or three days and then make a decision. Cheers!