Bikes are a great way to get to work, but electric bikes are, for many people, better still. Motor assistance means you shouldn’t need to break into a sweat, regardless of hills or headwinds, and it can also make it easier to move with motor traffic when you’re pulling away from junctions, traffic lights and the like.
- Pedibal Navigata (£1,199 with throttle, £999 without)
- Engwe Mapfour N1 Air (£1,399)
- Estarli e28.X (£1,895)
- MiRiDER 16 GB3 (£2,495)
- FLIT M2 (£2,499)
- Moustache Lundi 27 (£2,699)
- Tern Vektron Q9 (£3,300)
- Cytronex e-bike conversion kit (from £1,045)
In short, with an e-bike you get all of the benefits of cycle commuting, such as fresh air, exercise and, depending on your journey, perhaps a more pleasant route, but without some of the more obvious hassles. Perhaps most significantly, you won’t need to change clothes or freshen up when you arrive at work. And even if you do feel that’s necessary, it’ll be easier to carry any extra stuff on an e-bike anyway.
What makes a good electric commuter bike?
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Any e-bike can be used for commuting really. Obviously if your journey also involves rail travel, you’ll most likely want a small, light, folding e-bike, and if it takes in a canal towpath or off-road trails, you’ll need something with wider tyres. But for most people, anything roadworthy will do the job.
As such, exactly what you’re looking for might actually be shaped by how you plan on using your bike when you’re not commuting. Will you be using in to explore local trails or for weekend road cycling? Does it need to fold down for storage or to fit in a car boot?
The list below assumes a fairly typical commute, taking place mostly on the road. We’ve included a few folders because even if you aren’t taking your bike on a train, we know that bike storage at work can often be an issue.
If you have something more specific in mind, you might find a more relevant selection in one of our other e-bike guides.
Pedibal Navigata (£1,199 with throttle, £999 without)
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The Pedibal Navigata warrants inclusion for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it’s a good quality folding e-bike that’s available for under a grand. Secondly, for a couple of hundred quid more than that, you can get a version that’s legally controlled by a throttle – which isn’t at all a common thing.
The Navigata is a 7-speed fold-in-half e-bike with alloy mudguards and a removable 345Wh battery. At 21.2kg, it’s a manageable weight rather than feather light, but it’s a solid performer and offers a comfortable ride and should get you from A to B without drama.
Read our review of the Pedibal Navigata with throttle
Engwe Mapfour N1 Air (£1,399)
Engwe e-bikes haven’t always impressed us, but when we tested the Mapfour N1 Air earlier this year, we concluded that it was probably the best value sub-20kg e-bike out there.
For this money, the spec is basic yet functional. You get 7-speed Shimano Tourney gears, unbranded cable-operated disc brakes, 40mm tyres, mudguards, a kickstand, a hardwired front light and a solar powered rear light, plus a nice crisp handlebar display.
What makes it rather more appealing is the nicely-designed carbon frame that strikes a nice balance between comfort and speed and the high quality Mivice rear hub motor which combines with a torque sensor to deliver smooth, quiet power assistance that’s beautifully proportional to your pedalling.
Read our review of the Engwe Mapfour N1 Air
Estarli e28.X (£1,895)
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Buy now for £1,895 from Estarli
If you’re after a straightforward, low maintenance e-bike that you can just get on and ride, Estarli’s e28.X might be just what you’re looking for.
Available with either a step-through or diamond frame, it’s a lightweight urban hybrid with practical commuter touches, like a rack, mudguards and integrated lights – but its greatest strength is its automatic dual speed motor and belt drive.
If bike gears intimidate you, the e28.X has none. Not derailleur gears anyway. It instead flits between two gears automatically: a smaller one for setting off or going uphill and a larger one for when you’ve hit cruising speed. It doesn’t sound enough, but with a motor to pick up the slack, you’ll find it works very well indeed, provided your route doesn’t take in too many steep gradients.
Read our review of the Estarli e28.X
MiRiDER 16 GB3 (£2,495)
A quick word for its larger-wheeled stablemate, the MiRiDER 24 GB3, which is still pretty compact, but we’ve gone for the MiRiDER 16 GB3 (aka the MiRiDER One GB3) here because it also ticks the folding box.
Both bikes feature the 3-speed G3ARED transmission system that sits within the chainwheel body and both feature a handy throttle. The latter only functions when you’re also pedalling, but is nevertheless very useful for instant access to maximum assistance when you want to skip away from a junction or over a niggly little hill.
If the 19.1kg weight is a little too much for you, there’s also a non-GB3 single-speed version that’s a couple of kilos lighter and almost a grand less expensive.
Read our review of the MiRider One GB3
FLIT M2 (£2,499)
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Ideal for rail commuters who need something small and easy to carry, the 14kg FLIT M2 is one of the lightest electric folders around, yet it doesn’t compromise on performance.
While it’s only a single-speed, the torque-sensing Mivice motor does a stellar job, even on reasonable hills. The tri-fold mechanism, meanwhile, is quick and easy to get to grips with. Angled alloy feet act as rests to make a more secure base for the folded package to sit on, whilst the front and rear wheel hub ends neatly meet and click together with a mini-ball and socket arrangement to keep things firmly locked together.
Read our first ride review of the FLIT M2 and our full review of the FLIT-16
Moustache Lundi 27 (£2,699)
Buy for £2,399 from Fully Charged
If you’re after more of an armchair ride, the Moustache Lundi is superbly comfortable, but still packs a punch.
There’s quite a wide price bracket for this one. Prices start at £2,699 for the 27.1 but go all the way up to £3,999 for the 27.6. (We tested the 27.5 which, somewhat annoyingly, is the only version they don’t actually sell any more.)
We’d probably skip over the base model with its Bosch Active Line Plus motor. From the 27.3 upwards, you get the 75Nm version of the Performance Line with a 500Wh or 625Wh battery with both derailleur and hub gearing available.
Read our review of the Moustache Lundi 27.5
Tern Vektron Q9 (£3,300)
Buy for £2,999 from e-bikeshop.co.uk
At 22kg, Tern’s Vektron is more of a fold-for-storage sort of an e-bike, rather than one to take on public transport. If you’re looking for a bike to do a mixed mode commute, it’s viable, but there are certainly lighter options. It does however offer far greater versatility than most folders in other areas.
Key to this is a Bosch Active Line Plus mid-motor that’ll give you up to 50Nm of torque and keep you moving even on the steeper stuff. (And if that’s not enough, there’s always the £3,900 S10 version with the 65Nm Bosch Performance Line motor.) Cargo carrying wise, there’s significant capacity at the rear with a rack that can take a YEPP child seat or a pair of Tern’s sizeable panniers and there’s a mounting point for a front rack too. All in all, it’s a lot of bike in a relatively small package.
Read our review of the Tern Vektron Q9
Cytronex e-bike conversion kit (from £1,045)
If you already have a prized commuter bike that you think would benefit from a little extra juice, the Cytronex system is one of, if not the best e-bike conversion kit you can buy.
The battery takes residence in place of one of your bottles, and there’s a handlebar mounted boost button where you control the five power settings. Depending which options you go for, it only weighs 3.2-3.6kg so it’s pretty lightweight for a retrofit option – and high quality, too.
For more detail, read our review of the Cytronex C1 system.
