Advice For An Old Bloke Sought.

[Whysub]

Bear with me on this, but reading through this thread shows that there is a wealth of knowlege of actual riders, of all capabilities, so forgive me for maybe asking what some of you take as granted or obvious.

I retired and moved to Spain in August, and the house redecoration and garden landscaping is almost done, so now I have time for leisure.

I'd like to get fitter than I am now, and back to how I was not that long ago. I have since had surgery on both knees (medial and lateral meniscus repairs) so still want to be careful as it was never established how they got so damaged.

I live 6.2 kms up a hill, with maybe 500 metres of flat road roughly half way up. Once at the bottom, geographically it is flat for miles, and the roads and hundreds of tracks that criss cross it are very quiet.

25 metres from my door is a forest with many bike tracks through it, but it is hilly and too much for me physically to ride a lot of them at the moment. All hard packed and rarely any sign of mud, although some are rutted by the vehicles used by forestry workers.

Because of the hill/knee combination, I have to load my current bike (a 20 year old Diamond Back MTB) into the car, drive to one of the local towns, find somewhere to park up, unload, ride for as long as I know I can still get back to the car, load up again, drive back home, unload bike. Hardly motivational, I'd much jump on a bike and ride straight off.

So I have looked at getting an ebike, mainly to make it easier to get up the damn hill. Once on the flat, I want to be able to turn the power assitance down and put some effort in to pedalling , so I'll have more than enough battery power left to help me up the hill back home after a couple of hours riding.

Have a budget of about £3k, may be a bit more, but less better. Once fitter I may want to use the tracks by my house, so should I be considering an MTB or stick to a hybrid style? A racing bike (or are they called road bikes now?) isn't for me as I want to ride on the gravel/unpaved roads and not 100% tarmac.

Until my language skills increase, it's difficult speaking to staff in the better bike shops around here specifically about my requirements, and I have tried!

Thanks in advance for giving me some pointers and things I may not have considered.

[Ditchfinder]

E-bike sounds perfect for what you need. The weight of suspension is minimal compared to the motor and battery weight so not worth bothering with a hardtail unless budget makes that difficult.

Orbea are quite a popular brand in Sapin and their e-bikes are getting good reviews. Most e-bikes are good for around 30 miles and 3000ft climbing off-road

[Mussels]

I had both knees operated on at 18 so I've always been wary of causing more damage, I used to do about 6k a year on e-bikes and they never gave my knees any trouble. Normal bikes are fine as well as long as I remember to use lower gears with the pedals spinning faster rather than a high gear and put loads of weight on the pedals.
There are two main drive types, motor in wheel and motor driving the chain, motors in the wheel are lower maintenance but can't make use of the gears. Depending on hills / health I'd recommend you look for a model that drives the crank so it will still give maximum help on the steepest hills.
It is (or was as I haven't looked in years) possible to get conversion kits for normal bikes, if you like your current bike then that's an option.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

At your budget (the same as mine was last year) hardtail crank drive MTB is the way to go, really happy with my Haibike, chains last 828 miles
Do some research and buy an ebike you like, you won't regret it

[MingtheMerciless]

MTB E-bike sounds ideal, probably a hard tail at your price point. My top advice is to find out what the best Local Bike Shop is and buy from them, in case you need warranty work (it's an e-bike, there's a good chance it may).

Motor at cranks is the best option.

Orbea as a bike manufacturer get a good review and they seem too use either the Bosch or Shimano motor systems, both of which are good. Probably best to avoid Specialized E-Bikes as you'll pay a premium and reliability is questionable even though the motor is a step ahead in terms of feel.

[Couchy]

Bosch motor with 625 battery then find a full suspension one. I’ve got a knackered knee and HT bikes make it a lot worse so full suspension only for me now. You’ll struggle with stock at the moment though but keep looking around

[Gedge]

As you are in Spain you may be lucky enough to find one if these in stock..

https://www.decathlon.es/es/p/bicicleta ... 038&c=AZUL

Really highly rated in reviews and a bit if a bargain price ( although it appears to have gone up a fair bit since last year )

[Whysub]

As you are in Spain you may be lucky enough to find one if these in stock..

https://www.decathlon.es/es/p/bicicleta ... 038&c=AZUL

Really highly rated in reviews and a bit if a bargain price ( although it appears to have gone up a fair bit since last year )

The Decathlon bikes do indeed get goor write ups. The ST 900 looks to be a good bike, but none in stock anywhere. The assistant at the store in Elx took my details, and said as soon as he gets notification some are in stock, he will reserve one for me, so i can buy it if I think its what i want.

Looked at reviews of many over the last couple of weeks, plus seen a few bikes in shops, but don't want to buy something that "will do" just because a shop has one in stock.