SHOP-BOUGHT E-BIKES

You can kick the tyres but should you flash the cash? We put seven high-street contenders to the test to find the answer

- Alan Muldoon, Danny Milner

Welcome to our 2023 E-bike of the Year test. Over the next 16 pages W we'll be putting seven of the hottest e-bikes through their paces. And to make the test as fair as possible, all seven bikes are available through bricks-and-mortar shops. And in the interest of completeness, this issue also contains a summary of the direct-sales models we tested in the May issue, and the lightweight mid-powered e-bikes from the February issue. Taken together, the magazine you are holding in your hands represents a one-stop e-bike shop.

The target price point for the shopbought e-bike portion of the test was £8,000. And while that's a lot of cash, it gave us the widest possible range of bikes and brands to choose from, as not all of the brands have the same pricing structure. Take the Mondraker Crafty Carbon range, for example, it is just getting started at £8k. Now contrast that with the Whyte E-160 line, which actually tops out with the RSX model at £8k. It wasn't super rigid though, and we also included the Nukeproof Megawatt Factory at £6,999 because it comes with a specification fitting of a bike costing considerably more money.

And while the price point was fairly even, there's no consensus on frame material. Specialized, Mondraker and Giant all get full carbon frames. Whyte and Nukeproof use aluminium frames and the Trek Rail and Cannondale Moterra LT split the difference with carbon front ends and alloy rear ends. Again, this depends on the pricing structure, but one thing is crystal clear brands that saved money on the frame construction were able to fit higher-end components.