Purchase Advice - 1st eMTB

[bassez84]

Hi all,
I am new here. Could do with some advice on purchasing a bike. We have the cycle to work scheme running at work with a £3000 limit which I cannot go over. I had a look at some eMTB and wondered if anyone could advise me or suggest alternatives (keeping the £3000 limit in mind). After reading some of your threads I have my heart set on a full suspension. I am going to use the bike for some lightweight trails in woods (I am very new to this, so I don't trust myself on any hard core downhill). I will also use the bike to get to work when the weather gets better.
This is what I had my eyes on so far:
Haibike 2021 FullSeven 4 - around £2900
this seems to be a new bike (anyone have any experience with this?)

Giant Stance E +2 - around £2999

I have also seen a Trek bike for just over the budget - £3250 - Trek Powerfly FS4. - I quite like the look of this and the Bosch motor sound ever so nice. Plus is has a battery which can be removed, a plus for me as I would like to charge it in my office while at work without having to carry my bike in.

Anyhow, any suggestions, recommendation, don't buy this tips from you Pros?
Any help is really appreciated.

Thanks,
S.

 

[CRFan1]

My Advice would be to get one from your Local Bike Store so it can be serviced/warrantied unless you are able to do your own work, etc.

 

[Shinn]

I had a Haibike All Mountain for a while, liked it but the chain tensioner was loud, always clicking. It drove me nuts - maybe they've redesigned it? I do believe its a good brand of EMTB but they are on the heavy side as well when compared to other FF's I traded it due to the weight, not the tensioner - but it was a strong second reason to get rid of it.

I agree with buying local, I ordered my Haibike, had no issues with working on it but made sure I bought my Levo SL from the LBS.

 

[Rickster1978]

Well this is the post that I was just joining the forum to make so thanks for saving me a bit of time.

Like you, I also have a £3k cap on my cycle to work scheme. I had hoped to be able to top up the voucher to be able to add a bit to it to get something like the Cube Stereo Hybrid Team 160 at about £3,700 but it appears that's not possible.

In an ideal world I would order the voucher at £2,800 and get the Decathlon Stilus but I guess there's no guarantee that the price for the 2021 version will be the same as the 2020 and even less guarantee that I'd bag one after the supply issues on this model over the last 12 months.

So what do I do? Both the Haibike and the Giant have crossed my mind as well but am I missing anything else in the strict sub £3k range?

 

[Hobo Mikey]

If you wanted to go over budget could you not do the 3K through the scheme and then pay the rest cash/ card.

 

[Rickster1978]

If you wanted to go over budget could you not do the 3K through the scheme and then pay the rest cash/ card.

Nope unfortunately not. I checked and the rules were quite clear that I can’t add anything to the voucher so it’s a max of £3k.