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2 May
Top safety tips for riding your ebike this summer

How to Find the Best Electric Bikes in NZ

Table of Contents

  • The Best E-Bikes For Riding Around Town and On Light Off-Road Trails
  • The Best Electric Bikes for Riding Longer, More Challenging, and Multi-Day Trails
  • MeloYelo E-Bikes are Designed by Kiwis for Kiwis
  • The Best Electric Bike Test Rides in NZ
  • Customer's Feedbacks
  • Conclusion

The best electric bike for you is something only you can determine, after doing your research, talking to friends who have e-bikes, and most importantly, test-riding several makes and models.

Having said that, MeloYelo offers some amazing benefits that we believe you should take into account when choosing the best e-bike for you:

  • When you buy a MeloYelo, you’re not just buying a bike, you’re joining a community. That’s because more than 1200 of our owners meet each other, and share stories and photos, through our private Facebook community for MeloYelo customers.
  • We offer an industry-leading 3-year warranty
  • We offer everyday low pricing, thanks to our unique distribution model
  • Our reputation for after-sale service is the best in the business

The Best E-Bikes For Riding Around Town and On Light Off-Road Trails

By far the majority of our customers tell us that they use their electric bikes to ride around town, on urban cycleways, and on light off-road trails such as rail trails and winery trails. If this is how you intend to use your electric bike, then there’s no need to spend a great deal of money. For example, MeloYelo ebikes that are fit for this purpose are:

  • The MeloYelo Tranzit
  • The MeloYelo Town’nTrail

Each of these models offers 8 mechanical gears plus 5 different levels of pedal-assist, with level 1 boosting your leg energy by around 30%, and level 5 boosting your leg energy by around 300%. They all offer good brakes, good suspension, good tyres, and a very comfortable saddle. Plus, you get mudguards, lights and a carrier, at no extra cost.

The Best Electric Bikes for Riding Longer, More Challenging, and Multi-Day Trails

If you plan on riding more challenging off-road trails, then the MeloYelo models you should consider are:

  • The MeloYelo Ascent
  • The MeloYelo Traverse
  • The MeloYelo Superlite

All of these models have proven themselves – many times over – on trails throughout NZ. They offer good suspension – none of them have rear suspension but many customers add a Suntour NCX suspension seat post and tell us that this makes their riding super-comfortable. They have great, puncture-resistant tyres, excellent hydraulic disk brakes, super-robust frames, comfy saddles, and again, come with mudguards, lights, and a carrier, at no extra cost.

The Superlite has the added advantage of weighing just 22kg, which is 4-5kg lighter than most ebikes, and is the same weight as carbon fibre bikes. This makes the Superlite possibly the best electric bike in NZ for those who need to load their bikes onto racks on the back of motorhomes and caravans. The Superlite also comes with air suspension (versus coil springs), which means it glides over bumps.

MeloYelo E-Bikes are Designed by Kiwis for Kiwis

MeloYelo’s National Service Manager is a German engineer who previously worked at Mercedes. So, he knows a thing or two about design and engineering. He is one member of a small New Zealand design team that works closely with a design and quality control group based in China but is also led by a German who has spent time in more than 200 electric bike factories around the world.

We regularly survey our customers – more than 4000 of them – to find out what they like and don’t like about their bikes, how they’re using their bikes, and improvements they suggest we make on future models.

Through these surveys, as well as through our customer community on Facebook, we gain tremendous insights which we believe give us an edge when it comes to creating the best electric bikes in NZ and in particular, the best e-bikes for senior riders, which is the market segment MeloYelo has focused on since our inception in 2016.

The Best Electric Bike Test Rides in NZ

When you test ride a MeloYelo, you’re not just getting a brief ride around a retail parking lot. Our agents offer comprehensive test rides, away from busy streets. Even if you haven’t ridden a bike in years, they will gently work with you as you regain your confidence, and will even ride along with you, offering you tips and advice as you go.

This is a fantastic opportunity to get a feel for the bike and to see how it performs on the road or off-road. They are also on hand to give you some advice on how to operate the ebike. This is the perfect way to ensure that you’re making the right choice when purchasing an e-bike.

Customer’s Feedbacks

Here’s what one customer said:

“I liked the fact they were NZ design and sold by local reps, rather than big retailers. They are sturdy and well-constructed bikes, and come already fitted with “extras” such as side-stand, mudguards, carrier rack and lights. And the free 1st service.”

And, here’s feedback from another customer:

“I had been finding my old mountain bike a little demanding on the hilly stuff as the years are catching up a bit, but I don’t want to slow down so I got seriously interested in an e-bike. I wanted to try one before committing and contacted Graham from MeloYelo Whangarei. He couldn’t have been more helpful, dropping off a Town and Trail for an extended test as well as talking me through the pros and cons of other models and bringing a couple to me to try. I was very impressed with the performance and build quality of all of them and as a result, have just taken delivery of an Ascent mountain bike which I intend exercising regularly both on and off road. I have no hesitation in recommending MeloYelo.”

Conclusion

There is only one way to find the best ebike in NZ for you: Get out there and test some different makes and models, and make up your mind.

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About Author
About Author
Rob McEwen February 4, 2016
Rob McEwen is founder and CEO of MeloYelo ebikes, a NZ company with sales & service agents throughout the country. He Is also founder and a director of EVolocity, a charity which runs a programme in NZ high schools in which teams of students design, build and compete in electric vehicles. McEwen was formerly founder of the Association for the Promotion of Electric Vehicles (now Drive Electric) and a founder of the NZ Clean Energy Centre in Taupo.
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Melo Yelo bikes range
Denise

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Founded in 2016, Kiwi-owned MeloYelo offers everyday low pricing on high-spec electric bikes, valuable extras at no extra cost, nationwide sales & service, and an industry-leading 3-year NZ ebike warranty.

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