Electric bike query

[Bokonon]

I was speaking to my father last night, who expressed an interest in getting himself an electric assisted bike. He would mostly be using it for getting into the local town centre, a round trip of about 6 miles with a maximum gradient of 1 in 20 (ie 5%.)

I am looking for thoughts and recommendations on what is available, either as a purpose built bike or a conversion kit for a normal bike. My father wants something with an upright riding position and would need to be able to carry stuff on the bike (eg using panniers.)

Ideally he would need to test ride some bikes. Does anyone know of any good dealers? He lives in south Bedfordshire, so has easy access the London, Cambridge and Oxford area. If he were to visit me he could then get to the likes of York.

 

[very-near]

I've ridden a cheap one (£300 jobby off Ebay), and an expensive one (wisper905)

Both weigh a tonne, but without electric assist, I'd not want to ride the cheaper one at all as it is built like an £80 MTB from JJBs.

The expensive one is nice to ride (like a £600+ regular cycle), but the battery is £500 when it dies and the owner has already had the charger replaced under guarantee after about 6 months which took the bike off the road for a week whilst they got one out to him.

The expensive one came from http://www.electricbikesales.co.uk/ in Oxford and the owner commutes about 25 miles a day on it.

 

[Bokonon]

electricbikesales looks promising. Thanks for the link, very-near.