Electric Bike Finder
Tell us the ride, the money, and the rules where you live. We score every bike we track against your answers — and show you where each one falls short, not just where it wins.
Six questions. The first two are arithmetic, and they are the ones that decide most of it. We score every bike we track against your answers and show you where each one falls short as well as where it wins — including the specs we don't hold.
Some retailer links are affiliate links — where they are, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes which bike wins: nothing in the scoring, the ranking or the de-duplication reads the affiliate field, and the only thing it changes on the page is how the button reads and whether we are allowed to quote a price. We link Himiway and Mooncool through Awin, and Heybike and Emojo through Amazon — as an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. How we research
The finder scores the catalogue in your browser, so it needs JavaScript. With it off you can still browse every bike we track in the electric bike hub. These are the six questions it asks, and what each one does to the ranking:
Question 1 of 6
How far is the ride you'll actually do?
Round trip, not one way, and the trip you take now rather than the one you're picturing. This is the arithmetic everything else hangs off.
- Under 5 miles — The shops, the school run, the station
- 5 to 12 miles — The commute most people are buying for
- 12 to 25 miles — A long commute, or a day out
- 25 to 40 miles — Serious distance, most days
- Over 40 miles — You are buying a large pack and planning around it
Question 2 of 6
What is the ground like?
Hills and loose surfaces roughly double what a mile costs you. This sets the watt-hours per mile we plan against, not just the total.
- Flat, on pavement — About 15Wh a mile
- Rolling hills, or you're carrying weight — 18 to 25Wh a mile
- Steep hills, and loaded — 25Wh a mile, and gearing starts to matter
- Loose ground — sand, snow, gravel — 25 to 35Wh a mile
Question 3 of 6
Where are you allowed to ride it?
This narrows the field more than anything else you'll answer. The class system controls where you may ride far more than how fast you may go.
- Paths and trails — Class 1 is the one land managers permit
- Some of each — A switchable bike genuinely earns its keep here
- Roads and bike lanes — Class 3 is open to you, at 28mph
- I don't know yet — We'll rank on everything else and flag the class
Question 4 of 6
What shape of bike?
Only now does this matter, because the first three answers have already taken most of the catalogue out.
- Commuter — Racks, lights and fenders as standard. The right answer more often than people expect
- Upright and comfortable — A cruiser, or three wheels if balance is a worry
- It has to fold — Solves storage, not carrying. Only if storage is a real constraint
- Children or shopping — Cargo — a different bike, with a payload rating to check
- Off pavement — Fat tyre for sand and snow, trail bike for singletrack
Question 5 of 6
Does it ever have to be lifted?
The question nobody asks and everybody regrets. Bikes here run from about 37lb to over 100lb, and nothing else on the spec sheet affects daily ownership as much.
- Up stairs, or onto a car rack — Under about 50lb, and it rules a great deal out
- Over a step, through a door, into a boot — Under about 65lb
- No, it lives at street level — Then ignore weight and buy the battery
Question 6 of 6
What's your budget?
This only sets the range we search. Below about $800 the compromises stop being cosmetic — cable brakes, unbranded cells, no certification.
- Under $1,200 — Real bikes here, but check the brakes and the cells
- $1,200 to $1,800 — A bike that will last, from a brand that will still exist
- $1,800 to $3,000 — Cargo, better brakes, more battery
- Over $3,000 — Suspension, weight savings and a mid-drive