Using a Moustache Samedi 27 E-bike for 2026

January 31, 2026

For decades I spent a day a week on my bike in West Sussex, Hampshire or Surrey, but the enjoyment gradually tapered off. Partly due to worsening road surfaces (council budget cuts), but also the 30-35 mile loops became too repetitive. So from 2014 Sunday mornings saw a switch to loading a sea kayak onto a car roof and driving out for a day on the Thames or on the South Coast with kayaking friends and more challenging objectives. But November through to March is a low season for paddle trips and the heavy rainfall rules out paddling on local rivers, so the bike has been making a big comeback. But I don’t enjoy finishing rides just as darkness falls, and the fix for that is better fitness and some help on the hills - which is where the e-bike comes in, to hopefully reopen opportunities to get back to level of pre-holiday fitness I had before our cycletouring in Scandinavia and elsewhere…

I started my investigations at FW Evans, Guildford’s major retailer perhaps for people looking for a quality version of the bikes stocked by Decathalon and Halfords. My assessment is that Evans are holding a fire sale this January and really struggling to shift last year’ stock. Their new e-bikes looked to be using unbranded Chinese motors and batteries. We rented Trek e-bikes for our 10-day tour in Puglia in 2023 with a 30-mile range and Bosch motors, which set the bar moderately high. I didn’t think the Evans bikes were equivalent in terms of components and quality and I left the shop with none of them on my shortlist.

Research online suggests that internal frame batteries a good innovation, being more theft-resistant, but bikes with 500+ Watt batteries seem to retail for over £3000 - way over what I would pay to ride with a range of less than 35 miles. The YouTube videos by the Global Cycling Network on e-bikes are helpful.

Next step was to see whether Fully Charged in Guildford would rent out an e-bike to me, and after some deliberation the owner Chris dug a five year old 450-watt 7-speed KTM bike out of the stock room for me to use for the weekend for £50. I drove the van to Ropely and manhandled the KTM out for a 35-mile ride around the Meon Valley. Despit a little rain, the e-bike was a revelation: the huge (to me) tyres and front suspension made handling potholes and loose gravel a breeze, the hydraulic disk brakes worked really progressively but stopped the bike in two thirds of the distance my usual rim brakes would, and I found Eco and Tour mode really helpful for climbing up Beacon Hill (261m). There are many short climbs up hangers on this route and although my heart rate was into the aerobic exercise range I sailed up all of them. Unfortunately the battery ran flat at the 34-mile mark and the last mile was really hard work with this bike - it just wasn’t geared low enough for its 20kg weight. As I hoisted it into the van at the end of the ride, I began to appreciate that getting an e-bike into the back of a car might be a job for two people if damage to the interior is to be avoided.

I took the machine back to Fully Charged after the weekend and had a longer discussion with Chris, who to his credit was very helpful without being pushy. I had browsed through the on-line stock list for the stores before returning and I could see that all of their newer bikes were unaffordable. But - Chris did have a nearly new Moustache Samedi 17 XRoad 3 with only 630 miles on the clock that he had accepted as a trade-in from another customer. This ticked more of the boxes. Looking through the Bosch online catalogue, I had been struck by the similarity of bikes from different manufacturers; they only seemed to be differentiated by frame colour and component choices. 3,042 different models! 1,027 Trekking e-bikes! I didn’t discover any UK manufacturers, perhaps Brexit has made things very difficult from a trading perspective? Also, the 2026 bikes seem to have shrunk battery capacity from 550W or greater to 400W, suggesting perhaps that they are selling you less for the same money in an effort to keep sales volumes up.

What does differentiate is the type of engine/battery/head unit for each model of e-bike using the Bosch system. The KTM Macina that I hired used the original Bosch e-bike System or BES1 - initially attractive because later bikes are fitted with the Smart System, meaning that they pair with an iPhone or Android which can be used to record trip statistics, remotely lock the bike, and more. I generally avoid anything that needs to pair with my smart phone to work, because it introduces the dynamic of being taxed for functionality (once registered on the Bosch website) and risking obsolesence when the manufacturer brings out a new system. Indeed, the BES bikes cannot be upgraded to the Smart System, Bosch expect customers to bin their bike and buy a new one, for another £4000 for some of the models, which is madness. The benefit of the Smart System is a bit of a puzzle to people who already have a Garmin smartwatch and possibly some other navigation going on with a bike-mounted GPS. Do you see Bosch taking a slice of the fitness / mapping market from Garmin, Komoot, Beeline, and the others? I don’t.