Electric Folders for up to ~£1000

[Karla]

A friend with a history of chronic fatigue wants an electric folder. She's looking at the Powacycle Lynx and also at Wisper bikes.  She says her price limit is about £1,000. This bike would be folding to enable car boot transport and "avoiding silly train laws", and she'd mainly be making shortish hops, like a coupla miles with it. 

I'm not convinced the Powacycle's quoted 20 mile range would be good for a return trip in stop-start traffic at either end of a train connection and I'm wary of its 12.4mph limit. Does anyone have any experience of electric folders, or any recommendations or advice? So far I've suggested the Electric Wheel Company's conversion kits, the cost of which would take her up to her £1k limit once she'd bought something like a Dahon to fit them to, my thinking being that a proper folder from a big company would be an advantage.   Has anybody used these kits before?

Any advice appreciated, thanks.

[Pancho]

Can't comment on the brands you mention but when Mrs P was lugging heavy sprogs around in a trailer, I bought her a cheapo bike with a Heinzmann (?) hub motor and kit.

It was excellent and meant that hills between home and town no longer prevented cycling. Worked superbly.

In fact, the bike is lying dusty and unused in the garage (as sprogs are now much bigger). The battery pack is probably long since defunct but the motor is probably fine. You're welcome to attempt salvage if you're in this neck of the woods.

[Sigurd Mudtracker]

Nano Brompton?  Although I don't think the original ones are now available, there is a Tongxin (sp?) hub that fits, and the battery system (lives in the front pannier) seems really neat.

If you've not been there already, the A to B website should be helpful.

[DrMekon]

I've not tried the Brompton, but I've tried a couple of Wispers - the 905se and the comfort one. If they weren't electric, you'd expect to pay maybe £200 tops for them. Can't speak for the longeivity of the motors etc, but I can confirm that with the "off road" button pushed, the 905se goes like stink - kept the 19.5mph up regardless of what I did.