I'm new to ebikes but not to this forum - I just test rode a Smart ebike (they are not for sale) at a Mercedes dealership - Wow!! I just loved the ride.

What's the best overall ebike that can be test ridden and bought at a local store. I live in Portland Oregon. Thanks in advance for your help.

If you have been here long, you know the answer to that question (on any sub forum) depends on what your goals are. (cost, speed, weight, range, terrain, intended usage, bike category, etc)

YOu can do some good research here:
https://www.electricbike.com/2014-year-in-review/
Electric Bike Report | Electric Bike, Ebikes, Electric Bicycles, E Bike, Reviews | Electric Bike Reviews, News, and Information; plus e-bike riding and maintenance tips!

Read through there, get an idea what you are looking for, then ask specifics. :-)

First, go to each of your bicycle shops in Portland, and then let us know what they have available. Once you have narrowed the list to real candidates, I'm pretty sure you will get comments/recommendations from the participants of this forum.

-HANK RYAN-
Norman, Oklahoma USA

You're in Portland... go to the e-bike store just a few blocks east of I-5 on Rosa Parks. Wakefield Gregg is the owner. A great guy. He's got all kinds of e-bikes that you can ride... and you can take them for an actual test ride, not just twirl around in the parking lot. He will even let you rent one for a week.

My personal favorites (best) are rear hub direct drive bikes. I had my own bike converted with a BionX e-bike kit. I love it. The mid-drive bikes are right there, neck-and-neck, with the direct drives. They are probably more efficient than the hub drives, and they have the advantage of you being able to work on your regular bike parts and bits just like you would on a non e-bike (i.e. changing a flat on mid drive is no different than a regular bike.)

Premium to me looks like Specialized Turbo, anything Felt (maybe not available in US much), and Giant had a sport/ mountain bike one last year that looked sweet, forget the name of it.

Thank you everyone for pointing me in the right direction. I will certainly go and check out different ebikes at couple of local stores. From the online research I've done so far, Specialized Turbo is the closest to what I'm looking for.

I must confess as an avid bicyclist I've always ignored ebikes and knew almost nothing about them - Now I can't wait to get a new ebike

I was in the same position last year. I didn't have any interest until I tried one. Now I use it for commuting and longer errands and save the real bike for the weekend rides which are fun again. Try to ride a variety including a few not on your first choice list. I ended up with a Turbo S but I had not even considered it until I rode one for comparison to a couple of others I tried. The downside of the Turbo is it's only available at some Specialized dealers and usually most people in the store don't understand e-bikes like a specialty e-bike store.

I don't know anywhere in Britain where you can rent an E-bike for that length of time. How many of your dollars would that cost, out of interest?

If I recall, It was $100 for a week. If you bought an e-bike from the e-bike store, the $100 rental fee was applied to the sale of the bike that was purchased. An unbelievable deal!

I'm presuming you mean deducted from the price, right?

I think we're saying the same thing? If you rented an e-bike for a week for $100, returned it, and bought a $1000 e-bike, you would still owe $900. I don't know if that policy is still in place, but if it is, you can't beat it.

If a dealer started renting out bikes then his first customer would probably get a new bike. If after a week s/he said they liked the bike so much that they wanted to buy it, I wouldn't describe it as unbelievable that the dealer would view the $100 as a deposit (although there would have been dealer insurance costs to pay out of that rental). If it was not an unused bike then the dealer still has that bike but has made a sale, so equally advantageous. I expect it's designed to be a way of letting potential customers test-ride in differing conditions without them abusing that test.