What comfortable ebike for road and mild offroad use?

[LunarOne]

I realise that there are multiple threads on what ebike to get, but they are either old or the OP has different requirements to me.

TL,DR; I'm a fatty and have problems with my hands so I'd like an ebike whicvh is compfy and won't put my weight on my hands. Mostly 50% road use and 50% off-road trails and tracks but no mountain stuff. What decent quality bikes should I look at?


I currently have a regular hybrid bike (B1 Aluma) which I bought perhaps 20+ years ago. I used to ride it about from time to time, but in recent years it's been sitting in the garage barely being used as I find it horribly uncomfortable. I can't really getb the seat far enough from the crank, and whnn I have the seat as high as it will go, the handlebars are too low for comfort. I also hate the twist-grip gearchange. I have a couple of friends who ride mountain bikes, and I have gone riding with them but struggle to keep up and some of the tracks they ride on feel too rough for my skinny-tyred bike. In recent years I've lost much of the feeling in my hands and with my weight on the bars, my hands get very numb and start hurting and buzzing. Meanwhile I lose the ability to hold onto the bars or use the brakes properly. I've had this numbness investigated as it affects both my hands and feet, but I'm not diabetic and it's not carpal tunnel. They even did a CT scan on my neck and spine to try to find the cause as I was in a bad car accident in 2018 and all the symptoms have appeared since then. No dice. Best guess by the doctors is something called small fibre neuropathy.

But anyway I want to try to find a way to join my friends on their cycling adventures both in England and abroad. They tend to rice 15-25 miles at a time but would go further with an ebike. One of them already has an e-bike, and thew other is on the verge of getting one. I was thinking that if I had a sit-up and beg grandma-style bike with a comfy saddle, then I might be able to cope and my hands won't turn to jelly as they do now when I try to ride.

I've lost about 17kg since last summer by totally eliminating all sugar from my diet and going low carb, but I'm still about 120kg and need something that won't buckle under my weight. And I think that even if it's less effort than riding without assistance, any pedaling I do with assistance will be better than doing none because I don't ride at all at the moment.

What ebike is there that has a comfy seat (perhaps one with springs) and where I won't have to lean on my hands an wrists too much or at all? I don't care at all if it looks totally unsexy as let's be frank - nothing will look sexy with me sitting on top of it. I understand that there's a legal power limit, but I also know that some bikes can have this overriden and I'm going to be at a huge disadvantage due to my weight being nearly double a normal adult weight. Having said that, I have no intention of riding around like a bat out of hell or needing to do silly speeds and I don't need it to go without pedalling as I'm not an uber eats rider. I'd like enough range that I can go 50 miles in total ideally with a bit left in the tank. Ideally it will be rideable without power assistance, although I'm not planning to make a habit of it. I don't really like the fat tyre look that I've seen on some bikes.

I don't really have a particular budget in mind. Once of the friends who already has an ebike is heavier than me and keeps breaking his cheap Chinese bike. I'd rather spend a bit more and have something solid that will last several years. I'm not a buy cheap buy twice kind of person. Is £1000 reasonable or do I need to spend more for quality?

Thanks!