Recent content by champignon

I had a hungry plaintiff's lawyer on the case, but I've told him to back off :-)

I don't think I would buy another e-bike that was obviously an e-bike. There are too many questions about where they are "allowed" to be ridden, and too many busybodies out there. That isn't to say that a bike that one of us would detect as being an e-bike would be out, just the obvious ones...

I may be around your age or possibly even older. I am sorry that you had a major cardiac event and glad that you have survived it and are changing some of the lifestyle contributors that may have caused it. My parents, 88 and 90, are still living and in relatively good shape. I don't blame...

I don't think that anyone should donate to a crowdfunded project unless they really want to; it's one of those 100% optional activities. There are, however, some really unique and new things out there and if you like cutting edge products it can be interesting to follow this stuff. Venture...

All of this concentration on equipment and how it is configured totally misses the point. The only thing that really matters is the behavior of the trail user. The equipment that they use is irrelevant. No one wants to share a bike path with dirt bikes, but when you get down into the weeds...

Some people (judging by the comments left on the various campaign pages) definitely do view crowdfunding as akin to online shopping, even though the websites have disclaimers on all campaign pages and on the checkout pages as well. And you need to remember that there are all sorts of...

This sort of warranty is very common across many industries. What it shows is that the manufacturer or dealer wants you to have enough confidence in the bike to part with a lot of money at the time of purchase, and not feel exposed to warranty issues. On the other hand, they couldn't give a...

The only negative is that you have to drive a prius :-)

There's a fair amount of road debris out there, at least where I drive. The most common problem is, of course, those retread tire shards one finds everywhere on the interstates. I think the liability would be enormous if you were carrying a heavy object like an e bike and it came loose...

Insurance agents are generally very helpful up until the time when you need to make a claim; their business is selling policies, not servicing them :-) They generally let the employees of the actual insurance company inform you that you are s*it out of luck. Then they commiserate with you...

Do you mean liability insurance? Is there such a thing for an e-bike? Or theft insurance? I'd be surprised if any insurance company would write either type of insurance as a standalone policy. You probably have some level of liability and/or property coverage from your homeowners or renters...

For me, if I can't stand upright with the bike upright between my legs, while stopped, then the bike is a non-starter and I won't buy it. I don't need more than one good reason not to buy a particular bike, 1 is sufficient :-) The manufacturer did measure the stand over height for me measured...

IGG does give refunds; I have refunded 2 projects so far, but they aren't as liberal with the timing of it. Some project owners on IGG will refund contributions even if IGG won't; Ninebot-Segway is currently doing that a lot on a scooter project they are funding now. It depends on the project...

Kickstarter refunds your money if fundraising goals aren't reached; I don't know what IGG does. I do know that IGG doesn't give the money to the project company immediately, there is a delay and then it goes out in pieces. I would certainly not buy anything from either of these sites that I...

I think that Kickstarter has a much better reputation for vetting their project listings than does Indiegogo. On the other hand, since Indiegogo will accept earlier stage projects and has lower underwriting requirements, you might get some truly inventive stuff on that platform that wouldn't...