How sad to read some of these negative reviews regarding Dost. I have been researching different mid-drive bikes for several months and kept coming back to Dost. There are so many things that held my attention that I was using their offering (Kope chain) as a benchmark while measuring others. Also, I listened to my LBS and the good things he had to say about them from a reliability standpoint of view.
So with all that in mind, I did purchase the Kope Chain... And have had it less than a week but with the Cleveland weather, I've only had the opportunity to ride it a few times. So, as far as a personal review goes I can't offer much at this time, except for how impressed I am with the power it has and the quality of the bike itself.
However... and there always seems to be a, however... the thing that gave me the most pause was the communication or lack thereof with the company. Not so much on a personal level, every time I called them I was able to get through and talk to someone regarding a general question I had. But when I was 1st talking to my LBS about Dost, he said he was getting in 8 new Dost bikes in the next few days... and that was 7 weeks before they actually showed up. At one point when he was trying to figure out where his bikes were, Dost just stopped returning calls or emails for almost 3 weeks, (or so I was told) and according to the LBS when they finally did hear back, they said it was due to a recent Covid outbreak they had, and they shut down for 2.5 weeks... with no notice to their dealers or post?
So, be that as it may... I still decided to make the purchase and that's mainly because of my LBS and my comfort with them if something were to go wrong with the bike being able to troubleshoot and fix the issue. There are so many manufacturers out there looking to make their mark and capture as much of the market as they can. I was told there are now over 400 bike manufacturers building e-bikes and would expect over the next few years that number will be greatly reduced... through many different factors, things such as mergers, bankruptcies, foreclosures, Etc.
Within these manufacturers, a sure-fire killer is, and always will be, the lack of customer service. I've stated before that I was in manufacturing for 44 years, selling high-end very specialized automation equipment. One of the companies I worked with had a great product line, the company was full of great people, and brilliant engineers, who could design just about anything to do with automation. However, (there's that word again) "the powers to be" figured, just because their product was a great design and checked a lot of boxes, it didn't make any difference if they missed deadlines, shipping dates, or returned customer's calls in a timely manner, and with that mindset, over the course of 5 years... due to a steady decline in business they ended up closing that division... it was truly a sad thing to watch happen.
So, the only negatives I really read about Dost are based around bad communications, where I think Dost has a great product, I hope they can pull it together for the sake of their customers and a long-lasting place in the market.
