one4torque
Active Member
I'm in for a 2nd sondors for the wife. The interest is growing in my family.
Another Sondors CF Campaign.. This one on KS
- Thread starter JoePah
- Start date
George S.
Well-Known Member
The Kickstarter is done. From KS, as of 10/17/15 they link you to the gosondors site where the bike is $1299. But wait, there is a 60% off coupon, so roughly the same $500. But it's not retail. It's a pre-order for a bike in January.
It's not clear how this will play out. There are a lot of complaints about CF, but this may still be SS handling the manufacturing and then having all the bikes drop shipped. No CF fees.
It's probably safer having Sondors handle the manufacturing in China. It's probably somewhat risky if you wonder how the problems from the IGG campaign will play out. The last anyone said much about the lawsuit was April.
It's not clear how this will play out. There are a lot of complaints about CF, but this may still be SS handling the manufacturing and then having all the bikes drop shipped. No CF fees.
It's probably safer having Sondors handle the manufacturing in China. It's probably somewhat risky if you wonder how the problems from the IGG campaign will play out. The last anyone said much about the lawsuit was April.
vincent713
Active Member
Have you guys receive your Sondors from the Kickstarter campaign yet?
vincent713
Active Member
Which color and option did you get? I got the Titanium/black with the 4" tires with upgraded Panasonic 12.8Ah battery. I've added an aftermarket 20A controller with LCD and this thing hauls! 23mph on flats. The upgraded battery was totally worth it, it seems stronger and of course has a better range.
vincent713
Active Member
Folks are running 48v 30Ah triangle battery with a 25A controller with much success on the stock motor. They are getting 28 - 29mph top speed with this setup. It's amazing how the stock motor can take so much more wattage than it's rated for.
vincent713
Active Member
It was only the white color bike that had the aluminum frame. The one Court has is steel which explains the weight. To disable the PAS just simply unplug the wire from the magnet senor to the controller inside the box. The bike really comes to life when you add a $50 LCD and allows 5 level of PAS, it also allows you to adjust the speed limiter to go over 20mph and up to 44mph (max drive system will allow). You can also upgrade to a more powerful controller ($50) to make it more powerful and more torque for better hill climbing. I did this to my Sondors and able to get more torque and higher top speed of 23mph for around $100. There are a few vendors out there that sell upgraded parts for the Sondors and even replacement parts like the motor, battery and controller. Court mention that you cannot add a derailleur for more gears but that is not true. It's been well documented that folks have added a 3, 5 even 7 cog gears in the rear with a derailleur successfully. Every thing else on the bike he mentions are your standard components that are on other bikes that cost 1000's of dollar while this one cost $700 + 100 for the LCD & controller = $800. I truly believe you cannot get a better bike out there for this kind of price.
Court has been pretty negative in his Sondors' reviews... There is such a tight knit group of owners on FB any and all issues have been rolled over. I think there are 3300 members now, and at least 4 well known vendors supporting Sondors.
The Sondors eBike has created its own atmosphere!
The Sondors eBike has created its own atmosphere!
vincent713
Active Member
I sense that from Court too on both his reviews on this bike, not much enthusiasm. What a lot of people don't know about this bike is the easy and cheap upgrades you can do to make it more powerful, faster longer range, personalizing it, and making it your own. All plug and play. That's why this bike is the single most sold ebikes ever in such a short period of time. Half of the fun is upgrading it and modifying it. Most Sondors owners from FB which now has almost 3700 members BTW are over the age of 50 and some with health conditions love their bikes. It's a great solid bike out of the box already and a great platform to mod it if you choose. With all the vendors out there selling all the replacement parts if it ever break makes the Sondors indestructible! Why is ebike getting so popular in the US now? S O N D O R S
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one4torque
Active Member
Model t of bikes.
wa5
Well-Known Member
I thought It was a pretty positive review. its an entry level bike after all. He mentioned the messed up order, but didn't linger on it. would have been nice if Court had sprung for the lcd display (but its his money) . I hope this isn't the end of the review.. Court reviewed and sold the last one way too quickly.. there has been so much interest in this bike a longer term review would be nice.. Say 3 months? ... even a longer ride review.... a range test on the big block battery.
maybe add some aftermarket accessories after that 3 months.. "Project Sondors" ... perhaps?
Court also mentioned the "Issues" with the marketing of the first bike... (theres no need to revisit that issue here.. but if you look at the original Indiegogo site, there are still people asking "where's my bikes" over twelve months later..).. its a fair comment, there were issues.
Sondors has come a long way in twelve months.. If the bike were available in my country, I'd order one (and I may well get a less than polite "no thankyou" from Sondors
and I couldn't really be too surprised over that .. ).
Model T? Maybe.. but theres no real innovation .. in the product or the way it was manufactured... Great Wall maybe? (do you have those in the US?)
maybe add some aftermarket accessories after that 3 months.. "Project Sondors" ... perhaps?
Court also mentioned the "Issues" with the marketing of the first bike... (theres no need to revisit that issue here.. but if you look at the original Indiegogo site, there are still people asking "where's my bikes" over twelve months later..).. its a fair comment, there were issues.
Sondors has come a long way in twelve months.. If the bike were available in my country, I'd order one (and I may well get a less than polite "no thankyou" from Sondors
and I couldn't really be too surprised over that .. ).Model T? Maybe.. but theres no real innovation .. in the product or the way it was manufactured... Great Wall maybe? (do you have those in the US?)
Jack Tyler
Active Member
Here's a February 2016 review of the KS model from Electric Bike - highly favorable and with a look back at the IGG campaign and whole Sonders 'movement'. But it left me wondering about the ~1500 IGG funders who apparently got stiffed.
And that is the major problem with going with the crowdfunding model - you're paying money for a product you're not guaranteed to receive. You also have no real factory support - every time I look at some of the Sondors groups there is always someone complaining of a problem with their bike, something arrived broken, they got the wrong color, and they cannot get a hold of anyone in the company to get a fix. So now you've got this "cheap and affordable" ebike that you've been bragging about sitting in your garage collecting dust because you can't fix it yourself, there are no stores to take it to that will work on it, you've got no factory warranty (and even if you did who is going to honor it?), and the company may as well not exist because you can't get a hold of factory tech support. Now to be fair, that isn't to say that there are not some other cheap ebikes out there that you would have the same problem with, so don't get me wrong - but they don't have the kind of rabid community that the Sondors one does.
I know Sondors has a rabid following and I was *this* close to getting one myself. However, much of that is usually centered around people bragging about their up front cost being so cheap. Yet these are the same people who are also bragging about the aftermarket/mod support (which is a good thing, don't get me wrong) and are the same people spending significantly more money to upgrade their "cheap" Sondors bikes. That's fine - I'm all about tinkering and modding. However, bragging about how affordable the Sondors bikes are becomes a moot point if you are spending thousands of dollars, when all done and said, in upgrades and modifications to get the bike to a level comparable to another off the shelf model made by an existing factory that has a support network in place (i.e. good tech support, local bike shop support, factory warranty, etc.).
This is obviously all subjective on the individual and at the end of the day everyone is free to do what they want
George S.
Well-Known Member
There was a huge lawsuit on the original campaign, saying Sondors stiffed his ad agency. No one knows what happens. There are reports of bikes never delivered. No one knows what happened and no one offers a reliable number.
The bike won't climb a decent hill, stock. If you mod it you could buy a Magic Pie and a basic battery, put it on a used bike, and blow the Sondors off the racetrack.
The steel frame seems to be OK. People need to ask why they want a fat bike.
Two recent CF campaigns are interesting. Flux has raised a huge amount of money, but they are fudging on their mid-drive and the torque assist. The Tron wheel is an unknown, but they have a million dollars because they have an interesting idea.
People in Boston or Santa Barbara would buy a Tron wheel for a cocktail party, as entertainment. That's the country we live in. Folks with huge disposable incomes and people with none. As @Ravi Kempaiah constantly says, the corporate bikes meet standards and they have liability insurance. If something goes wrong, you can sue or whatever. With a Sondors, they craft the 'perk' so it is not even a sale, and Sondors never passes a title to anyone. I guess there are competing social models in play, with a social stratification kicker.
Ann M.
Well-Known Member
Wonder how many people who didn't mod their Sondors bike are actually still riding them after running into issues. The support perspective by crowdfunded product is mostly vaporware and doesn't build a sustainable industry. Are there problems with some of the mainstream manufacturers? Of course; however, repairing and maintaining an electric bike or add on kit is not always easy to do. This is where a LBS that invests in tools, training and service specific to electric bikes is a real plus. Some of the internet manufacturers grow enough in wisdom and sales to recognize that they cannot provide adequate service just via the web and need the support of hands on techs, others have not. I agree with @Donny that there is room for both, just don't want to see people give up on electric bikes because they went for the cheap and became disillusioned when the product had issued that the online manufacturer couldn't or didn't help with.
@Donny There are over 4000 members on the Sondors FB group and another couple of thousand on the Sondors Swap and sell.
The amount of support from owners and vendors is really kinda fun.
No one I know is spending thousands of dollars upgrading their Sondors, but you could. What cool about the bike is that you can sell your old controller, battery motor whatever for maybe 75% of retail and buy upgraded parts for maybe double... Luna Cycle, Passion Bikes, Kinaye and Sondors all support the bike. Since it is an open architecture bike, upgrades are cheap.
Most eBikes lose 40% of their retail value in the first year... A stock Sondors that you bought last year for $700 can be sold for at least $700 today.. Check Craigslist.
I would say the bike is for true bike lovers who like to tinker with their bikes and make it their own..
10,000 bikes sold last year, so you have a lot who lost interest.
The amount of support from owners and vendors is really kinda fun.
No one I know is spending thousands of dollars upgrading their Sondors, but you could. What cool about the bike is that you can sell your old controller, battery motor whatever for maybe 75% of retail and buy upgraded parts for maybe double... Luna Cycle, Passion Bikes, Kinaye and Sondors all support the bike. Since it is an open architecture bike, upgrades are cheap.
Most eBikes lose 40% of their retail value in the first year... A stock Sondors that you bought last year for $700 can be sold for at least $700 today.. Check Craigslist.
I would say the bike is for true bike lovers who like to tinker with their bikes and make it their own..
10,000 bikes sold last year, so you have a lot who lost interest.
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When I say thousands, I'm including the nearly $1000 people are paying for the bike to begin with (the cost of the bike along with the few hundred bucks shipping and I'm rounding up obviously) and then the additional money people are spending on mods (upgraded batteries, controllers, adding motors, etc.). The boards are full of people doing this, they are not hard to spot or rare by any means - I've talked to enough of them. Once you start spending money on top of what you already paid for the bike in mods, bragging about how cheap a Sondors is becomes a moot point and that's the main thing I see people talking about when they (Sondors) come up as a topic of conversation - the price. Oh sure, people say they are fun and all that, but overwhelmingly it's usually how cheap they are and how stupid everyone else is for buying a commercially produced expensive bike. You know what? Normally I would agree with them. Electric bikes are stupid expensive. However, you know what you get with that commercially produced more expensive bike? You get a dealer network that can help fix your bike when the time comes. You get a warranty that can actually be used at said dealer network for repairs, parts, etc. You get tech support from an established company because they actually answer the phone, emails, etc. When your warranty is up, that dealer will still fix your bike for you (for a price obviously). You know what you get from a bargain basement Sondors? A bike in a crate from China - have a nice time with it. If you're a DIY person who knows bikes, electronics, etc. - it's not a problem. If you're someone who doesn't know a car tire from a spark plug, it's not so good. I would have to assume that the vast majority, if not all, of Sondors purchasers probably know that going in.
As for resale - that's subjective. The only reason you can still sell a Sondors for what it costs new (if not more like some of the ones I've seen on eBay) is because people are willing to pay that premium over waiting for months for their mail ordered bike to arrive (assuming it does) - it has nothing to do with the bike itself.
Now with all that said - I'll throw myself out there since I know what I'm saying may be a bit misconstrued as being snobby myself and I'm really not trying to come off that way. I came VERY close to getting one - I mean cash in pocket and ready to go meet someone to pick it up close. However, the few people (who were on Craigslist ironically enough) that had them were essentially trying to make a profit on their bikes or, at the very least, were trying to get me to compensate them for what they paid for their shipping costs - that's not the way it works in my world (my world being stressed there). Of the three people that I talked to, all of whom I offered anywhere from $750 t0 $900 depending on the bike, none of them were willing to deal. You know what? Two of the those three Sondors bikes are still sitting on Craigslist two and three months later (they just keep renewing their ads) respectively collecting virtual dust.
So what did I end up with after saying all of that? I ended up with a Currie iZip Zuma. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, the *only* reason I ended up on it was for two reasons. First, the bike was on clearance for 50% off the MSRP because the shop wanted to make room for the new models. Second, they gave me an additional several hundred dollars off of that price. All done and said, I walked away with that bike for under $1300 and it's a nearly $3000 bike. Had I not gotten that kind of a deal on it, I absolutely would have ended up with a Sondors one way or another because even if I had the money, no way am I paying three grand for a bicycle - electric or not
I'm aware that not everyone can get that kind of a deal and I was lucky. For that reason, Sondors is absolutely a value product in a stupid expensive marketplace. My biggest concern is that the value it provides comes at an added price if that makes sense.
