@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.
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.