Retrospec would do well to pay for a professional review of their ebikes, and perhaps improve their ebike shipping packaging particularly as they sell direct-to-customer, one customer
Tweeted their ebike arrived damaged, another
reported on the Better Business Bureau website a 50% restocking fee when they returned a used item and from reading the
Retrospec return policy that does appear to apply to e-bikes if they have been assembled for a test ride. In both cases it appears the company was responsive, in the first case replying on Twitter asking the customer to contact them, in the second case the fee appears to have been refunded due to the customer's confusion about a previous policy.
I would ask how Retrospec handle service/
warranty requests, it might be on you to find a shop prepared to work on the bike, but you need to be able to rely on them sending spare parts. The 2-year battery, 1-year frame warranty is reasonable, but only 6-month's on other parts would concern me as it's more likely some other part of the electrical system like a controller or display might go wrong in the near term. The geared hub motor by MXUS appears to be a generic Chinese hub motor, so once it's out of warranty then depending on what connectors it uses it may be possible to source spare parts from China via AliExpress, upgrade the controller, etc.
The Retrospec Beaumont does have gears, the specs say it has a 42t chainring, 14-28t freewheel, 7-speed Shimano Tourney rear derailleur, which is pretty standard for a budget ebike. Depending on where you live, if you need to climb hills I would suggest paying the extra $200 to get the 48v 500w version. The steel frame accounts for the 58lb weight, it's available in 3 sizes which is good, but you can buy lighter models for this money - by comparison the Propella 7s has an aluminum frame and at 37lb would be much easier to carry up stairs or lift onto a car or bus rack, or if you wanted support from a bike shop check out the Aventon Soltera Step-Through 7-speed (43lb) which has ebike lights and a full color LCD display.
