Danger Warning

[spfttt]

Dear Fellow Addmotor owners,

I just joined this forum. My intention is NOT to be a "Debbie Downer". I just, in good conscience can not fail to inform you that a serious, dangerous situation is happening with Addmotor bikes. Addmotor bikes are literally breaking in half while being ridden. They are breaking at the weld joints without warning. It began early last summer when an owner was riding at 20 MPH on paved asphalt and his Addmotor bike broke in half sending him to hospital emergency. He was badly injured, and months later he remains badly injured. Just a few weeks ago another rider was injured when again, his Addmotor bike broke in half under him. It broke at the same weld joints. He too was riding on paved asphalt. Through all this Addmotor has been trying to cover up what is happening. They have blocked Addmotor owners from communicating with each other on the Addmotor Owners Group Facebook page, they have deleted any photos and warnings about these bikes breaking. So, we owners started our own Facebook group. There are other testimonials about this I could post, but I think photos will serve you better. These photos are of two bikes, the same model M150-P7. I personally own an M150-P7. After being advised by Addmotor's own attorneys to stop riding the bike, I stopped months ago. Be safe!

 

[maggiewu]

Same thing happened with my friend's e-bike last week! Their e-bikes should be banned as they risk life of people. I guess my friend will open a lawsuit to them.

 

[Bubba zanetti]

Those welds are appalling.

 

[Jacob87]

ouch. thank you so much for warning us

 

[ki11a]

Yeah Ive heard them referred to as 'Baddmotor'....yikes

 

[rich c]

This is not completely a weld issue, but equally an engineering and partial rider issue. If you look at traditional bicycle frames, triangulation of the tubing has been used to provide strength for more than a century. Then riders wanted a folding bike to make it easy to store or take on mass transit. Worked okay in most cases because these were last mile or short commuting bicycles. Then riders wanted fat knobby tires and suddenly they think they can hop curbs and go off roading because these tires make it look like a Jeep. Well, you can't have a single flange butt welded to a tube, and have it accept all the loads and stresses that traditional frames with gussets and bracing through triangulation can handle. If the weld should be made a little undersized, or not heat treated properly after welding, this is exactly what you will get. How many of us inspect welds before riding? I'll guarantee you that it didn't instantly go from a perfect joint to catastrophic failure. After a high loading, or continued load cycling, a crack formed. As soon as some weld area integrity was lost, the failure quickly spread. Half my career was an engineer at Caterpillar. I know what weld failure and structural loading is all about. We cycle tested high load joints for months before releasing a machine to production. Today finite stress analysis and computer programs speed that up. But when you sell a bicycle at that price point, I'm certain you won't get any structural analysis or testing. More and more folding bikes are getting away from any kind of bracing and good engineering processes. Even in the chain and seat stay area. And these little "off road want to be's" are being ridden harder and harder by oversized Americans. (Don't take offense, I'm one also.) Many bigger than the recommended rider weight. There is no worse design than a 2 sided triangle. It concentrates all the load to the single joint and all loading tries to peel that joint apart. This is what you get and these guys won't be the only manufacturer having these issues as this will only get worse as these models get more miles. There's a reason high end manufacturers give you a lifetime frame warranty. They put engineering into the frame.