Before the official intro I just wanted to say if anyone lives in SoCal, NorCal, Vancouver, South Florida, Colorado, Austin or another area with lots of ebikes and wants to go for a ride, grab lunch or even has a couch to crash on... sound off! I've met some great people here in the past and enjoyed visiting and experiencing new locations with a local friend. Comment or message me!
Hey guys and gals, this is
Court Rye! I created EBR in 2013 to help people understand and better choose electric bicycles for their lifestyle and budget. My own first purchase was confusing, expensive and frustrating... I bought online and felt like I spent too much when the bike actually arrived. I had never assembled an ebike before and wasn't sure if I'd be able to get help from a regular shop if I messed something up or it broke and I wasn't sure if anyone would ever want to buy it used someday if I decided to upgrade or just move on. It was a tense day and I felt very alone, there were very few resources at the time but one that I relied on a lot was
ElectricBikeReport.com run by my now-friend Pete Prebus!
Given how awesome this technology can be (health, community, and affordability wise) I was inspired to start reviewing bikes in my free time outside of work. I bought the domain electricbikereview.com for $1,500 and launched a WordPress site before eventually launching this forum so people could help each other. These days I'm so busy traveling and being "everywhere" trying to review the latest tech that I'm not on the forum as much as I'd like but our staff of
@Angela M.,
@mitchhackleman, and
@troehrkasse are here for you and they are great! I'm always open to more help so feel free to message me here or
contact me directly if you'd like to join in. I believe in transparency and objectivity and do my best to disclose advertising relationships and moderator relationships etc. but still speak critically when need be. Please do the same, tell the truth and help people or at least use tact if you're on the attack
Just below is a video I shot before jumping into EBR full time. I was working for a tech startup in Austin, TX and using ebikes to commute to work... the bike in the video is an
Easy Motion Neo Jumper and was my third electric bike! I finally felt like I had found one that worked great for me and was excited to share the experience with the world.
As always, thanks for being involved here. Your comments, helping each other and feedback to me make this place special and it means a lot. As always, ride safe! Here are a few pics of me doing reviews, this is how the magic happens baby XD
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Update! In March of 2018, EBR and me were featured in an article on Bicycle Retailer and Industry News (BRAIN) magazine. It was an honor, but they were not able to fit in everything and I wanted to thank Ann M, Darlington, Tara, Brent, and Jeremy who have all helped in various ways to make this site and community possible, I love them and also appreciate everyone here who has contributed to this positive and useful space. I got permission to share the story here, and it's embedded as an image below along with some additional images I shared but that were not used (the last one is my Grandfather, who also loved riding bikes):
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A news station recently did a story on the history of EBR and they interviewed me. I got the full footage and posted it because it covers lots of topics, like how to pick an ebike and why they're awesome
here's the video: