I recently purchased a Himiway Cruiser All Terrain Electric Fat Bike. Purchased the bike on 3/12/20 and it arrived on schedule to my doorstep on 3/18/2020. The reason I purchased this bike was to get into cycling and get outside more often with my family. I have also pre-ordered a Lectric XP E-bike for my wife (which should arrive late April.) I wanted to purchase e-bikes to get some exercise and take my children along in a Thule Cross Chariot and Yepp Maxi.
This review is to let those who are interested in buying a bike from Himiway learn from my experiences both good and bad.
I researched e-bikes for about a month before pulling the trigger. I narrowed my choice down to a Rad Rover 5 or the Himiway Cruiser. In the end I chose the Himiway because it had more included accessories, 2 year warranty, bigger capacity battery and finally, lower price ($1349 USD shipped w/ coupon code). I understand that living in the Seattle area, RPB has a big presence and an active forum community. They offer what appears to be excellent customer service as well. I even went to go test drive the Rover at the retail store and enjoyed it. I would have chosen RAD were it not for a video from Bolton Bikes Youtube channel showing they are/were using a 500 W motor when RPB advertises 750 W. For me, the info from the video rubbed me the wrong way enough to give Himiway a chance, plus EBR reviewed the bike favorably as well.
Firstly, the good stuff. The bike from a pure performance standpoint meets all my expectations. The motor pulls strongly and it is more than capable of getting me to 28mph very easily even though I am 5'10" and 205lbs. However at higher speeds, you run out of gears and end up pedaling very fast. I will most likely change the chain gear to a 52T in the near future. There isn't throttle on PAS 0 so you'll have to set it to PAS 1 or more to get throttle response. I've ridden just over 39 miles so far and find the bike to have a smooth ride. It pulls my trailer without any problems and I'm getting a good work out on PAS 1 and 2. I change it to PAS 3 or 4 on steep hills. In the future I will conduct a range test but so far I am pleased with the performance of the battery. The display on the bike is large and easy to read and the menus are easy to navigate. The included tools, rear rack and fenders are really nice as well. I'm quite impressed with the capability of the bike and the components for the most part are better than expected for this price point.
Now for the things I do NOT like.
One of the main controversies over purchasing a bike from a direct to consumer dealer is the lack of support vs. a LBS. I am new to e-bikes and bicycles in general and went in with a lot of unknowns. There aren't a lot of reviews for Himiway as a company and the things you see online are very biased or paid reviews. I will say this. Himiway has a LOT to improve on in terms of customer support.
My problem started as soon as I unboxed the bike. The front light came busted out of the box and the fender bosses on the front frame were bent. I don't blame Himiway on the shipping damage (FEDEX) but I do find their customer support to be very deficient. I called Himiway and was sent to voice mail. Now this isn't some voice mail of some company. This is a voice mail that seems like it's on someone's personal cell phone. Not very reassuring. I left a message and thankfully get a call back within an hour. I was directed to e-mail my concerns to the "after sales support team." I end up finding out that their customer support team comprises of 2 people and these 2 people live in China. Out of my whole experience with Himiway support I found them to be courteous but their English isn't fluent and there is a lot of confusion during e-mails and a lot of things that can be taken out of context due to the language barrier.
So, my light is busted and they send a replacement which is covered under warranty. The instructions in the e-mail aren't helpful at all so I looked up diagrams on generic controllers and saw it should be a plug and play light. However once I plugged it in, IT DIDN'T WORK! I was really frustrated at this point since I've waited a week for them to send a small part from China. I'm very disappointed they don't have replacement parts in their warehouse in the US. I mean the bike was shipped from California so why not have replacement parts there as well. When I e-mailed them again, they told me that I had to switch some wiring to make it work. I flat out told them that this was more than I cared to deal with to fix this problem. So I demanded that they compensate me for an after market light. They agreed to refund me $20 on my card which went through immediately. In summary, Himiway did end up providing a solution to my problem but I am very concerned if something very important were to fail. Hopefully they do a better job next time.
To conclude, I am overall satisfied with my purchase. It's a budget e-bike and I sort of knew what I was getting myself into. If you need the best customer support and it's a high priority, definitely look elsewhere. If you don't mind doing some wrenching yourself and can fix most problems on a bike, then I thinks it's a good deal.
TLDR;
I give the bike a solid 8/10.
I give Himiway as a company a 3/10.
This review is to let those who are interested in buying a bike from Himiway learn from my experiences both good and bad.
I researched e-bikes for about a month before pulling the trigger. I narrowed my choice down to a Rad Rover 5 or the Himiway Cruiser. In the end I chose the Himiway because it had more included accessories, 2 year warranty, bigger capacity battery and finally, lower price ($1349 USD shipped w/ coupon code). I understand that living in the Seattle area, RPB has a big presence and an active forum community. They offer what appears to be excellent customer service as well. I even went to go test drive the Rover at the retail store and enjoyed it. I would have chosen RAD were it not for a video from Bolton Bikes Youtube channel showing they are/were using a 500 W motor when RPB advertises 750 W. For me, the info from the video rubbed me the wrong way enough to give Himiway a chance, plus EBR reviewed the bike favorably as well.
Firstly, the good stuff. The bike from a pure performance standpoint meets all my expectations. The motor pulls strongly and it is more than capable of getting me to 28mph very easily even though I am 5'10" and 205lbs. However at higher speeds, you run out of gears and end up pedaling very fast. I will most likely change the chain gear to a 52T in the near future. There isn't throttle on PAS 0 so you'll have to set it to PAS 1 or more to get throttle response. I've ridden just over 39 miles so far and find the bike to have a smooth ride. It pulls my trailer without any problems and I'm getting a good work out on PAS 1 and 2. I change it to PAS 3 or 4 on steep hills. In the future I will conduct a range test but so far I am pleased with the performance of the battery. The display on the bike is large and easy to read and the menus are easy to navigate. The included tools, rear rack and fenders are really nice as well. I'm quite impressed with the capability of the bike and the components for the most part are better than expected for this price point.
Now for the things I do NOT like.
One of the main controversies over purchasing a bike from a direct to consumer dealer is the lack of support vs. a LBS. I am new to e-bikes and bicycles in general and went in with a lot of unknowns. There aren't a lot of reviews for Himiway as a company and the things you see online are very biased or paid reviews. I will say this. Himiway has a LOT to improve on in terms of customer support.
My problem started as soon as I unboxed the bike. The front light came busted out of the box and the fender bosses on the front frame were bent. I don't blame Himiway on the shipping damage (FEDEX) but I do find their customer support to be very deficient. I called Himiway and was sent to voice mail. Now this isn't some voice mail of some company. This is a voice mail that seems like it's on someone's personal cell phone. Not very reassuring. I left a message and thankfully get a call back within an hour. I was directed to e-mail my concerns to the "after sales support team." I end up finding out that their customer support team comprises of 2 people and these 2 people live in China. Out of my whole experience with Himiway support I found them to be courteous but their English isn't fluent and there is a lot of confusion during e-mails and a lot of things that can be taken out of context due to the language barrier.
So, my light is busted and they send a replacement which is covered under warranty. The instructions in the e-mail aren't helpful at all so I looked up diagrams on generic controllers and saw it should be a plug and play light. However once I plugged it in, IT DIDN'T WORK! I was really frustrated at this point since I've waited a week for them to send a small part from China. I'm very disappointed they don't have replacement parts in their warehouse in the US. I mean the bike was shipped from California so why not have replacement parts there as well. When I e-mailed them again, they told me that I had to switch some wiring to make it work. I flat out told them that this was more than I cared to deal with to fix this problem. So I demanded that they compensate me for an after market light. They agreed to refund me $20 on my card which went through immediately. In summary, Himiway did end up providing a solution to my problem but I am very concerned if something very important were to fail. Hopefully they do a better job next time.
To conclude, I am overall satisfied with my purchase. It's a budget e-bike and I sort of knew what I was getting myself into. If you need the best customer support and it's a high priority, definitely look elsewhere. If you don't mind doing some wrenching yourself and can fix most problems on a bike, then I thinks it's a good deal.
TLDR;
I give the bike a solid 8/10.
I give Himiway as a company a 3/10.
