How does Ride1Up Produce Better Ebikes with less cost and effort than established rivals (eg Juiced)?

Asher said:
Espin just looks very slapdash, like a fly by night affair. Their website looks scrappy, their bikes are ugly/plain, have terrible wiring, and the top tubes where they appear look weirdly skinny next to the thick down tubes. It's not an experience that instills confidence for something you trust your life and thousands of dollars with. The perennially marked down prices completes the picture.

It doesn't have the legacy that say, Bikes direct does to pull it off. (And if Bikes direct were starting today, they'd take off much faster with a better website.)
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What do you ride Asher?
 
Asher said:
Espin just looks very slapdash, like a fly by night affair. Their website looks scrappy, their bikes are ugly/plain, have terrible wiring, and the top tubes where they appear look weirdly skinny next to the thick down tubes. It's not an experience that instills confidence for something you trust your life and thousands of dollars with. The perennially marked down prices completes the picture.

It doesn't have the legacy that say, Bikes direct does to pull it off. (And if Bikes direct were starting today, they'd take off much faster with a better website.)
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Lol my professional work is often highly visual but ok.

I didn't say Espin has a bad product, I have no idea. Just that their appearance is amateurish. Lol, you really gonna have a crate bungied to a bike pictured on your front page?

My favorite ebike right now is probably the Cannondale Neo Canvas 1.
 
The way I saw it I looked at the Core5 originally but I saw the Espinn Sport as a step up from that for a little more money but then I personally felt the 700 series was a step up from the sport a bit for a little bit more so that's what I went with.
 
This is the R1U forum and I don't want to get into a ebike fight here but just from my reading most of the posts for both R1U and Espin, there just seems to be more issues with R1U just in assembly, controller issues and dropped chains. This may just be a symptom of R1U having more ebikes and users out there but there are threads here talking about many FB posts regarding QA issues with R1U.

Now I'm not saying Espin, or any other vendor, does not have issues.... but from the posters here who have experience with multiple ebike brands, it's hard to say that R1U or actually any other D2C vendor is the poster boy for this business model.

I felt that Aventon was up there as it had both D2C and LBS models... but pricing is a little bit more for what you get.
 
BigNerd said:
This is the R1U forum and I don't want to get into a ebike fight here but just from my reading most of the posts for both R1U and Espin, there just seems to be more issues with R1U just in assembly, controller issues and dropped chains. This may just be a symptom of R1U having more ebikes and users out there but there are threads here talking about many FB posts regarding QA issues with R1U.

Now I'm not saying Espin, or any other vendor, does not have issues.... but from the posters here who have experience with multiple ebike brands, it's hard to say that R1U or actually any other D2C vendor is the poster boy for this business model.

I felt that Aventon was up there as it had both D2C and LBS models... but pricing is a little bit more for what you get.
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I may not be following it as closely as you, but I think the R1U issues were mostly start up problems with the torque sensor model Limited. I have a R1U 500 with 1200 trouble free miles, one data point, I know. My wife has a Espin Flow. Both bikes are similar quality and both are excellent value.
 
phoenixtoohot said:
I may not be following it as closely as you, but I think the R1U issues were mostly start up problems with the torque sensor model Limited. I have a R1U 500 with 1200 trouble free miles, one data point, I know. My wife has a Espin Flow. Both bikes are similar quality and both are excellent value.
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Yes.

Not saying R1U as a whole is problematic, but the OP's contention that R1U is better than Juiced or anyone else is relative. I really like R1U's range of bikes but some overlap with each other which I think makes it difficult for buyers to decide. And as much as I'm not into fat tire bikes, that seems to be a popular segment that R1U might want to add a bike for. I like their V2 Voyager quite a bit and can't wait to read end user reviews about it.
 
Timpo said:
Thiis is just a question, but why is everyone going to China to build their ebikes?

I know many people said how American ebike entrepreneurs having difficulties with Chinese factories because they don't care about contract.

Yet, Americans are willing to go back to China, fully acknowledging the risk.
This indicates that risk is well worth the return they're getting by making ebikes in China.
I'm assuming it is the cost, but if you look at Japanese ebikes, they usually start at around $1000. And Japan has well over half century of history building ebikes.

Because Panasonic bikes are made in Japan.

日本製


They build their batteries, motors in Japan as well.

The Bafang motor may be attractive but Japanese mid drive isn't bad either. Shimano, Panasonic and Yamaha have been building good motors.
Also I found that vast majority of EBR reviews are based on Chinese bikes, not Japan.

I did my research and posted the numbers of sales of Bridgestone, Yamaha and Panasonic, as far as I remember, the numbers were very high since Japan has very well established ebike market.

Japanese manufactures have very good business ethics from what I understand, so I'm just very curious why everyone is going to China.
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What I wonder is why some of these Japanese companies haven't been more active in trying to sell some of their awesome models here in the US???
 
ebikemom said:
What I wonder is why some of these Japanese companies haven't been more active in trying to sell some of their awesome models here in the US???
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My guess would be cost. Everything cheaper in China. They have 25 percent of the worlds population. Think about that for a minute...
 
It's not just cheaper... it's WAAAAYYYY cheaper.

Materials, availability of labor and technical skill are all factors.
 
Timpo said:
Japanese ebike companies have their own factory in Japan.

Here's the quote from this website:
(The website in Japanese, use Google Translate if you're using Google Chrome browser)
www.bscycle.co.jp

［街乗り自転車］通学・通勤向け自転車 | 電動アシスト自転車 | ブリヂストンサイクル株式会社

［街乗り自転車］通学・通勤向け電動アシスト自転車のご紹介。通学、通勤、街乗りなど、ブリヂストンサイクルは「安全」「快適」「つかう人の立場に立った」自転車をお届けしています。ブリヂストンサイクルでお気に入りの通学・通勤向け自転車を見つけてください。
www.bscycle.co.jp www.bscycle.co.jp


Made in Japan


Made in Japan for peace of mind.​

Bridgestone's electrically power assisted bicycles are "made in Japan". Clears even stricter safety standards
than the standards required by BAA (established by the Bicycle Association)
. You can ride with confidence every day.
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If someone like Honda made a fun- not strictly utilitarian- e-bike using Honda factory made parts sold at the local dealer I'd be inclined to give it a look.
 
Timpo said:
Bridgestone Cajuna
MSRP: 129,800 yen ($1,239)
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Love this. For the US market, I think they'd need a bigger motor (350 watt? 500 watt?--Americans are often much bigger than Japanese people), for sure, and a speed to go with the US bike classes, (so, class 2, 20mph?) So, maybe that would make it more expensive... but I'd love to see these bikes in the US!!!
 
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