Impressed with Juiced bikes but??????

[wings02]

I've been watching several reviews and reading customers comments on Juiced bikes. I am very impressed with their Torque/Cadence system. It seems the owner, Tora (?) has some progressive ideas and is very involved with the development of his bikes. My concerns are with a possible quality control issue and what appears to be a delay in response from their customer support department.
For customers that have purchased Juiced bikes, are these concerns warranted?

 

[skunkman]

I ordered 2 ripcurrent bikes from them.. I received one and the other is back ordered until August. I love the one that I have. So far customer service has been fine. As with most ebike companies a lot of stuff is back ordered because of how many parts come out of China. I think you get a lot of bike for the money. The bike is very well made.

 

[Alex M]

I would say "nearly all parts" come from China. But the real reason for delay - right now - is the increased demand on both powered and non-powered bikes, because of the continued epidemic. China have ordered people back to work 2 months ago (Wuhan lockdown ended 3 months ago).
Customer service with online retailers is just that - everything is online. You troubleshoot the best you can, taking photos/videos of the problem, they mail you a part that is (in your or their opinion) faulty, it's a hit and miss process.

I would've consider Juiced had they considered making some step-through frame.

 

[MechaNut]

I purchased a Ripcurrent S two years ago. Outside of oiling the chain and putting air in the tires I've had zero maintenance issues with the bike thus far. When you submit a help ticket to Juiced Bikes you will receive an e-mail notification giving you an approximate wait time for a response. Every question I have sent to support has been answered fully and in a timely and professional manner. I have nothing negative to say about my experiences with my bike or with the company thus far.

 

[michael mitchell]

I've bought several items from Juiced (including a bike) between March 2017 and February 2020. You'll be fine, but keep the following in mind:

1. Expect to wait about 2.5 weeks between the time of purchase, and the item's arrival if it's in stock. This can be off-putting if you've become accustomed to Amazon and other larger retailers who can ship in a day or two. When Juiced sent me a replacement part, it arrived within 1 week.

2. My bike had a bad throttle connection upon arrival. Support and I sent a few emails back and forth while troubleshooting, but in the end they sorted out the issue without much hassle. That type of stuff will happen with direct to consumer companies, since there's no dealer/middleman to spot an issue first.

These are acceptable concessions in my opinion, given the cost vs performance ratio of their bikes. And they've been around for a while now.

 

[Bruce Arnold]

I've owned two Juiced Bikes. A CrossCurrent S -- which at the time was the top of the line, and on which I've put thousands of miles -- and recently a Scorpion.

Juiced Bikes has its issues. Quality control is not perfect. But whose is? If you want the kind of QC you get on a Riese and Muller, be prepared to pay 3 times the price. That's how it goes.

Delivery used to be slow. Like Michael Mitchell said, expect to wait a couple of weeks. It used to be 2-3 months, so lots of improvement there. (I did have to wait 2 months for my Scorpion, but it was a brand new model, not in the warehouse yet, and I got a great early-adopter price. Worth the wait on all fronts.)

You have to be willing to do some work yourself. Not just the original unboxing and set-up, which is pretty straightforward, but ongoing maintenance. I've got a LBS that is willing to do some of the stuff, like I had them do the work when I wanted the tires changed. Some people do that kind of thing themselves.

If you do have a problem, as you might with any bike, car or washing machine, you might get stellar service from Juiced and you might not. If I could have one wish about Juiced Bikes, it would be improved customer service. My experience has been good, but some people's have not. Also, some other people have had unrealistic expectations, so take that into account if you read back into the EBR archives.

I'm not as excited about Juiced as I was three years ago. Other companies are producing good bikes at similar prices, and with better after-purchase support. But I did just buy another one, so ...

If your expectations are realistic and you can do some of the work yourself, you will get a good bike at a good price.

 

[Alex M]

For most people it's electrical troubleshooting that is a problem. They need to learn how to use a multimeter and relationship between basic quantities - current, voltage, power, energy, and understand what each one means - not just memorize that W=A*V. Without this (very modest) knowledge they are in the world of pain.
This is one of those grade school courses that are actually useful.

 

[Alex M]

There are always posts from disappointed customers. Many expect it to be like a toaster - it either works or doesn't. Ebike is more complicated and with online retailers you need to be ready to do your own troubleshooting, and not everybody is ready or willing.

Remote troubleshooting is never perfect, phone reps go through the list of questions aimed to sort out dumb or negligent users actions, ex. you didn't connect or turn something on, giving you a run around until the problem has been cleared through either your or their persistence or by method of exclusion - when the problem becomes apparent because everything else has been checked.

The only survey that I know of, gave Juiced much higher quality rating than RAD or Aventon. Though RAD sell more bikes than Juiced - many times more, so it's difficult to compare.