Online E-Bikes - is it a scam?

B

Bardo

New Member
Region
USA
I am a newbie looking for an e-bike for my my wife and myself to cruise around the our beach town in New Jersey. Looking for something entry-level in the under $1500 range. I find our options are some really inexpensive ones on Amazon (Jasion, Oraimo) and a number of online sellers which I am hesitant of as their websites all look the same. I am wondering if there is one manufacture in China behind all these. My facebook feed is flooded with them. Names include; KBO, Ride1uo, Aventon, Rattan, Urtopia, Story, Intheair, Jaison, Cityscape, Murf, Mod, Vtuvie, Back to Modern, Mihogo, Max-Foot, Jetson, MacFoxBike, JackRabbit, Sole and the list goes on daily. I like KBO and Urtopia but wondering if all the bikes on this list are just Huffy's with motors.

Any help is greatly appreciated!
 
Its not one manufacturer. It is several who in turn sell to hundreds of wholesalers who represent themselves as manufacturers. There are some American companies who do this as well and the secret message to figure this out is when they tell you in their advertising that it is "designed in the USA". Translation: They chose parts out of the Chinese manufacturer's available pick list and had a shipping container filled with them sent over on a boat to the States.

Calling the bottom of the line Amazon bikes "Huffys with motors" is an insult to Huffy, I'm afraid.

At the $1500 price point, go to some place like Lectric - not on Amazon, go to their direct web site.
 
All bikes are made in ***** except Gazelle and maybe another Dutch brand. Pedego is Viet Nam now.
Some of the brands have QA people in ***** that are responsible to the design bureau and check some things. Some brands buy parts made of real steel & aluminum, some brands buy parts of grey mystery metal, which ***** has a surplus of. My internet Yubabike arrived perfect and the cables, rims, spokes, chain lasted 5000-10000 miles. A poster on here saw a ****ese production worker pouring floor sweepings in the melt for engine blocks for his employer, an agriculture brand. Home office wondered how the glass nuggets got in the cylinder walls.
You can make some determination of who is selling garbage by looking at the brand forums on electricbikereview. https://electricbikereview.com/forums/categories/discussion-by-brand-user-reviews.168/ Brands with hundreds of problems probably are a problem. Brands with sales of 500 and 2 problems here are probably a problem. Number of sales of the brand is not a known quantity.
I don't recognize any of the brands you listed as being paragons of quality. I recommend usually some majors, gazelle, trek, giant, kona, specialty, cannondale, orbea, Reiss & Mueller, and internet only blix that still has only one complaint. Maybe Surface604, 2 pages complaints and not growing much. Also yuba, that sells only cargo bikes.
 
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m@Robertson said:
Calling the bottom of the line Amazon bikes "Huffys with motors" is an insult to Huffy, I'm afraid.
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As an owner of a Huffy with a motor I can't really say if that's an insult to Huffy or not.
My Huffy Oslo, a rear hub folder was/is made with cheap parts.
Regardless, cheaply made bikes suck because they're made out of cheaply made parts. There is only one way to fix that.
 
I made a Huffy-Puffy eclectic and it is kind of elegant, thru-frame and subtle. You want to make sure that you have local support. An 800# and chat will not do that. An eBike is not a thing, it is a living thing that needs constant love and care. Generally fat 20" hub-drive bikes suck and or can catch fire. Cheapness now leads to big costs later. Go for full-sized bikes with a mid-drive and reputable local backup.
 
I have a Ride1Up 700 XR (2021). I love it! I think it was about $1800 when it was all said and done. I almost went with the Aventon Level, but I like the display of the Ride1Up better. It's not as "locked down" as others might be. I was reading and watching reviews for months before I finally decided. My friend has a KBO Breeze. He really likes it and brings it to work.
 
Bardo said:
Any help is greatly appreciated!
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Bardo, I can tell you from my experience the Aventon Level is a good buy in that price range. Right now the Level-1 Step-Thru is on sale for $1,499.00 and they upped their warranty from on year parts and labor to two years parts/frame, one year for labor.

I purchased two Levels in Sept 20' for my wife and I. Excellent bikes for paved trails and roads. The Level-1 has cadence sensing. If you are interested in getting better exercise, I would recommend you get the Level-2, which has torque sensing and a color display. For the additional $300/bike you will not regret it.

I paid $1,599.00 per bike back in Sep 20' and just sold one of the bikes for $1,000 two days ago. I sold it because I'm upgrading my wife to a full suspension, mid-drive, torque sensing, step-through. The Aventon held its' value well. I Could have gotten more for it, but I didn't want five ebikes sitting in my garage, so I priced it to sell within a weekend.
 
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I've been recently noting advertisements for e-bikes at outrageously low prices, sometimes as low as $19.95. It seems these are no-name builds from companies that have since gone out of business (lots of e-bike companies have in the past couple of years, and many of them have the lifespan of adult mayflies). I know all of the downsides of a totally unsupported no-name bike, but for $19.95? Really?

Will post a link when I see one again.
 
Part of the scam is closing up shop, leaving customers high and dry, when they start to have problems, and opening a new 'brand' selling the same fat folder. These brands will not show a location on google maps. Reviews will only show on their web site. You can do a 'Who Is' on their IP. A guy contacted me today with electrical problems and being left high and dry by the MFG. It also looks like he messed up his bike with plumbing and carpentry tools. I think I will refer him elsewhere. I don't want to be left holding that bag of shite when it catches fire when the front wheel falls off and he goes through a rusted barbed wire fence on a decent.
 
I set my limit to $1000 and ended up with a Lectric XP 3.0. Nice for the price and I think they'll still be around in the future. I've also seem the exact same ebike cheaper on Amazon.
 
LectricBikes.com was purchased from Google Domains by a company called TuCows. It is a brick wall on 96 Mowat Ave., Toronto, Ontario, CA. The owner is Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 0154814025. In other words it is a shell front that will last as long as a desert bloom and will vanish without liability. No humans are associated with it. [email protected]
 
PedalUma said:
LectricBikes.com was purchased from Google Domains by a company called TuCows. It is a brick wall on 96 Mowat Ave., Toronto, Ontario, CA. The owner is Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 0154814025. In other words it is a shell front that will last as long as a desert bloom and will vanish without liability. No humans are associated with it. [email protected]
Click to expand...
I wonder why Lectric owners think the brand is any better than other cheap e-bikes shipped in containers from overseas.
 
sc00ter said:
Because when I call I get a real person, speaking clear English, on the other end. Not saying the ebike is any better than others, just has support behind it.
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So that's the same cr*p as the other but with an online support by English speakers :)
Were I know it was so easy to make business in the U.S, I would be a rich American by now :)
 
Bardo, do you have a Pedego dealer in your area? They sometimes have demo bikes for sale, plus they are starting to carry some more affordable models in their lineup. I loved my Pedego. Great local support.
 
Of course, those $19.95 bike offers are scams. I see them pop up on faceook, along with the $44/hour job positions packing candy in boxes, transportation provided. I feel sorry for the people who have been victimized.
 
indianajo said:
All bikes are made in ***** except Gazelle and maybe another Dutch brand. Pedego is Viet Nam now.
Some of the brands have QA people in ***** that are responsible to the design bureau and check some things. Some brands buy parts made of real steel & aluminum, some brands buy parts of grey mystery metal, which ***** has a surplus of. My internet Yubabike arrived perfect and the cables, rims, spokes, chain lasted 5000-10000 miles. A poster on here saw a ****ese production worker pouring floor sweepings in the melt for engine blocks for his employer, an agriculture brand.
Click to expand...
Are we not allowed to use the words “China” and “Chinese” or are you trying to make some sort of statement??? Just curious.
 
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