Raleigh/iZiP

[LimboJim]

I just noticed that Raleigh has removed all ebikes from their website, and iZiP's website no longer has a "Dealer Locator" function.

All the FAQs on the iZiP site address online ordering - they offer the option to have your online purchase shipped to select dealers if you want it professionally assembled, but nothing's mentioned about warranty service that I can find.

They do say you have to order parts through "your local dealer," but again, I can't find a way to locate one. I'm not really looking for parts, but I'm curious as to what's happening with these sister companies...

Any insights or theories?

 

[Ann M.]

@LimboJim, it's now raleighelectric.com and izipelectric.com, both are now the same company with customer service and sales coming from the same offices in California. The dealers or bike shops that do the builds for the bikes or sell them will also be able to handle any warranty issues. Not sure whether they are going to promote their independent dealers; however, you could call the customer service # 800-377-4532 and ask for info about a local shop. Since these are new websites, a dealer locator may be a future feature.

 

[LimboJim]

@LimboJim, it's now raleighelectric.com and izipelectric.com, both are now the same company with customer service and sales coming from the same offices in California. The dealers or bike shops that do the builds for the bikes or sell them will also be able to handle any warranty issues. Not sure whether they are going to promote their independent dealers; however, you could call the customer service # 800-377-4532 and ask for info about a local shop. Since these are new websites, a dealer locator may be a future feature.

Thanks for the clarification, Ann.

I guess they're also behind on their SEO efforts, because when I Googled "Raleigh ebikes" yesterday, raleighelecttric.com doesn't come up at all on the first few pages of results, and only one reference to their traditional bike site (raleighusa.com) appears way at the bottom of the first page. RaleighUSA's site itself has zero references to their electric bikes, and searching "ebikes" within the site - or anything referencing electric - produces zero results.

It seems like they don't want traditional bike buyers to know about their ebikes!

 

[Al P]

Raleigh and iZip electrics are subsidiaries of Currie, one of the major players in the ebike market. They are probably just changing their web marketing presence. I can vouch for Currie's customer support. Last year, the motor on my wife's iZip E3 Vibe+ went dead after only about 200 miles. I called their support line and the guys couldn't have been more helpful. My dealer is over 100 miles away, so they contacted a local bike shop that used to sell standard Raleigh bikes and he agreed to do the warranty repair. A week later we had the bike back with a new motor and display. It's been good ever since. I thought I might give them a plug for the way they handled the situation.

 

[Dewey]

The Raleigh Electric website is up. This article in a bike industry newspaper confirms Raleigh Electric will continue to be sold in dealers. The comments in the article from dealers of the pedal cycle side of the brand talk about the owner Accell burning bridges with the decision to sell the pedal cycles on Amazon. The effort to differentiate the Raleigh Electric brand will be interesting to see how things pan out.

 

[Ann M.]

Yes, even Haibikes are being sold on Amazon now. Many of the independent bike dealers have been slow to accept and promote electric bikes which has put more pressure on the manufacturers to look to the internet for ebike sales. There will continue be a space for specialty ebike dealers; however, we will all have to ante up our service and promotions to compete with online sales or discounters.