I think Court's Video smells of a hit piece. To be fair, Court is often negative about a lot of bikes in his video's, so I give him the benefit of doubt as this just being his nature, but most of his criticism seems a little premature, and some is rather suspicious.
It seems a little disingenuous to be recommending people buy a different bike than a Storm when you haven't actually ever tested one.
I don't think you should be so critical of the battery. You can't find out who makes the cells in 90% of eBike battery's. My bike cost $10,000 and I'll no one knows who makes the battery, and the factory keeps it a closely guarded secret. They won't even tell you the C rating. Turns out it's a good battery though. It's not fair to insinuate this bike's battery is made from the lowest grade battery cells with no evidence.
Range is always a hot button issue. Manufacturers are all over the place in their claims without actually lying. Seldom to they tell you at what speed you have to ride to get the range they claim. The 50 mile range claim is obviously a best case scenario, but you don't seem to mention that. In the latest video Storm Sondors clearly states when ask, that you can expect 20 to 25 miles range with light pedaling. 20 miles is about average for most factory eBikes according the people that I've talked to at my local eBike shop.
I don't think implying there's some kind of deception about the motor is fair, just because in the prototype video it appears to be one size, and later it appears smaller. They've claimed from the start it's a 350w motor.
There is a couple of areas where I think Storm deserves criticism. One is about the warranty. They should just come out an say there's no warranty if there is in fact not one. Whichever factory is making these bikes should have a warranty policy so Storm should know what it is. Of course warranty's can be variable depending of how much you want to cover, and pay for. It's possible they're still in the process of making these decisions, but still it would be better if they at least said something about it.
The other is the brakes. Storm stated they're hydraulic, but the video clearly shows that they're mechanical. Like Court said, that really doesn't matter, because both will work well enough, but still, why not get that right?
All this gives me the impression these guys don't really know that much about eBikes, but they know how to contact a Chinese factory and order a bunch of eBikes.
