Sondors Ebike Demo Day Video and Specs

[Admin]

Hi guys, this is sort of a repost from the longer Storm thread. I wanted to break it out so those who attended the demo event in Santa Monica, California February 15th 2015 could say hi and to acknowledge the new bike name. The event was fun and it was nice to meet Storm Sondors and the folks at Agency 2.0. I may wait to review the bike more fully until it arrives at my door so I can document the complete experience and unboxing. In the meantime, here are the specs I gathered for the first Sondors Electric Bike I test rode at the event:

• Sondors Ebike slated for shipment in May 2015
• 30 day comprehensive warranty
• 350 watt rear-mounted geared hub motor by 8Fun
• 36 volt 8.8 amp hour 316.8 watt hour Lithium-ion battery
• Battery locks to the frame and can be charged on or off the frame (there's a neat rubber cover that can be removed on the plastic triangle to reach the battery charging port)
• Basic LED power level indicator on the throttle with Low and Full indicator (Low flashes when battery nears depletion)
• Total weight is 58.5 pounds and battery weight is 5.3 pounds
• All steel frame and fork, frame size is ~17 inches (length of seat post tube)
• Prowheel cranks, Wellgo aluminum alloy platform pedals, Mixieer stem
• Zoom mechanical disc brakes with 180 mm rotors, "5" brake levers with motor inhibitor
• Generic padded saddle with rubber bumpers, quick release seat post
• Punched aluminum alloy rims, Chaoyang 26" x 4.9" tires with schrader valves
• Single side kickstand mounted near dropout, double sided plastic chain guide

The video below shows my demo ride, some weighing that went on, a short interview with Storm Sondors himself and Chris, the CEO of Agency 2.0. You can see the other side of this interview on the USTREAM that Joe Micalizzi shot here: http://www.ustream.tv starting at 59:12.

 

[Admin]

I also took a bunch of high resolution photos of the Sondors Electric Bike at the demo day event. These show the specs I listed above more clearly and might provide further insight for those with a trained eye. Feel free to call out anything from the pics that I might have missed:

 

[scmike]

Hi guys, this is sort of a repost from the longer Storm thread. I wanted to break it out so those who attended the demo event in Santa Monica, California February 15th 2015 could say hi and to acknowledge the new bike name. The event was fun and it was nice to meet Storm Sondors and the folks at Agency 2.0. I may wait to review the bike more fully until it arrives at my door so I can document the complete experience and unboxing. In the meantime, here are the specs I gathered for the first Sondors Electric Bike I test rode at the event:

• Sondors Ebike slated for shipment in May 2015
• 30 day comprehensive warranty
• 350 watt rear-mounted geared hub motor by 8Fun
• 36 volt 8.8 amp hour 316.8 watt hour Lithium-ion battery
• Battery locks to the frame and can be charged on or off the frame (there's a neat rubber cover that can be removed on the plastic triangle to reach the battery charging port)
• Basic LED power level indicator on the throttle with Low and Full indicator (Low flashes when battery nears depletion)
• Total weight is 58.5 pounds and battery weight is 5.3 pounds
• All steel frame and fork, frame size is ~17 inches (length of seat post tube)
• Prowheel cranks, Wellgo aluminum alloy platform pedals, Mixieer stem
• Zoom mechanical disc brakes with 180 mm rotors, "5" brake levers with motor inhibitor
• Generic padded saddle with rubber bumpers, quick release seat post
• Punched aluminum alloy rims, Chaoyang 26" x 4.9" tires with schrader valves
• Single side kickstand mounted near dropout, double sided plastic chain guide

The video below shows my demo ride, some weighing that went on, a short interview with Storm Sondors himself and Chris, the CEO of Agency 2.0. You can see the other side of this interview on the USTREAM that Joe Micalizzi shot here: http://www.ustream.tv starting at 59:12.

Court, Nice work, great pics.. You have benchmark to compare to the delivered bike.. But I see many different brands... and unless these are all Chinese parts how is this bike going to built totally in China.. Or will the factory they pick just choose their own parts. The demo bike was made in a SoCal bike shop... Time will tell... but May seems way to optimistic... Good Luck

 

[JoePah]

I also took a bunch of high resolution photos of the Sondors Electric Bike at the demo day event. These show the specs I listed above more clearly and might provide further insight for those with a trained eye. Feel free to call out anything from the pics that I might have missed:

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Nice pics Court... The bike visually is a stunner, and Storm clearly put a lot of thought into the aesthetics.. Have no idea how well it will hold up or perform but that does not look like a $500 eBike.
Custom touches like drill out of anondized rims, well hidden wiring and all parts electrical, and the oversized fat tires all make the proportions seem like a lot of fun and muscular; the perfect beach cruiser!

@Court Did you think this bike was underpowered, or not enough saddle time to tell...And will the production model look as good as this custom made demo?

 

[EULITTLB]

Storm Sondors, in an interview, was asked how the bike could hit such a price point........

Nice pics Court... The bike visually is a stunner, and Storm clearly put a lot of thought into the aesthetics.. Have no idea how well it will hold up or perform but that does not look like a $500 eBike.
Custom touches like drill out of anondized rims, well hidden wiring and all parts electrical, and the oversized fat tires all make the proportions seem like a lot of fun and muscular; the perfect beach cruiser!

@Court Did you think this bike was underpowered, or not enough saddle time to tell...And will the production model look as good as this custom made demo?

The bike on the demo, according to Sondors, was a "production model" - there should have been two bikes there on the day but the other had been "sent off for manufacturing." I am not making this up, he is!

 

[Gus]

Storm Sondors, in an interview, was asked how the bike could hit such a price point........


The bike on the demo, according to Sondors, was a "production model" - there should have been two bikes there on the day but the other had been "sent off for manufacturing." I am not making this up, he is!

As of today, a yellow bike with orange wheels is not an available option to purchase. It was available on day 1 of this campaign but that image has been replaced with a yellow bike w/green wheels.

Based on Storm's comments the blue bike may also be out.

 

[EULITTLB]

Cheers Gus I missed that, I think the guy is making it up as he goes along to cater for shifting scenarios personally - when people pledged/contributed/supported back they did so on the basis of states specs and colour options being available after the campaign had ended........ no surprise to me to read your post.

 

[wa5]

I note with interest, the term "bait and switch" has been bandied round the Storm Facebook Page.. though the writer was referring to the changing price more than the changing specifications... Not saying I totally agree with that , however.

 

[EULITTLB]

LOL the changing specifications would be more accurate IMHO - how can you go from a 45Ibs bike to a 59 Ilbs Bike, Hydraulic to Cable brakes, Direct Drive to Geared Motor, in-house production to sourcing parts cost-effectively in the space of three weeks.......... and people not be gravely concerned? Maybe by march it will be a trike....... just sayin'

 

[scmike]

Storm/Ivars brought in on himself, why didn't just video and test the SM demo bike... for the CF promo... it was available 2/1 for TC's Kyle Russell. http://techcrunch.com/video/storm-affordable-electric-bike/518629242/ The yellow green one didn't even have a crank or chain and had a 72V big motor... mass of batteries?? Has anyone ever seen Sondors with the 2 "production" bikes at the same time???

 

[EULITTLB]

..and when I asked why there was only one bike there and two bikes had been promised, I was told that seven days before the event the decision was made to send the other one off for manufacturing - and then I was banned from the FB page. Utter BS.

 

[scmike]

One other thing... what happened to the other "genius" Jon Hopp?? I think they only consider themselves "geniuses"
because they got over 5000 people to give them 500+? bucks ... Maybe that will get me banned from FB... I couldn't care less...

 

[EULITTLB]

Mike, I share the same concerns as you my friend, there is no way two people and an ad Agency can handle this volume of sales without the whole-thing going pear-shaped. Sondors will be scurrying over to China post the Chinese New year, he'll want to hand the whole show over to a manufacturer, who is then responsible for shipping and supporting their products all over the world in the first 30 days, and as anyone in business knows, 5000+ products shipped is 5000+ potential problems. Really concerned for all-involved, if this had been handled properly without the outlandish claims, shifting price scales, changing specs then just maybe I would have had more confidence - as it stands the "Naysayers, Haters, Guilters" are the ones coming under attack for pointing out what is plainly obvious. Do I hope they pull it out of the bag? Yes I do. Do I believe they can pull it out of the Bag? Not in a million years if they continue to mislead people about range, weight, battery charging time - it will never sell well against a comparable product similarly priced.

 

[scmike]

Where's Ralph Nader when you need him?? Maybe we could do a Crowd Fund to watch the Crowd Fund... we'd probably have to move it over to Kickstarter...

 

[PowerMe]

This thing grew way too much, too fast, and seems (at least somewhat to my untrained eye) a bit unmanageable. Had they closed their campaign down the moment they reached their funding goal of $75K they could have used that first production run to figure lots of things out. Easier to do it when you have to deliver 250 bikes instead of 5,000+. The 3 factors that anyone has to deal with in delivering a product or service is Time-Price-Quality. It might take them the rest of the year to deliver all 5,000+ bikes. This assumes the quality standards they set are being met by the Chinese factory. This also assumes no additional financial cost to the first group of 'funders.'

Watching all this unfold, and understanding much better how these crowdfunding schemes go, I realize I am much more comfortable buying a product that actually exists, actually works, has a warranty, and all the other things that come with purchasing a product that's out. Otherwise, if I'm going to be "investing" in a company, I want shares of stock or some piece of ownership in that company.

 

[EULITTLB]

Yep, good post.

 

[SuperSJ4Goku]

Lets be honest here. There is no reason for Court to make any further comments on this. Personally, I am awaiting my Sondor's eBike as well. How can Court comment on this when obviously the bike he demo'd was not the production bike that backers will be receiving. I hope with every fiber that I receive the bicycle I was promised with the reduced shipping cost due to number of orders but at this point it's anyones guess what we will receive as an end-product if anything at all.

 

[wa5]

In the video, does Sondors look comfortable around the bike do you think?

 

[David Moody]

If you went to the demo day: Was there enough bike, cycle mojo, and get-up-and-go to motivate you to buy the bike? Yes or No.

I would like to know and please limit your post to one sentence.

 

[EULITTLB]

Lets be honest here. There is no reason for Court to make any further comments on this. Personally, I am awaiting my Sondor's eBike as well. How can Court comment on this when obviously the bike he demo'd was not the production bike that backers will be receiving. I hope with every fiber that I receive the bicycle I was promised with the reduced shipping cost due to number of orders but at this point it's anyones guess what we will receive as an end-product if anything at all.

I think this is a balanced post, but there is every reason for Sondors to answer the multiple concerns of many - in fairness the bike (that was never demo'd at all) was said to be 99% of the bike pledgers may receive (subject to sales tax? import duties? Is the battery included and how or when does it ship?) - the IGG site is now advertising that the shipping cost will be MUCH less than you were quoted, but then again the same site claimed a 50 mile range, now a 50 mile range with pedal assist and a 90 minute full charge time with a laptop battery charger, make of it what you will!