Which Bikes Would You Like Reviewed? Opinions Needed!

RickyBikes

Member
Region
USA
Howdy folks!

I've started providing reviews on the forums for eBikes we've not covered on our YouTube channel before. I would love to hear which eBikes you would like reviewed. Are there any brands or models you really like that you want covered? Is there an eBike you want to become more familiar with but haven't found the information you're looking for? Whether you are considering buying your first eBike or you've been riding for years, there's one for everyone and we want it covered!

This is an open space for suggestions and comments. Please be respectful and constructive with any feedback :) and thank you for being here!
 
What I'd like to see:
  1. "Reviews" where you take a reviewed bike on an actual ride (of an hour or two at least) on a local bike route.
  2. "Reviews" where you use the reviewed bike to haul groceries or the like from a store, or maybe beach stuff on a ride from someone's house to the beach or a park.
  3. "Long-term Reviews" where you live with the bike for a month or two and come back with more opinions, good or bad, on the bike.
 
Dear RickyBikes New Member, I hope you the best on fishing more new subscribers to your Youtube channel.

My sympathy goes to those that are forever deciding "on the fence", buried in Youtube reviews. Perhaps they may get their ebike in 2023.

I'll stick to my method that has been working great so far:

Step 1: I simply buy the ebike.
Step 2: If I don't like it, I flip it.
Step 3: ????
Step 4: PROFIT.

:D
 
Dear RickyBikes New Member, I hope you the best on fishing more new subscribers to your Youtube channel.

My sympathy goes to those that are forever deciding "on the fence", buried in Youtube reviews. Perhaps they may get their ebike in 2023.

I'll stick to my method that has been working great so far:

Step 1: I simply buy the ebike.
Step 2: If I don't like it, I flip it.
Step 3: ????
Step 4: PROFIT.

:D
Don't worry, I work for EBR so I'm not fishing any new subscribers to our YouTube channel!

Your methodology seems sound. :)
 
Soul Beach Cruisers has the Sonic Saber and Sonic Saber SS Pro. Nice cruiser bikes with quality components at affordable price point. Don’t see hardly any reviews on these models.
 
Can you clarify what bikes will be considered for review? EBR charges for reviews so there are none for FREY, Watt Wagons, and other notable companies that have for whatever reason chosen not to pay. I see you have already posted some reviews as a "staff member". Did any of these reviews involve compensation to EBR? If so, I don't see any clear disclosure. If no compensation is required for these reviews, great, I would say focus on noteworthy bikes that otherwise won't see the time of day on the EBR front page.
 
The new 2021 line of Rize bikes and comparison to the old line. I would say this applies to all bikes, but I find it quite valuable to be able to perform a close comparison of the new models vs the old to help folks decide when it's time to trade in or upgrade. For Rize in particular, some of the new hub models have a torque sensor option, so that would be nice to know if it is an improvement on more than paper...
 
Can you clarify what bikes will be considered for review? EBR charges for reviews so there are none for FREY, Watt Wagons, and other notable companies that have for whatever reason chosen not to pay. I see you have already posted some reviews as a "staff member". Did any of these reviews involve compensation to EBR? If so, I don't see any clear disclosure. If no compensation is required for these reviews, great, I would say focus on noteworthy bikes that otherwise won't see the time of day on the EBR front page.
Hey TomD, great question here. EBR stopped charging for reviews towards the end of 2020. Actually, the vast majority of reviews on our platform were provided free of charge, but in 2018 we started charging a standard fee in order to expand our team and try to cover more bikes. We were able to cover more but did get complaints from some viewers who no longer saw us as unbiased, even though we did the same quality of review regardless of payment. Even during that period we never accepted affiliate offers, our review fee was a flat rate paid up front so that we would have no stake in sales for any bike we cover.

We switched back to reviewing bikes for free in order to be as unbiased as possible and focus on the important bikes. Of course, everyone has a different idea of what "important" means, and there's simply too many ebikes for us to cover them all! With that said, sometimes we do sometimes need cooperation from manufacturers in order to review their products, especially for D2C companies. Watt Wagons and Frey are great examples; unless they want to work with EBR and send us a review bike, we have no way to review them. When brands like Giant don't care about EBR reviews we can still go into a Giant dealer and borrow one of their floor models for a review.

In the interest of full disclosure: I personally will occasionally trade a review in exchange for keeping the review ebike, typically for a bike that interests me personally that EBR might not cover otherwise. The last time I did one of these was for the Nireeka Homie in February 2021.
 
In the review, whichever bike is reviewed, how about a few sentences regarding the controller/display functionality? This can make or break ANY bike, especially those not available for demo rides. Further, maybe list what parameters can be adjusted - beyond max speed and wheel size (the more detail here, the better). Does it use speed based PAS or power based? PAS sensitivity (like does the power shut down when you stop pedaling, or does it continue for another 10 feet??). In other words, go beyond the "fluff"/talking points most manf's give you.
 
Checked out the Nireeka: seems a pretty serious off-road bike for the price. Too much bike for
an old codger like me. My parts are worn & difficult to replace.
 
Another "review" I'd like to see, actually a whole class of "reviews": take an emtb to ride park or a trail with some serious jank and see how it does. Good emtbs can brap just fine.

Bonus points: put together a junket to Whistler and ride e-bikes there (class 1 are permitted on most of the trails).
Bonus points ++ : A-Line and Dirt Merchant from above.
 
In the review, whichever bike is reviewed, how about a few sentences regarding the controller/display functionality? This can make or break ANY bike, especially those not available for demo rides. Further, maybe list what parameters can be adjusted - beyond max speed and wheel size (the more detail here, the better). Does it use speed based PAS or power based? PAS sensitivity (like does the power shut down when you stop pedaling, or does it continue for another 10 feet??). In other words, go beyond the "fluff"/talking points most manf's give you.
This is excellent feedback!
 
Can you clarify what bikes will be considered for review? EBR charges for reviews so there are none for FREY, Watt Wagons, and other notable companies that have for whatever reason chosen not to pay. I see you have already posted some reviews as a "staff member". Did any of these reviews involve compensation to EBR? If so, I don't see any clear disclosure. If no compensation is required for these reviews, great, I would say focus on noteworthy bikes that otherwise won't see the time of day on the EBR front page.
TomD, I agree with you; I'll try to focus on noteworthy bikes that otherwise wouldn't see much coverage! No, EBR was not compensated for my reviews :)
 
It's good to hear EBR stopped charging for reviews. I thought that might have been a COVID exception, but sounds like it may be more of a permanent thing. In terms of manufacturers like FREY or smaller shop like Watt Wagons which may have difficulty providing bikes for review, perhaps you could clarify location so users with intriguing bikes could volunteer them for a test ride. During COVID I pinged Court to see if he'd be interested in coming down form Vancouver to review a shiny new red Frey CC with Watt Wagons upgraded controller but it never happened, presumably due to border restrictions.
 
Back