I bought a Prodeco X3 from a dealer in St. George Utah, about an hour away. I didn’t want to buy an ebike without some kind of test ride on something. I was really impressed and bought it for around $1700. Then I built a bike I had lying around into an ebike, which cost $800 in new parts. II sold the X3 for a $900 loss. I’ve done 3 conversions, two Goldens and a MAC, over 30 months. I bought a BBS02 a few weeks ago, but don’t have a bike to convert right now. None of these bikes will be over $1000. Guys like Jehu Garcia provide ways to get cheap batteries. Vruzend seems to work, and their cell prices are reasonable. Micah Toll is a huge resource for DIY battery stuff. But most people want to buy a bike, they want a low price, and they want to ride it before buying. Sondors is three for three. The X3 was the cheapest bike the dealer had. He had Stromers, Haibikes, and BH products. He also went out of business. The area, maybe 250,000 people, couldn’t support the price structure he had. It’s all well and good to say there are deals, but that’s not going ‘local’. He couldn't sustain the bikes, carry the inventory.
If Sondors had his 3 bikes in a little shop, people could go for a quick test or they could rent a Sondors for an hour or two. Maybe he could keep these costs very low. The Sondors are easy to repair. The parts are trivial. The Bafang motor can be case replaced in 15 minutes. A shop could sell these bikes and try to get some volume, do some rentals, do some repairs. He could work out the numbers on how to do inventory, but he could continue to sell out of China. But he could generate huge volumes with the bikes he has, at the prices he has. Anyone who thinks they are just junk is wrong, I think. I might have bought a Thin if I could have test ridden it. I might buy a Fold, but I need to know how it works for me. Test rides are a huge thing, and Sondors is smart to go down this road. When I convert, I know the bike going in. The motor and battery are fairly simple when you don’t try to engineer advanced assist modes.
The Sondors Plan is the only model that would work here. A store with low overhead and simple inventory. I am a huge advocate of DIY, but it just doesn’t work for a lot of people. The Sondors bike is a CPSC legal bike. He makes that clear. I think that is the right way to do things. There are so many things to like about what Sondors is doing. And people should note that Sondors and Luna are built around Bafang. Bafang continues to announce new motors, more refined motors, and a battery factory. Bafang is another company with a vision.