Why I won't buy another Rad Power bike (aka support your local bike shop)
Admin is right, it's not if but when. Then you'll have downtime.
RAD together with a cheap reserve bike (if so desired) would cost $2,500.
Half-decent brand that give free loaners will cost at least $3,000 for the same quality.
A big brand with free loaners and quality notably higher than RAD, will add another $500-700, or more.
Expensive bikes occasionally have sales when you can get it for several hundred less than usual, but you need to catch this on time.
RAD together with a cheap reserve bike (if so desired) would cost $2,500.
Half-decent brand that give free loaners will cost at least $3,000 for the same quality.
A big brand with free loaners and quality notably higher than RAD, will add another $500-700, or more.
Expensive bikes occasionally have sales when you can get it for several hundred less than usual, but you need to catch this on time.
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We'll have to agree to disagree on that. It took a lot of doing to get here.
Because you were not giving them the proof that they wanted. Probably got one inept phone rep, too.
I got 2 Raleigh beach cruisers and choose to get them from my local bike shop. I could have save $200. on each bike by going direct. But, the bike shop will give me 2 free tuneups. $100. value The first one a basic and the second a full one. They also built the bikes and adjusted them. Another $150. if I would have brought the bikes in a box un built. They will also do all warranty work on the bikes at no cost. Raleigh doesn't cover warranty work. In the end, it's like getting insurance and having piece of mind, knowing I'm taking care of no matter what happens. And who knows how much I saved on warranty work if I need it. I hope I don't need it.
Chopperbill
Active Member
A good dealer with fair prices. I wouldn’t gone internet if I had one like that. Thank goodness I found an internet dealer that works for me. A win win for us both. Why doesn’t Raleigh cover warranty?
Put away the pompoms, Alex. You have no idea what you're talking about.
AHicks
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Snow Bird - Summer S.E. Michigan, Winter Gulf Coast North Central Fl.
Fair enough. The bigger point though, is Rad did take care of you, even if the value of the component involved represents 1/3 the value of the bike.
Where the heck did that come from?
You don't know how to use a multimeter.
You didn't want to make a video that they needed to make sure it was the battery. Now, I can't be 100% positive but I doubt they insisted on buying a multimeter and learning how to use it for that. Not that learning this would be difficult for a person of an average intelligence.
And you still insist that one has to be a bike mechanic to buy ebike direct. There was hardly anything "mechanical" in fixing these issues.
It appears that your main purpose in this thread was venting.
There will be other issues with the bike, things do break. Trying to find somebody to blame instead of trying to learn is, er... let's say - not very productive.
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Looks like they did. Oh boy, one seriously pissed off customer can really do a damage to business...
This has been my experience with buying an RPB e-bike. I would have considered buying from a local shop but the local shops didn't carry them at that time and the closest shop mechanic slammed ebikes as being unreliable, not real bikes, and there would be no service for them in the area. It was clear that I was going to get no help from this LBS.
(Now that shop is carrying $3-5K Trek ebikes. I wonder what his description is now.)
I lived more than a 100 miles from the nearest shop that carried any brand of ebike. The shops didn't even list available stock so I couldn't do much comparison shopping or riding. I needed to use electricbikereview.com to learn the brand names and models that were available on the market.
I bought a RPB City Step-thru based on the number of reviews, ratings, and the price (because it was a guess about how much I would ride the bike). I have maintained my regular bikes and I do have a multimeter (although I discovered it was dead at that moment due to battery corrision). I bought the bike guessing that I was DIY enough to deal with most issues.
The bike arrived in a box that looked like it had been shipped around the world 3 times, through 3 major conflicts. I helped the UPS driver carry it into my house. (I have seen UPS drivers struggle with boxes while the buyer stands there serenely.) The box looked awful but the bike was unharmed.
It took me a couple of days to put together the bike. For example, the rear brake pads had been adjusted so close that the rear wheel was frozen. I needed to learn how to take off the rear brake and make the adjustment. The lcd control panel was disconnected and i needed to find the disconnection. The RPB tech support people were very helpful but (as people have noted before) they always want videos of everything.
Here is my suggestion to RPB and other internet bike purveyors. You need to have videos about common issues. You can't have too many videos. You can have videos that cover simple issues (like turning on the bike) to complex issues like tracking down an electrical connection issue. Different audiences will use different videos. (Local bike shops can do the same thing. Provide videos to the most common questions.)
The bike mechanic that I first talked to was afraid of dealing with an unknown beast that might consume lots of valuable time. Make it easy for the bike mechanics to work on RPB bikes. Produce more videos. Bikes that use electrical controllers and electrical motors are not standard stuff in the Barnett's Bike Manual.
Make the videos realistic and usable. The RPB videos are very unrealistic. One shows a guy lifting a RPB Step-thru, easily, out of a shipping box. It weighs about 70 lbs. No ordinary person is going to clear a 70-lb weight at an awkward angle with that ease. Another step shows some one turning an allen wrench. But how was that bolt chosen? Where did that bolt come from? There is so much that RPB could do to help both buyers and bike mechanics work on these bikes. Why would RPB withhold such information to the tech reps primarily? It is their (and LBS) self-interest in spreading information to make ebikes seem less mysterious.
Ken
(Now that shop is carrying $3-5K Trek ebikes. I wonder what his description is now.)
I lived more than a 100 miles from the nearest shop that carried any brand of ebike. The shops didn't even list available stock so I couldn't do much comparison shopping or riding. I needed to use electricbikereview.com to learn the brand names and models that were available on the market.
I bought a RPB City Step-thru based on the number of reviews, ratings, and the price (because it was a guess about how much I would ride the bike). I have maintained my regular bikes and I do have a multimeter (although I discovered it was dead at that moment due to battery corrision). I bought the bike guessing that I was DIY enough to deal with most issues.
The bike arrived in a box that looked like it had been shipped around the world 3 times, through 3 major conflicts. I helped the UPS driver carry it into my house. (I have seen UPS drivers struggle with boxes while the buyer stands there serenely.) The box looked awful but the bike was unharmed.
It took me a couple of days to put together the bike. For example, the rear brake pads had been adjusted so close that the rear wheel was frozen. I needed to learn how to take off the rear brake and make the adjustment. The lcd control panel was disconnected and i needed to find the disconnection. The RPB tech support people were very helpful but (as people have noted before) they always want videos of everything.
Here is my suggestion to RPB and other internet bike purveyors. You need to have videos about common issues. You can't have too many videos. You can have videos that cover simple issues (like turning on the bike) to complex issues like tracking down an electrical connection issue. Different audiences will use different videos. (Local bike shops can do the same thing. Provide videos to the most common questions.)
The bike mechanic that I first talked to was afraid of dealing with an unknown beast that might consume lots of valuable time. Make it easy for the bike mechanics to work on RPB bikes. Produce more videos. Bikes that use electrical controllers and electrical motors are not standard stuff in the Barnett's Bike Manual.
Make the videos realistic and usable. The RPB videos are very unrealistic. One shows a guy lifting a RPB Step-thru, easily, out of a shipping box. It weighs about 70 lbs. No ordinary person is going to clear a 70-lb weight at an awkward angle with that ease. Another step shows some one turning an allen wrench. But how was that bolt chosen? Where did that bolt come from? There is so much that RPB could do to help both buyers and bike mechanics work on these bikes. Why would RPB withhold such information to the tech reps primarily? It is their (and LBS) self-interest in spreading information to make ebikes seem less mysterious.
Ken
Great post Ken. I think the takeaway is that people need to understand what they are getting into when they buy an e-bike from the internet. It could be a seamless transaction with zero issues or it could turn into a nightmare. Videos from manufacturers on how to handle issues from simple to complex makes sense because as has been said before, when you buy online, YOU are the dealer, mechanic, maintenance dept. etc. Someone reading from a script may not be much help for all but the most simple problems
