this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2024
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I so so want to purchase an ebike.But the companies don't seem likely to stick around for long though.
You pretty much should only buy one from a shop that has a physical location near you and can do repairs. Like everybody around me sells Trek, so if I ever got one, it'd be a Trek with a Bosch motor. Bike shops will not repair ebikes they don't sell, even though they'll repair regular bikes. And neither Trek nor Bosch are going anywhere.
I see your point, but I also saw Juiced Bikes go out of business last month after 15 years in the industry.
I wouldn't worry about it too much. The bikes are very simple and the battery pack can be rebuilt. Any decent bike shop should be able to repair an orphaned e-bike.
Most will not repair an ebikes outside of the brand they sell. I'd ask the shop first.
Perhaps where you live. I recently helped a young man get an e-bike, (somewhat mentally handicapped-- we raised funds to purchase the bike to get him to have better mobility), We got him an Aventon Cargo bike. The local bike shop plainly stated they would work on any e-bike you brought in. And that that all of the area bike shops were the same.
One does not turn away a paying customer.
In many parts of the states they do because their insurance won't cover them working on those bikes.
That seems like a "you" problem at the polls in your state. Not an issue here.
Get one from Halfords then. They'll repair any e-bike that they sell and they sell a wide variety of brands. Where I got mine from.
I bought one from Aventon. It was easy to repair and didn't require anything special.
Engwe has been around for some time, have one of their bikes (M20). If a part fails, you just need to send them an email, and they'll give you a price and picture of the part and they'll send it out to you. I have had to replace my rear fender and the front light once and they've arrived quite fast (to Europe). Although they aren't high quality bikes, they're priced accordingly.
My problem with Ebikes is the number of regular bikes stolen. No way I want to haul a ebike up and down my basement stairs a couple times a day.
I'm going to build one. Total cost will be >$1k for the mid drive motor and battery (not counting the bike itself), but it'll be way faster than the street legal stuff they sell at stores. They're dead simple since they're just bikes with a motor and battery pack, so any shop could work on it.
If you want something cheaper, there are other simple retrofit options as well.
So? As long as they deliver the ebike, what do you care about the financial health of the company after that?
Support. Warranties. Replacement parts.
Damn, this warranty is still in effect for a few more weeks, and the company's gone...
Proprietary spare parts. The motors might be off the shelf so you could grab parts from a different manufacturer. But controllers and batteries are usually proprietary making repairs much more complicated and cost-inefficient