Caveat Emptor – So You Want to Purchase an Ebike!
Despite the fact that we don’t sell ebikes, or perhaps because we don’t sell ebikes, people are constantly asking me what kind of ebike they should buy. The best answer of course is:
“I don’t know, I just met you.”
Unfortunately, that usually leads to a bunch of questions about what a person would want to do with the bike, where and how often they might want to ride, how intimidated by traditional bikes are they and a whole host of other things.
First: Figure Out Your Budget
Realistically, any conversation about an ebike purchase should start with how much you want to spend. If the answer is less than about $3,000, the rest of it doesn’t matter. At less than that you will be purchasing an item built to be disposable and with a hub drive motor. You are splitting hairs on the details of what stuff bolts onto the bike, most of which you don’t need.
Second: Do Your Research
A reasonable person committed to purchasing an ebike under $3,000 would try to find out who makes the highest quality product, who has good customer service, and who has good parts availability. However, that could be a waste of effort, because whatever might be great now might be rubbish in 2 years or more. I have seen that happen over and over. One year a company has the best customer service, then they fire everyone, and then they come back with a renewed effort but can’t regain their footing. It is a pig in a poke, and no one should tell you otherwise. Unfortunately, zero ebike companies have a meaningful history to draw conclusions from.
Don’t think that buying a cheap(ish) bike from a big name bike company will ensure success thing either. Bike companies have a long history of abandoning products. When this happens on a traditional bike, you can usually just replace the component with something that fits, but if your motor, controller, or battery die on your sub ~3k ebike and the product is no longer supported, you have a brick. Without the full drive system it isn’t even a regular bike, because the weight and drag of the systems make it miserable to ride without assistance.
Third: Know What You’re in for
So you want to spend more than $3k; what are you getting? At the floor you are getting a drive system from a third party like Bosch, Shimano, maybe Yamaha or someone else. These have diagnostic systems and customer support that allow a technician to have the information they need to replace a failed component with a good degree of certainty that the bike will work when they are done. These companies have made an enormous investment in providing mobility solutions as part of a much larger brand and are not going anywhere. Repairs can easily run you 1k, but that seems more reasonable to do on a $3k bike than a $1.5k bike. We are only now seeing first generation systems from the companies becoming obsolete.
But if you can buy two disposable bikes for the price of one costly to repair bike, what should you do? I don’t know, caveat emptor.
End rant.
To check out the full catalogue of bikes at Black Tie Sun Valley or to make a booking, please visit https://www.blacktiebikes.com/sun-valley/.
By Black Tie Skis of Sun Valley Owner Harry Oettinger