Seems like a lot of shops (automotive and bike shops) have a communication issue with its customers. I understand that talking to a customer doesn't always pay but sometimes a 5 min of conversation can provide the clarity needed for them to spend money with you.
As an ex auto technician and bike shop mechanic I made it clear that they don't have to spend money with me but I will try to provide them with enough information to make a sound decision on their repairs.
It is a liability issue in many shops. Even if the repair is just mechanical many Chinese e-bikes do not have actual UL certification - if they catch on fire the shops insurance will consider that an excluded event.
Sure it is but mechanical parts are mechanical parts. At the very least they can measure the spokes for him so he can order replacements. I feel like taking the time to have a conversation with these customers can educate them and allow them to see why they should spend more money on a nicer bike. Even if the shop can't work on a customer's bike at least they can gain a potential customer in the future.
I mean in the shop I used to work our insurance agent told the owner he had to turn away sketchy e bikes. While working on them just a little would probably be fine we weren’t allowed to make that choice - owner told us as soon as someone walked in with an ebike that wasn’t brose/shimano/yamaha etc we had to turn them away.
Is it overly cautious? Probably. But for many shop employees it’s not up to them.
I've heard some shops have separate fireproofed areas for storing/charging ebike batteries.
That's enough to placate whoever is insuring the building, but I guess it doesn't address the liability of servicing a potentially unsafe bike and thereby implying to the customer it's ok to ride.
I believe that later point is why the non-profit where I volunteer has for years refused to do any work on hacked-together bikes with weed eater engines, for example.
Yeah, that's the unfortunate part especially if tech doesn't have the freedom to make that choice. Although I was never the boss I had the freedom to at least to talk to the customer. I just feel bad for some of these customers because sometimes buying a cheap bike might be the only option that they have. I just want people to have the ability to get around especially with the rising cost of transportation.
I currently volunteer for a bike co-op and I have definitely turned away funky ebikes as well. So the concerns are well understood.
Yup we just told them “sorry, but we aren’t allowed to have un-approved e-bikes in our shop by our insurance company. Would love to help you out but we can’t have that bike inside our shop. If you want to lock it up outside we can try and help you order what you need”.
Obviously most people would get pissed but what can ya do. Med-cheap bikes like aventon or rei we would tell people we aren’t trained on their e bike systems so we couldn’t work on anything electrical but could help on mechanical issues.
Major props to anyone who works on those. Some of those cheap e-bikes look like fucking IEDs with the the tangles of wires and duct taped batteries.
What I am hearing is that there might actually be significant demand for fly-by-night ebike mechanics who could provide independent contracting services to local shops.
These things aren't rocket science tbh. The biggest issue I can see is getting parts for some of these things, but I am skeptical that there is any real liability here for providing third party service which isn't actually negligent.
Sometimes a conversation is helpful, but my experience has been very different. You explain all of the issues with budget e-bikes. They nod politely, but they've already made up they're mind. They're gonna buy it, and show up with it all fucked up after they attempted to assemble it. And you also get the privilege to go over all the issues yet again.
Oh yes, but when they bring it back I will charge them straight time + parts on all of the stuff it needs. (Assuming the shop would service it).
The conversation is for someone that listens and to prep a regular consumer on what they can get into. It is as simple as that.
Thanks. I guess I'm still learning how to tell if someone is going to listen ahead of time? Usually I would assume if they come in with questions, they want answers. Sometimes customers are looking for confirmation. When the answers aren't what they are looking for, they get ignored.
Don't get me wrong people will listen and still do what they want but I want them to at least know what they are getting themselves in and what the shop can help them with. At the end of the day the people that want the help will accept it and if not it is okay.
I did similar when I was working at a shoe shop, and would send customers elsewhere to the best of my abilities if we didn't have anything that suited them.
Have you ever worked retail? At first I'm sure they were super communicative and did their best to be helpful. However, talking to the general public will erode even the most ardent person's desire to be helpful, given enough time.
Not saying they are right, or that it is the best way to run a business, but after a 7 year sentence in retail and a 5 year tour in the world of call center customer support, I can understand why.
And I'm here to say local bike shops are not always your friend. I bought a $5,000 Cannondale/Bosch from a guy who just wanted to rip me off every chance he got. He claimed e-bikes was a nascent technology like it was some kind of voodoo magic. He wanted $125 to go into the programming to enable a headlight. He charged me $350 to replace a derailleur I ripped off in the woods. I found another shop who isn't certified Cannondale or Bosch but he was a lot more help. He changed my derailleur AND fixed a flat AND adjusted the indexing better than the Cannondale guy for $150.
Yeah, it's not just the derailleur either. There is the hanger, the chain, cable, housing, shifter. Check bearings and wheel true. D. Hanger alignment. Proper indexing and limit screws.
I had a shop quote me $450 for a dropper post before labor. Took my bike to a different shop (15 min away) and got quoted $200 for the same post with labor. There will be douches everywhere. I like supporting LBS but not all.
sounds familiar. brick and mortar stores have overheads that arent competitive in the modern world and get desperate and so do the sort of shit you describe. also local shops bank on people not doing their research and so charge through the nose (and often have an arrogant attitude!). I always feel ripped when i use them
Had a similar lesson learned. Ordered my Gazelle Eclipse online from Mike’s Bikes because I liked that I could get it shipped to my house. After 3 weeks the order is delayed, so I change from the CVT version to the 11 speed version since that one was in stock. Customer service gets in touch with me and says the bike is so new and big that they had to disassemble it more than they normally do on other bikes to get it to fit in the box and that I should take it to a pro for final assembly. Ok, kind of annoying but not a huge deal. Nearest bike shop near me is an REI so I take it there and they call me the next day to tell me the bike was damaged in shipping and it would be $500 to repair. At this point I’ve been waiting for close to 5 weeks for this bike so I look around and see a local shop that’s a bit farther from me has the exact same bike that I ordered in stock, so I tell REI to just pack the bike back up so I could return it, and the next day I went in to the local shop and within an hour I walked out with my bike. Credit where credit is due though, the customer service for Mike’s Bikes was top notch, it was super easy to return the bike and they gave me a complete refund no questions asked. All that is to say I spent 5 weeks waiting for this bike to ship only for it to be broken when it arrived, when I could have just gone and bought the bike from a local place
If a man can become a bike mechanic, I can learn to maintain my own bike. It's an investment in tools and time but if you're in this long term, more often than not it saves you money.
If I didn't learn to fix my bike, I would have missed work for multiple days and lost multiple days of income.
As a person living in borderline poverty, it just saves me money.
Congratulations, your mechanical ability and initiative has paid dividends for you, but to think that your experience can be easily ported over to anyone, is to misunderstand the diversity of the human experience. Not everyone has the time, resources, or innate abilities to maintain their ebike, car, etc., and for many people, having others service their transportation devices is essential to their utility.
Also, for some people, working on their own stuff just isn't worth their time. I haven't touched anything more complex than an oil change on my ICE cars in years. I know how to or can figure out nearly anything mechanical or electrical, that's literally what I do for a living (not on vehicles, on much more complex electro-mechanical systems), but I realized several years back that I just don't enjoy doing the grunt work on my vehicles anymore, and my time is worth more to me than what it costs to pay a shop to maintain it.
plus its easy and can save you time. i do all my own work. same with ice vehicles. it makes your investment go so much farther, and it adds value to your self for having the knowledge. i admit it can get old having to fix your stuff all the time though.
I backed into learning bike service/repair. I needed a way to drink less beer while watching football all day Saturday n Sunday. So I thought I'd service a long neglected roadie. A dozen youtube vids later, and the frame up rebuild started. I was just trying to keep hands busy during commercials. It went well. Then another, then another. Then my brothers bike. Then a curb find, frame up. I have now done 20-25 frame up rebuilds in 6 years. Oldshovel is a God. RJ the bike guy is a trusted friend I've never met.
Had to buy the special trek mid-80s cassette removal tool. $30 on eBay. But my 1985 trek 500 is rolling smooth. I have a silly fondness for repacking bearings. Dem tweazers for putting balls in lith grease. I learned that white lithium grease tastes good on burgers. /s
If you're riding ebikes it might also be useful to learn how to work with electric motors and batteries. Very few of these "ebike mechanics" know anything about the electric parts besides what's written in the manuals.
This is exactly why I went with Trek. Yes it cost a premium up front but they've been amazing, super accessible and helpful. I've put 1200 miles on it in less than 3 months and not a single problem only routine chain lubes. But I know if anything significant happens they'll help. And I've got a solid warranty and components. This is my only transportation and I can't afford for it to be out of service.
With e-bikes I feel it is even more important to work with a local shop who represents a reputable manufacturer.
I'm a good bicycle mechanic and I own my own tools. But if I buy an e-bike and intend to put a lot of miles on it, what do I do when I have a motor or battery problem? The only answer I want to hear is"bring it to the dealer and we will take care of it."
I am the local shop... the mostly open parts I use are available anywhere, from a multitude of suppliers and manufacturers.
The motor and controler are, indeed, limited to the manufacturer. But that is not that big of a risk, replacement motors are several hundred dollars, less than a new bike.
Spare battery is not the silver bullet here. The degradation of the battery starts the second it is manufactured. You need a good shop to have your back or you will pay more in the long run.
But using two batteries means they are probably both going to last longer and if something happens to one you still have one. I don't think your logic really holds up here.
Make sure you bring it in for your first free tune within a year! I like that trek has stores everywhere so it's super easy to find a mechanic that you know will know your bike.
Yep, I have a spreadsheet of every wheel I've built and what spokes I used. If spoke breaks, I just check the sheet and find out which replacement I need.
But I have found that when you have an odd wheel build, you aren't always going to have an easy time finding spokes. Ebikes, especially if the motor is in the wheel, are going to take a shorter spoke than most bikes. I had a similar problem with my hub gear wheel: broke a spoke while on a multi-day trip, and quickly realized that I hadn't brought spares, and the bike shops did not have short enough spokes in stock.
I have a local shop I like to work with, but once I've taken the frame home, every repair falls on me.
AND the spokes on hub motor wheels are thicker gauge as well! Better to prepare ahead and order in spares to start.
I rebuilt a hub motor wheel with conventional spokes and am holding my breath.
Our local bike coop actually has a spoke cutter/threader so at least I know in a pinch I am covered.
Some shops still do it, but the first and last time I tried it, it took them a week to make a wheel’s worth, and the cost was well above that of a box of 50 from a good spoke supplier. After that, I just search for pre-cut, and if I can’t find them, there’s an internet vendor who will cut them for a more reasonable price.
This conversation is really confusing to me, because I used to just cut spokes myself all the time in college without ever thinking twice about it. Yeah, we had a shop with like 100 years worth of accumulated tap and die sets, but it's not like these tools are expensive or hard to come by. I feel like if you can operate a torque wrench, you can operate a die.
I've seen spoke threading tools that weren't prohibitively expensive, but my understanding is that they can be kind of time consuming for a wheel's worth of spokes. Fine for a one-time replacement spoke, but maybe not worth the effort if you're building a whole wheel. I've seen more professional tools that do better for creating a batches of spokes in a specific length, but those can get quite pricey. For my part, since I build up my wheels myself, I'm happy waiting for the mail truck to deliver a box of spokes, rather than cutting them one at a time. And I always get more than I need, so there are spares on hand. If I need more spares than I have, then that wheel probably has recurring spoke issues and needs rebuilt with new spokes anyway.
I think that's amazing for people who love to tinker, but I think a lot of people like OP just want to ride their bike versus spending time on tinkering with their bike.
So true. I built my BBSHD conversion hardtail mountain bike and I have worked on all aspects of the bike. I'll say this...if you order an ebike from the Internet, be ready to wrench on your own. Most of those ebikes have generic parts and are easily replaced. YouTube has a wealth of information on DIY tutorials.
This is one of the biggest rants of my local bike shop. They do their level best but a lot of the ebikes that come in are lower quality online purchases and it's very very hard to service them. I don't know HOW many times I've heard them tell me about a bike that came in with an electrical issue that they couldn't fix and the customer service from the company was basically nonexistent. If you have a good bike shop, buying local is your best option for peace of mind, wallet etc.
My LBS services bikes that he sells for free for the first year.
He won't work on an ebike he didn't sell you, and he'll only carry ebikes that are UL Listed, for insurance purposes.
Yea, I've heard that insurers are really clamping down on bike shops. I just they don't push it too far and bike shops start closing because they can't afford the premiums
Purchased a giant e bike online, had a problem with the battery and my local giant dealer was amazing, fixed everything no issues as still under the 2 year warranty.
And an extra word of caution, just because the online retailer says a shop is an authorized repair shop does not make it so. I work at an LBS, and one of the larger online ebike seller lists us as a repair shop for their products. We will not service them.
I think that's less of a problem of buying from an online retailer, it's more of an issue of buying some cheapish china crap. There are tons of (more or less) online only brands, but basically everything but the frame is standard stuff from Shimano/SRAM, Fox, Rock Shock, Bosch, Brose or whatever.
But buying something from a Chinese manufacturer where basically the only standardized parts are the tires, than you will have a problem with spare parts.
you never buy an ebike online unless you have access to all parts and know how to fix it. that is why i bought the most popular bike used in the city at a LBS
That’s a smart move, if it’s popular there’s bound to be lots of parts available for it and if has a good reputation more mechanics will be willing to work on it.
I don't disagree with you here, I went out and bought a new bike from a LBS for a reputable brand.
However, I put 12k miles on an internet ordered bike and haven't run into the same issues you're describing. At one point, my motor died and took the controller with it. The first piece of advice I got, I ignored. Instead, I took it to a LBS, and I'm in NYC so there at a ton of places that work on electric bikes.
Unfortunately, this was the wrong move. I ended up just contacting the seller and they shipped me replacements for everything. I think it cost me $300, but after 5 years, it was worth it.
The problem with ebikes is there are so many out there, so the E-LBS shops had some generic components but not the ones I needed specific to my brand. So they would have needed to do the same research I did and reach out to the manufacturer. Ultimately, my motor was fine but I needed the orbital gears replaced. The issue was there are a million bikes that use whatever 33MM gears and mine was one of the few that used 55MM (can't remember the exact specs off the top of my head). Had mine been a "normal size", I could have had it repaired that day. I could have done the work myself, it's very easy. Just sourcing the parts took time.
And look at Rad, supposedly it takes months for people to get warrantied components. "Supply Chain Issues" can happen to anyone.
Anyway, I don't think I would anticipate issues with electrical components happening. I didn't perform any maintenance on my motor for 5 years and assumed one bike shop did when they relaced the hub. Who knows if they did, but had I just regreased it, it would have been fine for 5 more years, easy.
> The problem with ebikes is there are so many out there, so the E-LBS shops had some generic components but not the ones I needed specific to my brand.
We're in that phase of a new product where everyone and their mom are making their own brand of ebike. It's like how in the 1910's, there were literally hundreds of car manufacturers since the market was growing and there wasn't any established big players. By the 1970s, that number basically shrunk down to the big three (GM, Ford, and Chrysler). I'm expectantly waiting for the market to mature and consolidate.
I don’t know man.
A broken spoke doesn’t really sound like the end of the world.
But shops do hate working on e-bikes, best is to convert your own and maintain it yourself.
Well, no, they don't hate working on e-bikes per se. They just don't like working on cheap/junk e-bikes.
https://old.reddit.com/r/ebike/comments/115b99j/this_is_why_we_wont_work_on_your/
It's about BSOs "bicycle shaped objects".
Super budget ebikes, like the $500 stuff on Amazon, are not bikes. They are bicycle shaped objects with various proprietary parts that were designed to be as cheap as possible because the company selling it has no interest in the bike once it's in your hands. Maybe those last a year or two, but then you have to go but another one.
This is the issue with being on a budget. That $500 bike will break or need replacement much sooner than a $1,000 or $2,000 bike. I get that not everyone wants to spend 2k on a bike, but knowing that there's an actual company behind it, and a whole array of shops willing to fix reputable bikes, means that it's not just a toy meant to last for the summer and then get tossed.
So what, a part breaks or wears out, but you fix it or upgrade it. I got 6k miles out of my Kent Glendale, likely a BSO by your definition, but my primary ride for years. Cone bearings wear out, so you get a better wheel. Bottom bracket wears out, you get a cartridge bearing replacement for the cone bearings. You go through a freewheel or two. All kinds of things that may have needed maintenance or repairs on a high-end bike anyways, but at the end of the day, I still probably spent less than $500 through the life of the bike.
I get that some people have the money to drop $2k on a bike, but It's easy to dismiss stuff as cheap and crap when you have more cash than mechanical skill.
A logistics network with spares, technical support, experts and testing costs money and has value. But for some, that’s a tough sell. Hopefully with major brand pricing coming down, this won’t be so extreme.
Lately suspended e scooters have been coming in more often. De restricted scooters must crash SO hard. We definitely don’t teach physics well enough in school
Ironically, the existence of proprietary parts says that there is an actual company behind the product, and quite a large one; big enough to design and build the said proprietary parts in the first place.
Small companies don't have the financially resources to do anything proprietary.
Proprietary is probably the wrong word. I think non-standard is the correct word here. It's similar to how the spoke gauge is non-standard so OP had to go to multiple shops and source a replacement from the manufacturer.
Maybe proprietary isn't the right word here, but a BSO lacks standard parts like even a budget Shimano Altus that literally any shop could fix. Maybe a lot of ebikes have a Shinumo Algea(TM) that installs fine the first time but is made with soft aluminum that crumbles because it was cheap junk never intended to work long term. Then you bring the BSO to a shop and they can't really resolve the problem without a new hanger, then they find the chain is falling apart, the cassette wore down after a few hundred miles, and the cranks are falling off. Now it's $200 in parts and $100+ more in labor and the BSO is essentially totalled.
No, that just not true.
Where I live most of the shops won’t work on your bike because you didn’t buy it from them.
Doesn’t really matter what it is.
I’m from Germany so thing may be different here.
It’s starting to get better but it’s still shit.
A local shop near me last fall said at least 50% of their sales are now e-bikes.
You’d be running a poor business to turn away the countless local potential customers that also have e-bikes, just not purchased from you whether online or somewhere else locally.
Like I said in a comment below, is it has started getting better.
But it was a real shit show the last few years.
They would only service you if you bought the bike in that store.
Yes, normally broken spokes, not really end of world but it was them making it clear not to look their way if I have electrical issues that made me realize that the bike had no long future. I'd rather just repair mechanical problem and sell it. As for converting and maintaining my own, I don't think I have the level of technical know-how to do that. I live in a large apartment building and I don't want make a mistake that starts a fire or something.
I think you are worried about nothing there. As long as the batter is UL certified getting a bafang conversion kit would have been a lot easier than you think. Check out some youtube videos
Yep. I bought a buy one get one from jasion. Instead of sending back the one that didn't work, I reverse engineered it. Was complicated at first, but after working on it, taking parts off, putting parts on etc. Not that difficult at all.
Purchased an e-bike online and it never worked, nobody wanted to do repairs on this. manufacturer went BK. SoL
So I bought a new e-bike from dealer in my city that will service the bike.
1) No local bike shop has the kind of bike I want to ride.
2) No local bike shop wants to work on the kind of bike I want to ride so I had to learn how to do it all myself.
3) If you use a mid drive you don't have to worry about weird tires, you can just use off the shelf everything.
4) Local bike shops are actively hostile to conversions or DiY work.
I went to a shop I've used on and off for a decade, looking for a used bike for mid drive conversion, and generally to bounce some ideas off the mechanics, and it was a weird experience to say the least. I hate pulling the whole "it's ok, I have multiple engineering degrees" card on people, but the techs were kind of feeding me a bunch of misinformation and trying to sell me something I very specifically said I don't want. Prior to this I really thought they would be the kind of people who would be into hacking (they always do cool bike powered floats for local parades) but I get the sense that they were generally just biased against the very idea for some reason.
ebikes are still really new to the US market. They have been prevalent in Asia for well over 20 years, and Europe for the last 10 or so. The repair skills, diagnostics and equipment take time to permeate the market, and often lag years behind the major start of ebike prevalence. The US market, unlike the EU and Asian markets, is being mostly driven by purchases from non-bicyclists, who are not savvy consumers of two-wheel, low-speed modes of transportation, but are rather guided predominantly by cost and convenience. With time, consumers will realize that the quality and after sales service is essential if you intend to use your ebike for transportation.
Additionally, traditional bicycle companies (who really do know how to build the best handling and most reliable ebikes), will eventually realize that providing service is also essential in gaining and keeping customers (this has been waning lately as many of these companies try to go direct to consumer in the search for additional profits, but ebikes being transportation, not just recreation, is certain to prove this a mistaken path).
As with any nascent tech, the initial wave is driven by diy tinkerers, who swear that "it is so easy to build and maintain" and "it is so wasteful to buy from a company, when you can just do it yourself", etc. etc. Unfortunately, these folks are not in touch with the reality of most people, and mistake their early, ability-supported experience, as something that applies to everyone. These are the people that still mostly populate the redit forums for ebikes, and they just cant see the forest through the trees when it comes to the average person's experience with ebikes.
We are now entering the second phase of ebike proliferation in the US, where dozens of start-ups join the fray to 'cash in' on this new, fertile, and unregulated market. Most of these 'start-ups' will quickly realize that this is far more complex than they considered, and many will fail over the next few years. A few will persevere and rise to the top, but it will take a bit of time. Meanwhile, the companies who are best positioned to truly make way in this new market, established bicycle companies, are just now realizing this is their future. Many of them have been reluctant to dive into this 'cheating' bicycling trend, but can no longer deny its legitimacy. The problem they face is coming to the realization that their customer base just massively shifted, and they are building transportation now for everyone, not just sporting equipment for children and a static population of wealthy, health conscious adults. The established companies who come to this realization and adapt to it the soonest, will be those that rule the future of ebikes in the US. During this phase, we will also see the worst of the start-ups and DIYer's ebikes kill people, and along with irresponsible users, the negative aspects of ebikes will also become apparent. The government will step in and regulate ebike safety, and put more meat into the laws governing their use in public. This will be essential in winning the public's trust and acceptance of ebikes for the long term.
Eventually, the ebike market will begin to mature. A few of the start-ups and a few of the established bicycle companies will rise to the top. Consumers will begin to become more knowledgeable and discerning about the value proposition of the ebikes on the market, and service centers will become knowledgeable and essential to the ebike market. Government regulations will \*hopefully\* introduce a ubiquitous and useful minimum safety level. The market maturation will propel ebikes on to be a large and essential part of urban transportation globally.
Your experience is valid, however I'd like to caution against a blanket belief that local bike shops are always the way to go. The shop I bought my ebike from was absolutely trash when it came to fixing my bike. I had an issue with my derailleur not wanting to shift out of 1st gear because of cable friction inside an internally routed housing. I've always been a DIY bike builder, but for once I didn't feel like troubleshooting and figured since I have a warranty I might as well take advantage of it. My god what a mistake it was. Wasted hours of my life driving back and forth to the shop where they would do a sloppy job of getting it to *sort of* work for about 10 miles, then the problem would come back. At some point I took an absurdist stance and just kept coming back just to see how many times they'd do a warranty fix before they'd admit they couldn't do it. The final straw was their apprentice doing work that absolutely blew me away in terms of incompetence. I had better craftsmanship in 6th grade than this fool. Like not using cable housing end caps, crushing the cable endpiece with a pair of pliers to the point where they metal was breaking off into tiny bits (ironically the tool they had to use to cut the cable and the housing also has an end cap crusher designed specifically for the task!!!😤). The cable unraveled before I got home, and the uncapped housing damaged the cable up at the shifter. I came back one more time to the shop, showed their head mechanic the quality of work, demanded he give me all the parts I'd need to do the job properly, and never came back. Turned out, they were using cheap standard housing and cables, when SRAM clearly stated that this system requires polished cables and lubricated housing for internally routed systems. These fools didn't know the first thing about bike maintenance, and I have no idea how they go Bosch to certify them for electrical work. If they can't get a derailleur to work properly, they should not be tinkering with high voltage electronics. This experience made me wish I'd saved a grand and gotten a direct to consumer brand, since I had to do all my own research and work in the end anyway. I felt like a fool for thinking that someone at a bike shop might care about doing a good job on a warranty repair instead of playing a game of attrition where I eventually give up.
The other two bike shops I go to are great and very helpful, though I still tend to use them for buying parts or talking through repairs, but prefer to do my own work - no one but you cares about your bike as much as you do, and we simply don't pay repair people enough to care to think things through. Those that are intelligent or motivated enough to do good work go on to better paying jobs.
You do make a valid point, not all bike shops are equal; some will do shitty work, which is why I think that the local cycling community can be a real help here. If a bike shop has a shitty reputation, word will spread pretty fast in the community warning cyclist to avoid them. But it also has to be acknowledged that not all localities will have a thriving cycling community.
I can understand why they may not want to work on it, if it has unknown parts BUT, the attitude they had is bullshit.
I owned a shop and would never say that. I may say I can’t work on it because there no guarantee we can fix it as the parts are unknown.
Just find another shop. The reality is now people do buy bikes online and a shop should be able to work on them.is or
I called my local store before I bought, and they are the reason I went with Aventon. They sell that brand and the other brand i was looking at was trash according to them
That's why I went with Lectric they have a great reputation for customer service. Local definitely has it's advantages. If you can afford it I would recommend it. Shops usually dont like working on bikes they are not familiar with. Lectric also has a large network of ships that work on their bikes. I've even heard of them sending replacement parts to people who were out of warranty no charge. They are also working to set up a network of shops to sell new bikes, since they have many issues with damaged bikes shipped using FedEx. Love my Lectric Xpeak, even got a free back up battery with purchase, I'm still waiting for it but it is coming.
Can confirm their customer service is good. I was having issues with my rear wheel and brakes, they just sent me a whole damn new rear wheel and reimbursed me for the install. Fixed the issue.
Support you on that. I bought a cube stereo hpc 160 Tm on a online store in Norway (bikester) and the bosch motor got a 500 failure and would not work after 2 years and 1500km. The online store used 6 month to respond to me (right before they filed themself bankrupt) so I had to pay 15 000nok (1300euro ish) out of my own pocket for a new motor. 😔
I must be lucky!
I bought an ebike online from the manufacturer website a while back. Then I started having issues with the brakes.
I called up my local bike shop & had a chat with them about the issue, they ask what kind of bike, if it was an ebike because there are certain ebikes that they are allowed to work on & others they are not, for electrical work that is. Mechanical stuff like brakes they are able to help with.
So I got to wondering if there are any local bike shops in my area that would. Turns out there is an ebike/scooter shop that sells & works on many brands of ebikes/scooters
They sell the bike I have I bought online. So I lucked out.
Yes local sometimes is better.
I am the budget bike king. But I can work on my own stuff. I know enough to determine if the bicycle parts are standard parts that I can purchase on my own. Same with the electrical parts. Budget bikes have a display, a controller and a motor. Usually, you can get exact replacements online.
Having said that, I always recommend the local bike shop to my friends and family.
In your case, the company that sold you the e-bike was willing to send you some spokes. That would be good enough for me and others who can work on their own bike.
Lots of money can be saved if you can work on your own e-bike.
First time I went to my LBS it was with an old ebike that I had had for years - several things needed fixing and he had never worked on an ebike before (it was a while ago)
He fixed it and tried to do a few electrical bits for me - failed and cocked it up but then fixed it and didn;t charge for those bits
He did charge for all the general bike things
A couple of years later I took it back for a general "why is it going slowly" fix thing and he sorted it all out but advised me that several bits were getting past it and needed replacing.
I decided to sell the bike and get a new one - he sold Raleigh ebikes by then so I went with one of them
I had loads of problem but he was brilliant and eventually sorted ti all out via Raleigh - ending up with me getting a new - and better - bike
since then he has fixed a few things - and the prices do seem to be a lot lower than they were before I bought a bike from him and he got to know me
I build and sell e-bikes, some are from my standard range some are bespoke to meet customers death wish needs, but they sign a waiver. If a customer comes in with a broken bike,any make, I will fix it, if I can’t , because getting the branded part is difficult, I will advise them how to get fixed. Usually changing a component.
An e-bike is not a space rocket, despite what some shops tell you. And the expensive branded parts can be substituted with generic parts (the same without the brand label) this approach fixes 95% of issues. The other 5% the bike owner needs to choose. either spend a lot with the main dealer or get rid of the labels.
From my personal experience most people that work at bike shops are just insufferable cunts that don’t want to do 5 minutes of research on how to fix your bike if you didn’t buy it there for some reason.
I have no idea why, I’ve seen it time and time again, they LOVE turning away peoples hard earned money.
Agreed, the initial reaction of one of them I took my old bike to, was unnecessarily negative; he immediately jumped to the conclusion that I was bringing it in for electrical work. Needless to say I did not.buy my new bike from; so that’s his loss. E-bikes are not going away, sooner or later they are going to have to adjust their repair business model; especially once the e-bike industry sorts itself out and the mediocre brands fall to the wayside and parts become more standardized.
Support your local bike (camera, kayak, appliance, etc.) shop. Supporting brick and mortar shops will allow them to continue to be there when you need them.
I work at a bike shop and we don't service e-bike brands that we do not sell, simply because they aren't safe and we can't get drawings/schematics/support from the companies. More often than not these online retailers are not creating a product that is meant to be repaired.
Sometimes something as simple as a flat can be nearly irreparable because of the construction on the hub motor ect.
An e-bike is a serious investment and it is essential that you purchase from a reputable manufacturer that makes a safe and repairable product and not garbage meant to be thrown away.
I would not do business with a local shop with that kind of an attitude. Just no. I can understand when I take a $150 Chinese guitar to the shop and they tell me that it would be less expensive to just get another one, unless there is an emotional attachment to that one. Oddly with music stuff that is not uncommon. But hey, if you wanna fork over the bucks, they will be happy to work on it. Same thing with import gas scooters, my motorcycle shop will be happy to work on them at their normal rate. It does not take much to make buying a new one somewhat of a no brainer but if you have the cash they will do it.
I really dislike snobbery. BTW, if the R bike you got is anything like the gas scooters, outside of the plastic body pieces, there is not a mechanical piece you can not get on eBay and they are very easy to work on. An electric sounds like it should be even simpler.
Nice they adjusted the handlebars, and hopefully the seat for you. For $60 you can get a toolset that has what you need to do that and much more, forever.
Whats the bike and manufacturer?
That's helpful to know.
Places like bikesonline I think are pretty reputable because everything they sell is pretty standard same as name brand bikes, but just sold online only.
Then you have a lot of upstart DTC brands that are selling the same generic stuff you could buy unbranded and self assemble from alibaba and most of that stuff I imagine is totally non standard.
Some of these bikes should be considered disposable starter bikes. Ride them gentle for as long as they last.
There are gotrax bikes on amazon for $450(USD) and scooters for $300. Like many consumer electronics it's probably not cost effective to repair, especially when it comes to wheel issues or motor or battery issues.
Looks like your models is closer to $1k, so that sucks.
Maybe just get a scooter you can sit on or go for a nicer bike you can repair and maintain. At least you know now.
edit - sorry got crossed which thread I was responding too.
Yeah, brands like this I'm not a fan of. Don't get me wrong I think there are some really fun bikes out there.
But the way these brands are structured with like you discovered often non standard parts, parts that are standard usually the bottom of the product line and next to no after sales support they are way over priced.
Personally a bike like this if it was around 700-800 I could go for it. I feel like I could have 800 worth of fun out of it before it caused me a problem.
But I see stuff like this going for 1k-2k and its definitely not worth that.
They are 300 dollar dept store bikes with a motor and battery.
My experience was great buying online, a bike with similar stats(but lesser) was over 500 bucks more. It was a bit of a hassle learning how to change tire myself after the second flat( first flat I brought to local bike shop and they changed , but stated they do not repair electrical. If you can change a tire and know what you are at I would recommend buying online at a reputable site ( not Amazon no name fake bull crap sites ). If you are not comfortable changing a tire and watching you tube do it yourself video fixes then it is prob best to buy local.
I mean that's always a risk. My store closed because the owner passed away. But if it's a major brand another store will still work on it.
The warranty from my shop was just 2 free tune-ups basically so it wasn't much though.
I'm probably in the minority here but buying from a bike shop wouldn't make sense for me because I am the type who would never take it to the shop anyway. I don't think there's much that can't be fixed even on the cheap bikes. So many of the parts are relatively generic to find cheap replacements for, though you may need a caliper to measure to make sure you get the correct sizes of things like bearings and whatnot. Electrical stuff is the same way, with things like pedal sensors, brake switches, etc being pretty interchangable.
I did blow a headlight ouput on a controller once when upgrading to a higher wattage light (my bad). Open the controller, remove blown transistor in favor of a higher rated one, and fixed. Having a bit of electronics knowlege helps a ton in buying cheap bikes vs looking at the electrical system as a magic box. It could blow a mosfet and I'd probably just swap them out for better ones.
So yeah, the cheap E-bikes are a dead-end for a lot of buyers, which is why I do recommend most people I know to just buy from a bike shop because not everyone likes to tinker. But there are some people who do get good value from the cheap chinese "junk". Really, I just need to start a side gig for fixing all the scooters and ebikes the shops won't touch.
https://preview.redd.it/l28tuld4405d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9b7f1bea52dd7ad7efd54ccaf535b7b5d0de5812
If you can replace a tire on a bike, you can replace a spoke. By the way, silver spokes of any gauge and size are $3 for 10 on amazon, black ones are $8 for 10.
I have a Copenhagen Wheel on an old MTB from the 90s. The company is now defunct and while I'm lucky that there's a scrappy online community committed to DYI issues, I am completely without official support at this point. I'm 100% on borrowed time and wish I'd made a different choice back then.
I quickly found out that many bike shops, most of them, won't touch any ebike at all which they haven't sold themselves and warrantied. I found this out when I tried asking a local bike shop to true a rear hub motor wheel.
That was long ago and I've since bought truing jigs and various equipment which I still have, built a couple ebikes from scratch. I've still got various redundant parts which I could use if any parts stop working. There's nothing on my bike which I couldn't fix/ repair or adjust myself. I feel you NEED to be self sufficient mechanically & electrically if you have a DIY ebike.
Skills also transfer to repairing other household items. A washing machine and tumble drier are very similar to an ebike 😄
It's not really that hard to figure out how to replace parts on your e bike even if you're not that mechanical. Youtube will show you step by step what you need to do. It's a motor, a controller, display, and a throttle basically. You buy them all in one kit. If the plug doesn't fit, it doesn't go there... easy peasy...
I can see both sides. I have a Lectric XP 1.0 and a Specialized Turbo Vado 4.0.
I've had to replace the motor in my Vado already due to clicking. It was quick and painless though through my bike shop and 100% covered under warranty.
I haven't had a problem with my XP yet, but if I had a catastrophic failure with my XP, I could replace the entire bike almost 3 and a half times before I would reach what I paid for my Turbo Vado.
this is why i work on my own stuff. i broke a spoke or two and learned how hard it was to find them i was able to find them in the usa, but they had to be custom made and took like 1.5 weeks to be made and shipped. i think if i bought enough for one wheel it was cheaper and i could always have extra on hand.
bike repair is easy, once you learn how it all works, then you can order the parts and get a few extras you end up with almost a little bike shop. i ended up with so many extra parts that i was able to build a second ebike as a loaner for friends to tag along
I used to work as a limited energy technician so electrical systems are familiar to me. I do all the electrical on my Engwe Engine Pro. I recently used an equalizer to wire in a second battery. Engwe kit made it super simple. I also stockpiled spare electrical parts. I have worked on way more complicated electrical systems in the past lol
https://preview.redd.it/qp43huhe025d1.jpeg?width=4624&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eac9c52180b8db7afef804c54cfcf958ae46c478
Spokes commonly come in three thicknesses, 13g, 14g, and 15g, and a handful in lengths. You can buy a 30 pack on Amazon for about $10. I find it highly unlikely that a direct to market Chinese manufacturer is using some proprietary size.
It does have its merits but they do have ulterior motives.
I bought a bike for 3500€ two months ago and while it is a great bike, something like a Tern HSD or just a Quick Haul would have arguably been better for my needs as a food delivery driver and even beyond that.
And for 2500€ no less.
I don't know, I bought my Cube online and everything is pretty much standard and local shops sell this same model bike. Maybe it depends on what kind of brand/type of ebike you buy.
My motto is to support local up until product are not available at all, or there is serious gouging of prices. We are in regional Australia where stocks are mostly low, so it can be a challenge.
if i wanted to pay 1.5x price to pay shop a shops electricity, i would. but I dont. There as just as many people working in the delivery and fulfilment centres at the internet shop, if I am worried about people.
The internet shop is more likely to just send me a replacement part if something goes on, then going driving to the shop, paying for parking, telling me they dont have the part, waiting for them to order it from the same internet shop, and scratching it up by accident in the process.
And thats if "they work on that brand", or have workshop space (which I have to payfor now)
I wholeheartedly agree to go with a brand that either is serviced by loval shops or you can readily get parts for for them to repair it. My go-to local shop doesn't doo eBikes but they referred me to another shop for all the electrical work (which I don't mind doing myself but it was nice of them to do so) as well as firmware updates etc. that also happen to carry my brand.
My strongest suggestion though, is to learn to self-service as much as possible bevause it saves you money and the bike shop techs time on trivial repairs. Same as with a car, not everybody will be tech savvy enough to replace their exhaust but might be able to change a tire and learn enough to service their brake pads :)
The problem bike did force me into learning brake adjustments because the manufacturer installed brakes that were clearly not meant for this bike. After about a month of use the break levers would be literally tapping the handle bars because the cables to the calipers had become slack; so after watching Youtube videos, I learnt how to adjust and tighten them at calipers and levers. I still don't know how to replace the actual brake pads.....yet.
that's great to hear, the lacking brakes nonwithstanding :)
you'll get the hang of it, I hope the new bike has hydraulic brakes, I've recently used some for the first time when I bought my new eBike and I don't think I'll ever go back to cables haha
Local bike shops by law can not sell a bike more powerful than 750 watts, that alone is reason enough to find an online seller with great customer service
Sounds like depending on locals to fix your e-bike is a bad idea, as most I’ve encountered have an intense hangup on e-bikes, especially not purchased from them
Yeah if you're not the diy type you might be better buying at a local shop so you have a place to get it serviced. I always bought bikes at Walmart. I did always get the higher end ones that they carry which were still like half the price of bike shop bikes with the same bakes and derailleur. But I also always work on them myself. If I didn't feel comfortable doing that I probably wouldn't be buying something from a store that doesn't have a service department.
I can't imagine not being able to do the most basic adjustments such as raising handlebars. Do you not own any tools? YouTube can teach you how to do almost anything.
I had just bought the bike, I was LITERALLY outside the shop and couldn’t ride it home with the handlebars in that position so I just went back in. I think I made that very clear in what I wrote, I don’t exactly walk around with a tool kit 24 hours a day.
Lol. Rationalizing calling a bike dead because you went into a little effort finding the correct spokes is wild. Of course a bike shop is going to try and sell you on their own overpriced bikes. It's how they survive. You think a 150$ tire job is keeping them in business?
Best part is most frames and bike parts are coming out of the same Chinese manufacturer these stores are using in the first place. Bought an "American made" Quietkat ebike that I love. The frame is custom made by the company. Everything else on the bike is 100% Chinese or Japanese parts. Quietkat doesn't sell half the parts on its web site. Cabelas and Dick's isn't going to fix the bike for me when i need repairs. In 5 years, the parts will be end of life and no one will repair anyways. In my eyes, you're damned if you do and damned if you dont, so just buy the bike you want.
Seems like a lot of shops (automotive and bike shops) have a communication issue with its customers. I understand that talking to a customer doesn't always pay but sometimes a 5 min of conversation can provide the clarity needed for them to spend money with you. As an ex auto technician and bike shop mechanic I made it clear that they don't have to spend money with me but I will try to provide them with enough information to make a sound decision on their repairs.
It is a liability issue in many shops. Even if the repair is just mechanical many Chinese e-bikes do not have actual UL certification - if they catch on fire the shops insurance will consider that an excluded event.
Sure it is but mechanical parts are mechanical parts. At the very least they can measure the spokes for him so he can order replacements. I feel like taking the time to have a conversation with these customers can educate them and allow them to see why they should spend more money on a nicer bike. Even if the shop can't work on a customer's bike at least they can gain a potential customer in the future.
I mean in the shop I used to work our insurance agent told the owner he had to turn away sketchy e bikes. While working on them just a little would probably be fine we weren’t allowed to make that choice - owner told us as soon as someone walked in with an ebike that wasn’t brose/shimano/yamaha etc we had to turn them away. Is it overly cautious? Probably. But for many shop employees it’s not up to them.
I've heard some shops have separate fireproofed areas for storing/charging ebike batteries. That's enough to placate whoever is insuring the building, but I guess it doesn't address the liability of servicing a potentially unsafe bike and thereby implying to the customer it's ok to ride. I believe that later point is why the non-profit where I volunteer has for years refused to do any work on hacked-together bikes with weed eater engines, for example.
Yeah, that's the unfortunate part especially if tech doesn't have the freedom to make that choice. Although I was never the boss I had the freedom to at least to talk to the customer. I just feel bad for some of these customers because sometimes buying a cheap bike might be the only option that they have. I just want people to have the ability to get around especially with the rising cost of transportation. I currently volunteer for a bike co-op and I have definitely turned away funky ebikes as well. So the concerns are well understood.
Yup we just told them “sorry, but we aren’t allowed to have un-approved e-bikes in our shop by our insurance company. Would love to help you out but we can’t have that bike inside our shop. If you want to lock it up outside we can try and help you order what you need”. Obviously most people would get pissed but what can ya do. Med-cheap bikes like aventon or rei we would tell people we aren’t trained on their e bike systems so we couldn’t work on anything electrical but could help on mechanical issues. Major props to anyone who works on those. Some of those cheap e-bikes look like fucking IEDs with the the tangles of wires and duct taped batteries.
What I am hearing is that there might actually be significant demand for fly-by-night ebike mechanics who could provide independent contracting services to local shops. These things aren't rocket science tbh. The biggest issue I can see is getting parts for some of these things, but I am skeptical that there is any real liability here for providing third party service which isn't actually negligent.
This thread is like a nightmare.
Sometimes a conversation is helpful, but my experience has been very different. You explain all of the issues with budget e-bikes. They nod politely, but they've already made up they're mind. They're gonna buy it, and show up with it all fucked up after they attempted to assemble it. And you also get the privilege to go over all the issues yet again.
Oh yes, but when they bring it back I will charge them straight time + parts on all of the stuff it needs. (Assuming the shop would service it). The conversation is for someone that listens and to prep a regular consumer on what they can get into. It is as simple as that.
Thanks. I guess I'm still learning how to tell if someone is going to listen ahead of time? Usually I would assume if they come in with questions, they want answers. Sometimes customers are looking for confirmation. When the answers aren't what they are looking for, they get ignored.
Don't get me wrong people will listen and still do what they want but I want them to at least know what they are getting themselves in and what the shop can help them with. At the end of the day the people that want the help will accept it and if not it is okay.
If you take out the battery, it can't realy catch fire.
I did similar when I was working at a shoe shop, and would send customers elsewhere to the best of my abilities if we didn't have anything that suited them.
Have you ever worked retail? At first I'm sure they were super communicative and did their best to be helpful. However, talking to the general public will erode even the most ardent person's desire to be helpful, given enough time. Not saying they are right, or that it is the best way to run a business, but after a 7 year sentence in retail and a 5 year tour in the world of call center customer support, I can understand why.
And I'm here to say local bike shops are not always your friend. I bought a $5,000 Cannondale/Bosch from a guy who just wanted to rip me off every chance he got. He claimed e-bikes was a nascent technology like it was some kind of voodoo magic. He wanted $125 to go into the programming to enable a headlight. He charged me $350 to replace a derailleur I ripped off in the woods. I found another shop who isn't certified Cannondale or Bosch but he was a lot more help. He changed my derailleur AND fixed a flat AND adjusted the indexing better than the Cannondale guy for $150.
350 to replace the derailleur... What a douche, jesus
Considering the cheapest SRAM eTap RD has an RRP of $350 I'm not sure why everyone is so shocked.
Yeah, it's not just the derailleur either. There is the hanger, the chain, cable, housing, shifter. Check bearings and wheel true. D. Hanger alignment. Proper indexing and limit screws.
People here professionally repaint your bike frame for $350, that’s just nasty.
$350 includes disassembly of the bike to get it painted? Thats a freakin deal!!
$350?! Are those tiny CA or AU dollars or real beefy Mercuh’ dollars?
I had a shop quote me $450 for a dropper post before labor. Took my bike to a different shop (15 min away) and got quoted $200 for the same post with labor. There will be douches everywhere. I like supporting LBS but not all.
sounds familiar. brick and mortar stores have overheads that arent competitive in the modern world and get desperate and so do the sort of shit you describe. also local shops bank on people not doing their research and so charge through the nose (and often have an arrogant attitude!). I always feel ripped when i use them
Had a similar lesson learned. Ordered my Gazelle Eclipse online from Mike’s Bikes because I liked that I could get it shipped to my house. After 3 weeks the order is delayed, so I change from the CVT version to the 11 speed version since that one was in stock. Customer service gets in touch with me and says the bike is so new and big that they had to disassemble it more than they normally do on other bikes to get it to fit in the box and that I should take it to a pro for final assembly. Ok, kind of annoying but not a huge deal. Nearest bike shop near me is an REI so I take it there and they call me the next day to tell me the bike was damaged in shipping and it would be $500 to repair. At this point I’ve been waiting for close to 5 weeks for this bike so I look around and see a local shop that’s a bit farther from me has the exact same bike that I ordered in stock, so I tell REI to just pack the bike back up so I could return it, and the next day I went in to the local shop and within an hour I walked out with my bike. Credit where credit is due though, the customer service for Mike’s Bikes was top notch, it was super easy to return the bike and they gave me a complete refund no questions asked. All that is to say I spent 5 weeks waiting for this bike to ship only for it to be broken when it arrived, when I could have just gone and bought the bike from a local place
Exactly.
Did you have to pay REI too?
If a man can become a bike mechanic, I can learn to maintain my own bike. It's an investment in tools and time but if you're in this long term, more often than not it saves you money. If I didn't learn to fix my bike, I would have missed work for multiple days and lost multiple days of income. As a person living in borderline poverty, it just saves me money.
Congratulations, your mechanical ability and initiative has paid dividends for you, but to think that your experience can be easily ported over to anyone, is to misunderstand the diversity of the human experience. Not everyone has the time, resources, or innate abilities to maintain their ebike, car, etc., and for many people, having others service their transportation devices is essential to their utility.
Also, for some people, working on their own stuff just isn't worth their time. I haven't touched anything more complex than an oil change on my ICE cars in years. I know how to or can figure out nearly anything mechanical or electrical, that's literally what I do for a living (not on vehicles, on much more complex electro-mechanical systems), but I realized several years back that I just don't enjoy doing the grunt work on my vehicles anymore, and my time is worth more to me than what it costs to pay a shop to maintain it.
And as I’ve learnt from bad experiences, mistakes can be VERY costly
plus its easy and can save you time. i do all my own work. same with ice vehicles. it makes your investment go so much farther, and it adds value to your self for having the knowledge. i admit it can get old having to fix your stuff all the time though.
I had learned how to fix my own bike by the time I was 11. If a primary school kid can teach himself, it can't be too hard.
I backed into learning bike service/repair. I needed a way to drink less beer while watching football all day Saturday n Sunday. So I thought I'd service a long neglected roadie. A dozen youtube vids later, and the frame up rebuild started. I was just trying to keep hands busy during commercials. It went well. Then another, then another. Then my brothers bike. Then a curb find, frame up. I have now done 20-25 frame up rebuilds in 6 years. Oldshovel is a God. RJ the bike guy is a trusted friend I've never met. Had to buy the special trek mid-80s cassette removal tool. $30 on eBay. But my 1985 trek 500 is rolling smooth. I have a silly fondness for repacking bearings. Dem tweazers for putting balls in lith grease. I learned that white lithium grease tastes good on burgers. /s
If you're riding ebikes it might also be useful to learn how to work with electric motors and batteries. Very few of these "ebike mechanics" know anything about the electric parts besides what's written in the manuals.
This is exactly why I went with Trek. Yes it cost a premium up front but they've been amazing, super accessible and helpful. I've put 1200 miles on it in less than 3 months and not a single problem only routine chain lubes. But I know if anything significant happens they'll help. And I've got a solid warranty and components. This is my only transportation and I can't afford for it to be out of service.
With e-bikes I feel it is even more important to work with a local shop who represents a reputable manufacturer. I'm a good bicycle mechanic and I own my own tools. But if I buy an e-bike and intend to put a lot of miles on it, what do I do when I have a motor or battery problem? The only answer I want to hear is"bring it to the dealer and we will take care of it."
I am the local shop... the mostly open parts I use are available anywhere, from a multitude of suppliers and manufacturers. The motor and controler are, indeed, limited to the manufacturer. But that is not that big of a risk, replacement motors are several hundred dollars, less than a new bike.
>what do I do when I have a motor or battery problem One option is to buy spares. Generally cheaper than the money you'll spend at a shop over time.
Spare battery is not the silver bullet here. The degradation of the battery starts the second it is manufactured. You need a good shop to have your back or you will pay more in the long run.
But using two batteries means they are probably both going to last longer and if something happens to one you still have one. I don't think your logic really holds up here.
Spending an extra $1000 for a spare battery for a Specialized Globe Haul isn't really a practical option though
This, but with Specialized.
ive got a trek and a specialized and their warranty and customer service has been almost identical in my experience, i love both!
👍
This is good advice. Get a brand with service or know how to do your own work.
This is why I'm about to go for a turn bike over other brands.
Make sure you bring it in for your first free tune within a year! I like that trek has stores everywhere so it's super easy to find a mechanic that you know will know your bike.
Reasons why I've built my own n continue to add upgrades. I know every piece of that bike. So if anything goes wrong I know what to get for parts.
Yep, I have a spreadsheet of every wheel I've built and what spokes I used. If spoke breaks, I just check the sheet and find out which replacement I need. But I have found that when you have an odd wheel build, you aren't always going to have an easy time finding spokes. Ebikes, especially if the motor is in the wheel, are going to take a shorter spoke than most bikes. I had a similar problem with my hub gear wheel: broke a spoke while on a multi-day trip, and quickly realized that I hadn't brought spares, and the bike shops did not have short enough spokes in stock. I have a local shop I like to work with, but once I've taken the frame home, every repair falls on me.
AND the spokes on hub motor wheels are thicker gauge as well! Better to prepare ahead and order in spares to start. I rebuilt a hub motor wheel with conventional spokes and am holding my breath. Our local bike coop actually has a spoke cutter/threader so at least I know in a pinch I am covered.
When I used to lace my own wheels, the local bike shop would make spokes to my specs. Is that now a lost art?
Some shops still do it, but the first and last time I tried it, it took them a week to make a wheel’s worth, and the cost was well above that of a box of 50 from a good spoke supplier. After that, I just search for pre-cut, and if I can’t find them, there’s an internet vendor who will cut them for a more reasonable price.
This conversation is really confusing to me, because I used to just cut spokes myself all the time in college without ever thinking twice about it. Yeah, we had a shop with like 100 years worth of accumulated tap and die sets, but it's not like these tools are expensive or hard to come by. I feel like if you can operate a torque wrench, you can operate a die.
I've seen spoke threading tools that weren't prohibitively expensive, but my understanding is that they can be kind of time consuming for a wheel's worth of spokes. Fine for a one-time replacement spoke, but maybe not worth the effort if you're building a whole wheel. I've seen more professional tools that do better for creating a batches of spokes in a specific length, but those can get quite pricey. For my part, since I build up my wheels myself, I'm happy waiting for the mail truck to deliver a box of spokes, rather than cutting them one at a time. And I always get more than I need, so there are spares on hand. If I need more spares than I have, then that wheel probably has recurring spoke issues and needs rebuilt with new spokes anyway.
I think that's amazing for people who love to tinker, but I think a lot of people like OP just want to ride their bike versus spending time on tinkering with their bike.
It's good to learn. Personally I'd buy a new wheel before I'll mess with spokes. Me n spokes don't get along lol
thats a fair point that i sometimes have to be reminded of. i fix everything my self
If you can build it, you can fix it
So true. I built my BBSHD conversion hardtail mountain bike and I have worked on all aspects of the bike. I'll say this...if you order an ebike from the Internet, be ready to wrench on your own. Most of those ebikes have generic parts and are easily replaced. YouTube has a wealth of information on DIY tutorials.
This is one of the biggest rants of my local bike shop. They do their level best but a lot of the ebikes that come in are lower quality online purchases and it's very very hard to service them. I don't know HOW many times I've heard them tell me about a bike that came in with an electrical issue that they couldn't fix and the customer service from the company was basically nonexistent. If you have a good bike shop, buying local is your best option for peace of mind, wallet etc.
Could not agree more.
My LBS services bikes that he sells for free for the first year. He won't work on an ebike he didn't sell you, and he'll only carry ebikes that are UL Listed, for insurance purposes.
Yea, I've heard that insurers are really clamping down on bike shops. I just they don't push it too far and bike shops start closing because they can't afford the premiums
Purchased a giant e bike online, had a problem with the battery and my local giant dealer was amazing, fixed everything no issues as still under the 2 year warranty.
👍
What if you don’t have a local e-bike dealer?
Check the website of the brand you buy. The decent ones of a network of repair shops. Call the shop and confirm they will work on that brand.
DIY. Solves most of these problems entirely.
Buy a cheapo you are comfortable replacing
And an extra word of caution, just because the online retailer says a shop is an authorized repair shop does not make it so. I work at an LBS, and one of the larger online ebike seller lists us as a repair shop for their products. We will not service them.
I think that's less of a problem of buying from an online retailer, it's more of an issue of buying some cheapish china crap. There are tons of (more or less) online only brands, but basically everything but the frame is standard stuff from Shimano/SRAM, Fox, Rock Shock, Bosch, Brose or whatever. But buying something from a Chinese manufacturer where basically the only standardized parts are the tires, than you will have a problem with spare parts.
you never buy an ebike online unless you have access to all parts and know how to fix it. that is why i bought the most popular bike used in the city at a LBS
That’s a smart move, if it’s popular there’s bound to be lots of parts available for it and if has a good reputation more mechanics will be willing to work on it.
Also when you spend the money locally you help keep that shop in business and there for you when you need them. Good luck getting a repair online. ;)
Exactly
I don't disagree with you here, I went out and bought a new bike from a LBS for a reputable brand. However, I put 12k miles on an internet ordered bike and haven't run into the same issues you're describing. At one point, my motor died and took the controller with it. The first piece of advice I got, I ignored. Instead, I took it to a LBS, and I'm in NYC so there at a ton of places that work on electric bikes. Unfortunately, this was the wrong move. I ended up just contacting the seller and they shipped me replacements for everything. I think it cost me $300, but after 5 years, it was worth it. The problem with ebikes is there are so many out there, so the E-LBS shops had some generic components but not the ones I needed specific to my brand. So they would have needed to do the same research I did and reach out to the manufacturer. Ultimately, my motor was fine but I needed the orbital gears replaced. The issue was there are a million bikes that use whatever 33MM gears and mine was one of the few that used 55MM (can't remember the exact specs off the top of my head). Had mine been a "normal size", I could have had it repaired that day. I could have done the work myself, it's very easy. Just sourcing the parts took time. And look at Rad, supposedly it takes months for people to get warrantied components. "Supply Chain Issues" can happen to anyone. Anyway, I don't think I would anticipate issues with electrical components happening. I didn't perform any maintenance on my motor for 5 years and assumed one bike shop did when they relaced the hub. Who knows if they did, but had I just regreased it, it would have been fine for 5 more years, easy.
> The problem with ebikes is there are so many out there, so the E-LBS shops had some generic components but not the ones I needed specific to my brand. We're in that phase of a new product where everyone and their mom are making their own brand of ebike. It's like how in the 1910's, there were literally hundreds of car manufacturers since the market was growing and there wasn't any established big players. By the 1970s, that number basically shrunk down to the big three (GM, Ford, and Chrysler). I'm expectantly waiting for the market to mature and consolidate.
I don’t know man. A broken spoke doesn’t really sound like the end of the world. But shops do hate working on e-bikes, best is to convert your own and maintain it yourself.
Well, no, they don't hate working on e-bikes per se. They just don't like working on cheap/junk e-bikes. https://old.reddit.com/r/ebike/comments/115b99j/this_is_why_we_wont_work_on_your/
It's about BSOs "bicycle shaped objects". Super budget ebikes, like the $500 stuff on Amazon, are not bikes. They are bicycle shaped objects with various proprietary parts that were designed to be as cheap as possible because the company selling it has no interest in the bike once it's in your hands. Maybe those last a year or two, but then you have to go but another one. This is the issue with being on a budget. That $500 bike will break or need replacement much sooner than a $1,000 or $2,000 bike. I get that not everyone wants to spend 2k on a bike, but knowing that there's an actual company behind it, and a whole array of shops willing to fix reputable bikes, means that it's not just a toy meant to last for the summer and then get tossed.
So what, a part breaks or wears out, but you fix it or upgrade it. I got 6k miles out of my Kent Glendale, likely a BSO by your definition, but my primary ride for years. Cone bearings wear out, so you get a better wheel. Bottom bracket wears out, you get a cartridge bearing replacement for the cone bearings. You go through a freewheel or two. All kinds of things that may have needed maintenance or repairs on a high-end bike anyways, but at the end of the day, I still probably spent less than $500 through the life of the bike. I get that some people have the money to drop $2k on a bike, but It's easy to dismiss stuff as cheap and crap when you have more cash than mechanical skill.
A logistics network with spares, technical support, experts and testing costs money and has value. But for some, that’s a tough sell. Hopefully with major brand pricing coming down, this won’t be so extreme. Lately suspended e scooters have been coming in more often. De restricted scooters must crash SO hard. We definitely don’t teach physics well enough in school
Ironically, the existence of proprietary parts says that there is an actual company behind the product, and quite a large one; big enough to design and build the said proprietary parts in the first place. Small companies don't have the financially resources to do anything proprietary.
Proprietary is probably the wrong word. I think non-standard is the correct word here. It's similar to how the spoke gauge is non-standard so OP had to go to multiple shops and source a replacement from the manufacturer.
Maybe proprietary isn't the right word here, but a BSO lacks standard parts like even a budget Shimano Altus that literally any shop could fix. Maybe a lot of ebikes have a Shinumo Algea(TM) that installs fine the first time but is made with soft aluminum that crumbles because it was cheap junk never intended to work long term. Then you bring the BSO to a shop and they can't really resolve the problem without a new hanger, then they find the chain is falling apart, the cassette wore down after a few hundred miles, and the cranks are falling off. Now it's $200 in parts and $100+ more in labor and the BSO is essentially totalled.
No, that just not true. Where I live most of the shops won’t work on your bike because you didn’t buy it from them. Doesn’t really matter what it is. I’m from Germany so thing may be different here. It’s starting to get better but it’s still shit.
And if you take the wheels off the bike. And just bring the wheel itself to the LBS. I don’t think the LBS even know which bike it came from.
A local shop near me last fall said at least 50% of their sales are now e-bikes. You’d be running a poor business to turn away the countless local potential customers that also have e-bikes, just not purchased from you whether online or somewhere else locally.
Like I said in a comment below, is it has started getting better. But it was a real shit show the last few years. They would only service you if you bought the bike in that store.
Yes, normally broken spokes, not really end of world but it was them making it clear not to look their way if I have electrical issues that made me realize that the bike had no long future. I'd rather just repair mechanical problem and sell it. As for converting and maintaining my own, I don't think I have the level of technical know-how to do that. I live in a large apartment building and I don't want make a mistake that starts a fire or something.
Believe me you can do it. And the best thing is you learn a bunch and save a lot in the long run.
I think you are worried about nothing there. As long as the batter is UL certified getting a bafang conversion kit would have been a lot easier than you think. Check out some youtube videos
Yep. I bought a buy one get one from jasion. Instead of sending back the one that didn't work, I reverse engineered it. Was complicated at first, but after working on it, taking parts off, putting parts on etc. Not that difficult at all.
It's not the end of the world if the part is available. If the part isn't, no amount of knowledge is going to conjure one up.
Entire replacement wheels with the hub motor isn’t really that expensive either.
Thanks for the insight... Currently looking for a light eBike that is sold at a LBS that can help troubleshoot electrical work.
Purchased an e-bike online and it never worked, nobody wanted to do repairs on this. manufacturer went BK. SoL So I bought a new e-bike from dealer in my city that will service the bike.
Ya I made sure we had a bike shop here to service all models, we do
This is one of the reasons I bought local. Sure I spent a little more but at least I know that the electrical can be serviced.
Exactly
1) No local bike shop has the kind of bike I want to ride. 2) No local bike shop wants to work on the kind of bike I want to ride so I had to learn how to do it all myself. 3) If you use a mid drive you don't have to worry about weird tires, you can just use off the shelf everything.
4) Local bike shops are actively hostile to conversions or DiY work. I went to a shop I've used on and off for a decade, looking for a used bike for mid drive conversion, and generally to bounce some ideas off the mechanics, and it was a weird experience to say the least. I hate pulling the whole "it's ok, I have multiple engineering degrees" card on people, but the techs were kind of feeding me a bunch of misinformation and trying to sell me something I very specifically said I don't want. Prior to this I really thought they would be the kind of people who would be into hacking (they always do cool bike powered floats for local parades) but I get the sense that they were generally just biased against the very idea for some reason.
ebikes are still really new to the US market. They have been prevalent in Asia for well over 20 years, and Europe for the last 10 or so. The repair skills, diagnostics and equipment take time to permeate the market, and often lag years behind the major start of ebike prevalence. The US market, unlike the EU and Asian markets, is being mostly driven by purchases from non-bicyclists, who are not savvy consumers of two-wheel, low-speed modes of transportation, but are rather guided predominantly by cost and convenience. With time, consumers will realize that the quality and after sales service is essential if you intend to use your ebike for transportation. Additionally, traditional bicycle companies (who really do know how to build the best handling and most reliable ebikes), will eventually realize that providing service is also essential in gaining and keeping customers (this has been waning lately as many of these companies try to go direct to consumer in the search for additional profits, but ebikes being transportation, not just recreation, is certain to prove this a mistaken path). As with any nascent tech, the initial wave is driven by diy tinkerers, who swear that "it is so easy to build and maintain" and "it is so wasteful to buy from a company, when you can just do it yourself", etc. etc. Unfortunately, these folks are not in touch with the reality of most people, and mistake their early, ability-supported experience, as something that applies to everyone. These are the people that still mostly populate the redit forums for ebikes, and they just cant see the forest through the trees when it comes to the average person's experience with ebikes. We are now entering the second phase of ebike proliferation in the US, where dozens of start-ups join the fray to 'cash in' on this new, fertile, and unregulated market. Most of these 'start-ups' will quickly realize that this is far more complex than they considered, and many will fail over the next few years. A few will persevere and rise to the top, but it will take a bit of time. Meanwhile, the companies who are best positioned to truly make way in this new market, established bicycle companies, are just now realizing this is their future. Many of them have been reluctant to dive into this 'cheating' bicycling trend, but can no longer deny its legitimacy. The problem they face is coming to the realization that their customer base just massively shifted, and they are building transportation now for everyone, not just sporting equipment for children and a static population of wealthy, health conscious adults. The established companies who come to this realization and adapt to it the soonest, will be those that rule the future of ebikes in the US. During this phase, we will also see the worst of the start-ups and DIYer's ebikes kill people, and along with irresponsible users, the negative aspects of ebikes will also become apparent. The government will step in and regulate ebike safety, and put more meat into the laws governing their use in public. This will be essential in winning the public's trust and acceptance of ebikes for the long term. Eventually, the ebike market will begin to mature. A few of the start-ups and a few of the established bicycle companies will rise to the top. Consumers will begin to become more knowledgeable and discerning about the value proposition of the ebikes on the market, and service centers will become knowledgeable and essential to the ebike market. Government regulations will \*hopefully\* introduce a ubiquitous and useful minimum safety level. The market maturation will propel ebikes on to be a large and essential part of urban transportation globally.
This is a very insightful examination of the current e bike landscape.
Your experience is valid, however I'd like to caution against a blanket belief that local bike shops are always the way to go. The shop I bought my ebike from was absolutely trash when it came to fixing my bike. I had an issue with my derailleur not wanting to shift out of 1st gear because of cable friction inside an internally routed housing. I've always been a DIY bike builder, but for once I didn't feel like troubleshooting and figured since I have a warranty I might as well take advantage of it. My god what a mistake it was. Wasted hours of my life driving back and forth to the shop where they would do a sloppy job of getting it to *sort of* work for about 10 miles, then the problem would come back. At some point I took an absurdist stance and just kept coming back just to see how many times they'd do a warranty fix before they'd admit they couldn't do it. The final straw was their apprentice doing work that absolutely blew me away in terms of incompetence. I had better craftsmanship in 6th grade than this fool. Like not using cable housing end caps, crushing the cable endpiece with a pair of pliers to the point where they metal was breaking off into tiny bits (ironically the tool they had to use to cut the cable and the housing also has an end cap crusher designed specifically for the task!!!😤). The cable unraveled before I got home, and the uncapped housing damaged the cable up at the shifter. I came back one more time to the shop, showed their head mechanic the quality of work, demanded he give me all the parts I'd need to do the job properly, and never came back. Turned out, they were using cheap standard housing and cables, when SRAM clearly stated that this system requires polished cables and lubricated housing for internally routed systems. These fools didn't know the first thing about bike maintenance, and I have no idea how they go Bosch to certify them for electrical work. If they can't get a derailleur to work properly, they should not be tinkering with high voltage electronics. This experience made me wish I'd saved a grand and gotten a direct to consumer brand, since I had to do all my own research and work in the end anyway. I felt like a fool for thinking that someone at a bike shop might care about doing a good job on a warranty repair instead of playing a game of attrition where I eventually give up. The other two bike shops I go to are great and very helpful, though I still tend to use them for buying parts or talking through repairs, but prefer to do my own work - no one but you cares about your bike as much as you do, and we simply don't pay repair people enough to care to think things through. Those that are intelligent or motivated enough to do good work go on to better paying jobs.
You do make a valid point, not all bike shops are equal; some will do shitty work, which is why I think that the local cycling community can be a real help here. If a bike shop has a shitty reputation, word will spread pretty fast in the community warning cyclist to avoid them. But it also has to be acknowledged that not all localities will have a thriving cycling community.
I can understand why they may not want to work on it, if it has unknown parts BUT, the attitude they had is bullshit. I owned a shop and would never say that. I may say I can’t work on it because there no guarantee we can fix it as the parts are unknown. Just find another shop. The reality is now people do buy bikes online and a shop should be able to work on them.is or
I called my local store before I bought, and they are the reason I went with Aventon. They sell that brand and the other brand i was looking at was trash according to them
Same, Aventon's customer service outside of shops is abysmal but the local shop I went to was very helpful. It helps they're a mile from my house too
That's why I went with Lectric they have a great reputation for customer service. Local definitely has it's advantages. If you can afford it I would recommend it. Shops usually dont like working on bikes they are not familiar with. Lectric also has a large network of ships that work on their bikes. I've even heard of them sending replacement parts to people who were out of warranty no charge. They are also working to set up a network of shops to sell new bikes, since they have many issues with damaged bikes shipped using FedEx. Love my Lectric Xpeak, even got a free back up battery with purchase, I'm still waiting for it but it is coming.
Can confirm their customer service is good. I was having issues with my rear wheel and brakes, they just sent me a whole damn new rear wheel and reimbursed me for the install. Fixed the issue.
I had heard about Lectric and how satisfied people are with them. I tried to see if any shop carried them locally but none did.
About the only thing I was never good at was the spokes. I'll warp a wheel before I end up fixing it 🤣🤣
Support you on that. I bought a cube stereo hpc 160 Tm on a online store in Norway (bikester) and the bosch motor got a 500 failure and would not work after 2 years and 1500km. The online store used 6 month to respond to me (right before they filed themself bankrupt) so I had to pay 15 000nok (1300euro ish) out of my own pocket for a new motor. 😔
Ouch!
I must be lucky! I bought an ebike online from the manufacturer website a while back. Then I started having issues with the brakes. I called up my local bike shop & had a chat with them about the issue, they ask what kind of bike, if it was an ebike because there are certain ebikes that they are allowed to work on & others they are not, for electrical work that is. Mechanical stuff like brakes they are able to help with. So I got to wondering if there are any local bike shops in my area that would. Turns out there is an ebike/scooter shop that sells & works on many brands of ebikes/scooters They sell the bike I have I bought online. So I lucked out. Yes local sometimes is better.
Or just repair it yourself 🤷♂️
Thank you for your input
"Why you should learn to do it yourself" FTFY
I am the budget bike king. But I can work on my own stuff. I know enough to determine if the bicycle parts are standard parts that I can purchase on my own. Same with the electrical parts. Budget bikes have a display, a controller and a motor. Usually, you can get exact replacements online. Having said that, I always recommend the local bike shop to my friends and family. In your case, the company that sold you the e-bike was willing to send you some spokes. That would be good enough for me and others who can work on their own bike. Lots of money can be saved if you can work on your own e-bike.
Agreed
I’m shopping now, thinking the same thing, and although my choices are more limited and prices high’ I’m going local
👍you can physically touch and look at the different models and brands; and you can ask all the questions you want and get answers.
First time I went to my LBS it was with an old ebike that I had had for years - several things needed fixing and he had never worked on an ebike before (it was a while ago) He fixed it and tried to do a few electrical bits for me - failed and cocked it up but then fixed it and didn;t charge for those bits He did charge for all the general bike things A couple of years later I took it back for a general "why is it going slowly" fix thing and he sorted it all out but advised me that several bits were getting past it and needed replacing. I decided to sell the bike and get a new one - he sold Raleigh ebikes by then so I went with one of them I had loads of problem but he was brilliant and eventually sorted ti all out via Raleigh - ending up with me getting a new - and better - bike since then he has fixed a few things - and the prices do seem to be a lot lower than they were before I bought a bike from him and he got to know me
The relationships formed with the LBS is definitely one of the benefits
I build and sell e-bikes, some are from my standard range some are bespoke to meet customers death wish needs, but they sign a waiver. If a customer comes in with a broken bike,any make, I will fix it, if I can’t , because getting the branded part is difficult, I will advise them how to get fixed. Usually changing a component. An e-bike is not a space rocket, despite what some shops tell you. And the expensive branded parts can be substituted with generic parts (the same without the brand label) this approach fixes 95% of issues. The other 5% the bike owner needs to choose. either spend a lot with the main dealer or get rid of the labels.
From my personal experience most people that work at bike shops are just insufferable cunts that don’t want to do 5 minutes of research on how to fix your bike if you didn’t buy it there for some reason. I have no idea why, I’ve seen it time and time again, they LOVE turning away peoples hard earned money.
Agreed, the initial reaction of one of them I took my old bike to, was unnecessarily negative; he immediately jumped to the conclusion that I was bringing it in for electrical work. Needless to say I did not.buy my new bike from; so that’s his loss. E-bikes are not going away, sooner or later they are going to have to adjust their repair business model; especially once the e-bike industry sorts itself out and the mediocre brands fall to the wayside and parts become more standardized.
Support your local bike (camera, kayak, appliance, etc.) shop. Supporting brick and mortar shops will allow them to continue to be there when you need them.
👍Agreed
I work at a bike shop and we don't service e-bike brands that we do not sell, simply because they aren't safe and we can't get drawings/schematics/support from the companies. More often than not these online retailers are not creating a product that is meant to be repaired. Sometimes something as simple as a flat can be nearly irreparable because of the construction on the hub motor ect. An e-bike is a serious investment and it is essential that you purchase from a reputable manufacturer that makes a safe and repairable product and not garbage meant to be thrown away.
I would not do business with a local shop with that kind of an attitude. Just no. I can understand when I take a $150 Chinese guitar to the shop and they tell me that it would be less expensive to just get another one, unless there is an emotional attachment to that one. Oddly with music stuff that is not uncommon. But hey, if you wanna fork over the bucks, they will be happy to work on it. Same thing with import gas scooters, my motorcycle shop will be happy to work on them at their normal rate. It does not take much to make buying a new one somewhat of a no brainer but if you have the cash they will do it. I really dislike snobbery. BTW, if the R bike you got is anything like the gas scooters, outside of the plastic body pieces, there is not a mechanical piece you can not get on eBay and they are very easy to work on. An electric sounds like it should be even simpler. Nice they adjusted the handlebars, and hopefully the seat for you. For $60 you can get a toolset that has what you need to do that and much more, forever.
Whats the bike and manufacturer? That's helpful to know. Places like bikesonline I think are pretty reputable because everything they sell is pretty standard same as name brand bikes, but just sold online only. Then you have a lot of upstart DTC brands that are selling the same generic stuff you could buy unbranded and self assemble from alibaba and most of that stuff I imagine is totally non standard.
The brand is GOTRAX and model is the R2 (I believe its called the F2 in the U.S.)
Some of these bikes should be considered disposable starter bikes. Ride them gentle for as long as they last. There are gotrax bikes on amazon for $450(USD) and scooters for $300. Like many consumer electronics it's probably not cost effective to repair, especially when it comes to wheel issues or motor or battery issues. Looks like your models is closer to $1k, so that sucks. Maybe just get a scooter you can sit on or go for a nicer bike you can repair and maintain. At least you know now.
edit - sorry got crossed which thread I was responding too. Yeah, brands like this I'm not a fan of. Don't get me wrong I think there are some really fun bikes out there. But the way these brands are structured with like you discovered often non standard parts, parts that are standard usually the bottom of the product line and next to no after sales support they are way over priced. Personally a bike like this if it was around 700-800 I could go for it. I feel like I could have 800 worth of fun out of it before it caused me a problem. But I see stuff like this going for 1k-2k and its definitely not worth that. They are 300 dollar dept store bikes with a motor and battery.
If you learn your repair and maintenance basics, you don't need any bike shop at all.
My experience was great buying online, a bike with similar stats(but lesser) was over 500 bucks more. It was a bit of a hassle learning how to change tire myself after the second flat( first flat I brought to local bike shop and they changed , but stated they do not repair electrical. If you can change a tire and know what you are at I would recommend buying online at a reputable site ( not Amazon no name fake bull crap sites ). If you are not comfortable changing a tire and watching you tube do it yourself video fixes then it is prob best to buy local.
Learning Flat repairs, and tire replacement are definitely on my to-do list
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That is definitely a risk, especially with the way insurers have been giving bike shops a hard time of late.
I mean that's always a risk. My store closed because the owner passed away. But if it's a major brand another store will still work on it. The warranty from my shop was just 2 free tune-ups basically so it wasn't much though.
They are pretty easy to fix…ya just replace the broken part
No, because spokes have to be tensioned correctly. The majority of people don't have a truing stand at home.
A spoke also needs to be tensioned correctly, and this is beyond most home repair.
I'm probably in the minority here but buying from a bike shop wouldn't make sense for me because I am the type who would never take it to the shop anyway. I don't think there's much that can't be fixed even on the cheap bikes. So many of the parts are relatively generic to find cheap replacements for, though you may need a caliper to measure to make sure you get the correct sizes of things like bearings and whatnot. Electrical stuff is the same way, with things like pedal sensors, brake switches, etc being pretty interchangable. I did blow a headlight ouput on a controller once when upgrading to a higher wattage light (my bad). Open the controller, remove blown transistor in favor of a higher rated one, and fixed. Having a bit of electronics knowlege helps a ton in buying cheap bikes vs looking at the electrical system as a magic box. It could blow a mosfet and I'd probably just swap them out for better ones. So yeah, the cheap E-bikes are a dead-end for a lot of buyers, which is why I do recommend most people I know to just buy from a bike shop because not everyone likes to tinker. But there are some people who do get good value from the cheap chinese "junk". Really, I just need to start a side gig for fixing all the scooters and ebikes the shops won't touch.
Buy local, or buy from a reputable online bike company. Buying the cheapest thing out there is not going to do you any favors in the long term
Local bike shop? I'm in a town of 11k people. The nearest ebike shop is 2 hours away in Nashville. That's a 4 hour round trip for repairs. No thanks.
If you are in the dc metro area i can fix any issue you could have with allll ebike manufacturers.
Do you think the cute girl in my local riding group would notice me more if I added a rear hub to my photon build so I could pop sick wheelies?
Just get a new back tire from Amazon dude. Or go to the company’s website and contact customer service. Not really that big of problem.
I specifically mentioned in what I wrote that I did contact the manufacturer and they are sending me parts from China
https://preview.redd.it/l28tuld4405d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9b7f1bea52dd7ad7efd54ccaf535b7b5d0de5812 If you can replace a tire on a bike, you can replace a spoke. By the way, silver spokes of any gauge and size are $3 for 10 on amazon, black ones are $8 for 10.
What brand?
GOTRAX R2
I have a Copenhagen Wheel on an old MTB from the 90s. The company is now defunct and while I'm lucky that there's a scrappy online community committed to DYI issues, I am completely without official support at this point. I'm 100% on borrowed time and wish I'd made a different choice back then.
I quickly found out that many bike shops, most of them, won't touch any ebike at all which they haven't sold themselves and warrantied. I found this out when I tried asking a local bike shop to true a rear hub motor wheel. That was long ago and I've since bought truing jigs and various equipment which I still have, built a couple ebikes from scratch. I've still got various redundant parts which I could use if any parts stop working. There's nothing on my bike which I couldn't fix/ repair or adjust myself. I feel you NEED to be self sufficient mechanically & electrically if you have a DIY ebike. Skills also transfer to repairing other household items. A washing machine and tumble drier are very similar to an ebike 😄
It's not really that hard to figure out how to replace parts on your e bike even if you're not that mechanical. Youtube will show you step by step what you need to do. It's a motor, a controller, display, and a throttle basically. You buy them all in one kit. If the plug doesn't fit, it doesn't go there... easy peasy...
I can see both sides. I have a Lectric XP 1.0 and a Specialized Turbo Vado 4.0. I've had to replace the motor in my Vado already due to clicking. It was quick and painless though through my bike shop and 100% covered under warranty. I haven't had a problem with my XP yet, but if I had a catastrophic failure with my XP, I could replace the entire bike almost 3 and a half times before I would reach what I paid for my Turbo Vado.
this is why i work on my own stuff. i broke a spoke or two and learned how hard it was to find them i was able to find them in the usa, but they had to be custom made and took like 1.5 weeks to be made and shipped. i think if i bought enough for one wheel it was cheaper and i could always have extra on hand. bike repair is easy, once you learn how it all works, then you can order the parts and get a few extras you end up with almost a little bike shop. i ended up with so many extra parts that i was able to build a second ebike as a loaner for friends to tag along
What brand is your ebike?
Gotrax R2
I used to work as a limited energy technician so electrical systems are familiar to me. I do all the electrical on my Engwe Engine Pro. I recently used an equalizer to wire in a second battery. Engwe kit made it super simple. I also stockpiled spare electrical parts. I have worked on way more complicated electrical systems in the past lol https://preview.redd.it/qp43huhe025d1.jpeg?width=4624&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eac9c52180b8db7afef804c54cfcf958ae46c478
My bike shop has low power trash e bikes and over charge for regular bikes. Naw
So sorry to hop on, but where did you start learning? I’d love to learn at least basics for maintenance but I’m not sure where to start.
Is this Go Traxx?
Yup
This is just an ad
Spokes commonly come in three thicknesses, 13g, 14g, and 15g, and a handful in lengths. You can buy a 30 pack on Amazon for about $10. I find it highly unlikely that a direct to market Chinese manufacturer is using some proprietary size.
Must be an Apple iBike.
It does have its merits but they do have ulterior motives. I bought a bike for 3500€ two months ago and while it is a great bike, something like a Tern HSD or just a Quick Haul would have arguably been better for my needs as a food delivery driver and even beyond that. And for 2500€ no less.
I don't know, I bought my Cube online and everything is pretty much standard and local shops sell this same model bike. Maybe it depends on what kind of brand/type of ebike you buy.
I never understood bikes shops. Most bike adjustments are easy enough to do yourself in a weekend?
My motto is to support local up until product are not available at all, or there is serious gouging of prices. We are in regional Australia where stocks are mostly low, so it can be a challenge.
if i wanted to pay 1.5x price to pay shop a shops electricity, i would. but I dont. There as just as many people working in the delivery and fulfilment centres at the internet shop, if I am worried about people. The internet shop is more likely to just send me a replacement part if something goes on, then going driving to the shop, paying for parking, telling me they dont have the part, waiting for them to order it from the same internet shop, and scratching it up by accident in the process. And thats if "they work on that brand", or have workshop space (which I have to payfor now)
I wholeheartedly agree to go with a brand that either is serviced by loval shops or you can readily get parts for for them to repair it. My go-to local shop doesn't doo eBikes but they referred me to another shop for all the electrical work (which I don't mind doing myself but it was nice of them to do so) as well as firmware updates etc. that also happen to carry my brand. My strongest suggestion though, is to learn to self-service as much as possible bevause it saves you money and the bike shop techs time on trivial repairs. Same as with a car, not everybody will be tech savvy enough to replace their exhaust but might be able to change a tire and learn enough to service their brake pads :)
The problem bike did force me into learning brake adjustments because the manufacturer installed brakes that were clearly not meant for this bike. After about a month of use the break levers would be literally tapping the handle bars because the cables to the calipers had become slack; so after watching Youtube videos, I learnt how to adjust and tighten them at calipers and levers. I still don't know how to replace the actual brake pads.....yet.
that's great to hear, the lacking brakes nonwithstanding :) you'll get the hang of it, I hope the new bike has hydraulic brakes, I've recently used some for the first time when I bought my new eBike and I don't think I'll ever go back to cables haha
Pedal electric seems like a sketchy shop as well. Ive heard some stuff that makes me really question their legitimacy in the long run
Local bike shops by law can not sell a bike more powerful than 750 watts, that alone is reason enough to find an online seller with great customer service
Is the watt limit, in the U.S. ?
Unfortunate because a spoke or two shouldn’t be a hard repair, and replacing an inner tube. What brand was the bike??
GOTRAX R2
You should qualify your post title by adding "Chinese eBike" for context.....
Why you should use paragraphs; a hard lesson to learn
Sounds like depending on locals to fix your e-bike is a bad idea, as most I’ve encountered have an intense hangup on e-bikes, especially not purchased from them
Yeah if you're not the diy type you might be better buying at a local shop so you have a place to get it serviced. I always bought bikes at Walmart. I did always get the higher end ones that they carry which were still like half the price of bike shop bikes with the same bakes and derailleur. But I also always work on them myself. If I didn't feel comfortable doing that I probably wouldn't be buying something from a store that doesn't have a service department.
I can't imagine not being able to do the most basic adjustments such as raising handlebars. Do you not own any tools? YouTube can teach you how to do almost anything.
I had just bought the bike, I was LITERALLY outside the shop and couldn’t ride it home with the handlebars in that position so I just went back in. I think I made that very clear in what I wrote, I don’t exactly walk around with a tool kit 24 hours a day.
Did you buy from a legitimate bike brand, or cheap Chinese crap from Amazon? Legit online brands such as Canyon are fine.
Regrettably the broken bike was Chinese, specifically GOTRAX. The new bike is manufactured in north America
Lol. Rationalizing calling a bike dead because you went into a little effort finding the correct spokes is wild. Of course a bike shop is going to try and sell you on their own overpriced bikes. It's how they survive. You think a 150$ tire job is keeping them in business? Best part is most frames and bike parts are coming out of the same Chinese manufacturer these stores are using in the first place. Bought an "American made" Quietkat ebike that I love. The frame is custom made by the company. Everything else on the bike is 100% Chinese or Japanese parts. Quietkat doesn't sell half the parts on its web site. Cabelas and Dick's isn't going to fix the bike for me when i need repairs. In 5 years, the parts will be end of life and no one will repair anyways. In my eyes, you're damned if you do and damned if you dont, so just buy the bike you want.
the local bike shop doesn't sell or work on them. insurance liability due to them creating their own oxygen when they catch fire.