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Buying E-bikes Online is Not Worth the Risk

Did you know there are more e-bike companies than there are bike companies? Actually, it’s not even close. With today’s global commerce it’s easier than ever for somebody with $50,000 to order e-bikes directly from China, get the colors and styles they want, get a logo put on them and get them shipped over in a container … and bam just like that you’re in business.

We’re a Trusted Local Bike Shop

We have a very robust bike shop at A1A Outdoor Center, under the name Beachside Bike Shop. Both businesses are housed at the same address. We service a lot of e-bikes and are dealers for Magnum e-bikes, Soul Sonic e-bikes and Hurley. We repair a lot of well-known brands including Rad, Himiway, Lectric, Trek, Aventon and many others that are well established. We also see dozens and dozens of brands that we’ve never heard of before and this is due in part to the ease in which a budding entrepreneur can order e-bikes from China and have them shipped here and be in business.

The problems that we see associated with this are that these new e-bike brands are not fully capitalized, they don’t have money left over for extra parts. They do a horrible job at warranty coverage, and typically most of them disappear after the bikes are sold. There is no number you can call, no website that actually works, and if you have a problem with your e-bike, you’re stuck with it. Fixing it can be a bigger deal than you think, here’s why.

Beware of No-Name E-Bike Companies from China

Small e-bike orders from China such as one container load for a startup company does not get the best parts and assembly procedures. There is very low quality control. You’re not paying for it with your e-bike order, which takes a well-established company with deep pockets to factor that into the cost of the e-bike. Not knowing what brands are doing also explains why these brands you’ve never heard of are so heavily marketed on social media and online. The target audience here is the consumer looking for the cheapest mail-order e-bike solution. A simple rule we like to follow is that in 2022, the base price for any e-bike with any quality at all starts at $1500 and goes up from there. E-bikes are definitely a product where you get what you pay for. Startup e-bike companies selling e-bikes for a $1000 or less are simply converting a generic box-store style bicycle into an e-bike, which is not a recipe for long term success. A good e-bike starts with a frame and components that can handle the speeds and pressures put on a bike under electric power.

As a bike shop, these e-bikes come to us and we can’t source out the parts. The company doesn’t exist, or if they do exist, they don’t answer their phone or emails. We can’t stress enough that to avoid this hassle you should buy an e-bike from an established bike shop. A company like ours has a dealer network with the bikes that we sell. We can call and talk to a person who is the same person we spoke with last week and the week prior about getting a part shipped overnight so we can repair their bike.  This is a great relationship and it’s very valuable. So, these bikes might cost 10 to 20% more, but we believe it’s worth it in the long run.

Contact Beachside Bike Shop for Information on E-Bikes

If you are interested in a bike that you find online, give us a call and we’ll be happy to share with you what we know about the brand and the pros and the cons. We also offer assembly on all shipped bikes and you can have the bike shipped directly to us and pick it up when it’s fully assembled. You can also stop into our shop anytime and test ride a Magnum bike or a Hurley or a Soul. We’d love to teach you about e-bikes and where you get the value and where the flood is. So, let us know how we can help! We’re here open 7 days a week with a bike mechanic on duty every day, right here on Florida’s Space Coast, Cocoa Beach!