Questions To Ask Before Buying An E-bike
As most of you know, I got in to building e-bikes because I was appalled at the poor quality my friends were getting for outrageous prices. While things are getting better, it should surprise no one that a whole new crop of seemingly cutting edge, but low end junk has come out.
A great example is a bike I converted just the other day. My customer spent a lot to have a very efficient and properly fitted bike to convert. It is not the fault of the dealer or the awesome shop that offered to help me, but after I nicked a hydraulic line, their tech called to tell me that the mfg had chosen to install a caliper on which the line could not be replaced! Imagine if your car had to have all new lines and calipers if a line started to leak. Lesson learned: hydraulic disk brakes are not necessarily high quality.
Ask: Are the components on this bike as good as on a comparable traditional bike? If I took off $1k for the motor and battery on this bike ($600 for hub motor), would the remaining traditional bike be worth the remaining money? Most of the time, they won’t know, or say (it won’t).
More and more factory bikes are coming with integrated batteries. These are not generic. You can’t just hop on Amazon to get a replacement like we did when e-bikes first came out. Virtually every bike mfg has a proprietary mount. Most even have built-in proprietary battery communication. You MUST go back to the mfg to get a replacement. It will be expensive and it may take weeks to arrive. I can show you page after page of affordable battery alternatives you can get for conversions and new custom builds.
Ask: Do you have an extra battery in stock? How long will it take to get one? How much will it cost?
You may know that I am not a fan of suspensions, except for off road riding and then, not with fat tires (I do like suspension stems and seat posts). They are heavy energy absorbers designed for off road control, not comfort. Every suspension I have seen on an e-bike is a version of a spring suspension that failed in The 90’s.
Ask: Can you show me a traditional mtb with this suspension?
Heavy bikes are hard to handle, load and haul. There are some weighing as much as a hundred pounds. Some Dutch bikes come by their weight honestly. In flat Denmark, for instance, weight doesn’t mean much as heavy steel absorbs a lot of vibration. That just isn’t true of most e-bikes. Hauling that extra weight around eats batteries.
Ask: Is my frame straight gauge, butted or hydroformed? How much does it weigh? What is the weight of the entire bike?
Note: A steel frame will weigh 1-3#’s more than a comparable aluminum frame (roughly half the weight of a cheap suspension fork). Many of us will take it for the comfort and lively feel of a steel frame (straight gauge aluminum will often weigh significantly more than a quality, butted steel frame).
There is no good reason a medium sized steel commuter e-bike should weigh more than 50#’s. Add five if you really want fat tires (4″+) and 5ea. more if you just can’t live without a suspension fork or if you have a hub drive. It is dramatically stretching things for any e-bike to weigh 70#’s.
Ask yourself: Where are they skimping that this bike weighs soo much?
I can never emphasize enough that you should never buy an e-bike that isn’t like the traditional bike you would choose for the same ride.