I was at a huge Farmer's Market out near Lake Huron this week and couldn't miss seeing the hucksters selling e-bikes of all shapes and sizes. I saw them before at another market closer to home.

They make exaggerated claims with regards to the range these e-bikes will travel, the length of coverage of the warranties, and claim they will come to your residence to do any repairs that are required.

As a result, there are reputable dealers who are upset that their so-called exclusive territories are not being protected by the distributor and they are no longer going to sell and service these e-bikes. There will be some great clearance sales going on but the unsuspecting customer had better hope they don't need any parts or service.

Its probably the same guy that is at the St. Jacob's market that was trying to sell me the 700 watt scooter for 2,000.00 and claimed that if I undid the govenor in the throttle that it would do 50 kil no prob. it was acutally a nice looking scooter with front and rear disc brakes and looks like it was orginally built to have a gas motor on it. But I bought my scooter from the bike dealer on Lancaster in Waterloo, you probably know where I mean just across from the Lanc hotel. http://www.cyclemd.ca... this is his site you can check it out. Great guy sells repairs and has been in bussiness for a long time.

Yep! You're right Bill.

We are fortunate to have several great dealers in Kitchener Waterloo who have all been around for a number of years providing great products and service. I initially picked mine because it is only a few blocks from home.

http://www.eastsidecy...

Found the right thread...


Hi.

I recently bought an E-bike scooter style for my girlfriend had a really bad experience. Found out next day 2 screws missing from the front panel. Rattle so much. Felt like it was unsafe to ride. Rubber mat wasn't factory cut and didn't line up perfectly. The E-bike which I bought was a two tone colour. It suppose to come in finish black paint with some detail in plastic black finish. The E-bike we recieved did not get the plastic finish but painted in flat black. It was also peeling off on one side.

What really is upsetting and sad was. We paid a lot of money for the E-bike!
We really regret to do the purchase from Blue Avenue!

Hehe... dunno how I missed this thread earlier... `Coupla years ago I was passing an ebike parked on the sidewalk w/a guy lookin' like he was working on it. Stopped to help...
The back wheel was "locked"... it just wouldn't rotate. Turned out the guy was a service "mechanic" sent out by the ebike dealer to fix a customers ebike. We tried slacking off the rear brake, but that didn't help any... I couldn't stop for long so I never heard how the thing was fixed. When I left the guy was talking about riding back to the shop and getting a truck to transport the bike back to the shop (he had come on an ebike.) The guy was actually pretty honest w/me about watt he thought of the bike... He popped off the seat to show me how the controller was mounted over the rear wheel with nothing between it and the wheel or pavement below. Basically every time it rained the rear wheel sprayed the controller continuously with water! The store owners fav colour is probably the colour of the sky.

Many years ago when the first scooter-style ebikes started showing up in Toronto I noticed one for sale in a Spadina Avenue used furniture showroom so I went in to have a look. The demo model in the store already had rust showing on the chrome handlebars. The guy that was supposed to be selling the bikes admitted he had ridden it once. He couldn't ever tell me watt chemistry the battery pack was, lead or wattever... He didn't even know where the batteries were in the bike!

To me this was an extremely bad way to be introducing ebikes to toronto. Poor quality merchandise sold through stores that had no interest or knowledge of the product. I was surprised the other day when someone here mentioned a brand of scooter-style ebike I was unfamiliar with and gave it a google and up popped this same importer from years ago, still in the business of selling ebikes... I though when his web site went "down" back then that that was the end of that, but he's back in business it seems. Lets just say this guys favourite colour is probably tartan...

Guess I'm hesitant to name names... Partly blaming the buyers for not informing themselves better in advance about what is not an insignificant purchase.

Lock

Found the right thread...


Hi.

I recently bought an E-bike scooter style for my girlfriend had a really bad experience. Found out next day 2 screws missing from the front panel. Rattle so much. Felt like it was unsafe to ride. Rubber mat wasn't factory cut and didn't line up perfectly. The E-bike which I bought was a two tone colour. It suppose to come in finish black paint with some detail in plastic black finish. The E-bike we recieved did not get the plastic finish but painted in flat black. It was also peeling off on one side.

What really is upsetting and sad was. We paid a lot of money for the E-bike!
We really regret to do the purchase from Blue Avenue!

I've had some business with this dealer before. I have to admit he's not the friendliest person in the world. I don't know about the paint. But the screws he should've fixed! Especially if it was in the first 2 weeks as per Vince's own website:

http://blueavenue.ca/...

Says about half way down:

Once a purchase is made we ask all customers to bring their new ebikes
back to the store for service after 2 weeks of riding. It is mandatory
that your new ebike comes in for final adjustments and inspections.
Even new bicycle parts tend to go loose after a few times riding. There
is no charge for this service.

-Vic