E-bike Disappointments

 My recent experience with an e-bike was disappointing. My disappointments are both model specific and industry wide.

MODEL DISAPPOINTMENTS

The bike seemed like a good entry level model with decent range and upgrade ability. But I did not do adequate research into the company. Through my experience with this e-bike and subsequent research, I discovered that there a a wide range of players in the market. Some of the people do not have cycling backgrounds. In this company's case, the developer had a motorcycle background. That would not have been as problematic if it were Yamaha or Harley Davidson which have plenty of locations. But even then, it can be a problem if certain basic things are not repairable in the field. In this case, the rear wheel was designed so that I couldn't simply flip the bike upside shown to remove the rear wheel. It was built with the apparent assumption that the bike would be put on a stand to remove the wheels. That does not work so well if the user has a flat. I ultimately had the bike stolen because I had to lock it up for a couple of days while I arranged a means to transport it to a shop. The lock was cut before I got back to it. The other design flaw which I found with the Emojo was the battery mount. It had too much flex. Over time, the side-to-side travel of the battery increased. I had to use velcro to decrease the battery shake. Although the Emojo has a nice price point, I did not ultimately find it cost effective.

INDUSTRY DISAPPOINTMENTS

I unfortunately found flaws in the e-bike business in general. A lot of shops selling e-bikes will not repair e-bikes which they did not sell, even if they sell the exact same model. This is not a problem for many people because they ride and live near where they bought the bikes. But it is a problem for people who travel with their e-bikes or move. I could not get any Emojo seller or any other e-bike shop to do even basic maintenance on the bike except the shop where I bought it. It's not just an issue with this particular make. I posed as having other models which shops sell and were told by every shop that they would only work on my bike if I purchased it there. This is a problem which the industry needs to fix, especially since almost all bike shops in some areas sell e-bikes and won't work on those which they did not sell.

So I definitely won't be buying another Emojo. And I will wait a while before getting another e-bike while the shop repair issue exists. For now, I am content to continue cycling completely under my own power. Yes, it does take longer and is more strenuous but the core challenges are some of the main reasons why I got back into cycling. They compensate for the extra time. Hopefully, the industry specific issues get worked out by the time I need to switch back to an e-bike.