Do your local bike shops sell e-bikes?

My 2 shops scoff at ebikes. Seems there might be a business opportunity with NO COMPETITION except for cheap wal-mart bikes, of course.

Only Wallyworld and the big-box sporting goods stores carry ebikes in my town.


Converstaions w locals indicate that a successful ebike *storefront* needs a number of supportive conditions:

generally bike-friendly infrastructure (paths, lanes, parking)

medium to high density residential community

middle to upper middle class economic population

significant young-adult population



bonus points for:

local higher education institutions (college, university, comm. college)

warm climate


Most LBSs survive on the margins in the prestige lines. Service/Repair revenue is mediocre. With the web and big-box stores, the squeeze is on.

An ebike shop has the advantage of try-b4-u-buy and the more complex service/repair needs of ebikes. But without a prestige-line of bikes with more margin, it is not a good bet.


:?

there's a few here in the UK, propably 1 shop in every large town and sometimes a shop in smaller towns too.

If I was in the US i imagine I'd jump at the chance to setup an ebike shop. Over here the max power and speed (250 watt/15mph) would make it much less fun.


Interesting that in the states there seems to be lots of kits but hardly any big brands selling complete bikes, especially the high power bikes that lots of us love. Its the opposite in the UK, lots of people selling bikes (low power) and hardly anyone selling kits

2 bike shops in Moncton.. Mike's and Bungay's .. Real rivalry between the two...

Mike's has the complete " Goldem Motor " brand cheapie ebikes with brushed hub motors and the trunks and head-lights etc.... for 1200 $ canaidan !!!

Bungay's don't carry them... but since bungay is closer .. i do all my shopping there. I got my Norco from them.. Last time i came in with the bike.. i took it directly into the store for them to check it out after being cutoff by a dumb driver and hitting it Hard.. .. it was hilarious..

Every customer that walked in was gawking at the bike " WHoa.. now that's one custom bike now huh.. ???.. what' sup with the small wheel in the back with the funny hub ????? "..

I think they got the hint.. !! I gave them my number and told them to send me any customer who wants to convert their bike..... they have no interest in this aspect of electric stuff...

Canadian Tire Corp.. ( Big box auto parts store in Canada ) .. has the same Golden Motor bikes for 1000 $ can.. Aparently they are selling tho.

Matt Gruber said:

My 2 shops scoff at ebikes. Seems there might be a business opportunity with NO COMPETITION except for cheap wal-mart bikes, of course.

Click to expand...

Hahaha, reminds me of the time I was looking for a part at a LBS, and when I told the guy behind the counter it was for an electric bike, he laughed and said "I beat those things all the time". So I proceded to inform him that it was highly unlikely he would win any sort of speed contest with pedals vs. my ebike as it has over 3500W of power. Then he tells me about his friends friends friction drive setup that goes just as fast as mine with way less power, and is generally talking out of his ass. "But what about when the batteries run out??", to which I replied "I'm already where I want to go", and walked out of the store.

My 2 shops scoff at ebikes.

Click to expand...

Yup! Pretty much the same for me. I will say that the shop I work with the most is comprised mostly of very avid bicyclists, so they can't imagine using any kind of power-assist. They DO respect my decision and are always willing to work with me.

Charlie

I like pedaling for recreation and excercise, but arriving at work tired and sweaty isn't really my idea of how to start the day. Glad to hear your LBS is friendly to you.

Let's see, my favourite shop is pretty hostile to power assists and has boxed Currie kits in their basement. Didn't they stop making these in 2005 or something? Yeah well somehow being out of sight in the basement (ashamed?) I think they're gonna rot there for a long time still, the batteries are probably dead anyways...

Lots of shops around here, probably most of them, carry BionX & parts for it. That's cool if you're into that, otherwise it's pretty blowfull.

The sucktitude of it is only exceeded by the fact that there's another shop around here that has a variety of ready made ebikes, but they don't have parts for them. "order it off the internet" They do have have BionX parts, though.

Tell Scott at ev deals as he will buy those Currie kits off them!!

My bike shop doesnt sell e-bikes, the local garden centre once had powabykes in stock and I did have a test ride years ago.

Shops in the cities are on to it though big time.

Knoxie

I'm finding lbs here in northern california are totally clueless when it comes to e-bikes. i've seen only one shop that carried the giant e-bike.

i've been thinking about business models. I think maybe a larger emphasis should be put on the battery technology. The general public is pretty clueless about battery technology (sla, nimh, lithium).

If i had the money, i would ask one of these taiwanese or chinese build a cruiser looking frame that anything can be mounted to it:
1) hub
2) currie
3) cyclone
4) disc
5) v brakes
6) racks, paniers

the key to be able to build a bike quickly. my local bike guy (chuck) spends all day fixing bikes. If e-bikes are going to be a main mode of transportation, it needs to be reliable and/or can be fixed quickly.

Just got my 2007 Spring/Summer Canadian Tire catalog and right in front of my eyes on page36 the whole page devoted to electric bikes...3 of em all Schwins. Mens and Ladies I-Zip comfort bikes, Schwin folding electric and the Schwin GT-5210 (36v 21 speed) They claim the GT'll gets up to 100 Km. on a single charge,Hmmmmm I wish.

Last year C/T only had a Bionx and I don't see it this years Catalog.

I imagine since the changing of Ontario's ebike law for the better we'll be seeing more stores carrying them.

Eric

Nah, the GT thingie is the same one they sold last year, the same chineese bike ISD sells. At around 40 kgs it was definitely no BionX, and the kit alone costs more then that bike.
http://www.strongcanada.ca/index-en.html

ISD calls it Futuro/Explorer, they claim 40-60kms range.
http://www.velo-electrique.com/Pages/repprod7.htm

Their 601 seems essentially identical, too:
http://www.velo-electrique.com/Pages/repprod3.htm


2007 ebikes:



Back in 2006:



Edit:

Knoxie, yeah a few months back I contacted Scott at ev deals about the Currie kits but he wasn't interested because they want more then what he would like to sell these for. Seems weird since, as far as I know he has none for sale... But there it is.

Yep,that's the page out of this years C/T book.I don't recall an e-bike in last years,they did have electric scooters though one that looked like an old Vespa and a Mini Bike type that were for off road use,those are in this years book as well. The BionX bike,I actually saw in the store last fall when I was picking up some aircraft cable to make brake cables with.I took a close look at it and found the price to high for me. Perhaps Quebec and Ontario carry different items?

Eric

Dunno man, could be.

A bionX at a CT store had to be a one of a kind or special item sale....

Here in moncton they had those Golden-Motor brand bikes going for over 1000 $.. and i beleive they sold out ...

The scooter was a real joke..

Canadian tire has a nice flash thingie to advertise their e-bikes.

clicky

I like the interactive bit. Actually semi-useful with the folding bike.

How did you link past the home page with its postal-code challenge, or has CTC smartened up & dropped it?

The link was from their e-mail flier. It's kinda like the one they send you in the mail except they don't send you a part of the catalogue with it, only the stuff that's on special. (the bike is/was on 100$ rebate)

It'd be nice to keep this thread going.
Where I bike, Palm Coast, FL, I've been electric for around eight or nine years and in all that time mine is the only electric bike I've seen. Once in awhile someone would make a comment about it and a few would ask to ride but less than a half dozen overall.
Now with the Crystallite Cruiser 48 volt installed I thought interest would be generated but all I get is "Does that have a motor? You seem to be going awfully fast".
A stop at my local bike shop, to pick up a spoke wrench, generated NO interest and a pointed aversion to looking out the front door where I parked. When they charged me $7.50 plus tax for the wrench I declined the purchase and left. I asked for brake pads and they were "out of stock" but did sell me a generic brake kit and I robbed the pads. Whether they were actually out of stock or simply didn't want to sell to an ebiker I don't know.
I would like to work with the LBS and will probably try again. When my kickstand broke though I went to wallyworld and bought another. The battery bag/pannier that came with my Crystalyte kit failed to keep the bike balanced and I wound up buying wire saddle baskets online as I felt the LBS would simply not have them, wouldn't know where to get them or some other excuse. If they did get them though it would be very expensive.
In the meatime I enjoy my 12 - 14 mile range at 25 - 30 MPH and 20 + at 15 MPH. At that speed I can listen to the Sony bike radio!
With forums like these though the LBS is less important.
Mike

That's the great thing about hub motors... on a stealthy setup the average person doesn't even take notice.