Looking for feedback - IZIP and CurrieTech owners & deal

Joined
Oct 3, 2007
Messages
4
Location
Chapel Hill
Hi,

I am new to this group. In january of this year, I became an IZIP owner (steel Mongoose, cheep, 90# 24vdc SLA). Rugged, economical, and top-heavy.

SO I was so enthused (green-minded, too) that I decided to become a "dealer" which was going great untill.... Mid summer of this year, when my relationship with CurrieTech/IZIP seemed to be comming apart at the seams. The last big event I held was in conjunction with the 07/07/07 earth event with Al Gore etc. I had MAJOR technical difficulties with the 2007 IZIP product line (PTS - pedal torque sensor, NmH battery system, concentric rear hub motor on an 8-speed Shiman-style hub)

Within 2 weeks of that, I received a letter from their layers' offices that they were
entering chapter 11 bankruptcy due to some financial stuff back in 2000 which was
not heard before the court until this year. I suspect they may have been hurt
financially (read between the lines, they got SCR**D by the court)

Getting to the POINT... I would like any feedback from both customers and any current/former IZIP CurrieTech dealers. I would like to find out your experiences, and I would also like to discuss other things as well, such as who I would select as my new supplier. I am about to the point of designing/manufacturing my own hybrid electric, considering what I have thus far encountered.

Any Takers? Please respond, but nothing derogatory or pejorative, plz, Let's keep
keep this thread above reproach.

THANKS!
Marty Ferguson
 

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I've given the EV business a lot of thought. Ebikes are the practical EV since batteries will need a breakthorough before becoming practical for cars and even heavy scooters.

Seeing so many ebike businesses go out of business had basically led me to the conclusion that the right way of promoting ebikes is to treat the electric parts as bicycle ACCESSORIES. In other words, don't mess with a finished e-bike. Try to sell bikes that people like with an e-bike kit that they can afford and will be practical.

You'll want a bike shop and a good bike mechanic. You'll probably want someone that can build cables that can be connected to a wide range of batteries.

nycewheels seems to have some luck with EZee. My problem with any finished ebike is, what do you do when you have a battery problem? You have to go to the factory and get one that goes with the bike. what if they don't make that battery anymore? This is why i believe a finished e-bike is too risky to sell. You're locked into a certain battery-- or whatever specific part. With a kit, you can choose from a variety of motors, controllers and batteries and promote the ones you can get. If one battery supplier drops the ball, get a different supplier.

Service is important anyway. most people won't know how to fix their ebike if there's a problem.
 
Marty,
The EV business section here on Sphere is worth reading just to get some recent input from various members.
Johdoh too has a realistic approach, one that shows a little thought in the process but not necessarily one you have to go along with if you're selling in the same market and have sufficient product and skilled labor to keep the bikes running economically.
Not too long ago a friend of mine toured the west coast of FL looking for a location to open an ebike rental business. Every single area he considered already had (according to him) someone renting ebikes. I did not accompany him and he had no ebike experience, he merely had an idea and a little capital.
I do believe however that a similar tour, Sanibel, Panama City, Tampa, Ft. Myers, etc., may possible find a few fellows and from there you can see how the various bikes are holding up. The tour can be made via internet and telephone. It's been my experience that if I ask a question about business when they know I'm in a non competing market I get good answers.
The Currie experience however could almost be predicted but it looks like they are going to come back even stronger with a better idea of marketing and product quality, you probably know more about that than most of us.
Forty years ago I had a piece of a small motorcycle shop in Orlando. We sold Cushman Scooters, a French moped and Omega motorcycles. The only Cushmans were used as the company had already ceased manufacturing and the mopeds were a drag but we did sell a lot of used bikes and a few of the Omega's whose biggest bike was 175cc at the time.
In the spring of '66 Omega introduced a 650cc four stroke and put a big dealer deal together at the track in Daytona. A great bike but I could barely afford to stock one. By the time it came in I simply couldn't afford to stay in business and sold out around May of that year for just about nothing.
Needless to say, for those that know, later that same year Omega changed its name to Kawasaki and started national advertising. Within a year that franchise was worth a small fortune.
Could be that's going to be what happens with Currie.
But, regardless of who has the best bike at the best price it's going to take creative and sustained marketing in any area to generate and maintain customer interest. IMHO a ready made bike, a kit bike and kits the customer can build themselves will all be part of it. Once the business starts to take off though community relations will become very, very important. It will only take one 14 y/o on one of your products to dart in front of a pickup truck and get squashed to create more negative feedback than can be overcome without proper preparation.
Fun, fun, fun but business is business and you have to be prepared and willing to pay the price to make a profit. The price is hard to predict but you already know that.
Good luck,
Mike
 
I moved the thread. It seemed appropriate.

Currie was one of the few companies that had products that were reasonably priced and somewhat functional. Compared to the hoards of incredibly poorly made Chinese scooters, Curries are generally decent.

The EV business in this country has always been very marginal at best. So many companies have gone out of business. Currie must have some kind of record for lasting as long as they did.
 
jondoh said:
I've given the EV business a lot of thought. Ebikes are the practical EV since batteries will need a breakthorough before becoming practical for cars and even heavy scooters.

Of course, I have to disagree with this ;)

Motor scooter sized EVs are practical today. While the batteries supplied are marginal that's usually because of cost considerations rather than battery capability. A good set of U1 sized SLA's with battery balancers will give a scooter a comfortable 15 mile range in real world conditions at speeds of up to 45mph. For a lot of folks that's a very practical proposition for commuting.

And if you want to spend more money then the Vectrix is a top of the line example of the possible "Omega" of tomorrow.

So, jondoh, what makes you say that "heavy scooters" aren't practical?

I think EBikes are a great form of personal transportation. However, I don't think EBikes will make any larger impact than the current share that pedal cycles have in the personal transportation market. That holds for electric motor scooters as well. I don't think that most people will switch from their favored form of transportation just because they want to go electric - they will most likely wait until their favored form has electric versions at a palatable price. So at the end of the day that means the big shift won't happen until there's a 4 door sedan available. Which is getting "real close now"...

Just my 2 cents worth.
 
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