Review website

[Jon]

OK, I'm just setting it up at the moment so I'll email you the access details.

If anyone else wants to help drop me a PM or if you have any suggestions on what questions should be asked of a reviewer.

Have you sent me an email? Just checking i have not missed it

 

[rsscott]

Hi Jon,

will send you a PM.

 

[james@justebikes.co.uk]

You guys are far ahead of me on this subject but I do have long held views on reviews:

1. Industry reviews: In 2009 Extra Energy reviewed a Koga and a Sparta. To summarize the Koga was given top marks on performance (power) and the Sparta low marks using the same metric. Both machines had identical motors and batteries and software.

2. Public (owner) reviews: Like Flecc I'm skeptical 'cos folk (inc me) aren't given to announcing to the world that they bought a pup. That said, better to encourage them to post their thoughts worts and all on an impartial forum like this rather than have them 'filtered' by manufacturers or sellers bias. From a purely self interested point of view I'd worry about Pedelecs doing this 'cos I know my client base - they don't do twitter, facebook or do reviews, and wouldn't thank me for pressuring them to post. So the portal would have 500 reviews on £1000 bikes and 6 on £2500 bikes. Which - as Flecc point out again - will paint an unbalanced picture of a product's merits and value to the end user.

3. The real world: (again, my view only). Sales growth rate in Germany has for some time been closely following the Dutch rate. Last summer German growth rate exceeded that of Holland. The German market is 4+ times larger. Last month Accell Group bought influence in two of their competitors. This is a strategic move to buy future manufacturing capacity in an exploding sector - not part of a conventional commercial stifling tactic. I spent a day with Ed Benjamin last month discussing, among other things, Bosch's entry to the e-bike sector: its a very small part of a carefully considered long term investment into EV technology; ecars, ebikes, and doubtless other contraptions that have yet to see the light of day. Wots my point? E-bikes will be mainstream here sooner than we think, the big guns are coming, small outfits producing built-to-a-price products will drown unnoticed in the flood, and Pedelecs should prepare and position itself for that inevitable development and not spend too much time formulating formats for reviewing the current crop of UK e-bikes.

That said, I'd be happy to anomalously sponsor a Pedelec version of 'Harmony Central'

J

 

[flecc]

1. Industry reviews: In 2009 Extra Energy reviewed a Koga and a Sparta. To summarize the Koga was given top marks on performance (power) and the Sparta low marks using the same metric. Both machines had identical motors and batteries and software.

I've posted critically in here many times about ExtraEnergy's very poor review standards which I consider virtually worthless and the worst there are. This example is typical of their unreliability, especially when it's common knowledge in the industry that Sparta and Koga are virtually equivalents.