Me and Electric Bikes

FrankieXu

Pedelecer
Mar 30, 2010
31
0
just general discussion with everyone about Electric Bikes

I would like to share abit of things I know about Electric bikes with friendly people in the forum... A little background about me.

Chinese, Studied in UK for 8 Years. After graduating from Imperial College London, I have found meself extremely amazed by the electric bikes as everyone here. Based on family business networks back in China, I have setup 3E limited in Harrogate importing electric bikes from my home country, where 21 million electric bikes have been sold into the market.

However, having been in the market for long enough, I have realised many problems with the current market based on my customer serving experience.



1, General knowledge about the maintance of the bikes are not well shared with the public.
2. The setup of the bikes are too complicated for repairs.
3, Battery replacement and Diagnosis.

Hence that put us back to the drawing board and my company 3E limited, after many expertise from the local bike experts, have brainstormed many ideas based on the convertional design currently on the market and made over 20 improvements on our new model.

Not to advertise here, and you will probably see our model through our proper way of marketing in the coming month...

Just thought I would like to help if I can to make people ask the right questions when choosing an electric bike and know how they should be well maintained. Moreover, things that have made you stuck with your current bike, I will only offer my advice and solutions and will not influence anyone on their purchasing. Doing only on good will, no commercial purposes!

Forgive my poor English, if people find this post annoy, just tell me and I will remove it:)
 

Alex728

Esteemed Pedelecer
Dec 16, 2008
1,109
-1
Ipswich
HI Frankie..

The current English market for e-bikes is growing, but skewed towards the higher end of the price range. Where there is a market gap is for a affordable (< £1000 e-bike but with local dealers/access to customer service and spares) - whilst having appeal to younger people. Younger English riders are more appearance-conscious about their bicycles, for instance a step over frame is viewed as for girls/women and old men!

there are other companies who service the affordable end of the market but ironically where they tend to fall down is when their bikes become popular and they don't have the stock or customer service resources to deal with the level of enquiries!
 

dan

Pedelecer
Sep 30, 2009
137
-1
welcome

welcome Frankie, how long have you been selling electric bikes in the UK

Dan
 

Mussels

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 17, 2008
3,207
8
Crowborough
Just thought I would like to help if I can to make people ask the right questions when choosing an electric bike and know how they should be well maintained. Moreover, things that have made you stuck with your current bike, I will only offer my advice and solutions and will not influence anyone on their purchasing. Doing only on good will, no commercial purposes!
I chose my bike because it had a large capacity battery and the company was based in the UK and easy to contact. I have stuck with the brand as support has been excellent and repairs timely whilst I have been kept informed of progress.
 

FrankieXu

Pedelecer
Mar 30, 2010
31
0
Hi Alex

HI Frankie..

The current English market for e-bikes is growing, but skewed towards the higher end of the price range. Where there is a market gap is for a affordable (< £1000 e-bike but with local dealers/access to customer service and spares) - whilst having appeal to younger people. Younger English riders are more appearance-conscious about their bicycles, for instance a step over frame is viewed as for girls/women and old men!

there are other companies who service the affordable end of the market but ironically where they tend to fall down is when their bikes become popular and they don't have the stock or customer service resources to deal with the level of enquiries!
Hi Alex, I think you are right, the success of electric bike in China came under very well established service network. This is also the model we are after as well...

I think any maker of electric bike out there should approach their products in three areas in my opinion.
1, make the product less complicated electrically, easier for service. Of course quality control in the factory. Road test the bikes specifications!
2, In the design and setup, anticipate the weather conditions in UK, Salty water,which is not good for complicated connections I would say.
3, Give enough trainning for the dealer network. Of course, the maker needs to sit down and really understand the electrical parts of the bike. I believe that will help find the fault easier and also advice the users in a more accurate way during the sale.

Which is why I intend to supply to the market only 2 models this year and on , one lady and one for the gentlemen. And make them right. That is my goal of course and hopefully everyone in the forum can share with me their valualbe experience.


Ps: just got back from a driving test! Happy Boy! lol
 

FrankieXu

Pedelecer
Mar 30, 2010
31
0
I chose my bike because it had a large capacity battery and the company was based in the UK and easy to contact. I have stuck with the brand as support has been excellent and repairs timely whilst I have been kept informed of progress.
Very Good, that is how it should be. Good name for the electric bike market!
 

FrankieXu

Pedelecer
Mar 30, 2010
31
0
welcome Frankie, how long have you been selling electric bikes in the UK

Dan
I started in 2008. Things were difficult for us back then because I did not know anything about the market and the setups and We managed to keep our customers happy by doing multiple trips all around UK doing repairs for our previous generation bikes.

Now we have learnt it is not just the sales, it is not just the promotions, it is the product that will sell itself! I believe you will know the story eventually how we tested our protypes in the winter under zero degree...quite funny haha.( We should post that on youtube...haha )

Well, now I am very proud of how our new model is designed and what it is capable of.

It might be a thought if I attend the Rally on the 8th 9th for people to try them during the Rally...

Anybody going? sharing some thoughts? Thanks
 

timidtom

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 19, 2009
757
175
Cheshire
GambiaGOES.blogspot.com
Yes that is our website...but it will be alot of changes very shortly.

We will launch our new model for 2010 and pictures will be on there.
I'd be interested in having a little more information about the battery - esp. replacement cost if it's only guaranteed for six months.
Good luck with the venture; I feel there's always room for dependable product of moderate cost and good quality (that's why I drive an old Skoda and ride a middle aged Brompton - the bike has a higher value than the car!)
Best wishes,
Tom.
 

FrankieXu

Pedelecer
Mar 30, 2010
31
0
I'd be interested in having a little more information about the battery - esp. replacement cost if it's only guaranteed for six months.
Good luck with the venture; I feel there's always room for dependable product of moderate cost and good quality (that's why I drive an old Skoda and ride a middle aged Brompton - the bike has a higher value than the car!)
Best wishes,
Tom.
Hi Tom
there is a discussion on battery warranty in the forum tom and below is what I posted

Making of electric bike battery involves 2 parties for most of cases.

1, who supply the cells,

2 who assemble the cells to make it either 36V, 24V etc whatever conpacity is out there.

The warranty of the battery in most cases is from the second party. It means with the right selection of cells to make a battery set, right setups and right controlling logic, it should continue charging and discharge for minimum 2 years.

However, for the first party, if the battery cells are supplied by a well-known manufacturer, it should maintain its life-span and capacity drop graph very close to the lab test data on them and they go by number of charging cycles, not time. Of course that will also depend on the usage, way of charging and the control logic. So 80% after two years i think the battery is considered very well maintained and protected and it should not be too hard to achieve. (depending on the number of charging cycles of course, if the battery is being charged many times and in constant usage, you would be lucky if it remains 80% capacity after 2 years in my opinion)


*****************************

I can only tell you the cost of our replacement battery and you will find it out when I update our website. Different makers have different pricing policies. We intend to do it in two ways, if you need a SPARE battery, in which case we supply a complete new battery for you to change over when the other one is running out. Battery REPLACEMENT, we want to just replace what is inside the casing, in which case it will be slightly cheaper because you are not paying for the case again.

Of course that differs from different makers and I think currently they range from 200-400 pounds depending on the maker.

But in most cases Tom, battery can be repaired if they are broken down after 6 month because most likely it is the electrical problem, not the battery cells are damaged.

I hope that helps :)
Best wishes