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Buy electric bikes online

So, you're considering the option of buying an e-bike online. E-bikes are not yet so popular, and most probably there are not enough, or not at all, bike shops around you who specialize with e-bikes.

But is it a good idea to buy a vehicle like this on the Internet?

You will probably find what appear to be some truly great deals on the Web. This great deals will often be sold by a dealer who exist only on the net and have no real stores.

By buying online, I'm not refereeing so much to websites which belonged to e-bike manufactures or big brands such as Currie, Ezee, PiMobility, Go-cycle and etc. Largely, it is very safe to buy from such websites.

I'm talking more about the dealers that just use the web as a selling channel. They are like a big virtual supermarket for electric bicycles. Sometimes they don't even have their own inventory. When you purchase through them, they will order the e-bike from somewhere in the world and deliver it to you. They are just a 3rd party in all this story.

Some of them are genuine dealers who also are knowledgable about e-bikes but some of them are not and they are here to deceive you in many ways in order to get the deal.

Therefore, you should approach into any online deal with your eyes wide open if you want to ensure that you would receive a quality e-bike.

Advantages of buying electric bikes online

While browsing the Internet, you will find a wide variety of e-bikes that otherwise you wouldn't know about. As I said earlier, there is not enough specialize e-bike shops yet and the variety of e-bikes in your local shop will probably be pretty modest.

Also, unlike the car industry, where you can probably list most of the big brands names out of your head. In the case of e-bikes, most people can not list even the big brands.

In the car or motorcycles industry, the vehicle manufacturer almost always won't sell and ship directly to the costumers. But in the e-bike world, it seems that this rule doesn't apply. The vast majority of the big names do sell through their websites. So don't belittle by such a company.

When buying online, you will probably come across very cheap e-bikes deals. Online dealers have less overhead expenses than bricks & mortar dealers and therefore their prices can be more attractive. But this cheap deals sometimes come with a price tag...

What is the price tag for buying cheap?

If you buy online, there is a chance that you'll get an e-bike with a level of performance that is far from what was advertised. In some extreme cases, the e-bike might not even start at all.

You'll try to contact the company from which you bought the e-bike, and you will maybe find out that the warranty is worthless and you can't really get your new e-bike fixed.

There are cases of course that there isn't any problem with the warranty, and the online retailer will honor the warranty and take care of your e-bike.

How to make sure you get a good e-bike online?

To avoid being misled, learn about the online retailer before you make the purchase. Search for reviews and comments about it.

Try to feel the website. Does it look too amateurish? Does it offer more then just a sales pitch or an online mall? Look for an honest, genuine information. You have to feel that the website try to over deliver excellent content in order to help and guide you and not just tries to close the deal.

Be sure that you know who is the manufacture of the electric bike, and investigate a little bit about it. Use the forums, Google about it and read reviews.

Some online retailers sell off-the-self e-bikes and some sell conversion kit e-bikes, in both cases read the reviews.

To dig a little big further, you can even read about the manufactures of the different component. If, for some reason, you have a hard time getting sufficient data on the battery, controller or motor, start to be cautious.

In some point in the future you will have to purchase a new battery and you'll probably won't be happy to hear that the manufacture of the battery had filed a bankruptcy.

Focus on consumer service. I would try to find whether the customer service is helpful and available by making a phone call. You have to make sure that there is someone out there and that the online shop is not just a computer robot, if you want a change to use the warranty.

Look after any additional blur information, read the offered warranty carefully. Be sure that your desired e-bike comply with the law in your area. Suffice contact information is also important.

A lot of online dealers sell e-bikes from China. China is unquestionably the e-bike heaven with more then 100 million cyclists. But, e-bikes from Chinese brands are largely from low-quality and therefore cheap. Be extra cautious about e-bikes and conversion kits that come from there. You could be the next innocent person who buy cheap internet e-bike from China and get an almost entirely not functional junk.

If you got a non-functional e-bike, you will probably have a hard time makes it work; and local bike shops will charge you a lot for trying to fix it (if they even be willing to work on it at all).

Also, be sure to have a maintaining shop near by, online cheap e-bike may require more maintenance down the road.

All in all, there are great deals on the internet, you just have to avoid the scammers. But if this all story sound too scary or too complicated, buy an e-bike directly from a trained dealership.