339 e-bikes were sold from 2018-2020 sorry for not making that clear but of course we are talking e-bikes in an e-bike subforum so I guess I kind of forgot to put the "e"
Some of those e-bikes were not sold from our shops and some had issues not related to the actual e-bike.

The little bit of time was last year to this year in that date range I gave.

In terms of amount of service we did a lot last year a total of almost 13,000 tickets from the 4/20/20-4/20/21 so we had a lot of bikes in the shop last year and our e-bike service department was busy through all of that. We started off that year fairly busy and got extremely busy in the middle. I don't know the exact number of tickets that were e-bikes but a decent sized chunk of that was e-bikes and a reasonable sized chunk of that chunk was various online, kit and low cost e-bikes with various ranges of issues. I highlighted a few cases of stuff that I remember quite well from last year but we had a lot of other stuff but because we were quite busy a lot of it was a blur.

So just WHAT are you trying to find out cat0020?

How many stories do you need?

Cheap ebikes are trouble. Period.

-SP

How many stories have you got?

I'm trying to find out the statistics. How many cheap e-bikes gets sold, how many of those sold require repair/warranty?

Do you know the numbers? How many cheap e-bikes have you purchased or owned?

I've purchased seven of tcheap e-bikes directly from China through Alibaba since 2017, non have them have issues that require warranty or repair for electrical parts.
I've gotten flat tires, worn brake pads, even replaced chains, but those are just consumables on any other bikes.
I don't abuse these machines like the cheap e-bike delivery folks in Manhattan that I encounter every single day.
They operate their cheap e-bikes in any weather, all hours of day and make a living on those machines.
If their machines are not reliable, I doubt most of them would keep using them.

If you have specific experience on cheap e-bike failures that you've experienced personally, share the details in this thread.
What had failed, what kind of usage did you get out of the machine?
By saying: "Cheap ebikes are trouble. Period." without sharing any experience, that's not helpful.

The bikes that are shipped directly from a factory in China are going to sell for less as there is no distributor or dealer and their markups between the factory and the customer. The flip side is that there is no one in your country with any skin in the game. To a degree these can become worthless with no warning if the controller or hub motor fails. In a few years there will be more options for getting replacement parts or even help with diagnosing problems and determining what part needs to be replaced.

What muddies the water for me is that the locally assembled bicycles are a year or more behind in performance of the bikes I can buy direct from China. This includes 1000W motors and mid-drive powered bikes and independent suspensions front and rear and 180mm hydraulic brakes without having to spend $5,000 or more. One is still having to go with a Porche or BMW level bike or a Yugo class bike. A concern of mine is that if I cannot repair the bike then it will end up as scrap to be hopefully recycled as much as possible. I do not buy anything that cannot be repaired either under warranty or out of warranty and for which replacement parts are not readily available.

cat, I've built about 10 or so for myself, family or friends and all are still operational without problems. The only difficulty was the first kit came with a faulty controller which was replaced and six plus years later it's still running. My family had a picnic at a large local park on Sunday and many individuals were riding around on "cheap" e-bikes, but I didn't see any OEM (big manufacturers) there. None had a problem. Of course, real data doesn't impress individuals who are bike shop owners or workers since their economic future is at risk, so they just throw some anecdotal quotes around.

Real data? You are giving anecdotal evidence as well! I don't own the shop but I have worked in shops for a while and seen a lot of different bikes come through over the year. Some people get lucky and don't have a lot of problems and some people also have loads of problems and don't notice or care enough to deal with them till it gets really bad. Whatever.

My experience tends to mirror veganbikes experience.

Soooooo, I own an ebike store. I AM the only guy that will fix or attempt to fix odd brand e-bikes.Those odd bikes of course are from China. So many different brands have popped up over the last few years. Some of them look exactly the same, but dont be fooled!

Lets take Rad to start with. An early customer came to me with problems that I was able to fix on his wiring. This was after he hounded the company for a new main harness because of erratic behavior. Next was a guy who was sitting in his garage when the fireworks went off. His main harness made lots of smoke and sparks. That problem led to killing the controller, the throttle, the display, and one brake lever switch. SInce then I have also replaced many other controllers and displays. THEY GO BAD! And this is from a brand that thinks their product is reliable. And their customer service is staffed by idiots. I will not deal with them for parts. the customer can get them. They even hired a guy to take care of problems. He did do me good for ONE repair. then he left on vacation!

Amongst the others, I regularly replace controllers, throttles, PAS sensors, chargers, and batteries. Many times the repairs are something stupid like a bad connector. Other times they are much more difficult to find. Then throw in the Chinese seem to be color blind. Many components do NOT follow "standard" color codes. Still others have connections in different places and I have to do connector releases and push them back in other locations. Some of these companies are impossible to communicate with for spare parts. Still others have wacky prices for them. Some just do not have spare parts. So while I play the game of 20 questions through email and send reminders that I have not received answers the customer waits...and waits...!

The only job I do I cannot blame on the manufacturer is a severed cable on a motor. Even some of these are semi simple and others cannot be accomplished without hall sensor replacement.

Then lets switch to the reputable brands I sell- I do... tune-ups. Flat tire repairs. Gee all the normal bike stuff! Occasionally I get a warranty repair, but those are few and far between.

No I havent kept count to give you REAL statistics. Its just what I see being THE GUY who will fix a non branded bike. Sure there are people who buy these and have no problems. then you have that one person who gets their bike wet and the switches short out and kill the display and controller.

Theres a written account of my life at the bench. That should back up my opinion.

-SP

I realize my experience is anecdotal, hence the reason I asked for real data with numbers.

I realize that I am lucky to have two e-bike shops in Brooklyn that sell, service & repair these cheap e-bikes from China every single day; both seem to seem to have plenty of spare parts & experience to deal with most common (if not ALL) issues on these cheap e-bikes; more importantly, they are both within 3-4 miles from my location.

If these cheap e-bikes serves my riding purpose and I don't have to shell out $4-5K for a name brand e-bike that I have to transport to a park just to ride or transport to get services; they are well suited for my needs, along with hundreds if not thousands of delivery folks on e-bikes within the 5-boro.
I think those are real numbers to consider, but I haven't been able to find the real numbers like:

-How many cheap e-bikes vs name brand e-bikes are operating within the 5-boro?
-How many of them suffer electronic failures & how often?
-How frequent the maintenance are required for these e-bikes vs name brand?
-Do the name brand e-bike have usage similar to the cheap e-bikes such as daily operation in all weather?

To announce: "Cheap ebikes are trouble. Period." without considering the real numbers, seems a bit premature.

As stated above, we don't have any data on numbers of bikes sold compared to discrepancies. If you use the information in this forum where many DIY bikes are without problems and others have purchased "cheap" Chinese bikes with similar success, it would seem like they're very well made. That's all that can be concluded, but the arguments will persist. For my peace of mind, and so as not to waste a lot of time, the ignore feature is valuable.

That comment wasn't directed at you actually. Sorry for the confusion.

I have been dealing with bicycles and motorcycles and cars and trucks and computers for more than 50 years and one may sometimes get better performance by paying more that is not something that one should take for granted. A $1500 laptop is not going to be more reliable than a $500 laptop. A BMW is not more reliable than a Toyota or a Honda. The problem with lower end bikes is that the buyer needs to be relatively self sufficient. But to pay an additional $4,000 to get a Trek or Specialized e-bike is no guarantee of reliability and with a mid-drive motor the durability is going to be reduced and that is a trade-off from the design and current state of the technology.

The e-bike components are improving year to year so it seems foolish to spend $8,000 on 2019 technology going into the 2020 and 2021 bikes. It seems more prudent to buy something for the short term when it comes to e-bikes and even if one spends $1,000 on repairs and parts for it over the following 2-3 years the owner still comes out ahead. Lots of opinions but nothiing in terms of real world empiracal testing of the bike components or any information on MTBF for the hub or mid drive motors or the controllers or the battery packs. It is really a crap shoot at this point in time.

I've found that individuals who rate products on Amazon are very picky. Some items that I think are fantastic only average four stars (of five); yet if you look at Ancheer e-bikes, the average for all of the ones I looked at was four plus stars. Somebody is happy as well as all the people I saw at the park Sunday enjoying their inexpensive e-bikes (didn't see nary an OEM mid-drive). There were at least a couple of individuals on $349 Swagtron (AFAIK) e-bikes from COSTCO having a blast.

So a few weeks back, one of those odd brand ebikes came to my shop. It had multiple problems, some from poor assembly and some by owner abuse, but it left the store repaired, running, and more importantly- Safe.

Today? ITS BAAAAACK! Something happened where it wont turn on. It has to go to the back of the line so it may be a while before I find what is screwed up this time.

Just a typical story about a cheap costco bike.

BTDT many times, seen too many similar situations with regular bicycles, too.
If the first visit to the shop was due to owner abuse, likely repeat business for the shop if you just treat the customer nicely; who knows, maybe the person will buy an expensive e-bike from your shop in the future if you actually spent time with them explain the difference and find something that suits their riding needs.
Kill 'em with kindness and you may have a customer for life.

well if you need reliability having to spend 1000 on parts to keep the bike going is not money well spent. my e bike is my transportation and it needs to be working every day. so far my bulls that cost 3500 has only had a cracked rim after 9000 miles. I am still on the original cassette and chain ring. I put 6000 miles a year on it and I want my bike to feel great under me.

Not a cheap Chinese e bike but my KHS fatbike that has a Bafang BBSHD 1000 watt mid drive has been ultra reliable for 6 years now. It gets used in weather down to minus 20C in winter and in summer. I am retired so it's use is occasional and in summer the delta trike see's more use. One mechanical breakdown in 2020, the rear freehub broke, so I took the wheel off and took it to the LBS for repair. It has approx 4,000km's now and I'm going to replace the chain and have the cover off to grease the big gear.

I've had similar success with a steel hardtail (frame up build) after seven years riding off road with a BBS02 conversion in sunny socal where the riding is year round, although we get inclement weather every so often and snow occasionally in the local mountains. It's been ridden at freezing temps to 100+ degrees with neither incident nor maintenance.

Getting $300 ebike it's a good idea. Ideally you will face loads of issues and I don't know how reliable converted ebike would be.

This thread is from 3 years ago just FYI and hasn't been active. Also a $300 e-bike sounds like a terrible idea, that is the price for one of those cheap online single speeds however I hope you had meant to say isn't a good idea.

amokeu , it's 6 months later. What did you end up doing?

It would be nice to thank folks for their advice and time they put into trying to help you make a good decision, not just post & run.

It would be helpful to know what you have available locally to you; I think most of us here are US-based and have different options.

Been like 34 months since his last post in December, 2021. Probably enjoying his biking,

I purchased the cheapest ebike for a friend who was visiting. Well, they did not use it and I was stuck with it. The frame is solid steel and heavy, the brakes were dismal and had to change pads and cables. The gearing is for flats and I'm in hill country. The wheels are wobbly under my 220lbs.The display is as reliable as a $2 watch, but....
I use it for simple commutes, It works and there is enough power and battery to keep me moving. I do not care if it gets stolen.
Of course I only use it for short distances.

One data point -- I bought my girlfriend a cheap Zundapp ebike, a stencil-branded Chinese hub motor bike, about a year ago. She rides it every day to work and takes weekend trips on it. It was under $1000 on Amazon.

It has been brilliant, flawless. Not a single failure or repair in a year of pretty hard use. It has Shimano derailleurs and 24 gears, decent brakes, and the Chinese controller is fine.

Incredible value for money. She likes it as much as I like my $5000 Riese & Muller cargo bike.

We work on ebikes every freaking day and in general it is usually the 'user' that is the source of the trouble. All too often the user rides it all day every day and does absolutely no maintenance. They also ride them far too 'hard' for their intended purpose. This results in badly worn brakes, etc. Also many riders just grab the bike anywhere when trying to drag it up stairs, etc. and wind up damaging wiring because they grabbed it by the bars and wires and tried to drag a 70lb bike up a set or more of stairs.

Trying to get 'non bike' parts is very difficult as the seller just 'sells' bikes, not replacement parts, requiring the owner to go the maker direct which always takes time and numerous emails.

Very often the maker changes the design of the electronics meaning the 'new' part won't work with the old part...now it's a lawn ornament and winds up abandoned.

If the user takes care of it, doesn't use it like they just stole it, etc. it will last a long time buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut that is seldom the case regarding the ebikes I get in every day.

Oh and make sure you can get the correct tubes and tires...many require tubes with an 'angled' valve stem and they are not generally available in the bike shop and the owner has to order them from online suppliers...the owner, at least in my experience, seldom orders the correct size and/or stem configuration causing delays and aggravation on everyone's part.
Same with tires...very often they are in odd sizes bike shops don't carry and don't have access to from their normal vendors so again the owner has to get them and the same problems occur as above.

good luck...

My daughter's bike has a 10 year old DIY system and still functions perfectly even after three trips to Burning Man and its oppressive sand/heat environment. My BBS02 equipped bike (given to my son after six or so years) still runs strong after eight or nine years, and the new one replacing it has been perfect for the past two or three years. I think individuals regard the Chinese as backward when they probably have the most modern equipment of any country.