Need some advice. It looks like Walmart has a new gravel bike on preorder this week. Thoughts on an electric gravel bike or should I just stick with a standard gravel bike? My fitness isn’t the greatest, but I want to explore gravel biking.
by Agitated_Funny274
1 Comment
I know very little about wal mart e bikes specifically. But here is my two cents:
Regular bikes and e bikes will eventually break. Something will go either in a crash or just normal wearing and tear. Most regular bikes have fairly standardized parts so even if you cant get the exact same part from the manufacturer a shop will have something that they can mount on without issue.
E bikes on the other hand a mess of proprietary parts and a lot harder to repair. Good parts support from the manufacturer is essential to keep it running after a season or two.
To make matters worse, a lot of shops will only repair e bikes that they sell or among an approved list of manufacturers. Part of this is due to part support and part of it is due to liability.
If you are cool with buying are a bike and it lasting a season or two and of light to moderate use it might be fine. I would also store the batteries in a place that is safe if it catches fire just for safety as cheap bike batteries don’t have a great track record.
I like buying bikes that will last a decade or more and have tens of thousands of miles on them before they are retired.