605 buying an ebike on Alibaba

In the current world of ebike purchasing in the US, you have basically two options. Buy a bike online from a reseller (direct to consumer "brand") who buys their bikes from China, or buy a bike from a retail shop who buys their bikes from a bike manufacturer (retail "brand") who buys their bikes from China. 

Yes, there are other options. Like a couple brands that make their stuff in the US (from foreign parts) or in Europe (from German, Japanese, Chinese, or perhaps French parts). Or buying used. 

Or...

What about going directly to China, yourself? Perhaps you've heard of Alibaba? I have, but I've never used it. 

Alibaba is an early success on the e-commerce scene, sort of like eBay, but for buying new junk made in China. It's founder, Jack Ma, has penetrated Western consciousness, partly because he's a billionaire, and partly because he got in hot water with the state, wound up on some sort of house arrest, and has dialed back his, as far as I remember, not that controversial speech.

Which brings us around to the second ebike we acquired last year, which also didn't arrive until this year. 

Since we're talking about the Alibaba buying experience, let's be semi-precise. We ordered the bike in early December, about the 10th, and it arrived in late March. It might have arrived a week or two earlier, but I missed a message for a few days that caused the shipping to be delayed until after Chinese new year celebrations were done in February. Overall, it took about 3-4 months from ordering to delivery.

Basically the process was pretty smooth, including the wait. I knew it was going to be a while, so we ordered during the winter and it got here in time for spring. Not exactly instant gratification, but it worked. We made sure to buy from a verified seller, and they were basically pretty good at communicating. 

Now the drawbacks of ordering from Alibaba. First, you can't try before you buy. That's a big one, but also true about the direct-to-consumer brands. In my case, that meant I didn't really pay much attention to the measurements of the bike. In the video posted online, it looked pretty big compared to the rider. 

It's not. It's a decent sized bike, but it's a bit small for me. To fix that I've added a taller seat post and handlebars. But it might be smart to take a little time with another bike, a tape measure and a metric conversion to get a sense of what you're really ordering. 

Also, as seen above, not all of the pieces on the bike are welded together in perfect alignment. It works fine, but that might have been noticed in a showroom.

More or less I've been happy with the bike, but I'll admit to being slightly shocked with the performance at first. I specced the bike out with the biggest battery they offered, and it came with the Bafang M620 motor, also known as the Bafang Ultra. It is the burliest ebike mid-motor around. 

It is not the smoothest. Comparing the drive train of our other ebike, the D2C Cyberbike Mullet R, it's like a car versus a truck. Not a Tacoma, more like a Mack truck. The Bafang Ultra, at least as I have it configured, is a bit of a beast. Not smooth, but plenty powerful. 

(That's 24.5Ah and 1000W continuous at 48v for you tech heads out there.)

To add the tall handlebars, I had to lose this front rack, so the wires had enough length. That's ok, it was so high up that you couldn't really put much in it without knocking the handlebars into it in tight corners. 

The brakes are single piston Tektro hydraulics, a known brand. They don't work as well as the dual piston "Wolf" no-name brakes on our Cyberbike. They're also noisy, which I suspect is user error, and which is a definite downside of not buying in a bike shop.

You know why the brakes are squeeling? Me. My incompetence. Combined with an unwillingness to pay someone to fix it. Plus the nearest bike shop is 25 miles away. But hopefully I'll sort through that at some point before I've done irreparable damage. 

The motor is powerful enough that we have to be really careful not to destroy this chain ring. Good luck with that. Something tells me I'm just starting to get familiar with working on this bike. 

So, yeah, go ahead and order a bike off Alibaba. And then be prepared to grin and bear it. If you choose well, you might get a bike with superior specs to anything you can find retail or D2C, at a reasonable cost. Expect about $500 for shipping to your door in the continental US, so this isn't necessarily the best route to take if you're looking for the cheapest bike out there. There are plenty of D2C brands offering pretty good bikes for about $1k with free shipping in the US. No matter how cheap a bike you find on Alibaba, after shipping is figured in you're going to have a tough time beating $1k.

But for $2k, you can get the baddest motor around with the biggest battery you can find, and have your new ride custom painted, and be pretty sure you're not going to run into another of the same bike anytime soon.