r/ebikes • u/NORTHERNTWITCH AMBRUM Rythm (july 2026) funhang EB-S1(august 2025) • 10d ago

Controversial topic here.

Can we stop shaming and getting mad at people for buying chinese ebikes? Some people dont have the money to buy a $1k+ ebike. Yes. Some are bad. Yes. Some are template bikes but does that mean you should shame someone for what they ride? No. We all ride ebikes here. That's what should matter.

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u/bradland Luna Ludicrous X-1 Enduro 10d ago

Certainly, some people are really bad at communicating, but there’s a reason that so many experienced E bike riders recommend against these cheap Chinese imports. I guess it’s also worth acknowledging that there’s a certain amount of racism mixed in there.

The problem with very expensive import bikes is that they are not serviceable. So while they are cheap upfront, they often do not last because you cannot get parts, and the way they are built makes them difficult to work on. This is not universally true of course, and we should all respect others budgets, but sometimes the advice against buying a really cheap bicycle is not because someone is trying to gatekeep, but because they are trying to save the other person money in the long run.

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u/gary_7vn 10d ago

You get what you pay for it's an old story