Nearly a year ago, I emailed Wave Electric Bikes about their Wave Beach cruiser – which
claimed to be “The World’s most affordable eBikeEVER!” at $599 USD, for early backers,
available through indiegogo.
It seemed too good to be true! ...and it was.
The Wave 1.0 was a terrible bike with a shady crowdfunding campaign...
(More on that later.)
So, they've sent us the follow up - the Wave 2.0!
Is it the improvement they need to re-earn consumer trust?
Or is it just a slightly less-terrible bike with a slightly less terrible marketing strategy?
[Animated intro] [Pre-roll]
The Wave 2.0 is a non-crowdfunded bike that is currently listed on
waveelectricbikes' website for $1,000.
If you were to buy one, not that I'm recommending it, the box comes with a big red warning,
stating that professional assembly by a bike mechanic is required, if you don't opt for
the $95 charge in the checkout to have someone do it for you..
though the included instructions seemed pretty clear to me, so I - apparently - took my life
into my own hands by putting it together myself.
I guess I won’t be able to make any warranty claims.
Now that it's assembled, let's see what we've got.
The Wave 2.0 features a 750 watt brushless hub motor, 6 speeds, and a REPORTED 25mph
top speed, with 23 miles of range using the throttle only, and 40 miles with pedal assist
these numbers are likely thanks to the 500 watt hour battery with Samsung cells and aluminum
frame, both of which are big upgrades over the Wave 1.0's generic cells and steel frame.
And my real world numbers actually get reasonably close to those - I've gotta give them credit
for that -considering that WaveElectricBikes obtained these numbers with a 165lb rider
on perfectly flat terrain with no stopping - completely unrealistic conditions that are
not stated on their website!
BUT – electrical components aside - as a BIKE, the Wave 2.0 just feels.. kinda cheaply
made.
The handlebars have a lot of play, no matter how much you tighten everything, it doesn’t
come with fenders or a quick release on the front wheel.. the pedals are plastic, the
brakes squeak horribly when wet, the motor shudders as it starts up, the “luxury stitching”
on the handlebar grips is already coming undone, the plastic kickstand has already broken,
my battery case ARRIVED cracked, AND the rack is useless to hold any pannier bags, because
the battery is completely in the way…
unless you raise it slightly with washers, like I did.
That woulda cost them, what, 25 cents?
Furthermore, there’s no deceleration curve for the motor controller, so it abruptly cuts
in and out as you go below and above 20mph.
The only way to AVOID This is by switching the bike to “offroad mode,” which instantly
REMOVES the speed limitation and allows the bike to put out full power regardless of speed…
making it VERY EXPLICITLY NOT street legal in part of the United States and Canada.
Make of that what you will.
Not everyone will care that their vehicle isn't street legal.
One thing *I* like about it, is the fact that the front and rear lights are both powered
by the main battery, and can be turned on and off with the press of a button.
Though, I wish they were significantly brighter.
And the complaints don't end there.
The LED display has no odometer, wattmeter, speedometer, or remaining range... it just
has readouts for battery and pedal assist levels.
And if you want NO pedal assist, you have to turn the entire thing OFF for some reason.
Also, it can be difficult to distinguish the buttons, or the LEDs,, from one another, especially
if you’re wearing gloves.
So, overall, the Wave 2.0 is just… a cheaply made bike.
I wouldn’t pay $1,000 dollars for it, and neither should you.
So what happened here?
Why is it so lame?
Well, ladies and gentleman, I did promise to look into the history of WaveElectricBikes,
and WOW did I dig up some DIRT.
The indiegogo campaign for the Wave 1.0 ebike ultimately raised 1.1 million dollars.
And once they had the money, their promises began slipping away…
Delivery dates were pushed back….
multiple times…
The Samsung batteries were changed to generic cells..
The 1-year warranty vanished..
The promised top speed and total range were decreased..
When the bikes FINALLY started shipping, customers received parts that were damaged, incorrect,
non-functional, or just missing..
In all fairness, SOME customers are happy with their purchase, but.. many are not, and
these folks are STILL posting angry comments on the indiegogo page, demanding refunds and
decrying the lack of communication from WaveElectricBikes.
I spoke to my contact about all of this, and he said that, “we definitely had some issues,“
but “we were able to resolve these issues and produce the Wave 2.0 without any of these
issues”
Really?
What brand of alternative facts are these?
Because more than 1 and a half years later, some of the original backers have STILL not
received their Wave 1.0 bicycles.
And… it gets a lot worse.
While the campaign was still active, someone posted this image, comparing the Wave 1.0
eBike to a seemingly identical bike from alibaba.com… available for… $400 dollars??
But upon closer examination it’s.. yeah.. it's exactly the same bike.
Turns out, there’s a company that's LITERALLY called "OEM Bicycle" that sells these bikes,
in lots of 100, and told me they have been doing so since 2014... before the Wave indiegogo
campaign even launched.
And they'e doing the EXACT SAME THING is with the “Lady Wave.”
Or should I say, the OEM en15194.
That would be pretty disturbing, since reselling a product is against Indiegogo’s terms of
service.
But neither Indiegogo, nor WaveElecticBikes, has responded to these allegations.
Digging deeper, I found THIS forum post, which points out similarities between Wave’s branding
and music, taken from RadPowerBikes, and I ALSO discovered that Wave’s logo is almost
identical to Wave BROADBAND’s logo.
Is there anything they DIDN’T rip off?
Again, my contact at WaveElectricBikes denies that any of these things are ongoing problems,
And even says that it’s the Alibaba vendors who are copying Wave, and not the other way
around.
AND, that Wave 1.0 customers, and Wave 2.0 customers, are COMPLETELY unrelated - whatever
that means..
Because, I don't agree.
It looks like the Wave 2.0 has the same frame design, wheels, brakes, LED display, battery
case, motor, and motor controller, as the Wave 1.0.
I wouldn’t be surprised if OEM Bicycle (or some other Chinese vendor) is still supplying
WaveElecticBikes with parts, or even entire bicycles.
But because the Wave 2.0 is NOT crowdfunded, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this..
And lots of Chinese products are marked up and resold for MUCH higher margins than what
I believe Wave is taking..
But none of that changes that the Wave 2.0 is a cheap bike, sold by a sketchy company
with a track record of disappointing and misleading its customers.
They SAY they've moved on to a different business model, but some of the Wave 1.0 backers, and
ALL of the Lady Wave backers, have STILL not received their bikes, DESPITE the fact that
you can currently BUY them straight from waveelectricbikes.com... which is making the backers VERY upset.
So I would say, don’t buy anything from WaveElectricBikes, at LEAST until they've
made things right with their outstanding indiegogo supporters.
Which leads us to a pretty clear conclusion..
There are some significant and unavoidable costs associated with building a GOOD eBike,
so the cold hard truth is you’re probably NOT gonna find one for less than a thousand
dollars.
If that’s too expensive for you, my completely unbiased advice is just get yourself a REGULAR
BIKE from a well established brand like Specialized, Giant, or Trek.
Or you could get a moped or even a fixer-upper motorcycle if you're mechanically inclined.
And always remember, kids, if a crowdfunding campaign looks too good to be true… it probably
is.
[Integration]
Thanks for watching guys.
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Heheh.. and click up here for the last crowdfunded eVehicle I hated, the FlyKlySmartped.