Is It Ok To Buy a Used E Bike? Used Electric Bicycles and What You Need to Know

Is it OK to buy a used e-bike? Hey, everyone, I'm Dustin. I have nearly 20 years of experience in the bike and e-bike industry. And today we're going to answer the question, is it OK to buy a used e-bike? All right, before we get into it, I have two awesome e-bikes here. It's our Simple Step-Thru 500-watt Electric Bike, a great, easy-to-mount, and dismount e-bike. All right. A lot of used e-bikes popping up in the marketplace right now, especially after COVID. A lot of people who bought electric bikes, may not using them as much as they expected or now want to transition to a new model. So you're seeing an influx of used electric bikes out there for sale in the marketplace. Now, is it okay to buy a used e-bike? Well, the short answer is yes, but there are a few things that you want to look for. Now, number one, if you want to see if you're buying a used electric bike, pay attention to the price of what that e-bike costs. So if you could buy that used e-bike brand new for $100 or $200 more, even $300 more, it may be a better option to buy new, especially if buying it new means you're going to get a warranty that comes from the manufacturer that's going to cover you for a longer period. Because you may be buying a used e-bike that's outside the warranty period and at that point. If something were to go wrong or happen, you'd be on your own to pay for those replacement parts. So, something to pay attention to is the price how much it costs new, and the savings you can get by getting it used are worth it to you. Now, in addition to that, you want to take a look at the battery life. So, get a sense of how long, number one, have they owned the e-bike. now? when you're talking about the batteries on an electric bike, obviously the usage and the amount of times it's been charged and drained have a big impact. But also, even if they haven't used the e-bike much, so if that e-bike's been in their garage and they're like, you know, I've barely ridden it, but it's been sitting there for two to three years, that battery will still be affected by just sitting there.

In some situations, it is actually, affected more negatively by having sat there for two to three years or a year unused versus if it's been charged and depleted and throughout the time that that previous owner owned the e-bike because as you leave lithium-ion batteries dormant sometimes they can completely just go dead and they cannot be charged again or they start to just lose life and when you charge them a couple times they may die after that so It's not just about the miles somebody has logged on an e-bike. It's also about how long have they owned it and get to understand its usage. Now, if the person selling you a used e-bike is building into the price the fact that you may need to replace the battery, then that's okay as well. You would just want to go to the manufacturer's website of whatever used e-bike brand you're looking at buying and take a look at, number one, do they have... e-bike batteries for sale that I can purchase? And number two, how much do they cost? In a lot of situations, e-bike batteries are not super inexpensive. They're going to be a couple hundred dollars, most likely anywhere from 200 to 1400 depending on the size of the battery and also the brand of the cells in the battery. Our replacement e-bike batteries for a bike like this are 399 and again, don't want to buy an e-bike, think you're getting a discount, then all of a sudden the battery dies two weeks later and now you have to go out and buy a 400 battery you would have been better off just buying a new e-bike yourself. Now the number that that ties me into the brand you want to pay attention to is the brand you're buying from.

Do they offer replacement parts on their website? Do they have a responsive customer service team? Now you may be buying a used e-bike out of warranty, but you still want to be able to talk to that brand and get parts in the future, you know, if you should need to replace something. So getting access to the parts is very important. At sixthreezero, we stock all the replacement parts and the batteries because a lot of e-bikes, the components are specific to that e-bike. Now, there are a lot of batteries you can buy out there as second-hand batteries from third-party brands that can work on e-bikes. You just have to ensure that the connection points are the same and it'll work on that used e-bike that you're buying. Also, things like the motor, like as an example on this bike, if you want to have that rim match and you want the motor to match, you would need to buy that from us. You could replace the motor itself, but you'd have to replace the entire wheel with the spokes. Not impossible. But again, things you just want to be aware of if you're still going to spend a good amount of money on a used e-bike that you want to check in advance. Now, the other thing you can do also is come up to the display and there should be an odometer, which has a running odometer, just like on a car. You can check how many miles somebody has logged on to that e-bike or if you're buying it online and Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace and you want to check in advance before going to take a look at the e-bike, just ask them, to say, hey, what's the odometer say? And then after you ask that, you can also ask, well, have you ever replaced the motor? Have you ever replaced the battery? That way you can get a sense, just like in a car, you know, if they've never replaced the brakes on a used car and now you're going to buy that car, you want to kind of know that, OK, I might be in for some work down the line on this thing. So they can tell you the odometer reading on an e-bike as well. Lower miles are better.

But again, lower miles having sat somewhere in a garage for two to three years is also not a good thing. Low miles within six months to a year of ownership and they've still used it a little bit, that could be a really good deal depending on what the price is. Now the other thing is there are little things, the brake pads may be worn down. Those are easy, inexpensive fixes. You might just wanna check that out yourself. You can just look in through the rotor here and see the brake pads and you'll see if you do or don't need to replace them. Also, if you take it for a test ride and pull the levers, you know, you'll get a quick sense of it. Now, I would just highly recommend if you do buy a used e-bike after you buy it, take it to a bike shop, and get a tune-up. If you can't find a local shop that will work on it, there are a lot of mobile mechanics that exist nowadays. Valofix is one company, but there are also a lot of mobile mechanics all over the country that will come out to your house and service any and all e-bikes whatsoever so it's good to do that once over. And things like the brakes on the e-bikes, any bike shop should be able to service that. The electronics, you'd need to get parts most likely from the brand that you bought. But replacing brake pads is an easy thing. It's no different on an e-bike than it is on a standard bike for a bike shop to do that. So, all in all, if you can find a great deal on a used e-bike, it's not a bad option. Just do your due diligence, look for the right things, and ask the right questions to ensure that you're getting a good deal and you won't be stuck with a used e-bike that maybe is going to cost you more money than you paid for it. So if you have any other questions on the topic at all, please reach out to us at  theteam@sixthreezero.com or call us at 310-982-2877.

We offer a 30-day test ride on your e-bike policy. If you don't love your e-bike in the first 30 days, send it back. No questions asked. No money out of your pocket. In addition to that, we're going to warranty everything for up to one year. If anything goes wrong in the first year, we take care of its parts and labor. Lastly, be a part of our community. We have a Facebook group called sixthreezero Pedalers. Thousands of members are in there. Join the group and talk to all the members before you purchase to ensure that you're making the right choice. Then when you have yours, post in the group, and make friends. And then you can download our app to track your rides and compete on our leaderboard on the app. It's a lot of fun. So thanks for sticking around and don't forget, it's your journey, your experience. Enjoy the ride.