I have had lots of time to reflect on my predicament while I walk to school. How could I have been so stupid??? There's nothing worse than getting ripped off and only having yourself to blame. I curse the day I met Brad Voisen and his electric motorcycle. I think about the money I lost and I want to kill myself.
My students are wondering what happened to the moped that I was so excited about. I don't have the heart to tell them it's finished. I just tell them I am waiting for parts that will never come. The scooter is fubar, and I don't want to have to explain that colorful expression to them.
Now I don't even know how to get rid of it. Nobody will buy it now, and it probably needs to be taken apart and recycled. I just want it gone. It is too painful to see it sitting in my driveway every morning on my walk to work.
Anybody out there in the market for a great looking, broken, dream? I'll even throw in my new helmet.
Thanks to everyone who tried their best to help me, John, Patrick, Darren (even though he really blew it), Scott, Freeman, Jim and Mike. I'm so sorry this story didn't have a happier ending.
Reading this story makes me sad.
ReplyDeleteHowever, motor vehicles, engines, motorcycles etc... cheaply made in china are just that, cheaply made in china. Unfortunately you had to find out the hard way. There are quality electric bikes and scooters out there but they will cost you an arm and a leg. You could have also bought a regular gas scooter, and still barely used any fuel (have you ever experienced 150mpg? it lasts forever).
You might want to pop over to eccomodder.com (I forget the spelling, I hope you googlefu is strong), a fairly good electric and fuel efficient crowd that specializes in DIY electric vehicle conversions. They have a wealth of knowledge and generally are a good bunch of people.
Your story is starting to filter onto different motorcycle forums, Elsa. I just read about your story from out here in Tennessee and made my way to your blog. Maybe you will find a fellow two wheeler near you who will lend a hand and get it back working or lead you to a decent alternative to your chinese nightmare. Wish I lived closer, I would try my hand at locating the issue. Good luck and I hope you don't give up on your two wheel dream just yet. Buying a motorcycle is one of the best decisions I have ever made.
ReplyDeleteThank you for trying to help, and cheer me up! It is very nice to know there are still good folks out there. I made a new friend who has been helping me on Skype, so he can see what's going on, and guide us through the repair process, but it has not been successful so far. I will keep you all updated and thanks for your kind support and guidance. I love you all!
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteCame across your blog while researching electric cars and bikes as it is a new market i am looking to work in.
I moved from the UK to china in Feb this year and i export a wide range of products from here.
Your story is very sad and i feel for you. I would love to help you if i can, i can source and send you parts if you know what you need? I wont charge you for my help.
Its worth noting that the electric bikes the Chinese actually use here are very good and very reliable, it just seems that the ones that people choose to export are the cheaper ones - i assume to maximise there profits at the other end. This can be said for a lot of Chinese products.
The one you have looks like a very cheap model here, im afraid your dealer might have just be interested in making a max return for min investment.
If i can help please contact me through www.youngmoneychina.com, my contact details are on there and like i said i will run around here for you.
Good luck.
Please don't feel too foolish. I did practically the same thing buying an EVT America R-20 in 2007. And I am not particularly mechanically inclined though I did learn more than I ever wanted to know at the V is for Voltage forums after I had problems. And I lived in Louisiana where no one would work on it. And I had sold my car to buy it and really couldn't afford to lose the $3,000 I would up losing in it. For the same reasons you outlined, I had a dream of personal affordable electric transportation that ended in a sad and self-deprecating sense of defeat and failure. I had problems getting service help from the sellers for years and eventually sold it for $600 to someone in Berkeley, CA willing to take it on as a project even though I was clear that I did not trust the quality or safety of the scooter. (Very glad I didn't get hurt in a serious accident due to poor manufacturing and wind up with medical bills in excess of the cost of the bike.) But the real lesson for me was the US start-up dealers are buying poor quality products and selling them for personal greed. The reputable companies aren't producing and marketing affordable electric scooters yet - but if you can spend $10,000 or more than you can probably buy a lithium ion motorcycle that will stay running. Those of us eager to be early adopters of smaller scale affordable EV scooter technology are getting screwed in the process and both losing our limited funds and having our dreams squashed. Beyond ourselves, it is the EV industry that is losing a lot of it's potential future customer base. (Although as soon as a SOLID, REPUTABLE company is ready to produce, quality test, market and sell an affordable, reliable electric scooter I'm still ready to jump again. But I won't be buying any cheap, quick hope/quick buck Chinese products again.) So don't feel too bad - you learned some big, painful lessons for sure - I went through it too - it still hurts and I kept my little Louisiana motorcycle license plate as I did have the honor of being the first person to register an electric motorcycle in the state of Louisiana, get insurance for it here, etc. But I only kept it working for 25 miles so that was a total bummer. Regarding one of the comments above - I've had friends who lived in Vietnam and China and said they do have reliable electric scooters on the road there - thinking if Vespa never gets around to making and selling one for the US market then one day I may have to figure out a way to buy a better quality one directly from Asia. All in all - good luck, be proud of yourself and your boyfriend Steve for trying - understand that it wasn't your fault - read more of the EVT America horror stories and realize that this same experience happened to thousands of people including experienced cycle buyers and several business people who got sucked in too. - Stacy
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