What does a Beach House in St Paul Minnesota have to do with Bikes?

What does a Beach House in St Paul Minnesota have to do with Bikes?

What does a Beach House in St Paul Minnesota have to do with Bikes? Turns out, quite a bit!

In an effort to delight our customers, the company will often get calls or inquiries from potential customers who would like to see a bike before purchase. In most areas we have riders who are willing to show those folks bikes. We had two separate calls that came in about the same time from St Paul and a nearby suburb.

We tried rider after rider to see if we could find one to share their cruiser bike, but in fairness, it was the end of January when we received these inquiries, and pretty cold. Maybe the bikes were all put away or at southern getaways. Either way we had two potential customers who would not be able to see a bike!

We talked it over and I decided that if we are really all about doing what’s best for our customers, a quick 5 hour drive was something we’d be willing to do. We reached out to our now friends Kim and Cindy, and they agreed, with one stipulation – we needed to check the weather prior to getting together (the day they agreed was 20 degrees F below zero.) So, that’s what we did, the 10 day forecast indicated a 30-34 degree day, so we set the plan in motion. In cases like this, life happens and I was figuring things would change and we would have to thread the schedule needle to make this work, however, as it turns out, everyone could make a time and place and it was SUPER easy. It was so easy, I thought, that it would likely be down to that day and THEN things would start changing.

But that would not be the case. I was able to leave in plenty of time, take care of my business on the way and had enough time to stop for a sandwich prior to our 1:00 start time.

I got an text from Kim that she might be late, however, when I pulled up at the location, it was no more than 30 seconds later that Cindy pulled up.

We got the bike out and talked about how the pedal assist would help get your pedaling speed up to a certain range, but did not do all the work, and it would not feel like you’d be getting pushed all the time.

We talked about rear hub direct drive motor - super simple, super robust, lower on torque, but the right choice for a cruiser.

We reviewed the display capabilities – Odometer, Power Gauge, Pedal assist level and some of the special screens you could access to see battery voltage, a trip odometer and my favorite a screen showing the current coming from the bike. The current represents the work that the bike is doing, and as I explained with pedal assist earlier, most of the time, the current gauge would say zero because the rider is doing the work. In the case of a small hill, you might see it at one, two or three, and when you pinned the throttle or wanted to go up a big hill it could read as high as 20.

We discussed the mechanical equipment. The disc brakes and that they were a regular bike shop item, and no special or exotic brand, but provided stopping power from the trusted Tektro brand. The seat which is SUPER comfortable and on most bikes a $50-$80 upgrade. The tires which are just wide enough for comfort, but not too wide to make them unruly.

Then Cindy was able to ride the bike. It was actually pretty brave as it was about 30 out with a good wind and flurries. She strapped on her helmet and took off. From the frozen smile, I figured she really liked it. She rode the lot a few times and then I explained that you could use our throttle to start the bike from a stop instead of struggling to break the stationary inertia.

Cindy really liked that, and then realized you could just cruise without pedaling!

She had a blast and was just finishing up when Kim pulled up. We made introductions and continued talking about the bike. At this point, Cindy filled Kim in on what we talked about, they both agreed it was a great looking bike, and that the service of bringing one up was proof that we would be a great company to work with.

Kim took her turn braving the cold and taking a ride and loving the bike as well.

Kim asked what the current deal was so I reviewed that and then the pre-order program at the company. We offer customers the chance to put money down (at the time of this article it is $199) to secure a bike for spring. Some companies pre-order with the hopes of getting you a bike, we just use our slower winter season to build the bikes and then take the hassle out of storing them before you even get a chance to ride. You pay the $199 down and then the balance just before we ship. Same price and deal as a new bike today, but without the extra work. It is also a nice way to make sure you can take advantage of our 15 day try at home program by having good weather to assure the bike works great FOR YOU.

There were a few more questions and then we realized how long we had been outside and how cold it really was! We wrapped up and went our separate ways. It was a great trip and a fun time to meet some of the people wanting to get the confidence to get into the ebike world.

Let us know if you need anything! We always do our best to do the BEST for our customers.

Dean 

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