My Sondors electric bike came today!

Well well well, to all you haters and trolls that have cried since February claiming we'd never see our bikes... not only did my bike come today but it was fairly easy to assemble (hour and 45 minutes but that was mostly due to swatting mozzies every few seconds and the fact that I'm quite heavy and it's 88F and 65% humidity). The bike is both exhilarating and terrifying. I took it for a quick two laps around the neighborhood finding if I put it at full throttle for a single second and then let off I'd still be going several miles an hour at each stop sign. Using the front or the rear brakes provides stopping power more than adequate for stops you know are coming up and applying both at once stops the bike more than fast enough for 99% of emergency stops. I don't know how fast I was going but it was faster than I go down my street in the car. Picked up a group of kids that were going "woooaaahhh" and pedaling as fast as they could trying to keep up with me.

The bike claims a net weight of 62lbs and a gross weight of 76lbs however UPS had it listed as 89lbs on the tracking info. I can't honestly give you a good judge of character as I Olympic lift as well as lift random heavy things for farmer's carries and the like so the box was just an awkward size, the bike itself is quite easy for me to pick up and carry distances. Men and women that don't lift regularly (and especially smaller ones) might have issue with the box or lifting the bike above their waists but even then you could load it into a truck fairly easy I imagine by just getting one tire up first like I used to do with my mountain bike as a preten.

I was able to lift everything straight out of the box by pinning the cardboard between the table and my leg, it definitely would have been easier to rip the box open but I wanted to use it to hold the packing material as I pulled it off the bike. The tire on the left is only attached by a zip tie.

Not pictured is a box or two and the seat. Ignore my tangled hose, I water my garden most nights and got tired of wheeling the hose up every night.

It looks way way better than I ever could have hoped. I'm not happy with how I have the handlebars but I was starting to get dehyrdated and my head is pounding. I took it for a quick spin and then called it quits for the evening. Tomorrow morning I'm going to ride it around town (a few square miles) till I either get bored or till the battery dies while tracking with whatever GPS app I find for my iPhone. It wasn't hard for me to pedal it at all without battery assist so if it dies on me I'll get home fast. I imagine I get bored or overheat (looking like 90F and more humidity tomorrow) before the battery runs out though but I'll fix the handlebars then. Right now the throttle bar is in the 5/7 (depending on what side you are on) o'clock position AWAY from me and the little wing/paddle things on the handlebar are in an awkward position too so I'll fidget with it tomorrow until it feels right.

The Sondors eBike by Storm Sondors starts delivering to customers

So in February I mentioned the The Sondors eBike by Storm Sondors and how I had contributed. In fact I was one of the very first contributors. Well they began being delivered today... you see they manufactured them in the order of most popular color combinations... so people that paid for theirs LONG after I did, are receiving their bikes today yet I was one of the first TEN BACKERS and my bike is listed as number 1520 for production. My bike has yet to even leave China, if it's even been made yet. Gee thanks Sondors! What a slap in the face.

Here is one that was delivered to another contributor

Photo of J.R.'s bike assembled and ready to go!

I must admit, it looks awesome. Mine will be black frame with black rims and supposedly is being manufactured now (however once it actually goes into a cargo container it'll be a month or more than I see it)... sooo my bike won't make it here to Indiana till August at the earliest, so much for the July I had been expecting all along, having been one of the first contributors. Really really disappointed. I was also told during the campaign Mr. Sondors wanted to have a conference call with me as soon as the campaign ended to personally thank me for being such a big supporter, well that never happened either. "Storm" feel free to reach out and set that up if you want and explain to me why you shafted us first contributors... I mean hell if you would have said "yeah we are going to ship black/yellow first, would you like to choose that instead since you were one of the first backers" I would have gone "sure!".

Why I'm arguably overly passionate about the Sonders Electric Bike

So a lot of people, in regards to the Sondors Electric Bike campaign, have accused me of being an insider/working for Storm/working for Agency 2.0 etc. Those of you that know me know this isn't the case at all, you know I've never been to California you know that I don't even own a bicycle and haven't for a decade. To those of you that don't... let me give some context as to why I've been so passionate about this campaign and so active in the comment section for it.

My former mentor (was worth millions and millions, 13 businesses in 6 states one that had between 1000-1500 employees) was an absolute ass to me. Everytime I had an idea he'd tell me I was stupid, it was stupid, it won't work etc. Anytime I would bring him something "Hey R, would you give me a couple thousand secured loan so I can try this" and he'd just shit all over me and my idea until I finally told him sorry, I couldn't have him in my life any more. Less than 2 years later I had a small business making me as much as my 'real' job. So I HATE people that are always trying to find the negative in someone else's ideas, dreams, or success. Don't get me wrong, those that know me will tell you I can be pretty negative, I've even been called Eeyore, but not when it is about someone's desires/dreams/goals. 

A birthday card I had made for my former mentor, he liked to call me Eeyore.

Also for the record, Agency 2.0 helped Kreyos and I contributed to Kreyos (however, since that disaster Agency 2.0 is on the record as saying they will only take on clients that have a functional prototype, something Kreyos didn't have even months after the campaign ended which was a GIANT red flag that I ignored, lesson learned). I got royally screwed on Kreyos. So yeah, there are shady people out there that will rip you off but Storm is not giving me the slightest hint he has those intentions. The dude had a bike made for himself because he had issues that required the power assist, he then probably got compliments about it and questions asked and thought "hey I can probably sell this" and he went online trying to raise a meager $75,000. He's raised 3.2 million and is showing every sign he's doing his best to get the best bike specs he can for the price point he wants. Stop looking for reasons to sabotage him. I have my money tied up in ths campaign too, but after being taken on several crowdfunding projects I've realized it's going to happen and you have to go into each one expecting to never see anything. You should give to projects because you want to help others pursue their dreams, like my mentor wouldn't do for me (the man could ahve given me a million cash and never missed it, he wouldn't loan me 3k secured against my car). Support people's dreams or don't get involved with them at all.

So yeah, maybe I'm a bit over the top defending this project. My whole life I've been told I wasn't good enough and that whatever I try to do will fail. This is hands down the most success I've seen a campaign I've given to (out of about 30 between the various sites) have and it's exciting and even intoxicating seeing someone else get to see if their dream will work.