The original RadRover 1 electric fat tire bike from 2015 Technically speaking, Rad Power Bikes traces its lineage back over a decade and a half to when founder Mike Radenbaugh began hand-building his own DIY electric bicycles as custom-built orders.Īnd while that is true, the major leap forward that helped launch the company to its current position as the largest e-bike brand in North America came when Rad launched its RadRover fat tire electric bike on Indiegogo in 2015. It may surprise you to learn that some of the following major players in the e-bike market got their start just like this. For the most part, successful crowdfunding campaigns result in successfully sending out pre-ordered e-bikes and e-scooters, though the products almost invariably arrive behind the predicted schedule. While rare, a small number of companies have in fact taken in hundreds of thousands of dollars and failed to deliver the e-bike or e-scooter before, often due to changing market conditions during COVID-19 or various mismanagement reasons.īut those represent a tiny fraction of the cases. But that’s really all it is, a good faith promise. The companies doing the crowdfunding promise in exchange that backers will receive rewards or perks (the product being pre-sold). Technically, backers (those forking over their cash) are simply pledging monetary support to a company, and that’s the end of the legal agreement. While these campaigns often present themselves as simple pre-order arrangements, the fine print says otherwise. That being said, there’s of course some legitimate basis for the aversion to crowdfunding held by many e-bike shoppers. But let’s face it, crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are still erroneously synonymous with scams in the minds of many.īelieve it or not, many of the biggest names in electric bicycle companies these days actually got their start on those platforms, proving that just because a company is pre-selling e-bikes doesn’t mean they won’t deliver. Crowdfunding is a common way for many small companies to get their start, and is especially common in the light electric vehicle industry for e-bike and e-scooter companies.
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