The Longest Way to get an EBike :) or Two

[Parrsboro]

Here is a Few details I'm sure everyone already knows.
Sometimes when you order a bike from Rad, it might take longer than you want.
And with Covid, shipping has made a mess out of everyone's delivery's.

I had first ordered my bike back in June or July, its a long time ago so I forget exactly.
It sure seemed like i kept getting emails from Rad about what to expect with the new bike.
Or links on how to do things, like to assemble the bike. Etc.....

Well finally sometime in November i started getting emails with apologies about delays.
And how the bike is assembled and shipping is delayed.
Finally i thought i had about enough.
And one of the emails, was we will let you cancel the order if you want.

Well i went for that finally in December.
They refunded me the money for the bike. That went smooth.
But then i had to ship the accessories back to them.
Which were running boards, front basket, all the neat stuff that is hard to get.
They said i would get the money for those upon arrival of parts to their warehouse.

In the mean time, i thought all things were settled.
Until wouldn't you know it on my birthday  Jan. 15th.
The Black Rad Wagon 4 arrived at my door.

It took me about a day to decide to contact them about it.
I looked at the box the whole while wondering if i should open it.
Would i be able to keep it, if i opened it would they charge me
They told me when i cancelled it, that was kind of a permanent decision.

Well, they did say a few steps had gone wrong and apologized for sending it to me after i had cancelled.
So i asked them if they wanted to pick it up , or sell it to me.
They decided to sell it to me.

OMG, the amount of chaos that came , trying to figure out how to sell me a bike i cancelled , that they shipped to me was hysterical. lol
So far i remained calm and rational.
And i now owned the bike i ordered 6 months ago.
But with no accessories , cus i sent them back. And they were not available any more as they are now hard to find. Go figure.

Now the hunt was on. I live near Seattle.
And i started going everywhere to find parts and pieces. I found a front basket on ebay.
I drove to Portland for running boards.
Found items on offer up.
Got Ballard bags and phone mount coming from Rad (they had them)

Ok, so now im good. But still waiting to get reimbursed for my first set of accessories.

So i took the bike on its first ride, up hills thru trails just to get it warmed up.
And I had a lot of fun, more than i expected.
So i figured if i was going to be able to ride lots. I better take the wife along with.
Then the hunt was on for another bike for her.

I had seen some on craigslist. And i thought that would be a quicker way to go.
And i could save some money on sales tax and first owner price tag.
Well. I find that most people want full retail price for their bike even though its used.
So i was not gonna pay full price for a used bike.
Im not cheap, i just want a deal lol

So then, i found a used bike on craigslist, that needed some love and attention.
I thought, it was missing a battery, and they wanted 400 bucks. So if i bought a new battery for . .
Cough Cough, ., too much money Rad (get those things cheaper will ya)
So i went and picked up the bike from some guy named Joe, met him at a gas station next to a homeless camp.
(Ya, the red flags did not go off yet)

So i got the frame home and looked it over. And was going thru it.
And it needed way to much love and attention.
It needed a new controller, a new battery dock. the fenders were ugly.
and no accessories, and needed a new head lamp.

So the hunt was on again. .  Thank you wkindred for helping me get parts
So i called Rad. . cus i like sticking myself in the eye with a fork.
And i gave them the serial number and was checking to see if it was stolen or not.
And to them, it was not.

So i set up a time to bring it to them, so they could put on all the parts i had found and give it a good once over to get it ride worthy.
Two weeks it takes to get an appointment in their shop.
So i waited.
Waited.
Waited.
The day of i took it in , and met with the shop guys there at Rad.
And went over the finer details of what they could do.
And it looked like i was going to spend about 1000 dollars to get this craigslist bike worthy of being on the road again.
Now my 400 dollar bike was not making me feel good at this point.
But i was going to have a bike for the wife to ride with me.
But for 1400 dollars, i could have gotten her a better looking one, as this one i bought went thru the wash, and probably needed a paint job.
And that was going to send the bike over what a new one would have cost me.
So i think i was doing this just to learn a lesson.

Well the story gets another fun turn at the end of the day.
The good folks at Rad gave me a call.
And the feller on the other end of the phone says to me "I got good news and not so good news"
And first thing i thought, was it was going to cost me more than 1000 dollars.
Well, nope, it was not gonna cost me another red cent.
Cus that feller, did a little more research on the bike than the first feller did.
And he dun dug deeper and found the original owner of the bike thru sales records.
And the bike was indeed stolen from him.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Dangit, so i told him. Go give that guy his bike back..

So now i am out 400 bucks for buying a bike from a thief.
And I should have done better at vetting the purchase.
The thief name was Joe 509-900-2901

But now after i was generous with making sure the bike got back to where it was suppose to be.

The guy at Rad , then came up with a way i could win too.
They had one last 2019 white Rad Wagon down there at the Ballard facility.  . 
Yup, , you know where i'm going with it.
He said he could sell me the last one, and I could have the bike that i wanted.
I did not hesitate, i said yes, yes  lol
I went down and picked it up the next day.

The last brand new white bike Rad had. . Well, it did have 6 miles on it.
But it looked 1000 percent better than that ugly white one i got from the homeless thief.

After everything I went through with getting these two bikes home.
The people at Rad were outstanding on every phone call, on every turn.
They were always trying to make things better.
So I do not have anything bad to say about Rad   (except the price of the batteries, come on 

And finally two days ago, i got my refund on the first accessories i bought in July. .
But now i'm on the hunt, for more parts for my wife's bike.

And we went riding together for the first time today on our new Ebikes.
And had fun.

[wkindred]

always check legal status of a used bike before buying  by checking the serial number here - https://bikeindex.org/

[Altema]

That was quite the adventure, and I can see getting excited about a good deal without considering it had been stolen and stripped. Rad's computer system probably did not have the option to "Purchase bike customer already has", and I imagine they had to do some contortions to get around it, lol.
Glad it work out for you, aside from losing $400 and the high price of batteries. The RadWagon does not fit my particular needs at this time, but I've always liked and admired them. If our community was more bike friendly, I'd love one to take the kids places.

[Parrsboro]

Yes, WKindred.

I did indeed learn about the checking serial number
and i will have mine listed asap.

Altema, yup you guessed it. Rad is not really set up for stolen bikes.
They can find original owners if they dig for it.

As WKindred stated the bike index is probably more prefered.

[Altema]

As WKindred stated the bike index is probably more prefered.

Yes, I have mine in the index. I registered it there because the lock I bought required it. Then after I went through all the trouble, the lock company told me there anti-theft warranty does not apply to e-bikes.

[Parrsboro]

As WKindred stated the bike index is probably more prefered.

Yes, I have mine in the index. I registered it there because the lock I bought required it. Then after I went through all the trouble, the lock company told me there anti-theft warranty does not apply to e-bikes.

Well darn the luck, I was shopping the locks and finally swayed with one that did say it had that anti-theft warranty.
and now that you say they will not honor ebikes, , , buggers i say, they wont get my money a second time for doing something fishy like that.