My new eBike shop: Structuring, building, and pricing. Reflections and criticisms please.

Update from me:
I feel like the slow season never happened. I'm busy with taxes, marketing, networking, B Corp initiatives, and THEN the garage!

Each cheap internet bike that comes in is a nightmare with some unknown. Hours of labor later, it turns out the ground pin on a JST was loose and then finally fell off. "Hey, why is it working now and then stops? NOTHING changed!" (except I jostled the JST) I went back and forth...and back and forth...and back and forth (get the picture).

Basically I'm learning everything the hard way and slogging through a new situation everyday.

If any eBike repair bodhisattva wishes to parachute into my garage I be really grateful. It would involve a lot of smacking me upside the head at times. "Why did you do it that way when YOU KNEW the other way was better!!!?"

I'm building (in my head) an "eBike repair shop manual" which needs:

That said, I'm really appreciating all the aspects of the world I'm in now. It feels like I'm creating, fixing, living, interacting, and building. What more could one ask for?

Lets hope the learning does not involve fire or electrocution. Soon (maybe next year even) I'll need to find a larger space that has a great location and is affordable (ha ha yeah I know how this sounds).

UART/CANBUS I do still stay out. Allthough you can tinker with it for fun but I mean it takes a lot of time to figure out starting from blanc. For example I could get a bms of a non-oem bosch ebike battery brand working on the charge side but it didn't give output or correct signals to the Bosch electric while connected on an ebike. Because the said bms would brick itself if it was discharged below a certain threshold or disconnected from the two battery mains connections inside the battery.

Bike store managers and workers are a breed of themselves. Every day is a surprise how your day will be. How's your day? Sure, it was filled with surprises for sure and special cases needing utmost care and strength. Then all the other business sides that you care for and the people you meet gives eye-poping moments worth it all over or the phone calls that makes you wonder why the call was made. Very funny moments. I agree with the work description it is like a man of all trades situation.

I think the way you work makes good for learning. I don't think I do it the exact same way as you are but both are good ways and another person would do it another way.

About the connectors sometimes I had that trouble with that it was out a few but that was enough to make it a no go. Solution was. New display and cable. Redo the connector only with a new one and keep it all. Some brands or connectors on a branded bike was bad so you could eventually spot a pattern and worthy things to check for.

Today on a technical side note I had a 7 gear hub and the large side plastic side had pushed through and the axle beads was all over the place. A job for me on Monday to fix. I have some spares I will try and use and if that won't work I'll just push a new 7 gear assembly into the empty wheel hub and call it set.

Working faster or hiring a new guy to take of some work load can keep you in the garage still. Some re-arranging and fast flow can also make it work until you decided for a good place to have your business.

Hello Leffex,

Thanks for prompting me to update. Whew, its a LOT! Spring is here, garage is FULL!

I was able to obtain liability insurance! It's kinda "soft" (non-admitted and restricted) but after ~1 year of looking it was a welcome expense (ironically). I'm feeling like this can fly. Its the part that kept me up at night.

Cart and the Horse! I need to have more customers to hire a helper, I need a helper to get more sales. A friend said get an unpaid intern, hmmm. My current strategy is to be much faster at (the few) repetitive repairs.

Job description for intern (which is basically me +1):
A Light Electric Vehicle Junior Technician who can scratch their head, scream in frustration, try it the wrong twice, scream and storm out of the room to complain to the owner's spouse who is not listening nor understanding. After that, learn about all aspects of hydraulic brake troubleshooting. Why can't i fix this and how come (big internet brand) brake handle bleed valve does not work with my kit? ARGH.

Shop for parts, supplies, legal services, and bookkeeping software. No please don't proposition me.

Coordinate and actualize the B Corporation mission, Equitable Access to Transportation, with Bicycle Motor Works. We hope to get eBikes to deserving poor folks.

Refine pricing, both formally (a board with prices on it) and negotiating with all manner of nice and cranky people. People with a Mercedes SUV badgering me to work for less than free!

Hope that works for now. Amberwolf, I owe you more money.

I can relate.

I think a lot of people in this forum can

Just ask and you shall't receive. (We are hidden right in the corner typing solutions...)

Great thread. I laughed, I cried, and I repeatedly walked away not knowing how I'm supposed to really feel. I think Mr. Ebert would give it two thumbs up, if he had two voting thumbs left.

Blue Monday. So when are we all filming? Don't forget to invite the extras!

Summer is on
Tigthen your nuts and fly on!

Things are changing from the dope years of 2020-2022 in a bubbly tower of champagne the carbonized water has finally ceased only givining fruit to the essence of its nutritions.

Some companies has invented new products and some are competing heavely to survive.

The dip is now over and we can breath out that the times will only get better.

orcasprout said:

Hello Leffex,

Thanks for prompting me to update. Whew, its a LOT! Spring is here, garage is FULL!

I was able to obtain liability insurance! It's kinda "soft" (non-admitted and restricted) but after ~1 year of looking it was a welcome expense (ironically). I'm feeling like this can fly. Its the part that kept me up at night.

Cart and the Horse! I need to have more customers to hire a helper, I need a helper to get more sales. A friend said get an unpaid intern, hmmm. My current strategy is to be much faster at (the few) repetitive repairs.

Job description for intern (which is basically me +1):
A Light Electric Vehicle Junior Technician who can scratch their head, scream in frustration, try it the wrong twice, scream and storm out of the room to complain to the owner's spouse who is not listening nor understanding. After that, learn about all aspects of hydraulic brake troubleshooting. Why can't i fix this and how come (big internet brand) brake handle bleed valve does not work with my kit? ARGH.

Shop for parts, supplies, legal services, and bookkeeping software. No please don't proposition me.

Coordinate and actualize the B Corporation mission, Equitable Access to Transportation, with Bicycle Motor Works. We hope to get eBikes to deserving poor folks.

Refine pricing, both formally (a board with prices on it) and negotiating with all manner of nice and cranky people. People with a Mercedes SUV badgering me to work for less than free!

Hope that works for now. Amberwolf, I owe you more money.

Click to expand...

I've been thinking about starting an unlicensed variety of e-vehicle servicing business. I live in NYC where there are millions of e vehicles and after having fooled with a few for myself I can understand why if I have trouble (wow, getting info on stereo recievers from 1979 is amazing. these days the "manual" for a gotrax scooter tells you to send it back to them for things like brake service....) fixing some of these things, "ordinary" (I am not afraid to fix, or attempt to fix anything. including humans- I gave someone stitches once.)

if it werent for the distance I'd love to clock a couple hours a week for you. I wouldn't even make you pay me. except in fringe benefits like using some of your square footage for my own bizarro projects (no explosives, narcotics, or slaves.).


I'd love to compose (ideally as a group) an index/wiki of actual information starting with Manufacturers, models and years offered. things like motor voltage, rated output, experimentally tested overvoltage/current, dropout(bikes but mostly for scooters) dimensions and motor dimensions. battery info (physical config, s/p, cell type, bms info, connector types), controller info (ratings, markings both in and out, part number of the main ICs on the board and the switching devices, comm protocol.)


Ive been wondering if I could somehow poach the service manuals for at least a few companies by going to their licensed repair affiliates and bribing, begging, berating their techs into giving me a copy of what I would hope is a pdf, or even letting me photograph their screen a bit. the lack of documentation by ANYONE, including the "reputable" companies has been a subject I've been frothing about lately.

I just learned about bosch two days ago. the thing that is really sticking is that I don't like bosch. no information+locked up ecosystem in every facet makes me give them the finger.

too bad, I was excited to get that bike operating to a level I had fantasized about (for starters, any 36 volts... going in I was like yea whatever to those wires besides the red and black- likely not critical to operation. haha. kinda right, kinda wrong.

mindgames11 said:

I just learned about bosch two days ago. the thing that is really sticking is that I don't like bosch. no information+locked up ecosystem in every facet makes me give them the finger.

too bad, I was excited to get that bike operating to a level I had fantasized about (for starters, any 36 volts... going in I was like yea whatever to those wires besides the red and black- likely not critical to operation. haha. kinda right, kinda wrong.

Click to expand...

Just what I thought. Why can't I set up shop in your closet then instead?

Oh no.... Orcasprout was your intended reciever of the message.

When you get to know all cars and brands it gets boring. Its kind of a limit of varibles and facts and too easy to follow and nowadays the fame is gone, at least for me. In the interest of the subject: Still important for mechanics though. They can even add some psychology and odd repairs from the car owners in their books as not to get sued for their customers shady business, crap or cons.

It can be tricky to add motors to a list and call it a day. There are also versions of the motors depending on year so a better approach I would recommend is to remember the motors you deal with, take photos and document, ask questions and add it to a written record. This record then become valuable as you learn which motors are the common ones and so on. Which motors are sold on local or used adds. What brands of bikes sell the most and are common in your area and what motors do they have?

A good way for an easy wiki is a blog and make a post on each motor, add tags, add some more buttons for some wiki/index pages on your blog. Make it like a tiny website. No real prior knowledge needed.

Manuals are widely available everywhere and on sellers website as well as the original manufacturers of the motors. Although they may not always give up to much details of the electronic side. The one which is the more interesting one.

I recommend a hands on approach which gives agony and feelings and really pushes your brain to upgrade those problem solving skills. To make tools is a good skill. I didn't know so I only used the tools in the box. AND Better of cutting that screw head unwinding the grinder and make a canyon were you then remove the unmovable item with a simple flat driver.