The e-bike conversion market quietly revs up in the wake of the e-bike boom

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The e-bike conversion market quietly revs up in the wake of the e-bike boom Bicycle Retailer

Portland, OR - Shop owner Brad Davis’s career as an e-bike entrepreneur offers a peek inside an often overlooked but increasingly profitable corner of the electric bike market: e-bike conversions.

A decade or more ago, before the industry pivoted and began pumping out e-bikes in all shapes, sizes, and price points, many e-bikes on American streets were DIY retrofits. Early adopters had to figure out how to install a motor and battery system themselves or find a shop to do it.

“There wasn’t anything good on the market,” said Davis, who saw an opportunity. Thirteen years ago, he co-founded EcoSpeed, an early e-bike conversion kit that never really took off. “The batteries all kind of sucked.”

Davis pulled the plug on EcoSpeed six years ago and opened Nomad Cycles, which specializes in converting existing bikes with aftermarket motors — mostly from Bafang. “Essentially, Bafang came out with their BBSHD system, and it was so good and so cheap that we just started buying theirs.”

Today, Nomad has a six-person crew that retrofits cargo bikes, trikes, and a wide variety of bicycle styles.

Multiple dealers and suppliers interviewed for this story said Bafang is the top motor supplier in the conversion market. “Bafang is the market leader for North America by far. They have their thumb on the conversion market,” said Adam Ostlund, co-founder of Electrify Bike Company in West Jordan, Utah.

Other motor manufacturers supplying the domestic conversion market include Tongsheng — like Bafang, based in China — and CYC Motors out of Hong Kong. Promovec is a Danish brand that has opened a U.S. office with plans to begin selling conversion kits to dealers.

Other suppliers include smaller brands like Electric Bike Outfitters in Denver that source motors, battery cells and electronics from China and re-brand them for dealer and direct-to-consumer sales.

Electrify Bike Company, located in the greater Salt Lake City metro area, has expanded into multiple sales channels in recent years, offering conversion kits for sale to both dealers and consumers, doing conversions for walk-in customers and now opening a retail store to sell its own branded e-bikes. “We will build up existing bike brands and sell those as conversions,” said Ostlund.

Dealers say that price is a key factor in why consumers choose a conversion rather than a complete e-bike off a showroom floor. For the cost of a heavy, entry level e-bike, consumers who own a nice bike or frame can continue riding it with an electric conversion.

“A lot of people already own really nice bikes, but for a variety of reasons they can’t or don’t ride them anymore,” Ostlund said. “The motors we use for conversions are often the same motors used on pre-built e-bikes.”

Retirees, Eco-Conscious Consumers, and the Adaptive Market
Reliable data on the size of the domestic e-bike conversion market is scant, but retailers and suppliers say sales are booming. Consultant and Light Electric Vehicle Association Chairman Ed Benjamin analyzed Customs import records to estimate that about 24,000 DIY kits entered the country last year.

Benjamin cautioned that this opaque market is challenging to track and his count may be low.

Asked to describe their customers’ demographics, dealers said they are often older individuals and retirees — the same consumers courted by e-bike brands.

Another customer base is individuals with physical challenges or injuries that need a trike or hand cycle or adaptive bike.

“You can save thousands of dollars” by converting an existing acoustic adaptive bike or trike, said Livingston, a mechanical engineer who founded EBO in 2015 after undergoing chemotherapy that scarred his lungs. He converted a bike to electric assist and found it helped his healing.

“This week alone we converted three bikes for people with MS (multiple sclerosis),” Livingston said.

The Hostel Shoppe in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, one of the largest recumbent trike dealers in the country, is among Electric Bike Outfitters’ dealers. The Hostel Shoppe got into the conversion business a decade or so ago using the now defunct Bionix system.

“We are adding e-bike kits to a lot of those trikes that people have already bought from us in the past,” said Jessie Bostic, marketing manager for Hostel Shoppe. “It gets those folks who already own a bike and who don’t want to invest $3,000 to $6,000 in a new complete e-bike.”

Livingston of Electric Bike Outfitters said he sells kits to shops in almost every state. “Some dealers do one or two conversions a year, and we have others that order 100 systems. We have a lot of shops in Florida.”

Davis’s customers at Nomad Cycles include parents who ...

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