Hey!

Welcome to Flywheel, a weekly exploration of the used side of owned micromobility. Each newsletter will highlight five of the most interesting used vehicles being sold in the market followed by an observation of trends emerging in the industry.

If you were forwarded this post and found it interesting, I would appreciate it if you subscribed!

This week’s featured vehicles are two high-end commuters, two folding e-bikes, and a cargo bike. The observation of the week introduces the Flywheel Price Comparison, a new tool to aid price discovery in the secondary micromobility market.

Top 5 Vehicles of the Week

1. 2020 Specialized Turbo Vado 4.0 | $2,500 | Seattle

The Specialized Turbo 4.0 is one of the highest rated city commuters and amongst Specialized’s best selling e-bikes. It’s a class-3 vehicle with a custom Specialized 500Wh battery pack and 250W mid-drive motor, both of which are integrated into the frame. The most interesting aspect of this listing is that the seller had the bike readied for resale by local bike shop River City Bicycles, meaning that it now comes with a new battery that is under a 2-year warranty along with a few other replaced components. The seller paying for this sort of resale preparation/readying service is an interesting trend that improves seller trust, and more bike shops providing these types of services would remove much of the friction and risk associated with buying used micromobility vehicles. Listing can be found here.

2. Aventon Sinch | $1,350 | NYC

The Aventon Sinch is perhaps the best designed folding fat-tire e-bike in the market. The class-2 e-bike features a 750W hub motor and a 672 Wh battery pack giving you a range of 40-70 miles at a top-speed of 20mph. The Sinch is one of the few folding fat-tires with an integrated battery pack, yet has a range comparable to those with external packs. It’s also incredibly industrial, with very stable ride-ability and a sleek aesthetic. The vehicle is very lightly used (~300 miles ridden) and is a great option for riders looking for a portable on and off road e-bike. Listing can be found here.

3. Sondors Smart Step | $999 | LA

The Sondors Smart Step is a class-2 folding, step-through e-bike that has quickly become a popular budget option for first-time riders. The powertrain includes a 350W Bafang rear-hub motor and a 375 Wh LG battery pack. This listing is another example of retired shared vehicles entering the owned market. This vehicle was lightly used in a LA rental fleet and was ridden for less than 100 miles before being refurbished for resale. The rental fleet selling the bike is also offering a 1 year warranty on the vehicle, reducing many of the buyer concerns around battery or motor health. Listing can be found here.

4. Stromer ST1 | $3,500 | SF-Bay Area

The Stromer ST1 is the beginner-level offering from the marquee Swiss manufacturer. While the high quality build and componentry of the vehicle are incredible, the most exciting feature of the e-bike is it’s powertrain. The ST1 has a 500W gearless hub motor capable of regenerative breaking that delivers extremely smooth torque and acceleration/deceleration. Combined with a fully integrated 522 Wh battery pack, it is a very sleek e-bike that almost doesn’t even look electric. A new ST1 sells at a pretty intimidating price-tag, especially when compared to much cheaper vehicles with similar functionality. However, this listing selling at ~$900 below MSRP with less than 400 miles ridden and a recent servicing by local bike shop the New Wheel makes the ST1 much more compelling and accessible. Listing can be found here.

5. Yuba Spicy Curry | $1,500 | LA

The Yuba Spicy Curry is the best family cargo-bike on the market, and is the perfect minivan replacement e-bike. The vehicle has one of the highest cargo capacities in the market with a rating of ~500lb. It also has remarkable handling given its size and cargo capacity. The Spicy Curry has a rear wheel that’s smaller than the front wheel , which lowers the center of gravity of rear cargo or passengers. Additionally, the powertrain features the Bosch Cargo Line Cruise Motor and 500Wh PowerPack, Boch’s cargo-bike specific motor and battery combo that provides an industry-high 85 Nm of torque with a range of 60 miles. This listing is sold at an astonishing $2K less than the average resale price of this model despite only having a moderate amount of use (1200 miles over 3 years). Listing can be found here.

Have a vehicle you'd like to feature and sell on Flywheel? 

Submit vehicle information at submit.rideflywheel.com or click the button below.

Observation of the Week

Introducing the Flywheel Price Comparison: Market price comparisons for listings tracked by Flywheel.

As discussed in the first edition of Flywheel, price discovery is one of the most opaque aspects of the secondary micromobility market. Sellers often don’t know how to properly price their listing, while buyers don’t know if they’re being over/under-charged for a vehicle they’re looking to buy.

Flywheel now tracks the average resale price of all vehicles by model in real-time and surfaces a comparison between a listing’s asking price and the average resale price of the model (given there is sufficient historical data for said model). This is inspired by the "Prices are currently low/typical/high for your trip” scale on Google Flights.

The Flywheel Price Comparison can be found in the caption of each listing image. As volumes of vehicles tracked on Flywheel increases and there’s more listings per model, the Flywheel Price Comparison will start to account for vehicle condition, mileage, etc.

Of all vehicles currently available, the Flywheel Price Comparison shows that the vehicles being sold at the greatest discount (less than average resale price) are made by Yuba and Intense. The vehicles selling at the greatest premium (higher than average resale price) are made by Kasen and Vintage Electric.

That’s it for this week. Thanks again for joining, see you next Sunday!

- Puneeth Meruva

🚲 If you have any suggestions, interesting listings, comments, questions, etc., please email me at [email protected].

🚲 Have a vehicle you’d like to feature and sell on Flywheel? Submit vehicle information at submit.rideflywheel.com or click the button below.

🚲 I would greatly appreciate it if you could share Flywheel with your friends!

🚲 Follow Flywheel on Twitter!