End game

Well, it looks as though my (short) foray into e-biking is soon to come to an end. This morning the supplier sent me a label to be attached to the bike for shipping back to their warehouse. It’s with a very respectable shipper – Kuehne & Nagel- so it’s serious and will have been quite costly to arrange as it’s going all the way back to Chelmiec in southern Poland, of all places.

I’ve now got to pack the bike ready for shipping. I don’t think it will have to be totally stripped the way it was when it was delivered – components like the luggage rack and lighting will be able to stay on but items like the pedals and handlebars will have to be removed so they don’t stick out. I’ll shortly be leaving to drive to Leroy Merlin to buy a roll of bubble wrap and although I was planning to service my Savannah today I think I’ll then move straight on to packing the bike up ready for shipping.

I’ll be sorry to see it go and I’ll be telling the supplier that if the manufacturer does decide to get this or a similar machine (the DA03 which has rear suspension) homologated to let me know as I’ll be in line to buy it. I would also add that I think their current strategy is incredibly short-sighted. From the information I’ve received it looks as though homologation would cost less than 2000€ which would be a very small price to pay to legally open up the whole of the market in the EU.

With their bike selling for less than a third of the price of the local competition they would almost certainly clean up, but there’s no cure for stupid. For now all I want is to see the money I paid for the bike to arrive back in my bank account. I’ve also been appalled by the attitude of CDiscount who have refused to reply to any of the registered letters that I’ve sent to them and after spending thousands of euros with them over the twelve years that I’ve been in France they’ll definitely be getting no more business from me, that’s for sure.