Bionx enter receivership

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bowzette

New Member
Harry i don't have a ebike but I have been studying e-assist kits for a Catrike recumbent trike. The recumbent shop where I bought my trike loves the Bionx and has more than he wished he had in stock=expensive paper weights. Falco looks like it would perform similar to the Bionx but the battery isn't proprietary, but they site states the five year warranty is void if you don't use their battery. Falco seems to appeal to the same market as Bionx. My concern is from reading various internet comments, for whatever that is worth, your credit card is charged at the time of purchase and a number of purchasers have experienced several months of delay before delivery. Sometimes all the parts are not in the delivery and it has taken more time to get everything. Utah Trikes recommends the wired display, not the wireless as they experienced problems with the wireless. I've read a couple of complains of controller over-heating but don't know if this is generally a problem or not. The up side is that it is highly programmable, check out Youtube videos, can run up to 28 mph, and has a good torque sensor which is a high priority for me. The down side is I suspect (I am just guessing) Falco is under capitalized and they use current cash coming in on new orders to complete and ship older orders. Additionally the owner is an electrical engineer, the product may be good or not, but I bet engineers are running the company and not someone with business experience. My "guess" is Falco will go the way of Bionx. I like what their website says about the product and apparently how it operates but I don't want to spend $2,200 for a Bionx like paper weight!
 
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bowzette

New Member
Harry please post your experience with purchase/delivery of the Falco and how well it operates. Hopefully I am wrong re: timing of delivery.
 
JRA

JRA

Well-Known Member
JoePah said:
Careful with chinese mail order companies.. This company has been around for awhile, but warranty repairs will be a probelm. .Plenty of reliable companies in the States or Canada.
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Actually em3ev realizes that is a problem and is setting up relationships with shops in the U.S. to handle their warranty work. Reason I know is that our shop is one of them he has contracted and we did our first job for them the other day. It was as simple as the on/off switch on a triangle battery that the customer didn't understand how to work properly.
 
E-Wheels

E-Wheels

Active Member
JoePah said:
Careful with chinese mail order companies.. This company has been around for awhile, but warranty repairs will be a probelm. .Plenty of reliable companies in the States or Canada.
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Thanks for the heads up but I’m not in the US or Canada. Options are very limited here and Asia is my nearest market
 
Dewey

Dewey

Well-Known Member
Article reporting on a press release from the European subsidiary company BionX GmbH reporting battery production has been relocated, and the company is working on relocating production of the motor - unclear if this means both the P and D series or just the D series used by the Elby Bike Europe and MiTech brands.
 
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Ann M.

Ann M.

Well-Known Member
@JRA, @E-Wheels, em3ev is an excellent source for MAC motors & Crystalyte Crown hub motors. Paul is extremely knowledgeable and sharing with his information and he sells top notch Lithium batteries. Prices are reasonable; just don't know how serious the US Tariffs will impact prices as items come through customs. One fellow EBR member who does mid drive builds just saw his customs bill on 10 units go from $40 to $300 and the tariffs weren't even in effect yet.
 
JRA

JRA

Well-Known Member
Ann, not sure why you think that I think other of Paul? All I was pointing out that getting warranty satisfaction with batteries can be a problem if the supplier is across the pond. He is astute enough to find a solution by engaging others so that they can be diagnosed more locally.

As an aside here a customer brought his bike and kit purchased from elsewhere (a known company supposedly representing a major brand here in the US) to the shop for installation. There were two different Priority Mail boxes and although there was a 48v/10ah HL battery in one of them there was no paperwork indicating it had gone through the correct shipping registration process, which pretty much relegates all LI chemistry batteries to ground shipping only. I have to wonder how a company rep can stand there at the counter and when asked if there is anything liquid, flammable or potentially hazardous is in the end going to end well for the others that do follow the rules. Not to mention you could go to jail.....

We just got a shipment of 50 bikes last week and there were no additional customs charges applied. The freight forwarding, dealing with the Longshoremen's union folks, and getting them out of the container and on a Ryder truck on the other hand did end up being more than originally expected.

A possible work around for the eBike industry is to shift manufacturing to Taiwan which is set to take on the load: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3471869 But the way I see this developing still involves Chinese participation in regards to motor and battery supply.
 
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Ann M.

Ann M.

Well-Known Member
JRA, we're on the same page; however, almost all ebike batteries are manufactured somewhere else and certainly the cells are. Motors & kit parts & Li cells are in the first round of tariffs here. Whole ebikes & whole Li batteries are different harmonized codes and are on the 2nd tariff list that many US manufacturers with plants in China went to D.C. last week to do formal protests. If those protests are rejected then whole ebikes & batteries have tariffs starting in Sept. or Aug. Hoping for the best on those protests.

Agreed on who we will still need for components; I can't currently find a certain type of motor we need in Taiwan.
 
E-Wheels

E-Wheels

Active Member
Ann M. said:
@JRA, @E-Wheels, em3ev is an excellent source for MAC motors & Crystalyte Crown hub motors. Paul is extremely knowledgeable and sharing with his information and he sells top notch Lithium batteries. Prices are reasonable; just don't know how serious the US Tariffs will impact prices as items come through customs. One fellow EBR member who does mid drive builds just saw his customs bill on 10 units go from $40 to $300 and the tariffs weren't even in effect yet.
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Thanks Ann. I did enquiry with Joseph at Em3ev about a rear direct drive hub, but they only supply freewheel compatible motors with a maximum of 7speed I believe where I would prefer a 10 speed freehub. I haven’t excluded them and still researching
 
msw4chl

msw4chl

New Member
Quick question back on topic of BionX going into receivership:

? How is the parent company in receivership with local US stores saying they can no longer get parts only able to ship parts on hand, yet BionX International was advertising product at EuroBike Show? Has BionX International resumed arrangements with suppliers? Will it only operate outside of North America?

Best, Mark
 
Dewey

Dewey

Well-Known Member
msw4chl said:
Has BionX International resumed arrangements with suppliers? Will it only operate outside of North America?
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A recent post on the Bionx GmbH Facebook page indicated that company would talk to its investors about international supply but is currently only supporting its European retailers and OEM partners at present. If they succeed in restarting production of motors, controllers, wiring harness, etc, it would make sense for them to build a new supply arrangement with US/Canadian Bionx dealers but I should doubt they would restart production or support the older P and S series motors because their OEM partners Elby Europe and Mi-Tech only use the D-series.
 
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Court

Court

Administrator
Staff member
Hi guys! I visited OHM today, a tight partner with BionX, and was delighted to find that they had used extra funds to buy up old inventory and are supporting their models for years to come... and even developed some hardware solutions beyond BionX to repack batteries and replace motors with TDCM. Check it out here.
 
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