Ride1Up, a San Diego-based electric bicycle maker known for an increasingly broad range of affordably-priced electric bikes, is trying to make its e-bikes even more accessible. The company just announced that effective immediately, it is cutting prices on nearly its entire lineup.
Massive sales are nothing new in the e-bike industry. Several e-bike companies have been running incredible deals for much of the past six months. Remember those Black Friday deals that turned into Holiday sales only to then morph into Valentine’s Day bundles and Easter discounts? Yeah, the entire e-bike industry has been offering incredible rollercoaster sales as warehouses remain largely packed with overstocked bikes fueled by pandemic-era buying sprees.
But unlike most companies, Ride1Up is taking the major step of making those sale prices permanent. Instead of offering a misleadingly high MSRP and a much more attractive sale price, Ride1Up is moving more of its models towards a simplified, lower-cost model that is more sincere and transparent.
“Ride1Up proudly announces permanent price reductions for many of our highly rated ebikes, making them more affordable without sacrificing build quality and components,” the company explained. “Since our inception in 2018, Ride1Up’s mission has always been to make ebikes more affordable to the riding community.”
As a nod toward any consumers who recently purchased an e-bike from Ride1Up before the announcement of the drastically reduced pricing, Ride1Up is offering a 30-day price match guarantee. Basically, if you bought an e-bike from the company in the past month, they’ll credit you the difference in the sale price.
The new sales include up to $300 in savings, and offer up some incredible pricinging we haven’t seen in years. For example, the much-vaunted Ride1Up Roadster V2, which is the epitome of a lightweight, single-speed e-bike, is now priced at just $895. Its Gates belt drive and gravel-focused cousin, the Roadster V2 Gravel, comes in at a more-than-fair $1,295.
Other impressive deals include the new $1,395 price for the Cafe Cruiser, a 28 mph cruiser-meets-commuter e-bike that can carry up to two riders, as well as the $1,995 Prodigy V1, which might just be the most affordably-priced Bosch mid-drive electric bike on the market.
The company says that this is a shift in strategy to provide consumers with more sincere pricing that steers away from sale gimmicks common in the industry and maintains consistent low pricing regardless of the time of year. “From now on, Ride1Up will avoid massive discounts from our new retail prices. The goal is to provide you with the best price possible year-round without having to wait or anticipate the next big sale.”
Electrek’s Take
To be honest, I wish more companies were like this. Kickstarter e-bikes are the worst, guilty of pricing gimmicks more than anyone else (“Get this $4,000 MSRP e-bike for just $1,699!”). But even big-name e-bike companies have laid the high MSRP meets low sale price trap many times.
Perhaps Ride1Up is signaling to the industry that they simply aren’t going to play that game anymore. Perhaps they’re daring others to follow this lead. Or perhaps they just want consumers to see fair, realistic pricing upfront. Whatever the reason, this should become a much more common practice.