After e-bikes started breaking in half, Fiido promises $10,000 against future frame snafus
Last week we reported on Fiido’s latest e-bike frame recall, which saw yet another one of its models demonstrate a propensity to break in half after several months of riding. Now the company is stepping up with a redesign and a $10,000 promise to make Fiido T1 e-bike owners feel more secure about their rides.
If this gives you déjà vu, you aren’t alone.
Earlier this year we covered another one of Fiido’s e-bike models that broke in half, triggering a massive recall.
Now the T1 is doing the same thing, but Fiido has again been quick to respond.
Within a day of our original report, the company began addressing the problem in owner’s groups, quickly following up shortly after with an online tool to allow Fiido T1 e-bike owners to determine if their frame was on the list of affected models.
The company explained that the issue was related to a design flaw in the downtube, and immediately released design drawings and images showing a new reinforcement that had been added to the frame on T1 models currently in production (seen above).
In addition to the exterior reinforcement, Fiido also explained that an interior reinforcement had been included inside the frame tube as well.
To further appease owners, the company added a few other upgrades to the bike including hydraulic disc brakes to replace the previous mechanical disc brakes.
Fiido also released videos showing T1 frames undergoing accelerated cycle life testing in its frame lab, as you can see below. Both reinforced and un-reinforced frames appear on various apparatuses.
But the two most significant guarantees made to owners of the redesigned model are an extended 5-year warranty and a $10,000 guarantee that future e-bikes will remain in one piece.
As the company explained:
1. All T1s (including those in stock and the replacements) will enjoy a 5-year warranty from Fiido for the frame from now on.
2. We promise that if any of the new T1s suffers from a frame-breaking issue under normal use conditions, Fiido will compensate the customer with $10,000. No questions asked. We are confident in T1 and are sure that no one will have the need to claim this. But feel free to bet against us.
Fiido is now sending out new T1 electric bikes to owners with affected frames, though without the battery and charger.
Owners are being asked to save their original battery and charger to be used on the new replacement bike.
According to emails from Fiido sent to T1 owners, the replacement e-bikes are expected to arrive in the US by Novermber 7th, 2022 and to begin reaching most customers by November 15, 2022. The company says that they expect to have all affected e-bikes replaced by the end of the year.
Electrek’s Take
This is obviously a disaster scenario for riders and the e-bike company, but I must say that Fiido seems to be handling it as well as anyone could have hoped.
They’ve made it easy for owners to determine if their e-bikes are affected, they’ve redesigned the bike and plan to have replacements in owners’ hands less than a month after the problem was reported (including shipping from halfway around the world), and they’re putting their money where their mouths are by offering a $10,000 guarantee against future T1s breaking.
I would have loved to see them include all of their future e-bikes in that $10,000 guarantee though, as that would make them extra sure that any new e-bike gets sufficiently tested on the way out of the factory.
But as far as crisis response goes, Fiido seems to have done quite well.
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Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.
According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.
“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.
The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.
The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.
Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.
And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.
The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.
Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.
That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.
The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.
Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.
The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.
Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.
In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.
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