EbikeTested Is Live: What We're Building, and What We Haven't Tested Yet
A new e-bike gear testing site with a simple premise: buy it at retail, put it against a meter, publish the failures. Here is the plan, stated in public before any of it has happened.
EbikeTested launches today with a published methodology and zero test results, in that order on purpose. Phase one is two bench labs that need no bike at all: timed destruction testing of e-bike locks, and logged capacity testing of batteries and chargers, alongside a running index of advertised range versus independently tested range and a brand-survival scorecard. Everything we ever score will be bought at retail with our own money. Nothing on this site will claim a test that hasn't actually run, and right now that means: nothing has been tested yet.
Why this site exists
Electric bikes are sold on spec sheets and bought on faith. A bike claims 60 miles of range, a motor claims 750 watts, a battery claims 800 charge cycles, a lock claims to defeat power tools. Almost nobody buys the product at retail and checks.
The big dedicated e-bike review outlets work on manufacturer-supplied units, and coverage largely ends when the launch embargo lifts. What breaks at month nine lives in forum threads, not in the reviews people actually find. And the category has a brand-survival problem the review economy is structurally unable to cover: in December 2025 the former number one brand in the space filed for bankruptcy on top of its customers, leaving owners with orphaned warranties and an active federal safety warning on their batteries. A site funded by brand fees cannot tell you which brand looks like it might be next. A site that buys everything at retail can.
We buy it, we ride it, we publish the failures. And we don't sell bikes.
What we're building first
Phase one deliberately requires no bike:
- The Security Lab. E-bike locks, measured first (real weight versus claimed, fat-tube fit, mounting), then timed power-tool destruction runs on camera for the finalists. Framed around the Sold Secure Powered Cycle tier and the lock requirements insurers actually write into policies.
- The Battery and Charger Lab. Replacement packs and chargers on a calibrated discharge logger: measured capacity against the label, and safety certification (UL 2271, UL 2849, EN 15194) verified against the certifier's records before anything is ever linked. Uncertified packs will never be recommended here, whatever they pay.
- The Range Gap. A running, sourced index of advertised range versus independently published test results, one chart per bike. Range claims are marketing. Eventually, we ride to empty ourselves.
- Will This Brand Survive, and Died Early. A brand stability scorecard, a structured database of owner-reported failures, and a standing recall watch.
From around month four: retail-bought bikes, one at a time, each kept permanently as a long-term test mule with a public failure log.
The rules, committed to in public on day one
- Anything scored or compared is bought at retail, with our own money, chain of custody documented from receipt to serial number. Loaner units, if they ever appear, will be in clearly labeled non-scored formats only.
- No payment, product, or fee from brands for scored coverage. Ever.
- Measurements, not accusations. We will publish what our unit measured, under stated conditions, and we will not put words like "scam" in a headline. The number is the finding.
- Only safety-certified battery gear gets linked. Your bike parks in your home.
- No derestriction guides, no tuning-chip reviews, no top-speed stunt content, regardless of how much traffic those keywords carry.
- Affiliate links, when they exist, get disclosed per article. Today there are none: no programs have been joined yet, and the affiliate disclosure page says exactly that.
- Nothing is ever described as tested before the test has run. This post is the proof of concept: it contains no scores, because none exist.
Fair questions
What have you tested so far?
Nothing. The instrument bench is being assembled and the first lock and battery purchases come next. The methodology page keeps a plain, current statement of lab status, and it will change the day the first protocol runs.
How will the site make money?
Affiliate commissions, disclosed per article, once programs are approved. Commissions never touch scores, failures publish anyway, and brand stability is part of every score precisely because we don't depend on any one brand's goodwill.
Do you take review units?
Not for anything scored. If a loaner ever appears in a non-scored format such as a first look, it will be labeled as exactly that, with disclosure on the article.
Who is behind this?
EbikeTested is the fourth site in the "…Tested" family, alongside MeowTested, VanTested, and WoofTested: independent testing sites built on disclosed methodology and published failures. Author bylines with real names and faces are coming as the lab spins up.
Follow the first tests
The newsletter in the footer gets the first lock timings and discharge curves when they exist, and nothing before. If you want a specific lock, pack, or claim on the bench, tell us. If your e-bike died early, we want the story: what broke, at what mileage, and how the warranty claim went.