All about bicycles, electric-assisted bikes, technology and safety in the press

In our daily work as we deal with bicycle safety, technology and user manuals we come across lots of safety risks. The most frequent ones are published in articles of the leading German special-interest magazines TOUR – Europas Rennrad-Magazin Nr. 1, BIKE – Das Mountainbike Magazin Europas Nr. 1 and E-Bike – Das Pedelec-Magazin to make this information important for the sector accessible to a wider public.

For many years now the Eurobike Show Daily accompanying the annual international Eurobike Show has given us the opportunity to publish our perspective on major developments in the cycle industry in full-page articles.

We also speak regularly in independent lectures about all topics relating to bicycle technology and bicycle market. In addition, we are regularly cited by further special-interest magazines or trade journals as well as more and more by radio and television and in their media reports, which shows us that we are completely right with our information. The section NEWS informs you about the latest news from our specialist fields. The reports and publications of this section are listed chronologically or according to topics of interest.

velobiz.de, 2021/05/25
Reading time 1:30 minutes

SWR consumer magazine checks e-bike workshops

Prior to the broadcast of the SWR format “Marktcheck” tonight, there is only a short video teaser, but this leaves no hope for bicycle dealers to have an enjoyable TV evening. In the teaser, expert Dirk Zedler comments on a check of e-bike workshops with “Service desert bicycle trade”. The test results are “alarming”, according to a press release from the TV channel.

The editors of Marktcheck recently took e-bikes from viewers to bicycle repair shops in the greater Stuttgart area to check the quality of their work. Professional support for the check was provided by the expert Dirk Zedler from Ludwigsburg. And he apparently takes a hard line with the workshops checked in the report tonight. A press release published in advance speaks of “life-threatening defects” with which the e-bikes were returned to the customers after workshop maintenance. According to the press release, Zedler sees the (non-existent) professional acceptance process as one cause for the inadequate workshop performance: “You should expect from your dealer of trust to be accepted properly when you come for an inspection and that this conversation lasts at least ten minutes and is conducted competently.”

In the announcement for the television report, Werner Metzger, bicycle dealer from Freiburg and chairman of Baden-Wuerttemberg’s bicycle mechanic guild, also has his say. He sees not only the shortage of skilled staff in the industry as a fundamental problem, but also the training policy of the bicycle trade: “Without a master craftsman whose skills also include the instructor qualification, I cannot train a two-wheeler mechatronic technician. That’s the problem of many companies that have focused on trade and neglected the workshop in recent years. Now the boomerang comes back, now all the repairs come. And the workshop does not have the capacity to deal with the increasing number of piece numbers.”
The report will be broadcast tonight at 8.15 p.m. on SWR and will also be available afterwards on the Marktcheck youtube channel as well as in the ARD-Mediathek.

Author: Markus Fritsch
Photo: velobiz

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