This has been a very frustrating and disappointing experience with my ZUGO bike. In October 2022,…read moreafter a month of researching e-bikes, there was a lot of positive reviews of the ZUGO bike, so I purchased the Rhino on sale for $1700, it was a floor model sale, which was advertised as "cosmetic issues only," stating there were minor scratches and that's it. Well, first off, when the bike was delivered it did have a couple minor scratches, nothing horrible, there was touch up paint sent with the bike, however the the paint they sent was in 2 nail polish bottles that were dried up. I didn't care, the scratches were small, and I thought if that was the only issue, I was ok with it. Well, I was wrong. Less than a week of having the bike it was shutting off on me while riding. I would hit a small bump and I would lose power. After contacting customer service, within 6 days of purchase they were sending me a new controller, which didn't fix the issue. About 3 weeks from that they sent me a new display with the keypad, which did not fix the issue. 2 days after that (almost 1 month after purchase), they were sending me a new battery. I rode the bike a few times within a week, and it seems to have been working well. Two months went by and I didn't ride the bike much due to weather (January and February) and a move. Come March, less than 5 months after purchase, less than 2 1/2 months since I thought the problem was solved, I started riding the bike more, and sure enough, the bike began to shut off on me again. I reached back out to ZUGO in March of 2023 only to find out the company shut down. I figured I was stuck with a lemon of a purchase, and because I spent $1700, I wasn't just going to throw it away, or sell it to someone else so they had to deal with. So I kept it and have been riding with this issue for over 2 and a half years. Some rides it'll work perfectly, and I think it's fixed, but then I'll go on a ride, and it'll shut off on me multiple times, including at night when I'm in the road near cars, when no power - no lights. So, it is kind of dangerous at times to ride this way. Fast forward to August of 2025, I learned ZUGO bike company is back up and running, so I reached out and they have since suggested the issue is with the controller, keypad, display, or battery, which I reminded them those are the parts they already replaced, which again did not fix it the first time. They said I should take it to their partner shop. They asked me to send photos and videos again of the parts they had already sent me, and I did, and they said it all looked good. ZUGO is a Texas based company, and I live in California, Costa Mesa/Newport Beach/Huntington Beach area, and one of their selling points was if there are issues with the bike they would send you to a bike shop in your area, well, they just suggested I go to their partner store 97 miles one way -2 hours- away from me. I don't have a truck to load the bike into nor the time to spend a whole day just driving to and from a bike shop, so I asked if there was another closer, and 2 weeks have gone by, and they haven't even reached out to me. I did send new photos of all the parts and cables they asked me to, to which they said everything looked good, so they asked me to check the voltage on this replacement battery by using a multimeter, which I don't have, and don't think I should have to buy to fix a bike that has had the same problem within a week of purchase and multiple parts replaced almost 3 years ago.
And now, to top it off, the replacement battery I have been using is now shot. The charger is indicating a full charge with a green light, but the battery lights, once pressed, are not showing any level of charge.
This has been a 3 year headache, and if problems arose after a year, it wouldn't bother me as much as it does that these issues started within weeks of purchase and couldn't be resolved because they shut down. So, when seeing ZUGO was back in business, I thought I would try, thinking they may want to rectify old accounts, but unfortunately, I've just been getting the runaround.
I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else.