Merkybikes Reviews 

Since discovering many faults with the bikes -

Brakes not working
Rear shocks falling apart
Dropout holes drilled too big for axles
Safety washers hanging out of the dropouts
Cracks in controller housing
Chain coming off front and rear sprockets getting jammed and causing damage to the frame
Brake lever leaking oil etc.

The bike has now stopped working altogether as the controller (main brain of the bike) has given up after barely 3 months of use. I didn't ride the bike at all for months due to UK winter and rain. I didn't want to risk breaking the bike...

The first time I go to ride it again the motor starts making a loud vibrating hammer drill sound and loses all power. The LCD shows error messages and the bike is now completely useless.

After Naomii ignored me for months over all of the other faults she finally starts responding again as she forgot who I was. She tells me she will get a technician to have a look, she will send replacement parts, she will replace the bikes altogether even! Then instead of doing any of that she decides to tell me her business has folded and goes back to ignoring me again.

Now I am forced to open a court case against her which can cost hundreds of pounds and take many months when all she had to do was keep in contact with me and help me to get the bikes working again.

When she sold me the bikes she was claiming that they had a 2 year warranty that I am guessing she knew full well she was never going to honor as her company was closing down. She is only concerned about selling the last of her defective stock with a dishonest sales pitch and then she will ignore you entirely when they fall apart.

All of the parts come from China and the main parts can not even be replaced. The controller for one is made by JYTcon and can only be bought 100 at a time. You also have to send the entire bike to China so that they can build it again from scratch.

Good luck if you still decide to buy her scrapheap bikes after my many warnings. You will need it.

We have taken the bikes out for a long range test set at 30% power with the assist going up to 11mph just to see how far we could possibly get on a full battery with low assist. We were mainly riding off road on tracks and bike trails, lots of fairly steep inclines and hills. The LCD screen stated 100% battery constantly until we reached 35 miles, only then it started to decline in percentage. The bikes actually managed just under 100 miles altogether! One of the main things that nearly put me off buying the bikes in the first place was the stated range of 45 miles with pedal assist. I know there any many things that can affect the range like user weight, wind, tire width + pressure, your own physical effort, assist level, terrain etc. I still think Merky have sold themselves short and have been a bit too conservative with their stated range though and I hope this has not hurt sales for them. Most if not all other companies state huge numbers for the range of their bikes that are only achievable under absolute perfect conditions so in such a competitive market I would advise Merky to do the same. For comparison our old bikes with a 10AH battery were stated at 40-100 miles range per charge and could only reach around half of what the Merky bikes can achieve at almost identical assist settings. I am pretty sure I could have travelled quite a bit further too as the conditions of our test were far from perfect. With this in mind Merky could easily state 45-150 miles or even more imo.

Advice for anyone who owns this bike -

To increase longevity of the battery try to keep it at around 70% charge and avoid leaving the bike fully charged or completely flat whenever possible. To achieve this, charge the battery until the LCD screen only just reaches 100% and then stop.
Buy mudguards for the front and back as you do not want stones chipping your paintwork, mud covering you and the bike or water getting inside the suspension pivot and causing rust.
The kickstand became loose on both of our bikes so I would check that before the bolts come out while riding and are lost forever or worse. I took the bolts out and put Loctite on them to prevent this happening again.
Another thing I did was to take the cover off and check the wires and speed controller. Do this at your own risk but I am glad I did as one of the plastic sleeves had moved right down the wire leaving a huge metal contact bare. If this happened to another wire and they both touched each other I should imagine it would have been bad news for the bike.
I would leave all of my battery saving settings on here as well but this review is already insanely long so good luck finding what works for you!

Update -

One of the rubber seals on the rear shock snapped and I noticed a crack in the plastic cover where the mid drive would be in the same place on both bikes. These problems are no big deal as the parts are cheap plastic and rubber but that is also exactly why they broke in the first place. Using cheap plastic parts on bike frames is obviously not a good idea. I have looked everywhere online and can not find replacements so I have no way of fixing them myself in future. Still waiting for Merky to get back to me about this.

WAY worse than this is how the hub motors are attached to the frame. The frame is DEFINATELY NOT designed to have a hub motor for a start. The bike frames are mid drive frames. The axle only just fits into the frame, it does not fit snug and the safety anti-rotation washers are both pretty much useless as they are hanging outside of the dropout. The frame on my bike is already being chewed away by the axle because it can turn freely inside the dropout. These bikes do not come with torque arms which are essential on motors of this size and power and there is actually nowhere to attach them even if you try to do it yourself. There are no screw holes on the side for panier racks, fenders or brakes so nowhere to attach torque arms. In my opinion this bike is NOT safe to ride.

I advise anyone who owns this bike to do your own research, take your rear wheel bolts off and check your safety washers. If you are mechanically minded and understand what their purpose is, you will instantly see why this is a BIG problem. The axles could eventually chew through the dropouts and then the best case scenario is that your wheel loses all power as the axle can turn inside the frame instead of the wheel turning. Worst case scenario is that your dropouts snap while you are travelling at speed. I really hope this is not a possibility but I can already see the damage being done to my frame by this terrible hub conversion and I have only owned the bikes for a month or so.

I have sent photo's of the damage on both bikes to Naomi and the tech support guy. They have both chosen to ignore me!

I would not buy a Merkybike unless you are a mechanic and willing to repair and replace parts at your own cost.

Wanted 2 bikes before holiday Spoke to Naomi and her partner and received excellent service answering all my questions incredibly promptly and purchased 2 of the X9 units. Delivery was arranged and came exactly as promised with a clear verbal explanation about assembly. Building bikes took 20 minutes each and then left with them on the back of our Motorhome for Italy. Have now used them for about 40 miles and they are much better than the sales pitch. Easy to ride very powerful and a fantastic range. Would highly recommend the Merkybikes team and product
Ian Lumsden

Highly recommended 💯

Quality bikes & great customer service.

I orderd a red m9 ebike from merkybike. When I contacted them naomii told me the postage was going to cost me £150!!!
I said that most company’s selling bikes on eBay offers free delivery!! Or £70 at the most. She then said she would try for cheaper postage !!! Then came back with £70 so I paid it… had to wait over a week to get the bike as she said the courier had not turned up when they should have and that she had to re schedule the collection!!!! Not very professional at all!!!!!
Then when I finally got the parcel I opened it up only to find I had got a white coloured cycle!!!! Anyway I contacted naomii and said that I was willing to keep the white cycle to save the company the expense of changing the bike for the colour that I orderd. On the agreement that they supplied me with a £23 led front led light as a good will gesture to save them quite a lot of cash exchanging.. naomii agreed and said she would get me the light. I contacted her on a number of occasions, and got one excuse after another.. and weeks down the line no light !!!
THE COMPANY IS UNRELIABLE, AND VERY UN PROFESSIONAL.AND UNRESONABLE, I WOULD BUY ELSEWHERE …!!!!!

Bought the Merkybike M9 and I love it. It has a removable battery for charging in my flat. It's really nice and powerful but with the ability to tune it down if its too much for you, just get the usb cable. It uses the UART connector which is far more configurable than the CANBUS one. The Bafang m620 motor is a beast and this is the best value bike i've seen it on to date. The front and rear suspension make for a really nice commuter ride, with some off road capability. If you're thinking about it, go for it, you won't regret it.

I first messaged Naomii at Merkybikes showing my interest in the crank drive m9 MTB, Naomii was very helpful and polite answered all my questions and took a small deposit on the bike, i went to Birmingham to pick it up and pay the balance owing, Naomii was there to greet me and had the bike ready to load in to my estate car, i arrived home and put the bike together Handlebars peddles and front wheel then blew the tyres up to recommended pressure i could not believe the performance of this bike it rides very well and will get me up the steepest incline with ease, a really good looking bike with quality components, i would highly recommend this company and their bikes,

Brought the m9 as recommended by dealer for where I ride and I am totally amazed bike is awesome well packaged easy to put together looks amazing and rides far better than bikes costing twice the money I live in Guernsey and found lots of sellers won't deliver here but I received bike less than a week after ordering highly recommend

love the bike good speed great range and very comfortable takes no time to charge and handles really well i dont think you could get a bike this good for the money you pay also a polite and very quick service highly recommend

As an avid cyclist,  comfort is paramount and the saddle on this bike plus the dimensions (for my particular height - I'm 6ft 2 and chose an X9) is so on the money. For a new company ,.the quality and service is out of this world

I've had my bike stolen more times than I care to remember so finally getting my hands on a bike that is not only electric but also foldable and easy to lock away has been such a relief. It's easy to fold down and would be pretty hard to steal given that it lives up to its "Fatty" name. Also, to date, I've only ridden traditional bikes and my ride to and from work is pretty hilly - so to sit on this and absolutely which goes up steep inclines in beast mode feels like such a luxury.
I had am error message that I couldn't figure out on my own and the Director of Merky himself walked me through the steps over a WhatsApp call to resolve in less than 5 minutes.
This bike is my new baby and I love it.

I just bought one of the R9 electric bycicles from MerkyBikes and I've instantly fallen in love with it. Firstly the turquoise is to die for and it's so quiet and so smooth and easy to ride. I also love how the battery is hidden in the frame which you can remove with a key and charge in the house or you can leave it on the bike and charge it.im going recommended my 3 daughter's to get them and leave the cars as much as possible. And I only paid £190 over 12 months.

"I was fairly nervous about purchasing my bike and becoming a city rider as I'd had little to no experience navigating busy streets as a cyclist but I needn't have worried as the very aptly named "E Fatty" and its chunky tyres allows me great centre of gravity and security whilst I build my confidence. The electric element is mind blowing as it literally feels like I am gliding along. The guys at Merkybikes were also on hand to assist with assembly and delivered within 36 hours of my order. I'd highly recommend"

It took a lot of convincing for me to leave the car and ride a bike to work mostly because its about 10 miles away but I have no regrets. I purchased the e Tough power M9 from MerkyBikes which has a top speed of 30mph and 40+ miles battery life so I get to work and back in no time. The full throttle function means I don't break a sweat when it comes to the big hills and is such a smooth ride. Very happy.