READER’S LIVES How The World’s Coolest E-Bike Landed In The UK When I see the headline “be careful about falling in love with a British accent” I smile, as it reminds me of when I met my husband while on a trip to New York City. Although I thought it was a British accent I fell in love with, he is originally from a British colony Northern Rhodesia now called Zambia. After 6 years of dating long distance and many hours on Skype and trips back and forth between my home in Chicago and his work locations in London, Italy and Germany, we were married 5 years ago. After our Chicago wedding, I quit my job, gave away most of my furniture and belongings, sold my car, and arrived in the UK in 2015. As I settled in London with him and we started our new life together, we realised that with both our careers in transition working for others, we needed a change. In 2018, my husband and I launched Rayvolt UK as the exclusive importer and distributor for a luxury brand of premium e-bikes designed and hand-assembled in Spain. With his background in the European automotive industry and my HR background, we decided to give it a go after my husband fell in love with the Rayvolt Cruzer e-bike while on holiday in Spain. We happened to walk past the Rayvolt showroom and headquarters in Barcelona’s Old Town while looking for our favourite restaurant. My husband was drawn into their beautiful shop, and was astonished by their design and beauty and had to learn more. During that visit, It didn’t take long after seeing their range of e-bikes, and meeting the founders and hearing their story before my husband politely asked: “Do you have a UK distributor?”, which startled me, as we weren’t actively looking to start an e-bike business or had even discussed it! My
Torino in Pearl White - Rayvolt images
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husband has an appreciation for retro-styled classic cars and has two 1980’s Mercedes SL’s and a motorcycle, and we quickly determined that there was nothing quite like these e-bikes on the market in the UK. We realised that they are the absolute cutting edge of design, engineering and technology, with Bluetooth connectivity, automatic uphill assistance, and intelligent regenerative braking among the many features. However, the real impact of the Cruzer is the smiles on all who see and ride it. When you ride a Rayvolt Cruzer, you can literally feel people staring. This is something we quickly had to get used to as they are real head turners and you’re the centre of attention when riding it. What we also came to appreciate is that the Rayvolt Cruzer is a fantastic eco-friendly way of commuting and to enjoy a casual cycle, without having to exert a lot of effort. With a potential 50-mile range, you feel very confident that you’re not going to run out of power. This has become especially important during the current times we face as an alternative form of safe commuting. When our first stock arrived in 2018, we initially worked out of our home in South London while storing most of our stock in a rented storage container nearby. Our first customer had inquired about a Cruzer by contacting the Rayvolt Office in Spain who then sent him our way. He set up an appointment, drove down from StratfordUpon-Avon, had a cup of tea, took a test ride, and fell in love with it straight away. He was looking for a high tech e-bike to take him on his daily journey along the towpath to go fishing. We will never forget our first sale, but working out of the house was not practical nor the image we wanted to present, as we
were determined to provide a first-class sales experience and provide a service centre and repair facility which would carry the full range of spares and guarantee personalised post sale customer support. It took months of researching the high priced commercial letting market, but we found an industrial warehouse unit nearby and moved in a year ago. We’ve established a secure warehouse storage facility, stocked a full range of spares and built a fully-equipped professional e-bike service centre. A web designer friend of ours developed our first website and we launched our Rayvolt UK e-commerce business. My husband Graham handles the stock, sales, service and technical specifications of the business, and I handle social media, finances, and accounting. It’s been an interesting journey so far as I’ve had to develop skills that were not in my wheelhouseQuickbooks, the UK VAT system, photography, marketing, social media and the commercial retail market. We also realised we needed a vehicle to transport the bikes, and although we were looking for any other colour than white, we did indeed eventually purchase a white van - yes, we are those people. We decided that unlike many e-commerce platforms that deliver boxes and have no follow-up service or support, we were determined to differentiate ourselves and offer personalised, professional service and support for our customers. The business we’ve created is one where a customer can build and customise their e-bike on our website, picking out colour, battery size, motor size and accessories, and placing an order or by making an appointment with us for a test ride while discussing their requirements and riding style to determine the most suitable Rayvolt e-bike. Once an order is placed, we keep in touch and prepare the e-bike to your specifications including a full 52 point PDI inspection, full technical inspection and a 10-mile static road test to make sure the e-bike is perfect and ready to ride upon handover. We also offer a free white glove delivery service to your door which includes full training on the EIVA ® app which converts the e-bike to a smart bike to control, customise and monitor your Cruzer, and a custom bike fit. Riders can download the free EIVA app on purchase and get real-time readouts on speed, battery and bike health, as well as control acceleration, top speed, braking and drive modes. Included is the facility of switching to off-road if riding on private land with the owner’s permission.
