A customized Coastal Cruiser at Electric Bike Super Shop in Ocean Beach. PHOTO BY WILLIAM CONNARD
When you visit Electric Bike Super Shop in Ocean Beach expect your experience to be above and beyond what you’d get most anywhere else.
“We customize all of our bikes do high-rise bars, saddlebags,” said owner William Connard about his space, which previously was Apogee tattoo at 4944 Newport Ave. “If you go to different shops, you’re going to see 10 of the same bikes in five different colors. Our value proposition is sizing the bike to the rider and customizing it to your style. When you come to us you’re coming for our industry experience, our customization, the style, and our service.”
Connard noted the main difference in buying ebikes from a retailer, a place with a shop, is that “you can touch and feel the bikes, get just the right size for you.”
Connard carries a large variety of ebikes. “All of our bikes are Class 2 and have hydraulic brakes,” he said. “All our components are plug and play and can be replaced.”
Class 1 ebikes are pedal-assist motors only up to 20 mph. Class 2 is pedal assist and a throttle up to 20 mph. Class 3 is pedal assist and throttle up to 28 mph. All three ebike classes are street legal. Beyond that, an ebike is considered a motorcycle with all the attendant licensing and permit requirements.
“I’ve been riding ebikes since 2012 and at the time I just wanted a fat-tire bike, which they had, and an electric motor, which they didn’t have,” said Connard, who previously was a store software locator for major retailers and also owns OB Playhouse next door. “Then in 2012, a company called Pedego came out with them (motors) and every few years I would upgrade.”
Five years ago, Connard retired and started looking for a place to start a new mid-priced ebike shop. He noted Apogee’s space had to be re-purposed for ebikes. “I thought, ‘It would be a perfect time to open an ebike business.’ The trend is up, the demand is up, everybody wants the bikes now and they’re becoming more mainstream for users.”
Connard said Electric Bike Super Shop is a “showroom with access to hundreds of bikes right now with one of each style so people can touch, feel and see them all. We pull them right out of the box, assemble and customize them just the way they want.”
Connard’s ebike assortment includes transportable folding bikes, standard beach cruisers, and fat-tire bikes. He also handles accessories such as mirrors and handlebar cell phone holders.
The ebike shop owner said his clientele includes lots of local kids and people living on top of the hill in OB buying bikes for themselves or their kids to go surfing. Connard also gets tourists who see what they like in his shop and can order his bikes and have them shipped.
Electric Bike Super Shop in OB also does ebike repairs onsite.
ELECTRIC BIKE SUPER SHOP
Where: 4944 Newport Ave., Suite B\
Contact: electricbikesupershop.com, 619-879-6993.
