FAQs

You can (and should consider) buying the LIFT without a motor.

One of the most important things for us as a bike company is to sell only what is needed and nothing more. Up until five years ago, nearly all bikes sold were non-electric and were relied on for business and personal use. Clearly, there are advantages to having a motor-assisted platform, but there are many circumstances in which it’s likely more trouble than it’s worth. A perfect example is in our hometown of Pemberton, BC.

Pemberton is a small farming community on a floodplain in the Coast Mountains. Despite having hundreds of snow-capped peaks in every direction, it is pancake-flat and sits 600’ above sea level. The village is centrally planned and small, with most things a 5-10 minute bike ride away. So if one of my friends asked me if they need an ebike in Pemberton, I usually recommend against it or at least ask them to consider why they think they need one.

Electric bikes use lithium batteries made from raw material harvested in open-pit mines in Australia, Chile and China. Motors use large quantities of rare-earth metals and copper and have a lifespan after which they will eventually need to be recycled. And motor/power systems add weight and significant expense to the final price of ours, and everyone else’s bikes. If there isn’t a clear need for a motor (or a clear purpose for buying our bike in general), we think you should reconsider.

That being said, we recognize that circumstances change and want to make it as easy as possible to retrofit our bikes with motor kits down the line. We offer electric conversion kits for the same price difference between our ePickup and pedal version and give you clear instructions for you or a bike shop to make the conversion. If you can test-ride our bike before buying, we encourage you to try it without electric-assist to see if pedal-only is right for you.

Most are, but not ours!

Our hub-mounted direct drive motor is one of the most powerful you can find and is designed specifically for high-torque applications, 85Nm, to be exact. Combined with our high-power motor controller, our made-in-Canada drivetrain will pump out up to 1300W at the wheel when needed, nearly 2 horsepower!

One of our core values is that bikes should be easy to repair by anyone. Most other front-loading electric bikes fall short on this principle by using a proprietary mid-drive motor locked to a particular manufacturer (Shimano STePS, Bosch, etc.). When this motor breaks, you’ll have to hope the company is still supporting repairs, and if they aren’t, you’ll be stuck pedaling a heavy gearbox around and looking for a replacement bike.

Finally, our bike is one of the only cargo bikes with regenerative motor braking, increasing both your range and the life of your brake pads. This is simply not possible with a mid-drive motor. When the brake lever is pulled, our controller engages regenerative braking before the hydraulic system engages to slow the bike down smoothly and top up the battery at the same time.

We’ve designed the LIFT to be left outside and in the rain, although there are a couple of things to consider when doing so.

• Chains rust, even ours with KMC’s Eco-Protect finish. If you leave it out for several days in a humid environment or out in the rain, you may eventually notice a layer of surface rust develop on the chain. This is ok and the bike is usually perfectly rideable. A quick wipe with a dry cloth and a chain lubricant will get things moving again.
• Our accessory canvas is waterproof but will fade with significant UV exposure. We recommend storing it in the shade if you’re not riding for extended periods of time.

Assholes steal bikes, even when the most conservative measures are taken to prevent it. Usually theft is opportunistic, so we recommend taking a couple easy measures to make thieves think twice about taking your bike for a joy ride.

• Use a reputable chain lock (cables can easily be cut with cable cutters or grinders) and thread it through the rear wheel and steel rear triangle.
• If you’re leaving the bike a little longer, consider locking both the front and rear wheels together and to a bike rack. While just as difficult to break into, thieves will probably pass on your bike because it would be a PITA to cart away.
• Finally, we recommend storing the bike inside whenever possible to fully eliminate the chance of theft.

We wanted a name that reminds you to think big. Bikes that offer ultimate versatility, that can easily switch between carting the kids to school or daycare and hauling gear and cargo, have the potential to truly replace car journeys. We designed our bike with ultimate durability and serviceability in mind, attributes typically attributed to work vehicles rather than electric bicycles.

The BIG LIFT (get it?!) has been designed to be fully customizable for clients that have specific needs outside of the normal specs of our bike. Wheelbase may be sourced longer or shorter as needed, and we can work with you on custom accessories for the cargo bay, from a large-volume delivery container to a mobile business platform. Please reach out to us to discuss how we can help you.

We strive to build products that are as “open source” as possible. In the bicycle world, this means using certain standards where one component interfaces or attaches to another. For example, we don’t build a rear wheel around a tire that you can only get from Sartée Bikes. That would be mean, but lots of companies do it!

As far as components go, we do not use any that cannot be exchanged with off-the-shelf replacements. Our wheels, tires, forks, pedals, crank sets, etc. (basically everything bolted to the frame) use industry standard mounting specifications.

This is especially notable for our motor and bottom bracket. If you’re comparison shopping, take a close look. Nearly every other manufacturer uses a proprietary Bosch or Shimano bottom bracket gearbox and motor. This is a non-starter for anyone looking to have support for their bike 10+ years down the road. Replacement parts, if they are even still available, will be harder and harder to find, forcing you to ride power-less and looking for a total bike replacement.

Our frame, like all front-loading bikes, has some unique design features that require specific maintenance should anything go wrong. Our steering system consists of 1/8” 7×19” stainless steel wire rope, tensioned through a series of pulleys and fixed between the fork and steerer post. While we support your ability to repair this system, we prefer you have it done by a professional bike shop in order to ensure all maintenance specs are adhered to properly.

You can always reach us at support@sartee.com for detailed repair instructions if you cannot find them on the maintenance and repair page.

The decision to use a traditional derailleur stems directly from the first part of our mission, to build the best bikes. In order to use a geared hub and a motor at the same time, we would need to position that motor in the bottom bracket, limiting your ability to maintain the bike and service the bike for as long as possible.

Traditional derailleurs are also readily available anywhere in the world, use universal mounting points, and can be maintained by the home mechanic, all qualities that we consider table stakes for a bike meant to last a generation.

We believe the best way to make sure our products last a lifetime is to empower our customers to take an active role in the process. As products are released and time allows, we will develop individual repair guides for common points of failure.

If you’ve experienced a component failure, please contact us first to determine whether it can be repaired at home or your local bike shop. If it can’t, we’ll strive to replace it for our cost to get you back on the road as quickly as possible.

We endeavor to build bikes that will stand the test of time, support the local economy, and break trail towards a gas-free future.

We envision a community where people not only know how their products are made, but care deeply about improving the lives of the people who make it.

We see ourselves as leaders, not measured by sales or market share, but in product reparability, customer transparency and community wellbeing.

Everyone deserves a convenient, safe and clean way to get around

Bikes should be repairable and serviceable by anyone, anywhere, anytime

Materials should not be wasted, pick the best ones and use them sparingly

Transparency encourages conversation, and conversation enables change

Pride of ownership and quality of product are two sides of the same coin

Stronger communities, both locally and globally, through carbon-free mobility

Sartée Bikes is committed to building bikes that last for generations to come and we want the people riding our bikes then to live in a world that is safer, cleaner and more sustainable than the one we live in now. To achieve these parallel goals we are taking the following actions right now…

Build the best bicycles possible

We feel the best way to reduce our impact on the environment is to build bikes that have no reason to ever be replaced. This means using materials and hardware that will not deteriorate over time, as well as designing our frames and in-house components with a priority on durability over weight and quality over profit margin.

Understand our impact on the environment

The gold standard diagnostic tool for a company understanding the impact of its products is a detailed life cycle analysis (LCA). This tool takes into account the carbon footprint of all stages of a product life cycle, from raw material extraction and manufacturing, to distribution, customer use, and disposal or recycling. When done correctly and thoroughly, these analyses tend to be very expensive to implement but provide invaluable baselines from which a company can measure improvements over time.

Sartée Bikes is not yet at the point where a detailed LCA makes financial or practical sense to implement. As a young company, there are just too many variables still at play throughout our supply chain to justify such a detailed evaluation. That being said, we are committed to radical transparency from day one, and to that end we have begun the process of cataloging the amounts and sources of each of the major materials used in our Pickup Bikes.

We are also committed to complete supplier transparency, something that is not typical in the bike industry as a whole. For every component and major part of the Pickup, we have provided company names and even links to the exact parts that are sourced, information that can be found here. We hope that by providing this information to our customers and the general public, we will encourage other companies to do the same, allowing for a stronger connection between end customers and makers of the goods we all use.

Finally, starting from year one, we plan to commit 1% of our annual sales to organizations who focus on restoring the natural environment and build community, both locally and globally. More specifically, we will direct our contributions towards non profit organizations which restore natural habitats that have been negatively impacted by raw material extraction as well as recycle and repurpose unused and end-of-life bike components like batteries, parts, tires and frames.

What does it mean to be made somewhere? Our bikes, and all bikes really, aren’t simply made. Their frames are hand built by real people all over the world, extruders, tube benders, welders, anodizers and painters. Their components are sourced from one of hundreds of suppliers across Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Japan, Europe and USA. This article from Vernon Felton at Pinkbike offers an amazing view into the bike-building industry.

Right now, our bikes are fully assembled at our headquarters in Pemberton, Canada. The main reason we do this is to maintain as much flexibility during the early days of our company. If a part or process isn’t working for us, we have the ability to change it immediately, from one bike to the very next. As many of these variables begin to stabilize, we will consider moving them up the supply chain if it helps us focus on the most important quality issues here at home.

Final assembly, test and pack-out (FATP) is only one of many steps in the process towards making a complete bike. We source about 90% of our mechanical components from vendors in Taiwan and the remaining ones from China. Our front-frame is assembled from raw aluminum extrusion and CNC billet machined aluminum blocks from our partners in China, then anodized and sent on a container ship to Pemberton for final assembly. Our rear triangle is hand-welded and powder coated in Montreal, Quebec and sent to us here as well.

From assembly of the smallest components to welding the final frame, our vendors, welders and staff work hard to bring the elements of a complete bike together. We would like to highlight their stories, both to say thank you for the hard work, and so you know the monumental effort that goes into each and every one of our bikes.

Yes, absolutely!

The PICKUP has been designed to be fully customizable for clients that have specific needs outside of the normal specs of our bike. Wheelbase may be sourced longer or shorter as needed, and we can work with you on custom accessories for the cargo bay, from a large-volume delivery container to a mobile business platform. Please reach out to us to discuss how we can help you.

Right now we ship to the USA and Canada.

We have plans to expand further afield once we can build an adequate support network for our bikes in other countries.

When ordering directly from our website, you will receive a tracking link with your order confirmation. If you have any questions that cannot be answered by checking the tracking info, please contact us at support@sartee.com.

The costs associated with shipping a bicycle across Canada or to the USA are significant. We cover shipping costs to send a bike but ask that you pay shipping costs to return. Please contact us at support@sartee.com to initiate a return. We will work with you to either resolve your problem or help you find the most economical way to make a return for a full refund.