The financial problems of the trendy, stylish Brussels bicycle brand Cowboy may have been mainly resolved by its takeover by the French bicycle group Rebirth. Still, for owners of its e-bikes, these remain uncertain times that often lead to despair in the event of a breakdown.

As it happens, you sometimes have to wait months for spare parts, and their customer service does not always respond promptly, leaving your expensive Cowboy bicycle immobilized. The fact that Cowboy uniquely builds its bikes certainly does not make it easy for the company to help its frustrated customers.

Rising complaints

Waiting months for an outer tire or a drive belt, or even six to eight months for a newly ordered bicycle? Some Cowboy customers are now all too familiar with this situation, or are so fed up with it that they have sold their bicycles.

According to the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, the number of complaints to the Consumer Ombudsman Service is also steadily increasing, as is the case with consumer organization Testaankoop – by mid-October, there were 43 complaints.

Deal still not signed

The fact that some Cowboy bicycle parts or bikes are currently no longer being supplied is mainly due to the financial difficulties that have been plaguing the Brussels-based company for some time.

At the end of September, it was announced that Rebirth would take over 80% of the ailing Cowboy. Rebirth would invest 15 million euros to get Cowboy back on track, and the deal was expected to be finalized by mid-October. Today, the agreement has not yet been signed, but according to the TV channel RTBF, it is in its final stages.

Use of integrated, proprietary designs

Owners of a defective Cowboy bike will therefore have to be patient for a while longer before the waiting times during this transition period are eliminated. But the fact that such problems with parts inventory occur with this brand is, of course, also because Cowboy developed everything itself and uses very integrated, proprietary designs.

Therefore, third-party or local bike workshops are often unable to repair them. In other words, if the custom Gates-style drive belt, the rear-hub motor, or the integrated, proprietary battery (with unique connectors and form factor) fail, only Cowboy can supply replacements, and local mechanics cannot source or retrofit equivalent parts.

Or as one frustrated Cowboy owner sums it up: “They wanted to create an Apple-style system, where everything is integrated and specific to their own model, except they don’t have Apple’s ability to respond or Apple’s money.”

More standard parts

Precisely because of this increasing dependence on Cowboy’s own spare parts supply, the new shareholder is now also considering using more standard parts. At the same time, Rebirth also wants to reduce the production costs of a Cowboy, which averages between €2,500 and €4,000, for example, by centralizing tire purchases across all brands in the group.

The physical store presence would also be further expanded—until now, the bikes have been sold mainly online, which should make it easier to obtain spare parts in the future.

For now, there is nothing else to do but wait. However, it is understandable that the patience of customers who have not been able to ride their expensive bikes for a year and a half while waiting for a new frame—the famous recall of the ‘Cruiser ST’ model—has long since run out.

And it goes without saying that if there is no clarity about the company’s future, potential new customers will wait and see, either seeking more clarity or choosing another, more reliable bicycle brand. Because no matter how hip or beautiful the bike is, if you can’t ride it, it’s useless.