Update April 14th, 4:10AM ET: Fiido has notified owners of recall plans, offering free collection and replacement with an improved Fiido X or an alternative, but comparable, e-bike that the company sells. The stronger 2.0 frame comes with a three-year warranty. Detailed instructions are available here: Fiido recall arrangement

Fiido, maker of cheap direct-to-consumer electric bikes, has suspended sales of its Fiido X and is preparing a recall after discovering a fault that could cause the folding e-bike to break in two. Fiido spokesperson Jennifer Sun confirmed the issue to The Verge and says the company will release more details by April 12th. The recall was first reported by Electrek.

When The Verge reviewed the $999 Fiido D11 e-bike in 2020 we concluded that you get what you pay for. The followup $1,298 Fiido X, though, was an improvement in nearly every way, leaving us optimistic about the late-stage prototype we tested ahead of its launch on Indiegogo. Welp.

Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

The Fiido X is built on a lightweight magnesium frame and includes a new folding mechanism. It’s here where the fault seems to lie.

In a statement posted to the private Fiido X E-bike Owners Group on Facebook, a company representative says it received a faulty frame report on April 3rd which Fiido was able to confirm in its R&D lab in Shenzhen. “Based on the fact that this failure is a serious security issue, we are now urging all users to stop using X provisionally, as there’s a risk,” wrote a Fiido representative. “Relevant recall implementation details, user protection plan, failure cause analysis and technical improvement plan will be released before April 12th.”

As we said in our writeup of the Fiido X, “support is always going to be an issue with these direct-to-consumer e-bikes.” Now, six months later, this global recall will be a real test for the young company, founded in 2016, that has shipped hundreds of thousands of e-bikes around the globe with the help of Indiegogo.