Anyone Ready To Give This EV Motorcycle Startup More Money For Another Bike They May Never See?

The email landed in our Tips inbox without much fanfare. Here’s the text, in both its brevity and its entirety.

RideApart,

Storm Sondors. 001 is the new bike. Invitation September 3 at sondors.com. Not Meta AT. This is 001.

Storm

If you’ve been around in certain vehicular spaces on these here Interwebs for the past few years, you may remember Sondors. The company started out selling low-cost, direct-to-consumer e-bikes (as in, electric bicycles) back in 2015.

And if it had only stuck to e-bikes, we might be telling you a different story today, because a lot of people seemed to mostly like its initial lineup. Sure, there were some issues (there always are), but for the most part, reviews were decent and customers mostly seemed happy enough.

Exhibit A: The Metacycle

And then there was Metacycle.

Back then, there hadn’t been quite as many crowdfunding scams just yet; while the Skully debacle was surely living rent-free in everyone’s minds, the spectacular flameout of Damon Motorcycles hadn’t yet materialized. It was definitely a more optimistic time, and if the Metacycle had been able to deliver both good design and the specs that it promised, it would have been something to get excited about.

Two big problems that existed in the EV motorcycle space at that time have improved a little bit in the space between 2023 and 2026; or, at least, the pain point of high prices has. It’s now possible to get electric motorcycles that don’t cost $20K anymore; even the LiveWire One has come down significantly in price (which probably sucks for early adopters, but might not be terrible for anyone thinking of buying a new one right now).

Range still isn’t a whole lot better for many less expensive models yet, unfortunately; battery chemistries and technologies are improving, but there’s still only so much that anyone can do with regard to energy density in battery cells and how much extra weight you can practically pack into a motorcycle-sized frame. 

What of the Sondors Metacycle? Well, one thing you can say for it is that it was a real EV motorbike that was rideable, and that several reviewers (though not RideApart at that time) got their hands on to test. You can find video reviews from the likes of Zack Courts and Ryan F9, as well as written reviews from a number of EV-focused outlets.

So that, at least, puts Sondors in front of Damon, in that it at least got some of its Metacycles out to some reviewers and customers. (That’s admittedly not a very high bar to jump, though.)

Not nearly all of the preorders made it out to customers that had eagerly put down their deposits, though. I reported on a Better Business Bureau investigation into Sondors, and Electrek published an exposé on the thousands of Sondors Metacycle finished units and components that were just sitting in a warehouse in China, seemingly abandoned because the company said Sondors hadn’t paid its bills in over a year. 

At one point, Sondors had intended to go public with an initial public offering (IPO), and had even gone so far as to file initial paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). And it’s from those filings that we get the following slides that have, um, not aged very well.

Photos by: Sondors

Photos by: Sondors

People are allowed to make mistakes. But are companies? That depends entirely on how they act following those mistakes. The company went bankrupt (even though back in 2021, it was selling one of its e-bikes in Costco), and it seemed possible that might be the end of the story.

Well, except for the seemingly endless string of comments on all of its social media presences, from disgruntled folks who said they’d either put down deposits on Metacycles and never received them, or who now needed parts or service (or customer service) for their Sondors e-bikes and weren’t getting any response from the company’s support channels.

There was (and is) a separate official Instagram that was created by Sondors for the Metacycle. At the time of writing, it’s still around. If you visit it, you can see all kinds of comments from people wanting their money back and decrying both the bike and the company as a scam. 

But what about the years of e-bikes it had delivered to customers prior to that? Was the Metacycle one (massive) wrong turn, or was it the start of a new pattern?

Exhibit B: The Sondors Meta AT

 

In June 2025, Sondors founder Storm Sondors made the announcement above on Instagram. And just as he had done earlier with successful e-bike crowdfunding on Indiegogo, Sondors launched a new Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for the Meta AT. The project did end up fully funded, as it only sought to raise US $5,000, and ended up raising US $73,747 from 45 backers. 

This is the bike to which the email RideApart received above was referring when Sondors said “Not the Meta AT.” Because at the time of writing, the Meta AT has yet to materialize, outside of several promotional videos (one including the actor Frank Grillo) on Storm Sondors’ YouTube channel.

Much like the official Instagram accounts, the comments on the handful of videos that are publicly viewable on this YouTube channel repeatedly either ask for refunds, refer to this company as a scam, or offer variations on those two themes. 

Flashback: Those SEC Filings For The IPO That Didn’t Go Forward

Here’s where it’s worth noting that Sondors had grand ambitions for some time. In fact, there were prototype designs for several other things utilizing the same design language as the Sondors Metacycle. Some were two-wheeled (both road-legal and not), and one was an electric ATV.

Here, see for yourself.

Photo by: Sondors

The plan Sondors said it had was to leverage its previous e-bike industry experience, coupled with what it expected to be the successful launch of the Metacycle, into a whole lineup of EVs.

Photo by: Sondors

While it’s true that many probably didn’t expect Sondors to reappear after the Metacycle debacle, perhaps this turn of events isn’t entirely surprising. 

But as I noted above, at the time of writing, there have been no updates about the status of the Meta AT, which was announced a little over a year ago. After what happened with Metacycle, you can’t exactly blame people for being suspicious about whether it will ever materialize, or offer riders the experience promised in its crowdfunding launch materials. 

Which brings me to something else I noticed as I dug into what Sondors had been up to since the Metacycle fell apart.

Exhibit C: (Drive Away To) Malibu

If you visit the Sondors LinkedIn page right now, and you click About, you’ll see the same headquarters address that can be found on those SEC filings from 2023. 

LinkedIn screenshot of the About page listed for Sondors, Inc. as of August 28, 2026

Photo by: RideApart.com

Photo by: RideApart.com

The LinkedIn About tab even gives a nice little overhead map shot, showing you that it’s located right on the PCH, likely with a beautiful view of the ocean. Except, if you read the address again, you might notice something that makes you wonder. And then, you might hit up Google Street View to take a closer look, like I did. 

And then, you might see what’s actually located at 23823 Malibu Road, Suite 50 in Malibu, California, 90265.

Photo by: Google Maps

The #129 is a mailbox number inside this UPS Store location. That’s not necessarily nefarious; lots of businesses (and celebrity fan clubs, for that matter, since we’re talking Malibu) have made use of mailboxes at USPS locations and package delivery stores like this since forever.

Also, in fairness, Sondors has been very up-front with the fact that it contracts with various firms in China to manufacture its e-bikes, and it has said as much since the very start.

But at the same time, it’s not a “company headquarters.” It’s a mailbox at a UPS Store.

September 3 Is Less Than A Week Away

Photo by: Sondors

That’s the date that Sondors says it will reveal details of the 001, which appears to be yet another new e-bike.

Only, since the 2025-announced Meta AT isn’t out in the real world yet, and since the Metacycle left such a sour taste in so many people’s mouths, it’s very unclear how ready anyone will be to fork over money for a third EV two-wheeler that, at least at the moment, exists in pixels only. 

If you’re a company that made a misstep, and you’re truly trying to make good on gaining potential customer trust back, is releasing a third hypothetical vehicle in a row the way to do it? Or is trying to reach out and address the elephant in the room instead of simply hiding or ignoring comments you don’t like the better (if more difficult) course of action to take?

One just seems like all you want is to make money, and you don’t actually care whether your customers get a quality product experience or not. And the other seems like you actually care about your customers and want to rebuild trust again. 

Which path will the revived Sondors choose? Stay tuned.

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