Riders sell to riders here. That only works if a listing tells the truth and a handover is safe, so this is the longest page in the guidelines and the one worth reading twice.
RideLink is not a marketplace. There is no checkout, no escrow, no buyer protection and no RideLink staff standing between you and the other rider. Money and bikes change hands directly between two people. That is exactly why the rules below are strict: the listing is the only protection either of you gets, so it has to be honest.
Post a Sale the Right Way
A for-sale post belongs in the feed or in a community that allows sales. Say up front that it is a sale, say where the bike is, and answer questions in the open where the next buyer can read them. A rider who has to send three DMs to find out the battery is dead will tell everyone, and they will be right to.
Every for-sale post must state
What it is. Brand, model and year. "Custom 72v build" is a description, not a model.
Its class or category. Class 1, 2 or 3 in the US, or EPAC/pedelec in the EU and UK. If it is not any of those, say so plainly and see "Derestricted and over-spec bikes" below.
The price, in money. Not "make me an offer", not "PM for price". A price makes the post useful to everyone scrolling past it.
Where it is. Town or area is enough. Never your home address in a public post.
The battery's age and condition. Original or replacement, roughly how many charge cycles, and the real range you get now — not the range printed on the box when it was new.
Its history. Crashes, water damage, a battery that has been opened, welded frame repairs, anything replaced. If you would want to know it as the buyer, write it down.
Certification marks, where the bike has them. UL 2849, UL 2271, EN 15194, CE or UKCA. See below for what these actually mean.
Real photos you took. Of this bike, this week. Not the manufacturer's press shot.
Not allowed
Stolen bikes, or bikes you cannot prove are yours. Selling a stolen bike is theft with extra steps, and we hand the listing to the police when we are asked.
Recalled bikes, batteries and chargers that have not had the recall remedy applied, and any bike under an active stop-ride or stop-sale notice.
Loose battery packs shipped to a stranger. Local handover only — the shipping section explains why this is not us being cautious.
Uncertified batteries or chargers sold as certified. Claiming a UL mark a product does not carry is a lie about a fire risk.
"Universal" chargers for e-bikes. There is no such thing, and mismatched chargers are a leading cause of pack fires.
Off-platform bait. Listings whose real purpose is to move someone onto a payment app, a "shipping agent", or a link.
Class, Power and What Is Legal Where You Are
Class is not marketing. It decides where a bike may legally be ridden, whether a license or insurance is needed, and sometimes whether a minor may ride it at all. A buyer who finds out after the sale that their "Class 3" is a 5,000 W machine has been sold a problem, not a bike.
The US three-class system, adopted by most states. Federal product rules (CPSC) are separate: fully operable pedals, a motor under 750 W and a motor-only top speed under 20 mph.
Class
Assist
Cuts off at
Motor
Class 1
Pedal assist only
20 mph
Up to 750 W
Class 2
Throttle allowed
20 mph
Up to 750 W
Class 3
Pedal assist only
28 mph
Up to 750 W
In the EU and UK the equivalent is an EPAC, or pedelec: a 250 W continuous-rated motor whose assistance tapers off at 25 km/h and stops when you stop pedaling. Stay inside that and it is treated as a bicycle — no license, no registration, no insurance. Step outside it and it is a motor vehicle, whatever the seller called it. EN 15194 is the harmonized standard an EPAC is built and tested to, and it is what a CE or UKCA mark on an e-bike is claiming.
Derestricted and over-spec bikes
Plenty of riders here are on machines that are not road-legal bicycles anywhere — that is honest, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What is not allowed is selling one as something it is not.
If a bike has been derestricted, tuned, has a dongle fitted, or left the factory over the local limit, say so in the listing. A derestricted bike can void the warranty, void the rider's insurance, and turn a collision into an uninsured motor-vehicle claim against them. The buyer is entitled to make that choice knowing it is a choice.
Not allowed
Advertising a derestricted or over-spec bike as "Class 2", "street legal", "EPAC" or "no license needed". Calling it what it is costs you nothing. Calling it something else costs the buyer their insurance.
Batteries, Certification and Fire
Almost every serious e-bike incident that is not a collision is a battery. This is the part of the guidelines with a body count behind it, so it is the part we enforce hardest.
The marks that mean something
UL 2849 — the whole e-bike electrical system: battery, charger and motor tested together. This is the one to look for on a complete bike.
UL 2271 — the battery pack itself, for light electric vehicles.
UL 2272 — the electrical system of other personal e-mobility devices, such as e-scooters and hoverboards.
EN 15194, with CE or UKCA marking — the European route, covering the EPAC as a whole.
New York City has banned the sale, lease, rental and distribution of e-bikes, e-scooters and batteries that are not certified to those UL standards since Local Law 39 of 2023 took effect, with fines running to $1,000 per model. Other cities have followed. If you are selling in a place with a rule like that, the rule applies to a private sale between riders too — "it was only a mate" is not a defense.
Good practice
Photograph the certification label on the pack and put it in the listing.
Sell the bike with its own charger, and say which charger it is.
If the pack has ever been opened, rebuilt, or had cells replaced, say so. A rebuilt pack is not automatically bad; an undisclosed rebuilt pack is.
Never
Sell a pack that is swollen, has been dropped hard, has taken water, or has ever smoked, vented or got hot enough to worry you. Take it to a recycler, not to a rider.
Sell a charger that did not come with a pack of that chemistry and voltage.
Claim a certification the product does not carry.
Shipping a battery: essentially, do not
A loose lithium pack is dangerous goods. Under the international rules it is UN 3480 when shipped by itself and UN 3481 when installed in or packed with the bike, and the two are treated very differently. Loose packs are barred from ordinary air service, carriers require them shipped at no more than about 30% state of charge, and postal services cap surface shipments at a few pounds — far under the weight of an e-bike pack. eBay stopped private sellers listing e-bike batteries altogether in October 2024 rather than keep policing it.
So on RideLink: batteries are local handover only. Not "at your own risk", not "I'll double-box it". If the buyer is not close enough to collect it in person, they are not the buyer.
Is It Stolen? Check Before You Buy
Bike theft is the reason a lot of riders are shopping second-hand in the first place. Two minutes of checking keeps a stolen bike from finding a new owner, and keeps you from losing both the bike and the money when it is recovered.
Ask for the serial number before you travel. It is usually stamped under the bottom bracket, on the head tube or inside a dropout. A seller who will not give you the serial has told you something.
Search it on the registries. Bike Index and Project 529 both hold reported-stolen records and both are free to search. Project 529's monitoring also scans resale listings and flags matches.
Check the serial on the bike matches the one you were sent. In person, before money moves.
Ask for the original receipt, the box, the spare key or the app account. Any one of them is a good sign. None of them, on a two-month-old bike, is not.
Sellers: register your bike now, while it is still yours. A registered serial is what makes a recovered bike returnable, and a listing that says "registered with Bike Index, serial on request" sells faster because it is doing the buyer's homework for them.
Not allowed
Listing a bike with a ground-off, drilled-out or painted-over serial number. There is no innocent reason for one, and the listing comes down as soon as we see it.
Meeting, Paying, and Not Getting Scammed
The handover
Meet somewhere public and busy, in daylight. Plenty of police stations have a marked exchange bay for exactly this.
Bring someone. Tell a third person where you are going.
Ride it before you buy it, through the whole assist range, with the brakes tested hard.
Never give out your home address in a public post, and never accept a collection from it alone.
The money
Every RideLink sale is between two riders, so use a payment method that suits two strangers, not two friends. "Friends and family" transfers, gift cards, crypto and wire transfers all exist to be irreversible, which is why scammers ask for them.
The five scams we see most
"I'll pay extra, just ship it." A buyer who will not collect, for a bike or battery that should not be posted anyway.
"Let's move to another app." Off-platform first message, before a single question about the bike. Off RideLink there is no report button and no moderator.
The fake escrow link. A "secure holding service" that is a page someone made. RideLink has no escrow and never will — anyone telling you we do is lying.
Overpayment and refund. They send too much, ask for the difference back, and the original payment is later reversed.
Priced to make you hurry. A current-model bike at a third of its price, "first to collect", seller cannot talk on the phone.
If a listing or a DM does any of that, report it and stop replying. Reporting takes a few seconds and it is the only way we find the seller's other four accounts.
What RideLink does and does not do. We remove listings that break these rules, act on the accounts behind them, and cooperate with police on stolen property. We do not hold funds, verify sellers, inspect bikes, arbitrate a sale that went wrong, or refund anyone. Treat every sale as what it is: a private transaction you are responsible for.
