The EUC community has grown significantly over the past few years, but it remains a niche and often expensive hobby. The main EUC manufacturers, namely Begode, Leaperkim, Extreme Bull, Inmotion, King Song, and the new Nosfet, are all located in East Asia, and so shipping is expensive and can take quite a long time before consumers are able to obtain new EUCs through third party vendors such as Alien Rides, eWheels, and others. This lengthy and potentially frustrating nature of this purchasing process has led to new domestic EUC purchasing options, such as the topic of this article, EUC Ungerground.
In this article, we’ll talk about what EUC Ungerground is, what it designs to accomplish, and why you might want to try purchasing your next EUC through them.
What is EUC Ungerground?
EUC Ungerground is an informal EUC purchasing option which skips the third party vendor (Alien Rides, eWheels, etc.) for a discounted price. This service is run by Lem Ung, an EUC rider and enthusiast who operates out of California. Lem maintains a business relationship with Begode and Extreme Bull where he can purchase EUCs in bulk and then redistribute them at discounted prices to other riders through a Telegram order process.
Platform Information and Purchasing Process
The EUC Ungerground telegram group is an open invite to anybody with the link (https://t.me/+KLiB369OuqhlMDgx). When you join the telegram group, you find a number of different pages. There are pages dedicated to each of the main EUCs in production, from Begode to Extreme Bull, and you can find information on those wheels and discuss them with others. The main page is the “Items Available” page, where information is listed on the wheels Lem currently has in stock and wheels available for pre-order, all with prices and delivery periods listed.
If you decide to purchase one of these wheels, you simply send a private message to Lem and the transaction is tendered through either Venmo or PayPal, depending on your preference. Lem then ships the product to you from his stock in California, or from the manufacturer directly in some cases.
This whole process comes with several advantages, but also some specific disadvantages.
Advantages
Early Shipping: Lem’s connection to Begode and Extreme Bull allows him to get EUCs when they first come out, and so consumers can get products months earlier by ordering through EUC Ungerground then by ordering through a traditional vendor like Alien Rides or eWheels. Lem is quite prompt, and responds quickly to messages, so there isn’t much delay in ordering. In our experience, response time on orders is usually only several minutes.
Lower Price: By skipping the traditional vendor, Lem is often able to offer lower prices by avoiding MSRP. MSRP is the manufacturer suggested retail price, or the minimum price that a manufacturer recommends or requires that a product be sold for. This is why prices across vendors are often the same price for the same product, especially when a product has just been released. By ordering with EUC Ungerground, you can get EUCs for a lower price. Another reason for lower pricing is warranty coverage, which I’ll cover in a bit.
Repeat customers through EUC Ungerground may also get additional discounts on new EUCs, which is quite nice. These discounts are significant, and make EUC Ungerground universally the cheapest option for purchasing Begode and Extreme Bull EUCs.
Disadvantages
Warranty: One of the main benefits of purchasing through a traditional vendor is that you will usually receive some kind of extended warranty. While all new EUCs now come with some level of manufacturer warranty ensuring that the manufacturer will cover factory defects, this does not include user error or wear over time. When purchasing through a vendor, however, you are likely the beneficiary of extended warranty to cover such damages.
For example, any new PEV purchased through Alien Rides comes with a two year warranty on consumables like inner tubes, tires, brake pads, brake rotors, bearings, suspension shocks, and suspension bushings. For an additional amount, you can upgrade this to include full crash coverage, so that even if you suffer the misfortune of a skill issue, you can have them fix your PEV for you.
With EUC Ungerground, you do not get any kind of extended warranty, but only have the manufacturer warranty. For many, this isn’t an issue, especially if you fix and maintain your EUCs yourself and are confident in your own repair ability. However, this could be a deal breaker if you aren’t confident in fixing your EUC. For those in smaller EUC communities, lack of repair help can be a deal breaker, since you wouldn’t be able to get your EUC back up and running in the event of a mishap. With EUC Ungerground, you can still get parts for manufacturer defects shipped to you, but it’s up to you to have the wherewithal to carry out the repair yourself. Again, depending on your confidence in repairing, this could save you money if you would repair your EUC yourself anyways, or be a potential deal breaker.
This said, Lem is quite helpful in facilitating communication and shipping of parts for claims under manufacturer warranty. We have purchased several wheels, and two of them had problems which we were able to resolve under the manufacturer warranty. In each case, the problem was communicated to Lem, who then communicated the issue to engineers at Begode to confirm the issue. Parts were then shipped directly to us from the Begode factory, and we were able to complete repairs without issue.
Available EUC Models: Another disadvantage of EUC Ungerground is that Begode and Extreme Bull are the only EUCs you can purchase, due to Lem’s affiliation with those manufacturers. If you want a wheel from Leaperkim, King Song, Inmotion, or Nosfet, you will have to purchase them elsewhere. This could potentially change in the future, but for now you can only get Begode and Extreme Bull products.
The Freshly Charged Take
Overall, we think that EUC Ungerground is a fantastic service for those who are able and willing to service their own EUCs. The tradeoff of costs saved to warrantied parts is the main consideration for whether somebody would want to order through EUC Ungerground instead of a traditional vendor.
Since many people do their own repairs, and customizing an EUC is a big part of the EUC community, most people can benefit from this service. The benefits are even more acute if you are buying wheels frequently or want the new wheels at the earliest availability, such as racers looking to gain advantages on the track with the latest tech. If you want an extended warranty and don’t want to work on your EUC, or if you want an EUC from Leaperkim, Inmotion, King Song, or Nosfet, you still need to purchase from traditional vendors.