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Warning over crowd funded bike products

Riderbuds earphones

We warned riders about supporting the crowd-funding campaign for RiderBuds earphones after customers had still not received products almost a year after the promised delivery date.

However, two customers in Holland and Canada have now contacted us to say they have finally received their RiderBuds and are happy with their performance.

We are satisfied they are legitimate customers and not linked with the RiderBuds company. 

Originally company founder Maurice Dziubinski corresponded with us and even promised a review set. However, over the past year he has stopped replying to our frequent emails requesting updates on delivery.

That, plus the many comments from disappointed customers, made us understandably wary of this product. Riderbuds earphones

Dutch customer Stephan says he ordered them on 22 February 2019 and was hoping they would be shipped during May 2019 as promised in the Indiegogo campaign launched in November 2018.

I eventually received the RiderBuds on 25 March 2020, which is 13 months after I ordered them and 10 months late on their initial planning,” he says.

“I have to say, after they failed to deliver in May and the updates we received got less frequent, I started thinking I might have contributed to another scam on Indiegogo.

When Maurice told us that 84% of top crowd funding projects are shipped late – often as much as one year late – I started to suspect things were not as they seemed. At that point I had completely given up on the product,” says Stephan who was caught by a crowd-funding product scam.

“I started to check the updates once every few months and when COVID-19 hit around the end of 2019 I thought that he had found the perfect excuse to delay delivery even further. Fortunately I was wrong and I actually received the product, which turns out to be great!”

Stephan displays his RiderBuds in front of the computer screen showing our original article
Stephan displays his RiderBuds in front of the computer screen showing our original article

He says he has used in-helmet speakers prior before that were “terrible”.

“I have a full face helmet and they do not have cut-outs for in helmet speakers, so my ears got sore,” he says.

“I tried using in-ear earbuds and they were even worse; dislodging, discomfort. So when I spotted RiderBuds I was sold.”

Our original article said the earphones ($US199, $A275, €175, £150) were claimed to be the smallest, softest, toughest, quietest and most secure earphones for riders.

They claimed they can’t be dislodged when putting on a helmet or pulling it off like most other earphones.,

The cable connections are also supposed to be tougher and won’t fray or break with rough use; even if you pull them out by the cable.

Crowd funding warning

Like other previews of prospective motorcycle products, we included a warning to our readers that supporting a crowd-funding campaign for a product not yet manufactured is not without risk.

Kickstarter and Indiegogo do not offer refunds to supporters who pledge money for products that either fail to reach their goal or do reach their goal and then fail through fraud.

The latter was the case with the infamous Skully head-up display helmet where the founders blew $US2.4m in supporters’ money on fast cars and women!

Unless a crowd-funding campaign specifically mentions a refund, supporters are advised they will have to contact the campaigner to get their money back.

They are also notoriously late with delivery as has been experienced with RiderBuds.

Maurice told us on the launch of his campaign that he spent hundreds of hours testing the earphones, talked with more than 1000 riders around the world and had a few dozen Beta testers, including in Australia and New Zealand.

His crowd-funding campaign was fully subscribed in three hours, 200% in 12 hours and raised $A164,255 from 688 backers within a month.

The campaign page is still live and has now amassed more than $A220,000 from 885 backers.

We are surprised Indiegogo did not suspend the page and stop taking money after many complaints on the page from potential customers.

One comment came from a customer who suggested Maurice had moved from Hong Kong to Vietnam because of the COVID-19 outbreak and was getting the production sorted out.

The comments have now been deleted and replaced by “testimonials”.

 

  1. FWIW I use a pair of Plugphone Freereign Bluetooth earphones from Earjobs.com.au that look very similar to these and they work pretty well.
    Why crowdsource when a good product already exists, and has a local dealer and support?

    1. “Why crowdsource when a good product already exist… ” because hipsters and their money are easily parted 🙂

  2. I got my RiderBuds and I love them. Sound is great and SO comfortable! I always had an issue with earbuds and putting my helmet on. These work well

  3. I too was disappointed with the recurring delays and also thought the earplugs would never arrive.

    Thankfully, they did arrive! I can happily report they are comfortable and do work as promised, although, to be fair, I have only tested them once because … well, you know … the restrictions of the pandemic.

    MBW, while I appreciate this article, I feel I need to push back because, unless I am mistaken, I only came across the crowdfunding campaign because of an article you posted on your site. So, it is borderline disingenuous to warn of such campaigns when you have drawn our attention to the campaign.

    Despite what a previous commentor has written, I have been looking for a product like RiderBuds for a long time. I did not know about alternatives because their marketing is obviously not very extensive. Additionally, there is nothing wrong with supporting crowdfunding projects. Not every inventor or innovator has the funds to be able to expand on and produce their ideas. Yes, if I support such campaigns I know my money is at risk, but for every scam there are more honest individuals just trying for a chance to get their product to market. Not everyone has the funds of a multinational corporation supporting their R&D. We would not have my glorious Harley-Davidson motorcycle if it were not for a couple of blokes puttering around in their garage…

  4. I have been looking at this product from your previous article but not ordered them. Many thanks for bringing their failure to perform to our attention. Unlike your commentator above ‘borderline disingenuous to warn of such campaigns when you have drawn our attention to the campaign’ I thank you for warning us, I would have thought you NOT warning us would be ‘disingenuous’.

    1. Hold on! There was no “failure to perform”. The only problem was their delay in production and keeping their customers informed adequately along the way. I would rather wait for a good product, which they are, than receive a bad product not worth the money I paid for it.

      I’m glad MBW introduced the product AND that he warned us, after the fact, but I would hate to think this article discourages people from investing in creators and inventors. I want to see better tech, not less.

    2. I got the beta tester ruder buds and made comment back to Maurice Dziubinski.
      The final product was indeed slow.
      I’m now having to repair my rider buds because the cable to the controller pulled out. If yours haven’t twisted off yet then super glue the ends in.

      Don’t pull cable or it will pull out the tiny .1mm cables, as that’s the only bit holding then in.

      Now that’s absolutely shit, as a Electrician it should or could have been so much simpler and that was to tie the kevlar string that runs thru cable to the other side.

      But no they did fuck all. Just like it twisting, when I opened the case I found the other side was almost twisted off.

      Another one to fix.

      Oh. And no response from
      Maurice Dziubinski…

      Pictures available if you want them..

  5. Satisfied with my Ridebuds. Delay was a bit of a concern but outcome was more positive than Frodo Cam….still waiting for a refund on that one!

  6. I’m happy to read that receivers of their products are satisfied with their RiderBuds.
    Delays of receipts aside, I myself have never received my IndigoGo backer order of two (2) complete sets.
    Shipping advice investigated lists a failed delivery attempt, then my package was returned back to RiderBuds HQ in China 🙁

    COVID-19 has definitely played a part of this bungle.

    RiderBuds were originally advertised with a global warranty, which I assume, would be for at least 12 months.
    Would any backer PLEASE reach back to me with contact details, as all attempts to reach the founder (Maurice) have not been successful over the past few months.

    Thanks in advance, and happy riding!

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