This truck could signal a happy ending for a hugely controversial $5 million crowdfunding campaign

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Sondors eBikes shipping

Sondor's eBike

Storm Sondors next to shipping container

The people who bought a Sondors eBike on Indiegogo for $500-$650 should soon be getting their bikes, the company is promising.

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The company sent us a photo of the first batch of bikes on a shipping truck, and a press releasing saying that these bikes are on their way to the first batch of Indiegogo backers.

That will be a relief to over 14,000 people who contributed to the campaign, which has been mired in controversy almost since the beginning.

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The Sondors eBike raised over $5 million amidst skepticism that the bike will really be what was initially promised, a super low-cost electric bike. Then the company's PR firm sued Sondors, accusing the company of not properly paying it for its services.

And there was even this weird thing involving an ad that trashed a tech blogger who criticized it.

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With all that, there was a lot of concern that these bikes would never really ship, and early backers would be caught by the old "buyer-beware" mantra.

Storm eBike

Indiegogo/Storm

Storm eBike

Through it all, the company insisted that the bikes would be built and delivered as promised.

With today's news that the bike is shipping, it looks like those worries will be put to rest.

But there's been even more concern that these bikes won't match the promised specs - things like a 50-mile range on a single battery charge, or the ability to go up to 20 miles per hour. So, we'll have to wait and see what early users report about that.

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