A couple started a custom e-bike business. Now their first shipment is a tariff ‘time bomb’

Good morning. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

• They wanted to import custom e-bikes for little people. Then Trump announced “retaliatory” tariffs.
• Life after California’s death row: What happens when condemned inmates get a second chance.
• The best places to eat and drink this month, according to our food writers.
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper.

A Visalia couple’s tariff nightmare

Kate and Ben Mosetick saw a mobility need in a U.S. community and wanted to address it.

The Visalia couple’s 11-year-old son William has dwarfism, which makes physical activity a challenge. But the cycling-loving family found a solution: electric bikes custom-made for little people’s specific needs, allowing them to cruise roads and bike paths with ease.

The Australian company that assembles and sells the bikes didn’t distribute in the U.S., so the Moseticks decided to change that, starting their own business to order the empowering vehicles from the other side of the world and sell them domestically.

The Moseticks’s Perfect Fit Cycling offers custom-made e-bikes designed for little people’s specific needs.

(Courtesy Perfect Fit Cycling)

The Moseticks placed their first order in late December — $40,000 for their initial batch of bikes. They told me they took out a second mortgage and cashed a life insurance policy to cover their initial expenses. The demand in the little people community was apparent, Kate said, noting a handful of preorders and nearly 80 prospective customers that have contacted them with an interest in buying.

“There were so many people so enthusiastic about it … customers lining up,” she told me when we spoke last week. “We would just need to facilitate distributing in the U.S. and help this whole community get access to be able to ride bikes.”

That was before President Trump took office and upended global trade with his “retaliatory” tariffs.

Now what started as a “compelling opportunity” has become a “time bomb sailing our way,” Ben said.

The bikes are currently stored on a cargo ship en route to the port of Long Beach, due to arrive May 31. But though they were shipped from Australia, the custom components originated in China, subjecting them to the 145% tariff Trump has levied on Chinese products. And that’s on top of a preexisting 25% tariff on Chinese-made e-bikes, bringing the Mosetick’s import fee to a whopping 170%. That takes their initial $40,000 order up to $68,000, the couple shared.

“At this rate, we’re selling at a significant loss,” Kate explained. “We’ve been afraid to do preorders, but then at the same time if we don’t have preorders, we won’t have this money to even clear [the bikes] through customs … we’ll have to abandon them at port at this rate.”

Kate and Ben Mosetick with their children (left to right) Avigail, Robert and William.

(Courtesy Kate Mosetick)

Their goal was to sell most of their conservative first order, build some buzz ahead of the upcoming Little People of America’s national conference and have the profit and momentum for a more substantial order later this year. Trump’s tariffs have put a major damper on that plan.

In the meantime, they’re gambling that they still have a customer base that’s willing to pay for the e-bikes, even after a hefty “tariff surcharge.”On their website, one of the two models the Moseticks are selling has a base price of $3,295. But the added $2,283 tariff markup brings that purchase to $5,578 before shipping. Kate noted that prospective buyers are “hesitating a lot about that price.”

And because the bikes are custom built with a number of specialty parts adapted for use by little people, there isn’t a plug-and-play U.S. manufacturer they could easily pivot to, Ben explained.

The Moseticks’ order of custom-made e-bikes in an Australian warehouse before they were loaded onto a cargo ship, bound for California.

(Courtesy of Kate Mosetick)

“My concern is just the unpredictability of it all,” he said. “It’s impossible to make decisions.”

Kate later shared one “glimmer of hope” via email Thursday: “Someone preordered one just this morning, tariff and all.”

I spoke with the Moseticks after Kate responded to our reader survey in April, asking Californians to share their tariff concerns. You can share your own story with us here.

Today’s top stories

Brenda Sharpe, 46, walks up to the laundry room outside Hotel Le Reve in Pasadena on Monday. Before the Eaton fire, Sharpe lived in Altadena near her extended family.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

After disasters, FEMA leases apartments for survivors. But not after the L.A. fires

• Federal and state disaster officials have not implemented the program after January’s wildfires in Los Angeles. They say the rental market is sufficiently housing those who lost their homes.
• National and local advocates are questioning the move, saying survivors are falling through the cracks.

State discipline law keeps Black, Latino kids in class. Trump says it’s illegal

• President Trump has signed an executive order that could pave the way for a legal challenge of California law banning student suspensions for “willfully defiant” conduct.

Trump promised vast deportations to Mexico. Why are the numbers so low?

• Illegal border crossings have dropped to their lowest point this century, thanks to a Mexican campaign to interdict northbound migrants and Trump’s actions to end asylum at the U.S. border.
• The Trump administration has been focused on deporting migrants already inside the U.S., where locating, detaining and removing them is more complicated and more expensive than it is at the border.

What else is going on

• Overdoses, brawls and court battles: Will the state take over chaotic L.A. juvenile halls?
• Starbucks and thousands of its baristas are locked in a labor standoff.
• Amid tariff turmoil, these warehouses are in big demand in L.A.
• LeBron James’ future: What’s next for the Lakers star?
• The proposed Dodger Stadium gondola project hits a roadblock with California’s court of appeals.
• Alec Baldwin’s deadly western movie ‘Rust’ finally makes it to the screen.
• Jill Sobule, singer-songwriter known for ’90s pop hit ‘I Kissed a Girl,’ dies in a house fire at 66.

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Commentary and opinions

• 7 million people have Alzheimer’s. Columnist Steve Lopez asks, why is the Trump administration derailing research?
• Thanks to the Trump slump, Florida and other states are moving to eviscerate child labor protections, writes columnist Michael Hiltzik.
• The Lakers’ season ends in humiliation … and hope, argues columnist Bill Plaschke.

This morning’s must reads

David Carpenter, in his 90s, was the oldest inmate on San Quentin’s death row before it was dismantled and the condemned men transferred to other prisons.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Life after California’s death row: What happens when condemned inmates get a second chance. Shortly after taking office in 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a moratorium on executions and ordered death row dismantled. Years later, inmates say they have a bittersweet new lease on life.

Other must reads

• Evangelism and Erewhon: They came to L.A. for the Hollywood dream, then shot to Bible stardom.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected].

For your downtime

Going out

• 🥟🍣 The best places to eat and drink this month, according to our food writers.
• 👃🏾 May is giving jasmine scents and conversation pits. Here are 11 L.A. happenings in art, fashion and fragrance.
• 🪻 Bask in rare lilacs for the last time on this spring weekend road trip.

Staying in

• 📺 ‘The Four Seasons,’ now streaming on Netflix, tackles marriage at midlife, with its relatable ups and downs.
• 🍽️ Here’s a recipe for Grandmother’s Sicilian-style stuffed artichokes (and how to trim them).
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

And finally ... your photo of the day

Show us your favorite place in California! Send us photos you have taken of spots in California that are special — natural or human-made — and tell us why they’re important to you.

Luka Doncic and LeBron James absorb the final moments of the Game 5 loss.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Today’s great photo is from Times photographer Robert Gauthier at Game 5 where the Lakers lost to Minnesota, ending their season.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Andrew Campa, Sunday reporter
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Christian Orozco, assistant editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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