ebikes

When Giant Group’s new “lifestyle-inspired” electric bike sub-brand Momentum unveiled the Voya E+ 3, it did so at a positively mid-range price of $2,400. That brought it in below the fancier mid-drive e-bikes in most bike shops but well above the value-oriented direct to consumer e-bikes. Considering it has one wheel solidly in each camp, let’s see how it competes against the rest of the industry.

UK-based premium electric bicycle maker Gocycle is redesigning the company’s retail model in a move to bring more value to both its retailers and its customers. The good news for the latter group is that the new model means much lower pricing on Gocycle’s most premium (and most expensive) fourth-generation e-bikes known as the G4 line.

Crowdfunding is a common way for many small companies to get their start, and is especially common in the light electric vehicle industry for e-bike and e-scooter companies. But let’s face it, crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are still erroneously synonymous with scams in the minds of many.

Believe it or not, many of the biggest names in electric bicycle companies these days actually got their start on those platforms, proving that just because a company is pre-selling e-bikes doesn’t mean they won’t deliver.

The Velotric Discover 1 is a great value electric city cruiser with surprising quality given the entry to mid level price. There’s so much to love about this bike, but the look, is undoubtedly the first positive impression. The Discover 1 has a wonderful build that blends utility and aesthetics.

….that pedals smoother than most acoustic bikes up to 25mph.

I’ve spent the last few weeks with Luna’s new $1395 Eclipse folding fat tire e-bike. It is unlike any other e-bike on the market, and yet I can recommend it enthusiastically for a big swath of the foldable fat tire e-bike market. And even some general e-bikers. Here’s why:

If you know anything about me or the topics I cover, you’ll know two of my biggest hobbies revolve around electric bicycles and DIY projects. So combining them has always been a natural conclusion for me – to the point that I even wrote the book on the subject.

With so many great electric bicycles already available at your local bike shop or from direct-to-consumer online companies, some people may wonder why it could be worth performing your electric bike conversion anymore. But the ability to repurpose that bike gathering dust in your garage or build the exact e-bike of your dreams means that a DIY option is a still a great choice for many riders. Plus, being able to do it all for just a few hundred bucks helps sweeten the pot!

The West Coast Electric Highway in the US, which sees electric car charging stations dotting the route from the Canadian border in the north to the Mexican border in the south, is getting a new type of EV charging station as well. Now you’ll be able to charge up your electric bike along the way too, at least in the Oregon section.

Gates, a leading belt transmission manufacturer that creates chain-replacing belt drives for bicycles, motorcycles and other power transmission needs, has just unveiled the newest update to its Carbon Drive portfolio of belt drive products. The updates include new as well as upgraded components across its four key product lines (ST TM, CDN TM, CDC TM, CDX TM).

When Harley-Davidson spun off its electric bicycle division into Serial 1 and then released several models of urban e-bikes bearing the “/CTY” suffix, the company was dropping a fairly heavy hint that non-city electric bikes would soon follow. Now Serial 1 has made good on that heavy foreshadowing, unveiling the brand’s first electric mountain bike known as the BASH/MTN.

Schwinn’s electric bicycle line has significantly expanded over the last couple years. When I first started riding electric Schwinns, I was largely limited to cruiser e-bikes. But with several new commuter-specific e-bikes like the Schwinn Coston CE that I recently tested, this household bicycle name is making a big move on the wider e-bike market.

Spoiler alert: Electric vehicles are the future, and they’re destined to replace fossil fuel-powered cars. Unless you’ve got your head firmly buried in the sand, that won’t come as a shocker to you.

But credit where credit is due. We humans, we’re a pretty ingenious animal. We figured out how to build massive societies fueled in large part by poking holes in the ground and then burning the super-pressurized pre-historic algae we found. That was a neat trick, until we realized that it had the small downside of destroying the world we’re leaving for our kids. Whoops.

Now we’re in the process of righting that wrong. Some are embracing the change wholeheartedly, and others are being dragged into the future, kicking and screaming. But make no mistake, it’s the future and it’s coming.

Heybike, makers of eBikes small and large, has set a new standard for a feature rich electric folding bike. With so many ways to enjoy electric bikes, the Ranger model can make short work of any commute, off-road short-cut or an otherwise hum-drum day.

The descriptors “nimble” and “fat tire” rarely go together as well as they do with the Juiced RipRacer. This self-proclaimed fun-sized electric bike deftly combines the exhilaration of go-anywhere electric bikes with the convenience of small-format micromobility vehicles.

Ukrainian electric motorbike company Delfast has seen its electric bikes used for some vastly diverse tasks, such as breaking Guinness World Records and outfitting Mexican police. But their latest use is perhaps the bikes’ most important mission yet: helping Ukrainian soldiers strike a David vs. Goliath blow against Russia’s barbaric invasion of their country.

It’s been over two years since Harley-Davidson spun off Serial 1 as its quasi-independent electric bicycle company. The first generation bikes were met with nearly universal acclaim for their sleek design and high-quality manufacturing. Now the company is back to announce its second generation e-bikes, this time touting a new partnership with Google Cloud.

It was an inevitability that once electric bikes started skyrocketing in popularity, more e-bike thefts would soon follow. But NYC-based electric bike company Wing Bikes is helping riders fight back with a free location tracker included along with its electric bikes.

May is National Bike Month in the United States. With a combination of more cities focusing on walkability/bikeability as well as an increasingly alarming outlook on climate change, a larger discussion on switching to smaller vehicles couldn’t come soon enough.

But for those who never considered switching to a bicycle before, it may be time to take a second look. And that’s because with the invention and subsequent skyrocketing in popularity of electric bikes, switching from an expensive and polluting car to a cheap and efficient two-wheeled alternative is easier than ever. In fact, I go nearly everywhere by electric bike and I barely even touch pedal bikes anymore. Here’s why.

Electric cargo bikes, especially four-wheeled versions that function as mini delivery vans, are becoming an increasingly common solution for mail delivery around the world. As USPS struggles with its own delivery van ordering scandal, the latest example of alternative lightweight and efficient electric four-wheeler delivery vehicles saw yet another European country demonstrating the effectiveness of switching away from gas-powered mail trucks.

The Buzz Charter F, which is the latest e-bike from the value-oriented electric bike brand Buzz, offers up a low-cost $999 folding model with the battery hidden in the seat post.

The UK-based micromobility company Eskuta says that its SX-250 electric bike combines motorcycle design with e-bike pricing to offer two-wheeled commuters the best of both worlds.

Back when COVID-19 ravaged New York City and turned the city’s transportation needs upside down, significant portions of the road space were repurposed for non-car use. From bike lanes to public seating and urban parks, roads that previously saw gridlocked traffic were nearly instantly transformed into public spaces that benefitted a wider group of residents.

After being forced to realize the benefits of such repurposing of streets, the city is now asking, “Why shouldn’t it just stay that way?”