We traded wind and cold for hot, hot heat in Monterey for day three of the 2021 Sea Otter Classic, which gave us ample excuse to hide in the shady vendor tents and comb through some of the cool new products being shown off at the show.

From a fully-customizable electric gravel bike to 3D printed products and a super rad hanging bike rack, here’s what caught our eye on the penultimate day at Sea Otter 2021.

Alchemy Bikes eRonin — a fully customizable electric gravel bike

Custom is cool, and Alchemy Bikes of Colorado builds the eRonin; a fully custom electric gravel bike that can be made exactly to your specifications — from custom geometry to custom paint.

Alchemy had a fully done up custom eRonin on show at Sea Otter this year in a really cool iridescent color. The bike is powered by a Fazua Evation drivepack — a 255W motor we really, really like — and Alchemy has even gone as far as to color match the Fazua’s casing to match the rest of the bike. Fazua-equipped e-bikes are already super stealthy, but painting the drivepack made it so incognito it took us a minute to notice it was an e-bike. . 

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The second day of this year’s Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California was chock full o’ new electric bike tech, innovative accessories and a whole lotta’ racing. 

For the Electric Bike Report team, it was a day spent reviewing some of the coolest e-bikes on the market and taking a closer look at some interesting new ideas. We’ll dive deeper into reviews and such later, but for now we present a small handful of products that caught our eye. 

Today’s offerings include some cool magnetic alternatives to traditional clipless pedals, an extremely cool (and e-bike friendly) new take on a bicycle drivetrain and an e-bike big enough for you and a friend.

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Rad Power Bikes flagship electric commuter bike just got a substantial makeover.

Seattle-based Rad on Wednesday released the redesigned Rad Power Bikes RadCity 5 Plus, giving the bike a new look, a better climbing motor and an overall design that Rad says was built specifically for the company’s European ridership.

According to Rad’s announcement of the redesigned bike, the new RadCity 5 climbs hills 40 percent quicker than the previous iteration of the bike due to a re-tooled motor. The battery on the new bike is also claimed to last 11 percent longer thanks to a set of new custom-made tires that roll more efficiently on pavement.

This is the second redesigned e-bike Rad’s released in the past two months. In late July, the company dropped the new RadRover 6 Plus electric fat bike, which represented the most substantial re-imagining of that bike since its original debut. Many of the new features we saw in that release of the Rover — including an all-new user interface and the striking new frame design — appear to have made their way onto the new RadCity 5 Plus the company released on Wednesday.

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For Specialized, 2021 has thus far been the year of the superlight electric bike.

Of the three new or redesigned e-bikes introduced this year by the California-based bike brand, two have been built around the ultra high-tech (and very well done) proprietary Super Light System. But an announcement made today made it clear that Specialized has not forgotten about aficionados of power.

Specialized on Tuesday unveiled the newest iterations of their popular full power Turbo Como and Turbo Vado commuter e-bikes — plus they rolled out an all-new full power e-bike, a crossover eMTB and commuter called the Turbo Tero.

The Como and Vado have long been Specialized’s flagship lifestyle e-bikes, with the Como more geared for laid-back comfort riding and the Vado targeting riders who want a fast daily commuter that’ll give them a workout. But the new Tero is Specialized’s attempt at diving into the all-rounder category of e-bikes, a tricky cross-category segment of the e-bike market that tries to strike a balance between commuting, off-road performance and utility.

All three of these e-bikes share different variations of the Turbo Full Power e-bike motor, depending on the chosen spec level, and all three have the relatively affordable starting price of $3,250.

Let’s take a deeper dive into each e-bike:

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This week brings some good news and some bad news for hopefuls that the U.S. government might sometime soon help pay for electric bike purchases; the E-BIKE tax credit advances amongst lawmakers, but at a slashed proposed rate.

There’s also some new versions of one of Electric Bike Report’s favorite mid-drive motors, fans of Yeti mountain bikes can now get an eMTB from the Colorado-based company, and Tern built a doghouse for your e-bike.

That and more in this week’s news:

• Proposed E-BIKE tax credit makes headway but gets slashed from 30% to 15%
• Fazua debuts trail and street versions of the Ride 50 drive system
• Yeti unveils first eMTB: It’s the signature blue, has a slick new linkage and is apparently ultra fast
• Lectric e-bikes hires long-time cycling executive as COO
• Tern special-built an accessory that helps you take your dog on an e-bike ride — It’s called the “Doghouse”

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Winter. A time when cold, snow and ice descends on much of North America, shorter days drive many indoors and most summertime toys get mothballed until warmer temps return.

But winter doesn’t have to keep you off your electric bike. You can absolutely ride your e-bike in winter, but there are some important things to keep in mind that’ll help keep you and your e-bike safe and functioning well until warmer days return.

Moisture and cold are the two most obvious considerations when riding your e-bike in winter. Both of these things could be detrimental to your bike and its electrical componentry, but many e-bikes on the market today are actually designed to handle these conditions.

Fat bikes for example, the plus-sized SUV’s of the e-bike world that have grown so popular in recent years, were actually initially developed specifically for winter riding. The wider tires provide good floatation in snow and the larger contact patch gives solid traction in slippery conditions. Many e-bikes are even designed to be water resistant, which helps shield the more sensitive electrical parts from the wet — frozen and otherwise — that’s so prevalent during winter in many parts of the country.

But aside from e-bike design, there are several things you can do as a rider and owner of an e-bike to safeguard your bike from winter hardship.

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