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It’s the final day of the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California, and just when we thought we’d run out of cool electric bike stuff to show you, BOOM — we found more.

Our final day was spent mostly riding the e-bikes we’d been talking to people about for the first three days, but we didn’t manage to stop by 1UP to check out a new bike rack they’ve got in the works. Here’s the things we liked on the final day of Sea Otter:

New hanging-style bike rack from 1UP

We got a sneak peek at a new hanging-style bike rack from 1UP, the Wisconsin-based maker of aluminum bike racks popular with the e-bike crowd for their industry-leading weight capacity.

1UP recently purchased Recon Racks, and owner Robbie Lange said they were only making minor tweaks to Recon’s existing design. Lange was mum on things like weight capacity and price, but we’d imagine it’s likely capable of toting at least a handful of e-bikes. The new rack is expected to be available in the near future.

[Read more…] about 2021 Sea Otter Day 4 – The Coolest Things We Saw

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. . 

[Read more…] about 2021 Sea Otter Day 3 – The Coolest Things We Saw

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.

[Read more…] about 2021 Sea Otter Day 2 – The Coolest Things We Saw

Day one at the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California was a whirlwind of new electric bike tech, some sneak peeks into what’s coming just over the horizon and lots of literal wind.

This October marks the return of the event after a one year COVID-forced hiatus and the industry was out in force. The Electric Bike Report team was on the ground for the first day of Sea Otter, and here’s a quick look at the shiny things that caught our eye.

Stay tuned of more in-depth bike reviews, on-camera chats with industry experts and first looks at some of the coolest new e-bikes on the market.

[Read more…] about 5 Coolest things from Day 1 of Sea Otter Classic 2021

Frame material is an old chestnut for discussion in the bike and e-bike world, but despite lots of exciting new tech appearing on the horizon (and sometimes disappearing back beneath it) the vast majority of e-bikes and bikes are still made from steel and aluminium alloys. New alloy mixes and new manufacturing processes like aluminium tube hydroforming (pioneered on bike frames by Giant in the early part of the 20th century) have given a new twist and new possibilities to frame design. But, at the heart of it you are still left with the same metallic core properties of steel and aluminium on the vast majority of bikes and e-bikes available today.

EBR has reported on many of the new developments such as 3D-printed frames, magnesium cast frames and even bamboo-framed e-bikes. Despite being around for quite a while on road bikes, carbon-fiber has remained relatively rare on e-bikes but this week we look at two e-bike startups looking to bring carbon fiber frames to more affordable e-bikes, price being traditionally one of the big sticking points of mass adoption. Is this really a new dawn for e-bike frame materials or another false one?

• Ride1UP’s new affordable, single speed gravel e-bike
• Urtopia and CrownCruiser carbon fiber e-bikes
• Automatic suspension from SRAM
• Orion look to popularise low cost e-bikes
• Amazing e-bike and Brompton US growth
• Dott to launch 10,000 share e-bikes across Europe

[Read more…] about Ebike News: Ride1UP Gravel Option, Carbon Fiber Future, Amazing US Bike Growth & More!

Lighter, faster, greener, smarter. All themes that crop up regularly with e-bike and e-scooter companies wanting to claim they have the lightest or fastest or greenest or smartest product out there.

Ares have broken the seductive 20lb weight barrier with an e-road bike, BMW want variable e-bikes with a near-on 40mph speed capability on their latest concept vehicle, Unagi claim their new e-scooter is the smartest out there and the UK’s Royal Mail are heading for greener and greener ways of electric delivery. Read on for more detail…

• Ares use HPS Watt Assist system to launch their first sub-20lb e-bike
• Switzerland’s FLYER head to the US
• UK’s Eskute launch Bafang powered mid-drive models
• Royal Mail trialing micro electric vehicles from Norway and France
• Fazua acquires innovative hub drive company
• European e-bike speed debate hots up
• Unagi’s new ‘smart’ e-scooter with sensors
• Chicago set for more bike lanes

[Read more…] about E-bike News: Ares sub 20lb E-road Bike, Eskute Go Mid-drive, E-bike Speed Debate & More!

Plenty of innovation and interesting light electric vehicles this week, from Cube’s partially tilting trike to Eli’s 25mph mini electric car – OK the Eli is not an e-bike but the kind of small, light electric vehicle that e-bikes are much happier co-existing with on city streets with than full size cars and trucks and e-bikes arguably have more in common with small EVs like this than small EVs do with full size cars.

Also notable is the fact that Eli is based in the US but has chosen the EU to launch – for reasons we go into below. At the same time the sleek and hi-tech looking Cowboy 4 is heading from it’s Belgian roots to the US, proving that the e-bike market appears to be expanding just about everywhere just at the moment.

In this week’s news:

• Cowboy 4 urban e-bike should be on sale in the US from Jan 2022
• Cube’s innovative tilting trike
• Rad City commuter line gets makeover
• Serial 1 Limited Edition S1 Tribute
• E-mtbs dominate German e-bike market
• Eli EV takes a trip from the US to Europe
• Juiced bigger mid-range battery

[Read more…] about Ebike News: Belgian Cowboy to the US, New RadCity 5 +, Cube Tilting Trike and Harley Davidson Limited Edition – and Much More!

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.

[Read more…] about Rad Power Bikes RadCity 5 Plus: A New Frame and Quicker Motor