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Ebike News: Senate Set to Look at E-bike Tax Credits, More E-cargobikes from Raleigh, Greyp High Tech and Lots More!

Government efforts to promote the sales of e-bikes through financial incentives take various guises; in France you can trade in your old car for €2,500 towards a new e-bike whilst in the UK the Cycle to Work program is a tax incentive that gives a tax rebate to employees using the purchased bike or e-bike to cycle to work. There are many more examples from around the world, including some that specifically promote financial incentives for e-cargo bikes.

Whilst these are all very welcome, they are all aimed at promoting e-bike sale to solve a particular problem and so will only be available to a certain segment of the population; those with old cars or those in employment cycling to work etc. But the proposed US E-BIKE Act we look at again this week could just be one of the most wide-ranging government incentive initiatives – if it comes to pass – as it will apply to all US taxpayers. If it does succeed it will be a massive boost for the cause of e-bikes in the US.

In this week’s news:

30% e-bike tax credit Senate bill introduced
Raleigh UK launches two new e-bikes
Greyp T5 e-SUV – the ultimate high-tech trekking e-bike?
Bamboo e-cargo prototype from My Boo
Trek sustainability report and trail funding
Superpedestrian claims radical new pavement safety tech
E-bike four-wheeler firms in trouble

Eskute Voyager Review, 2021

Eskute Voyager Review: Summary

The Eskute Voyager is the companion bike to the Wayfarer – which EBR has also reviewed – but is a trail e-mtb, unlike the Wayfarer which is a city e-bike.

So whilst it doesn’t have the pannier rack or rear light of the Wayfarer it gets a bigger capacity battery to go with the same, dependable Bafang rear hub motor and it also has lockout front suspension (which the Wayfarer lacks) and grippy-looking Kenda 27.5 x 2.1 inch knobbly tires. It also has the same very attractive £999 price tag.

And like the Wayfarer, the spec is of course budget as it packs the same Zoom cable operated disc brakes and the same 7-speed Shimano Tourney derailleur gearing.

In our experience reviewing e-bikes, budget off-road e-bikes are perhaps a more difficult feat to pull off but Eskute look to have made a good start on paper by using a larger capacity battery for those energy-sapping trails and also using a 48V electric drive system, with the potential for more ‘on tap’ power delivery in contrast to the 36V Wayfarer, all of which makes sense.

But how would it measure up to taking on my local trails?

Eskute Wayfarer Review, 2021

Eskute Wayfarer Review: Overview

The Eskute Wayfarer from the UK is a fully equipped town bike with a frame-integrated battery and a great price of £999.

There aren’t too many e-bikes of any description at this price that we’ve reviewed, let alone ones like the Wayfarer which come with hard-wired lights, sturdy pannier rack, full mudguards, front suspension and electronic horn.

It’s clearly designed to be easy to use and comfortable, with low-step frame, plush saddle and adjustable handlebar stem.

The spec is of course budget and you wouldn’t expect anything else at this price, but features well-respected names from the Bafang rear hub motor to the Shimano derailleur gearing.

On paper it looks superb value but how would it measure up to our real world testing?

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E-bike News: New E-bikes from Rad Power Bikes, Dahon, GT and Norco

rad power bikes radrover 6plus electric bike review

It’s great to see e-bike companies doing all they can to offer ever better e-bikes and it’s interesting to see just how they go about it. For Rad Power Bikes it’s about making just about everything on the bike a bit better or easier to use as typified by the RadRover 6, just announced. For Dahon it’s about bringing mid-motor power to the world of small-wheeled and relatively lightweight commuting style folders – something not often done. For Norco it’s the combo of the most powerful motor and the biggest batteries out there whilst Italy’s Bad Bike think the e-bike could be used to repopularise sidecars. It doesn’t matter so much exactly what each company’s take on what’s needed in the e-bike market is – what matters is that they all want to make the next model of e-bike better than the last one…

In this week’s news:

RadRover 6 redesigned from the ground up
Dahon Unio E9 – lightweight mid-drive e-folder
Norco e-mtb range with EP8 power and bigger batteries
Bad Bike’s e-fat bike with sidecar
GT’s new BMX inspired street e-bike, the Performer
Askoll makes big claims for its mid-drive
Cytronex now offering bigger, bluetooth-enabled bottle battery unit
Bike path surveying with an electric buggy
E-bike sales in US and UK compared – is lack of infrastructure holding e-bikes back?

Rad Power Bikes RadRover 6 Plus: A New Torquier Motor and New Frame

Rad Power Bikes announced the RadRover 6 Plus today, a complete redesign of their flagship electric fat bike that boasts a torquier motor, a new frame and a boatload of other new goodies.

The new RadRover 6 Plus represents a leap forward for the Seattle-based e-bike company. It’s the first time, according to Sr. Project Manager Tom Mount, that the company has been able to develop the majority of its drive system — the motor, controller and battery — in house.

“The new Rover 6 represents really a ground-up redesign of that bike,” Mount said. “It really represents not only what we’re investing in development and technology, but a bike that is really growing and changing as we are as a company.”

The new RadRover 6 is the first bike released since Rad raised a $150 million investment in February 2021; money that gave the e-bike company the financial bandwidth to better fund their in-house design and development efforts.

The Electric Bike Report staff hasn’t gotten to ride the new Rover yet (stay tuned, we should get the bike soon), but based on some sneak peaks and what we are told the new e-bike can do, it appears that investment is paying off.

SmartBikeWheel Review, 2021

SmartBikeWheel Conversion kit Review: Overview

Electric bike conversion kits have always seemed a little complicated; the domain of tinkering hobbyists more than happy to solder wires and precariously strap batteries to traditional bicycles.

So when I unboxed our review model of the SmartBikeWheel e-bike conversion kit, I was pretty sure some pieces were missing.

Instead of a mess of wires and a modular drive system, the SmartBikeWheel is just a wheel. Aside from that, all I pulled from the box was a small clutch of tools, a 160mm disc rotor and a small handlebar phone mount. That’s it. A little less than what I was picturing.

The SmartBikeWheel may seem minimalist, but inside its oversized hub shell is a 36V, 8.7Ah (313.2Wh) battery wrapped around a 250W geared hub motor. There are no external wires or cabling, no display, no controller box and no throttle. Instead of an external cadence or torque sensor, the nervous system of the wheel is a gyroscope and tachometer (also inside the hub) that use changes in pitch and speed to determine how much power should be applied and when. The only equipment you need outside the hub is a smartphone and the SmartBikeWheel app, which functions as the control center for the kit with your typical display readouts — including speed, trip time and distance — plus additional functions and access to settings.

We installed the kit on a 2002 Gary Fisher Wahoo donor bike we bought for $100 from our local bike nonprofit, the St. George Bicycle Collective, a bike that proved fitting for the low-cost and low-effort conversion kit.

To say my expectations for our SmartBikeWheel review were conservative might be an understatement. E-bike drive systems are typically complex and spread out across an entire bicycle, so it was tough to imagine how such a condensed and simple kit could compare to its more elaborate competitors.

Boy was I wrong.

The SmartBikeWheel performed as good or better than many entry-level e-bikes we’ve reviewed at Electric Bike Report. Not only does it climb well, get up to speed quickly and boast stellar battery life, it’s remarkably cheap and simple to install. The SmartBikeWheel is touted as a transportation solution designed to take almost any traditional bicycle — including our tired 20-year-old donor bike — and turn it into an affordable, efficient and capable e-bike.

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E-bike News: New E-bikes from Ride1Up, Fiido, Crowncrusier, MV Augusta and Blix

The relationship between e-bikes and motorbikes figures strongly in this week’s news; whether it’s the influence of very old motorbikes on current designs like the Crowncruiser or the trend for current motorbike companies to get into e-bikes, of which MV Augusta are the latest.

There’s also more e-bike news from the likes of Ride1Up, Fiido, Blix and Rad Power and details of an intriguing move to restrict car speeds in Paris, plus questions about the use and misuse of rental e-scooters.

In this week’s news:

Ride1Up’s new highest spec yet model
Fiido X specs revealed
Crowncruiser – is the future affordable carbon fibre?
Motorbike brand MV Augusta gets into e-bikes
Blix announces major e-bike upgrades
Rad Power rentals across Europe
Bosch Tour + riding mode
New drivetrain options
Paris clamps down on motor traffic speed

LEVA: U.S. e-bike sales should top 1 million in 2021, 3 million in coming years

Guest post by: Ed Benjamin, chairman of the Light Electric Vehicle Association This post was previously published on LEVA’s website and is being reposted here for our audience.

The United States tends to make changes slowly until a tipping point is reached. And then, change can be startlingly fast.

That tipping point has occurred with electric bikes in the last two years. We are on our way to becoming the most profitable and largest western market for electric bikes.

For nearly 23 years, the U.S. electric bike market was tiny compared to the Asian and even the European electric bike market. For each of those years, I would assure my clients, readers, and peers that the U.S. will — eventually — be one of the largest markets for e-bikes and pedelecs.

Growth was slow, partly because the bicycle industry of the U.S. is focused on sport, fitness and recreation, and for years the electric bike has been regarded as primarily a transportation tool. Two wheelers as transportation has been a very small business.

But now… the limit on the U.S. market is the performance of the supply chain. U.S. brands will take almost any electric bike they can get and sell it almost as soon as it is received. Unfortunate lead times — as much as two years — are the problem.

E-bike News: Pole Voima, Convercycle Extendable E-cargo, Ducati E-folder & More

Once upon a time Ducati meant just one thing; motorbikes and not just any motorbikes – very, very fast ones. So it’s perhaps a sign of the times – and the way two -wheeled power has become slower and electric in many ways – that this week’s news sees the announcement of another Ducati e-bike. Well, it’s not exactly Ducati, but we’ll get to that later…

Perhaps more innovative are the hugely powerful looking new e-bike from Finnish e-bike company Pole and the amazing extendable e-cargo bike from Germany’s Convercycle, which really do look to be pushing the bounds of current bike technology.

In this week’s news:

The Pole Voima – an e-mtb unlike any other
Convercycle now shipping – it’s both a regular e-bike and an e-cargo bike
A new, more affordable Modmo e-city bike
Ducatic extends its e-bike and e-scooter range
Blubrake’s new smaller, lighter ABS braking for e-bikes
Ridepanda bags big investment

Are Electric Bikes Cheating? We Asked the CEO of Bianchi USA

Though they’ve been embraced by nearly every major bike manufacturer and have all but saturated every corner of the U.S. cycling market, the debate over whether electric bikes are cheating is alive and well.

Bicycling has long been a sport with an elitist bend; tradition is sacred and it’s a staunchly held belief among many that you must suffer — at least a little — on the bike in order for your experience and effort to count. E-bikes don’t mesh well with that ethos, as if adding a little help to a person’s own pedaling somehow degrades the simple pleasure or utility of riding a bike.

Sound melodramatic? It absolutely is. Cycling is a sport full of people confusing endorphin highs with philosophical enlightenment; people who’d rather indulge in a morning of self-flagellation via bicycle than go to therapy.

But that view of e-bikes is slowly changing. In Europe, where e-bike sales are quickly encroaching on sales of traditional bicycles, e-bikes have gained considerable traction as an alternative transportation solution and as a more inclusive way to get more people of more backgrounds and fitness levels interested in the sport. There’s strong signs that the U.S. bike market is just a few steps behind. In 2020, fueled by the COVID-19 bike boom and a renewed interest in getting outside, e-bike sales in the U.S. grew 145 percent and outpaced traditional bike sales which were up 65 percent, according to market research figures published in the New York Times.

Many industry insiders all-too familiar with the bike industry’s boom-bust cycles are holding out hope that e-bikes, and the non-cycling public’s interest in them, hold the keys to a more economically sustainable future.

It would seem that e-bikes are here to stay.

Ebike News: Senate Set to Look at E-bike Tax Credits, More E-cargobikes from Raleigh, Greyp High Tech and Lots More!

Eskute Voyager Review, 2021

Eskute Voyager Review: Summary

Eskute Wayfarer Review, 2021

Eskute Wayfarer Review: Overview

E-bike News: New E-bikes from Rad Power Bikes, Dahon, GT and Norco

Rad Power Bikes RadRover 6 Plus: A New Torquier Motor and New Frame

SmartBikeWheel Review, 2021

SmartBikeWheel Conversion kit Review: Overview

E-bike News: New E-bikes from Ride1Up, Fiido, Crowncrusier, MV Augusta and Blix

LEVA: U.S. e-bike sales should top 1 million in 2021, 3 million in coming years

E-bike News: Pole Voima, Convercycle Extendable E-cargo, Ducati E-folder & More

Are Electric Bikes Cheating? We Asked the CEO of Bianchi USA

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