Forget about the traditional bike vs e-bike arguments, which IMO are just proper daft: I mean who cares what you ride if you’re riding a bike?
But even the naysayers will have their heads turned by this wonderful coming together or beach cruiser & brat motorcycle? With a gorgeous aluminium frame, chunky tires and cool integrated features, it’s a winner.
And 10,000 people agree. That’t how many people have signed up and paid $20 to be ‘allowed’ to pay the remaining $4007 later this year.
Van Moof describe their new e-bike as a ‘hyperbike’ for commuting, designed specifically for a ‘bike-first future’, envisioning a time when people choose the bicycle over cars in their day-to-day lives.
“I believe this new type of high-speed e-bike can fully replace scooters and cars in the city by 2025,” said co-founder Ties Carlier.
There’s only one problem: according to current European law, the bike is illegal. Why? Because in Europe, e-bikes that can be ridden without a license have a 25 km/hr speed limit, and speed pedelecs have a speed limit of 45km/hr.
“Getting such a large number of reservations in such a short period of time shows the incredible public appetite for a true car replacement in our everyday city lives,” said Carlier.
Let’s hope eh! Car-free or at least heavily car-limited cities are not only looking increasingly-essential, but would be fun as heck.
The missing link with any of these expensive bikes is security when the bicycle is locked up. I live in San Francisco and would never leave a bike like this locked outside for any extended period of time. More than 15-30 minutes. Thanks
Yeah in the UK even if they couldn’t remove the bike, they’d likely damage it just for fun. Solution has to be – take the bike inside always I guess..! Here in Taiwan tho it’d be ok in the daytime.