Bicycles news

Harley Davidson comes full circle with the latest Serial 1 range of powered bicycles. However, whereas the original Harley Davidson had a petrol engine powering the bicycle, the Serial 1 has batteries and an electric motor. It’s the way of the future so you might as well get used to it.

In an expected turn of events, the largest American car producer GM announced the development and production of eBikes. Electric bikes, designed by GM engineers in Canada, are intended for city use, sport small diameter wheels and still do not have a name. Before GM puts them in production and on sale next year, the company announced a crowdsourcing campaign and challenge where all interested parties can submit their name idea. GM isn’t a douche, so it offered $10,000 for the winner of the contest with the runners-up getting $1,000 in awards. You can access the challenge here as you have up until 26th November, 10 AM Eastern, to submit your naming ideas for the new eBike.

There’s no stopping Elon Musk. After successfully venturing into cars, hyperloops, tunnels, and rockets, he is now planning to build e-bikes as well. Speaking to Recode Decode, Musk hinted that Tesla would probably get into the e-bikes market, which is growing exponentially in the U.S.

Setting sights on the 2018 FIM Trial-E Cup races in France and Belgium, the Yamaha Factory Racing chaps have worked out of Yamaha’s ‘Evolving R & D’ unit to get on with the rad looking TY-E concept. This is their entry into the electric motorcycle bandwagon. But their entry into electric two-wheelers happened way back in 1993 when Yamaha “launched the world’s first electrically power-assisted bicycle”.

Now, the Japanese Blue Team is launching a new breed of cycles powered by electric motors. With decent performance ratings, Yamaha has taken this foray into smaller powered “motorcycles” quite seriously. 500 Watt-hour batteries and 60 lb-ft of torque says a lot about these cycles.

Triumph Motorcycles never fails to surprise us whenever there is a new launch and this time it was an all-new hardtail mountain bike. No, it is not a motorcycle, and it’s not even an e-bike. But is all powered by proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.

Why are they making one? Maybe they just got bored of churning winning combinations of modern-retro motorcycles under their Bonneville banner and thought of having a new challenge to conquer.

Electric bicycles have been popping up more frequently these days than at any other time in history. That’s not really saying much other than attribute it to the obvious technological advancements, but it really is a cool thing to see so many e-bikes being built these days.

It’s become so prevalent that upstart companies like Vintage Electric have joined in on the fun. Who is Vintage Electric, you ask? Well, it’s a California-based company that just released a pretty cool retro-inspired electric bicycle that harkens back to the glory days of the board track racers.

The bike is called the E Tracker and as you can plainly see, the inspiration to those old board track racers is strong on this one. It’s also custom-built product so you can definitely appreciate the level of detail that went in the development of this bike. The board track racer-inspired look is an unquestioned highlight, but you’ll also notice that the E Tracker also an engine casing tucked just under the horizontal frame of the bike. That’s not there for cosmetic purposes; there’s actually a battery inside the casing that supplies the electric power on the bike, capable of reaching a top speed of 36 mph with a 30 mph battery capacity for every charge.

Given it’s close aesthetic ties to the board track racers of yesteryear, Vintage Electric balanced the eras with new-school technology, including regenerative braking and LED lighting that comes as an added option for customers.

Since it’s a custom build, Vintage Electric is also offering custom paint jobs on the bike to go with an affordable price tag of just $5,000 for a base unit. Added options understandably adds to the bike’s price, but if you really want your E Tracker to stand out more than it already does, I don’t think these added goodies would be a problem for you.

Continue reading to read more about the Vintage Electric E Tracker.

Audi was out in full force at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show and while the undoubted star of its booth was the new R8 supercar, eagle-eyed observers noted that there was another vehicle there that wasn’t getting as much attention as the new 2016 R8.

But no such thing happens here, which is why I’m devoting some space to give some love to the Audi Sport Racing Bike. Yep. Audi has a new bicycle in the fold, joining the likes of McLaren, Lamborghini, and Aston Martin as automakers that have recently released their own bicycles.

The Audi Sport Racing Bike is a pretty special ride and I don’t throw that word around too often. It was built by the company in collaboration with CarbonSports, who as some of you may now, is the company that produces those cool Lightweight bikes.

If I’m going to give Audi any credit here, it’s because of the decision to enlist the help of CarbonSports to develop this bike. Not only does it look incredibly sexy, but it carries some materials that you normally would use in an R8. The inspiration is heavy on this one, indeed.

Take the bike’s frame and forks for example. They’re not just made from your run-of-the-mill aluminum; they’re actually made from T1000 carbon, the same material used in the cockpit of the R18 e-tron Quattro. The use of this unique carbon material resulted in the frame weighing just 790 grams. Do the math and that’s not even 1 kilo! Impressed now?

All in all, the Audi Sport Racing Bike weighs only 5.8 kilos, and that already includes a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 and 3T finishing kit, a Selle Italia saddle dressed up in the same Fine Nappa leather used in the R8, and an individual limited edition badge.

Audi’s only selling 50 units of this special bike. Really, everything about it is special, including its astronomical price tag of €17,500, which is about $18,620 based on current exchange rates.

Click "continue reading" to read more about the Audi Sport Racing Bike.