Ebike News: Radio Flyer E-bikes and E-scooters, VW E-Cargobike, Trek Pride Ride & More | Electric Bike Report | Electric Bike, Ebikes, Electric Bicycles, E Bike, Reviews

It has been two years since Germany’s automotive VW Group announced they would be launching a new e-cargo bike – unfortunately the original version used the Continental 48V Revolution drive, which was discontinued and the VW e-cargobike never appeared on the market.

Very brief details of the relaunch have now appeared on VW’s German language site; 500Wh battery, (un-named) 250W motor, 25kmh speed cap and 210kg / 460 lbs payload.

German car-makers and e-bikes don’t have a great history, with many ‘publicity’ e-bikes being ‘launched’ then disappearing. Those that do make it to market don’t seem to have stayed there very long – Mercedes’ Smart e-bike is just one example; it was launched with much fanfare in 2014 but with the bankruptcy of motor system provider BionX it seemed Mercedes simply stopped making the Smart bike and there are still complaints of a lack of backup on what was a very expensive e-bike.

Despite the warning tale on crowdfunding projects presented by the Raine e-scooter story below, there’s no denying it’s a business model that comes up with innovative ideas. The Cirrus bicycle airbag jacket is a case in point.

The name really says it all and here it is in action.

For Pride Month Trek Bicycle is hosting nationwide Pride Ride events on Sunday, June 27 and donating a total of $75,000 across multiple local LGBTQIA+ organizations. The Trek 2021 Pride Rides are described as ‘a celebration (on two wheels) of love, diversity, and the powerful history of the LGBTQIA+ community’.

Over 78 bike shops across the country will be hosting individual Pride Ride events in over 25 cities – including New York, Chicago, San Diego and Washington, D.C. – to support their local communities. Participating cyclists will also receive an exclusive 2021 Trek Pride Ride t-shirt, featuring the 13 color Pride rainbow flag.

Here’s how to participate:

• Grab a bike and click here to view the list of Pride Ride locations (no pre-registration required)
• Participating local Trek stores will list ride start times, ride routes and the start/finish line via their Facebook event pages

European electrical enclosure manufacturer Spelsberg recently launched a dedicated e-bike charging unit that can be purchased by businesses to provide e-bike charging as a service for employees and customers.

The UK rollout is just beginning and is being headed by Simon Watson-Burge who has a background as both a hands-on engineer and a bike shop owner and mechanic. Talking to EBR, Watson-Burge explained how the chargers could appeal to both corporate employers, looking to provide an attractive working environment and a sustainable service, for their employees, but also tourism business on long distance bike routes – think rural cafes and restaurants where e-bikers can fuel up themselves and the e-bike at the same time.

The wall mounted chargers have both Bosch and Shimano leads with appropriate plugs (so no charger required) and also UK standard three pin plugs for other e-bikers who use a different motor system and have their own charger.

Interested businesses can contact Simon at [email protected] or on 01952 605849

Micromobilitybiz tells us that a survey commissioned by major e-scooter hire company Voi found that just 48% of people questioned supported the use of e-scooters, compared to 24% of those who didn’t.

Almost a quarter of respondents said that e-scooters have now replaced their reliance on ride-hailing and cars. The survey, commissioned from Findoutnow.co.uk also found that almost a third of commuters are using e-scooters as part of their existing public transport journey and almost a fifth use e-scooters to travel to and from work directly.

According to Carscoops, ‘backers of the Australian Raine e-scooter have been told that they will not be receiving refunds as the Kickstarter project appears to have died – or in the founding team’s words, has gone into “hibernation.” In a blog post on their Kickstarter page, they shared the news, citing increased supply chain costs as the reason.’

On paper the Raine had a superb spec for a budget price of $979, prompting some commentators at the time to ask if it really was too good to be true. As EBR has warned, whilst the best run electric mobility crowdfunding schemes can offer great value on great products, there is clearly also a larger element of risk compared to buying ‘off the shelf’ products.