The automotive world is going all electric to save the polar bear and the Arctic ice. Electric cars are gathering unseen success, thanks to manufacturers like Tesla. The concept of having an electric motorcycle is also heading in a positive direction. We could also be seeing electric trucks, pickups and other forms of commercial vehicles in the upcoming months. In fact, going electric has become a social statement.
However, going electric is also expensive. The cheapest electric vehicle you can have is a bicycle, which isn’t as affordable as its regular, pedal-powered brethren. To make the tech available to the common man, a startup on Indiegogo has a product that can make your existing bicycle an electric one. The product is called UrbanX and is a complete electric front wheel to fit in any type of bicycle in the world.
The makers claim that it can be replaced with your existing bicycle wheel in less than a minute. It is available in six common wheel sizes – 24”, 26”, 27.5”, 29″, 650c and 700c. It comes with a detachable battery that can provide a range of 30 miles (50 km) on a single charge and can top out at 20mph for the American variant whereas the European variant can only achieve 15mph.
However, what really caught our eye was the three riding mode feature. Users can choose to utilise the motor completely and let the motor do the pedalling with the full electric motor. The second ‘traditional bike’mode lets your legs do all the work required to rotate the wheel. The third mode is ‘pedal assist’, which is very clever. It provides electrical assistance to the wheel depending on the amount of pedal that the rider is applying. It can be controlled from your smartphone, which gives a boost to its desirable quotient a notch higher. This blows our mind as a feature available on a bicycle, something that was offered until now on a McLaren supercar.
The starting price for UrbanX is $319, which is around Rs 20,500. It seems to be a pricey addition to a comparatively cheaper normal bicycle but brings you supercar tech for less than the price of a gasoline drinking motorcycle.
(Source)
