e12
Electric Bike Report
Kranked Kustoms electrifies mountain biking
I
f they think of them at all, Americans usually think of electric bikes as comfy rides for aging baby boomers. Or maybe as no-hassle transportation for commuters who won’t have to shower off the sweat when they get to the office. And then there are the bikes from Kranked Kustoms, which are to electric beach cruisers as Sriracha is to ketchup. The company’s Bjorn Enga and Chris Rothe decided to marry the best mountain bikes they could find with the best electric motor. For the bikes, they went with the Santa Cruz V10 Carbon and its sibling the Santa Cruz Nomad. For the motor, they chose the Austrian-made Ego-Kit, a mid-drive system that packs a 1,200-watt motor. The result, said Rothe, is “the lightest and best performance bike you can ride today.” The bikes are also some of the most expensive. The conversions start at $5,425 for an aluminum-frame Nomad
Kranked Kustoms’ Bjorn Enga (left) and Chris Rothe
and top out at more than $14,400 for the Nomad Carbon. While enthusiasts could buy the bike and the motor separately and do the conversion themselves, Kranked Kus-
Rothe wheelies Kranked Kustoms’ converted Santa Cruz V10 Carbon.
toms has developed a custom interface to match the motor to the bike. Kranked designed a custom mount that is machined from a billet of aluminum. The interface optimizes the wiring,
tuning, heat dissipation and the flex and stress of the motor on the frame. “Is it a niche market? It allows you to get out and ride on way past your prime,” Enga said. Rothe said the bike gets him back on his favorite trails despite a succession of serious injuries he has suffered over the years, including a broken back, broken arms and blown knees. The throttle-activated motor provides an instant kick. To avoid the problem of fitting the battery in a fullsuspension frame, the rider carries it in a backpack. That also solves another problem, Enga said, because “it helps neutralize the weight of the battery.” He said Kranked has sold about 50 of the converted bikes in North America. Kranked also plans to launch adventure mountain bike tours featuring the bikes this year, starting near Enga’s home base in Whistler, British Columbia.
Solex e-bike a nod to Safety first: Check where French brand’s heritage battery packs come from
Y
ou may not have heard of Solex, but you won’t forget the bike once you see it. It’s a venerable French brand that began making motorized bicycles after World War II, providing inexpensive transportation as the nation rebuilt itself. “They sold more than 8 million mopeds,” said Robert Guimond, business development manager for Solex. In 2004, a French group bought the brand and began marketing an e-bike designed by Italian car design firm Pininfarina. Solex launched its newest bike, called the Solexity x350, in the U.S. last month at the Interbike Electric Bike Media Event. Its distinguishing feature is a cylindrical compartment that sits on the headtube between the handlebars and front wheel. It’s an homage to the original Solex design, which featured an 38-cubic-centimeter engine with a roller transmission, carburetor and tank over the front wheel. Today, the cylinder houses a headlight but is mostly for aesthetics; the electric motor is housed in the rear hub. Solex uses a 350-watt BionX H-Torque G2 motor. BionX, in Aurora, Canada, is best known for its popular e-bike conversion kits. Solex is coming to market with one frame size in two colors: dark gray and pearl white. A SRAM X4 drivetrain offers eight speeds, and front and rear wheels are equipped with disc brakes. A 37-volt, 9.6-amp lithium-manganese battery is tucked under the rear rack.
W
Solexity x350
Robert Guimond (right) of Solex with Tim Kruszka of BionX at the Interbike Electric Bike Media Event
Solex has been selling its e-bikes in Europe and Japan since 2010 and is now targeting North America. “It’s not a huge market, but it’s a good market to enter,” said Guimond, who is based in Montréal. “The boom will come. I don’t know when, but it will come.” He said Solex hopes to be in about 25 to 30 retailers this year.
orried about the safety of ebike batteries in the wake of the well-publicized fires involving lithium-ion batteries on the Boeing Dreamliner 787? You should be, says the head of America’s biggest e-bike company. “Within two days [of the Boeing news] we got 15 calls from dealers,” said Larry Pizzi, president of Currie Technologies. Retailers told the company, “ ‘I’ve got a time bomb sitting here on my sales floor. Make me feel better about it.’ ” Currie responded with a lengthy memo to its retailers on lithium-ion battery safety. After the Dreamliner news reports, the memo read, “you are probably questioning the safety of lithium-ion battery packs. If you are selling electric bikes or planning to sell electric bikes, you most definitely should be.” The Currie memo advised retailers to know what is inside the battery packs of the e-bike brands they carry. Currie said its iZip and eFlow bikes use batteries from two sources: Samsung, the big Korean electronics manufacturer, and K2 Energy, a company based in Henderson, Nevada. Because a battery is typically the most expensive component on an ebike, manufacturers often turn there first when they try to cut costs, Currie said. “Lithium battery packs for electric bikes are available from literally hundreds of Chinese companies, many of
which do not have any standards testing or meet critical quality and safety standards,” the Currie memo said. The memo said 90 percent of reliable lithium-ion battery cells come from Japan and Korea, with four large companies leading the market: Sanyo/Panasonic, Sony, Samsung and LG. “The first question that you ask of any e-bike supplier is, ‘What brand and type of cells do you use in your battery packs and who assembles the pack?’ ” the memo stated. Retailers’ fears are not unfounded. One retailer recounted how his store burned down, with the loss of 60 to 80 bikes on the floor and as much as $200,000 in inventory, when an e-bike battery burst into flames while it was being charged overnight. The retailer, who asked not to be identified, said the battery was an aftermarket product that had been sold directly to a consumer. The retailer said he found out only after the fire that the battery had been recalled, but the company never notified his store of the recall. The company that sold the battery declared bankruptcy soon after the recall. The retailer says his store is now careful about the brands it carries and requires common-sense assurances. “I require my suppliers to carry product liability insurance and name me as an additional insured,” the retailer said. “If you can’t provide insurance for your product, I’m not going to carry it.”