“This is the most exciting collaboration since James Franco and Anne Hathaway teamed up to host the Oscars!” – TBP
No, it’s really much more exciting than that.
Storck Bicycle, a company known for producing carbon fiber frames that allow for the building up of 12 lb complete bikes, is stepping into the E-Bike world with the Storck RADDAR line. And, as you might imagine, they are not messing around. Storck is teaming up with Cosworth, makers of high tech components used in Formula One, Marine, and aerospace and defense applications…it’s like Gandhi said: “Go big or go home.”
Storck has some interesting ideas regarding the E-Bike model. For one, they basically built a bike that looks and handles like a bike They didn’t build an E-thing that looks like a piece of avant garde furniture and probably handles like…a piece of avant garde furniture. Remove the battery and swap out the rear wheel and you’ve got a normal, everyday, carbon fiber hybrid made by one of the highest-end bicycle manufacturers in the world branded with the logo of a company that creates unmanned vehicle systems and “Pectel Engine Controllers” (whatever those are). Although, allegedly, the bike with motor weighs in at about 47 lbs, while the bike, sans motor, weighs in at about 28 lbs. Not exactly the crazy-light, king of the bike path hybrid you’d expect from Storck. But this is without Cosworth’s re-design of the electric motor (the current motor is built by a Swiss company). Who knows, maybe the bike with the re-designed motor will actually weigh less than the current bike with the motor, and there are rumors that the new motor will also provide “accident data recording and blast event monitoring capabilities.” (Made up.)
Storck RADDAR plans on releasing five bikes in the UK this coming year, all aimed at the high end of the market. The bikes will be available in both carbon fiber and alloy frames with a Shimano spec, including hydraulic disc brakes. All the bikes will share the same 250W motor that delivers a linear power curve, so no “kick in” feeling as the electric motor engages.
Hey, and get this: the motors are capped at 15mph. If you live in the states you’ll have to figure out a way to “un-restrict” the motor on your gray market bought Storck RADDAR so you can buzz all the non-E-bike-ridin’ fools in the bike lane at 30mph.
Source: Bikebiz.com
