The above bicycle costs GBP 20,000 WHICH MEANS $40,000U.S.! Interesting...very interesting.
I have to confess dear readers, I really like the below Electric Hybrid...It is clean and nice!
Ultra Motor A2B Bike
$40,000 may seem like alot of money for this fine piece of machinery, but please keep a few things in mind, this is the type of bike that is VERY HIGH erformance and not only that, there are very few of these (that I could find) in the world! It makes me mad that some of you will write in and complain about such a high priced bicycle!
As I said concerning my designs, IF you want a bike to ride like EVERYONE ELSE has, go to your local bike shop and get something off the rack. For you super cheap people, go to Wal-Mart and buy some of that junk. But if you want something that no one else has, suck it up and PAY THE PRICE.
Where do I begin? Over the last several years, I have looked at, and scoured many types of Electric Bicycles to simply educate myself on WHY someone would pay $700 OR MORE for a conversion kit that would turn a regular bicycle into an electric or gas type of bicycle….Back in the day, we didn’t call them Motorized or Electric Bicycles, we simply called them Mopeds! I will preface the rest of this article by pointing out…..once again…that a Bicycle that is somehow motorized is not a new thing. In fact, ‘Motorized Bicycles’ are arguably a direct result of the early Track Bicycle Racers such as Marshall Taylor, who despite having tandem pace teams of up to 5 men, couldn’t get their pacers to go fast enough for them to break world records for speed (late 1890s).
What is interesting is that in breaking those world records on the Sprint Tracks and demanding more speed from their 3-5 man tandem pace teams and then from the motorized bicycles, inadvertently Taylor and the rest ushered in the demise of the very sport they loved, Track Bicycle Racing. Before the time of the automobile and shortly before the Engine on motorized bicycles (later called motorcycles) were developed enough to feed the public’s need for speed, these bicycle racers were the fastest men on Earth! The founder of the ‘Indian Motorcycle Company’ was an old rival of Taylor’s mentor and manager, Louis ‘Birdie’ Munger from the Old High Wheel Bicycle racing days!
Anyhow, back to the point of this article, Electric’s Bicycles. I was fascinated that ANYONE would pay as much as $9,000 for and Electric Bicycle, I mean, it made no sense to me. A term that I have used for the enthusiast for this product is ‘Tweeners’. Half-way between bicycles and motorcycles! This term doesn’t only apply to 12 years olds yall! I have viewed products in this category from China, Taiwan, European capitals, Thailand, etc. and as far as this search goes, I AM WORLDWIDE! I do not know if any of yall have noticed, but I am VERY opinionated about design, and once again I will tell you that that all of the Electric Bicycle I saw over the last several years I can describe in 2 words ‘CRAP BOMB!’ Crappy and cheap looking and for the $$$ they are asking, they should do better. I can see a Buffalo Soldier from the Iron Riders Brigade roling on this hear!
Then on yesterday, my whole world changed…If you love Electric Bicycles and want something that I call an ‘Electric Funkin’ Lesson’, you really need to check out a company here in Colorado named OptiBike. I just love the look and feel of this funk ball. The frame is thick and nasty with WILD GRAPHICS. Not only that folks, I am adverse to using black tires on ANY design I produce, but with the wild graphics on this design, I have never seen black tires look so PERFECT on a frame. I don’t know how much it costs and neither do I care because I have just created a new category in my ‘Design Funk Hall of Fame’ called ‘Electric Funkin’ Lesson. Enjoy!
I have found him! Who you ask? Someone I have come to know as ‘The Fabricator of Funk’. Over the last 7 weeks or so, I hinted at the fact and posted a raw frame picture, concerning the fact that I was working on one of (the 1st) of my prototype designs. I posted on craigslist in an attempt to find someone who could fabricate some of my designs. I got a response from 2 people and both of them referred me to the same person (one gave me his email address) who I only knew as ‘Casey’. I contacted Casey and the rest (when our launch comes) you will be able to say is history! I will not give you details, contact information and such about him because he is launching his own machine shop dedicated to building and creating original works of art (you may know them as custom designs) to remind the world that originality is king! Although I love design and talking about bicycle design, where aesthetics is concerned), there is much I don’t know and Casey my friends, IS the ‘Missing Link’.
We are closing in on completion of my 1st design in a few weeks. This design is called; ‘Illuminati’ which means; Someone possessing or claiming to possess a higher level of enlightenment. This name is very appropriate although I know that I do not have a higher level of enlightenment, but I certainly do claim so, do I not?! I think where bicycle design is concerned, enlightenment is ‘Relative’ to what you like and think is HOOOOOOTTTT! I saw some heavy weight ‘TREK’ Beach Cruisers in a shop not long ago, and I must say that I thought they were VERY NICE. Not HOOOTTTT (ala the Nuvinci by Ellsworth) but nice all the same. Someone else may look at that same ‘TREK’ and be like ‘YUK!’ Anyway, Casey has viewed a few of my designs and saw fit to refer to me as ‘Eccentric’. The purpose of the 1st design, Illuminate, was to not only build but for me to get a feel for Casey’s fabrication\alteration style and for him to feel where I was coming from. In my opinion, I couldn’t have found a better Fabricator-Machinist than he! Standby my dear readers for the roll-out of the 1st Signature Line of ‘RYDZ’ by Marshall Taylor in the spring of 2009….. REMEMBER THIS TERM… PROVOLUTION; Bringing the best of the past, forward to the present, and carrying that ideal into the future.
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