FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, Germany (BRAIN) — A collaboration between the Italian auto brand Maserati, the Danish e-bike brand Diavelo (an Accell Group brand), and the Chinese e-bike motor maker Bafang has resulted in a line of Maserati e-bikes on display at Eurobike here this week.
The Maserati Trofeo e-road has an alloy frame with a discrete motor and battery, producing a lightweight, nimble road bike. It features the Bafang M800 mid-drive motor. The bike has already won the German Design Award and the A'Design Award in Italy.
The bike line serves to promote the new Bafang motor, which offers single and double chainring compatibility. It can be set by the manufacturer to the EU legal limit of 25 kmh or unleashed for a maximum speed of 45 kmh for use on pedelecs. The motor is tuned to help the most during accelerations; after the maximum assist speed is reached, it runs almost resistance-free.
"We put a lot of effort into developing this compact drive train system. Currently one of the lightest and smallest systems in the market we see many more opportunities for other bicycle categories as well," said Sunny He, one of Bafang's founders and CMO.
The Dirtsuit
The Dirtsuit sits firmly in the category of a product that probably makes a lot of sense, but that we're not sure will translate for the U.S. consumer. The waterproof/breathable one-piece oversuit is from a three-year-old German brand, Dirtlej, whose slogan is "no more excuses."
Company co-founder Lena Kaiser said she wears the suit on just about every ride from October to May. Her co-founder Jan Rühl was inspired to make the original suit, which has long sleeves and short legs, by kite-boarding suits. The hooded Dirtsuit is now available with short sleeves, full legs, or removable legs. The full long-sleeve, long-legged version might be just the thing for sloppy snow/slush rides, if the Euro-style works for you. Prices start at $199 retail for the short version. The company currently has no U.S. distribution.
Opportunity knocks
When thieves stole five e-bikes from the Greenstorm.eu booth overnight Saturday, the Austrian company's employees made the most of it when the show opened Sunday morning. They enlisted the help of the show's many international visitors to produce signs in eight languages — and counting — explaining the theft.
"Our e-bikes were so beautiful, they were stolen already," the English sign read.
Greenstorm has an unusual business model. The company barters its new e-bikes to hotel operators in exchange for unsold room credits, then sells the credits online. At the end of the season, Greenstorm takes the bikes back and sells them, making the company one of the largest sellers of used e-bikes in Europe.
The Greenstorm theft wasn't the only one at Eurobike. Someone also took a giant screen TV monitor from the Zwift booth and, according to the Eurobike Show Daily, three e-bikes from the Bafang booth.
Bike camping in style and comfort
It's not quite glamping, but the B-Turtle from Gentle Tent gets bike campers up off the ground and into comfort, and also allows campers to stand up inside. The two-person tent uses inflatable tubes as "poles" and rides on top of a bike trailer. The trailer still has room for gear inside, as well.
Gentle Tent got its start making rooftop tents for autos; it also makes tents that ride on kayaks, so a bike trailer tent was a natural transition. The full trailer with tent weighs about 66 pounds and costs 3,000 euros. First production will begin in August.
More affordable motion capture
MotionLogic offers three-dimensional bike fitting equipment for stores and fit studios. The company's system is available in a one-camera version for 5,000 euros ($5,800), or a two-camera version for 9,000 euros, around 2/3 the cost of competitive systems. The cameras work in most light conditions, so a darkened room is not required, and the cameras can be positioned on tripods or even at the ceiling for a clean look.
In addition to showing how the body works on a bike, the system gathers information from PowerTap pedals at every 9 degrees of pedal stroke and also measures saddle pressure in real time, so motion, power and weight distribution can be gathered and recorded for analysis. A MotionLogic spokesman said the system operates at processing speeds comparable to lab systems that cost ten times as much.
MotionLogic has offices in Germany and manufacturing in Colorado. The company has been selling for about two years and is working with several U.S. shops and fit/coaching studios.
The Tour comes to Eurobike
One consequence of Eurobike's early dates this year was that, in many parts of the show, business stops in late afternoon as folks look for a TV to see the final kilometers of the Tour de France stage (also weird for Americans: live Tour de France coverage in the late afternoon?!). On Monday, a crowd gathered in the aisles around the Abus booth, not for a celebrity autograph session or free beer, but because Abus brought in an enormous TV screen to show the stage.
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The Dirtsuit was inspired by kiteboarding gear. -
