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January 7, 2025

Cause if you liked it then you should have put a roof on it

We’ve been trying a temporary rain canopy that is designed for upright bicycle. The goal was to use this product to determine if a built-in rain canopy would work on the Electrom. 

For a number of years we have felt that a canopy would produce too much surface area and make the bike vulnerable to cross-winds, but we recently did some experiments with extra surface area in high winds that led us to believe that it was worthwhile to experiment further, so the Bup-Up was ordered from Europe. 
 
The Bub-up is designed for upright bicycles but was easily adapted to the Electrom. After several days of riding it in heavy rain and high winds we have reached several conclusions:
  • a rain canopy and windshield would be a very nice addition to the Electrom and the cross-wind issue is not as bad as we had feared–but there is a noticeable difference.
  • The canopy will have to be very light so as not to have a negative effect on the handling of the bike. 
  • whatever we come up with cannot interfere with the ease of mounting and dismounting the Electrom. One of the nicest things about it is how uncomplicated it is to use, and we wish to keep it that way. 
The consensus is that we will proceed with a prototype canopy. Stay tuned. 
 
We should also state that while the Bub-Up is a well-made product, it is not suitable for the higher speeds of the Electrom, but it would be a great addition to a slower bicycle.
December 6, 2024

New Tailbox Design

We’ve been working on a new tailbox design. The Design Intent is to make a tailbox that is a bit shorter than the existing model, but also has some height for bulkier items. We’re going to try something a bit different–these new talboxes will have carbon fiber exterior surfaces with bonded aluminum inner surfaces. The hope is that this will allow for a simpler mold and layup, thus reducing manufacturing costs.
 
The modern way to produce a mold would be to design in CAD software and then have the plug carved by a CNC router. But this process is quite expensive and hard to justify for a small run. So, we opted to do it the old fashion way by carving the plug by hand.
The process involves building a framework out of wood, then laying foam on top. once the basic shape has been carved, autobody filler is used to finalize the shape and produce a hard surface.
 
 
Ideally one would use polyurethane foam, because it is not affected by the solvents in autobody filler, but polyurethane foam is hard to source, so we use the more common insolation styrofoam and a layer of epoxy to protect it from the solvents.
 
 
The grey images show the plugs, which are the positive-shapes that will be used to make the negative-shape of the molds. The vertical surfaces are the flange areas that will be the outside edges of the molds.
September 17, 2024

Electric Bike Gang

I had the opportunity to drop by Grin Technology for a visit with a couple of Electroms. As luck would have, it we bumped into Justin Lemire-Elmore, Grin CEO and chief visionary, and Alon, the inventor of the very exciting new Freegen disk-brake-activated regenerative braking hub. We all went for a ride to grab a bagel.

July 17, 2024

Two new Electroms shipped

We shipped two new Electroms to their owners this spring. A crisp white model went to Vancouver, and a lime green bike was sent to California. We’ve been getting good feedback from the new owners.

April 28, 2024

Electrom Talking Points Video

We recently shipped one of our used Electrom’s to Adam who lives in Iowa.
He’s only had the bike for a month, but so far seems pretty happy with it. So happy in fact, that he has put together an early review video. You can check it out on his YouTube channel.
We should note that the bike Adam has is an older model, and a lot of the small things that he points out have been addresses on our latest model.
April 7, 2024

Be Seen

The Electrom is designed to be seen. Many recumbent bikes are super low in order to be aerodynamic but this makes them hard to see in traffic.

Because the Electrom was designed from the ground up to be electrified, we knew that we could take advantage of the extra power to make it higher and therefore, more visible. This coupled with modern super bright LED lights allowed us to design a recumbent bike that is at eye level with most other road users, and very hard to miss due to the full complement of LED lights.

The Electrom comes stock with a 3000-lumen headlight, COB LED taillight & brake light strips, and front and rear turn signals. There are also optional COB LED cowling lights.

September 14, 2023

Fully Charged Review and live show

Fully Charged Reviewed the Electrom.

For those of you who have not seen it, here is a link to the excellent Fully Charged Review of the Electrom.
 
 

Fully Charged Live Show Vancouver

We had a great time at the Fully Charged Live Show in Vancouver that ran from September 8-10. It was a the perfect audience for us as many of the attendees were there specifically looking for sustainable transportation options.
 
 
 
September 2, 2023

High Speed Gravel Riding

We’ve put the new Electrom through several months of testing so far, and we thought it was time to see how the new tires handle looser conditions. The new wider rims, combined with the beefy Heidenau K46 dual-purpose tires have proven to be amazing.

Electrom LEV

 

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