Great E-Bike Designs Are Not All Trendy

I don’t claim to have a particular eye for product design that addresses the sensibilities of millennials, but I have to think that this may be on target: an e-bike that is the antimatter of the ultra-chic futurism that’s so prevalent today.  Not only is the design itself reminiscent of the 1950s, but its glaring lack of communications technology is also a bit jarring: there’s not even a GPS to guide you to the closest latte bar.

No surprise: the concept comes from The Netherlands.  Along with the Germans and the Italians, the Dutch have really dialed into the future of e-bikes—at least so says my colleague Brian Nordwall, owner of Seattle E-bikes.  And he should know; he operates America’s  most successful store in this market. It’s actually more a “destination” than a store per se; people come from all over the northwestern U.S. and southwestern Canada to learn about this exploding new arena, come face-to-face with the very newest and best products, and talk with his expert staffers.

For good reason, Brian spends a ton of time in Europe, getting his fingers firmly on the pulse of where all this is going.  He points out that in the U.S., less than 1/10^th of 1% of all bicycles sold are electric, where in Amsterdam, it’s 37%.  Yet all this is changing very rapidly.