What happened?

Apart from working end developing E-Mobility.pt as a reliable brand for electric bicycles, cargo- and commuter bikes in Portugal, we used our bikes a lot for pleasure (see illustration on the left-hand side) and for demonstration purposes.

We organized several presentations and let people try the difference of well-engineered bicycle solutions for daily use.

The Cargobix.com product range:

We tested the first Yuba Mundo bicycle that came to Portugal via USED-HQ from Germany. (We decided to have an own retail brand apart from being distributor for other brands - no brand development, no B2B, just selling a good product)

A first client was found immediately, (convinced by me – driving his family around..) others had already an eye on that multi-purpose bike from the US. Recently we delivered two bikes in the city area of Porto – we just banded them on the back of the Yuba.. Great cinema!

Like this, the Yuba Mundo – in it´s new version 3.0 – fits fine into our product range of sophisticated cargo bikes, that we already brought to this market. It was a quite logic decision to complete our bandwidth in that direction. It is affordable, has a reasonable weight and an enormous max. load. (up to 300 kg)

After the Gazelle Cabby - a more lightweight and stylish alternative to the old-fashioned and heavy “bakfiets” from Holland – we brought the Bullitt from Denmark, the fastest cargo bike in t he world – Tokyo CMWC championship winner 2009 – a frame made of aluminium and a steering and brakesystem – that – apart from winning races  serves for hauls of more than 200 kg.

To line up with standard dimension cargo bikes for daily use, we introduced the Heavy-Duty range from Gazelle and the stylish UrbanCargo from Bionicon.  Finally for people who are looking for a three-wheel solution, we have the Winther Kangaroo in the industrial version, a trike with the best and smoothest steering system available on the market. Made out of lightweight and durable aluminum as well, designed by the famous Bullitt designers. For us, a cargo bike should carry a load – but not it´s own weight, therefore (and for other reasons) we considered the brands above mentioned.

The Transformer arrived!

A mobile music unit with a set of 2 high-end amplifiers  to be used as a PA on bicycles – yes! That was a dream and will be a tool for our events in 2011.

2 x 600 W in a Kenwood active system, 12 V supply, powered by high-capacity batteries and mounted on our E-Bullitt with the famous BionX HT-Engine is a unique reference for this kind of equipment in combination with a cargo bike. The Bullitt carries 250 Kg and it is still “rideable” in an acceptable way. We had not yet the time to promote this fantastic toy in the way it deserves, but you may count with a “bang” in 2011! ..for sure…

Some impressions are already on Facebook…

E-Mobility in Portugal…

..will be one of the hottest issues in 2011 – as it already is in the rest of Europe ! Means: 20% increase effect on the bike market in Germany and other countries. What product brought this effect before? The re-creation of the wheel..

Therefore we decided to go for the distribution of the German market leader in that product area – the company Kalkhoff (Derby-Cycle Group) a company with a more than 90 year-old experience in bicycle manufacturing situated in Cloppenburg/Germany.

E-Bikes “Made in Germany”, based on three propulsion concepts:

The Panasonic center engine, the Panasonic front engine and finally the BionX rear engine in specially adapted bicycles, each designed for it´s purpose.

..and finally:

EUROBIKE 2011!

I am already on the departure, therefore this post will be continued on Saturday when the fair is over..!

[A small step into history]

In 1996 Bionicon founders Andi Fesl, Stefan Albrecht and Daniel Kohl bought their first full-suspension bike and only half a year later they started to think seriously about how to optimise their daily ride, as they were not satisfied with the uphill performance.

The rising front wheel on uphill sections and a hurting neck drove them insane. Lots of brainstorming, doubts over existing products and inspiration from nature showed the path towards suspension travel and geometry adjustment as a way to optimise the daily ride, apart from simply reducing weight.

Step by step theories were developed, the first basic model was created in 1998 and many versions followed. In 1999 the development was shifted to a pneumatic link system.

It was more logical to adjust the front and the rear of the chassis simultaneously as animals do. More then 20 different versions were created in their little work shop in Bavaria.

On May 1st 2000 this technology was presented for the first time to the world of Mountainbiking at the Lake Garda Bike Festival. This was the point of no return and they found themselves in the centre of attention with envious onlookers from within the bike industry.

Winning the ISPO DuPont Brand New Award 2000 for the most innovative sports product gavetons of PR and drove them to bring this system into the market.

In April 2002 this pioneering product was finally available for everybody and the company was created… [Source: www.bionicon.com]

Meanwhile Bionicon has an approx. turnover of 2 million Euros a year, 20 employees in Germany and another 10 abroad. The strategy diversifys for other areas as well. The frame adaption patents are used by renowned bicycle producers all over the world, the company invests in high quality bicycle wear and started recently to support MTB- Tourism projects…

Join a small tour through Bionicon headquarter:

[[Show as slideshow]]

Special thanks to Marco Toniolo, who authorized me to use his perfect pictures from an earlier visit a year ago. But they were so much better than my poor “drive-by-shootings” that it would be an offence to anyone’s eyes to use them in this article…

Alternatives? Do it with BAMBOO !

Anyway:

In April 2010 the brand new Bionicon TESLA will come to Portugal!

Luigi Colani on his knees in front of a Fixie-Inc. Single Speed

…in 2004 the producers of the Fixie-Inc. bicycles made the famous Luigi Colani fall on his knees! It even looks like he is praying to a object of design in the shape of a single speed/fixed gear bicycle.

But it is not just any bicycle - it is the one and only Nr. 1, a prototype and the first produced bicycle ever from Fixie-Inc. Karlsruhe …

Luigi – a real hero and idealist from the 80ies – was impressed by “Cycles-for-heroes” – This is a real story and a nice side-kick for marketing , but it is a confession! Congratulations, guys!

Providing a higher torque, this model is the best in class for climbing, long rides and fast accelerations. Providing a quicker and higher % of assistance than the PL250 with the 25,9V standard battery .

Motor: 250 Watts
Autonomy*: 90 km
Battery:36,9V- LiMn – 10 Ah
Weight: 7.7 kg  (motor and battery pack)

*: Average based on one battery charge, using assistance mode level 1, according to  use in ideal conditions. Distances will vary depending on road conditions, riding surface, cyclist weight and assistance required

After testing it the first km at night – just because we were so curious to ride it – we must confess, that it is an outstanding experience, riding a cargo bike with electric assistance. The whole bike has now a weight of 30 kg (including engine and battery) and it goes easily up tom 25 km/h on a decent hill, with a little help of pedaling and in the highest gear. The engine needs for sure some adaptation for the lower speed areas. But these are small fixes. The whole system is very convincing, seems that the Bullitt has just waited for assistance..

[Show as slideshow]

Beginning of next month we will do a practice test on our new “ciclovia” in Oporto.

Due to a server switch our blog was more or less paralysed in a parallel-world for two weeks. No EUROBIKE internals as I promised, no pictures, but a lot of file back up, directory re-naming and so on…

Means, that the files were on two different servers and everything has to be copied and administrated. And last not least, there were bureaucratic steps to solve, till everything was authorized.

Conclusion:

Nothing that I wish to repeat every month..

Advice: I started today to review the categories and tags of this blog, to bring them in a helpful order. Got some interesting articles about that subject, I found on the web: A + B. Anyway, this is not totally done and not every post is being new categorized, yet. Posts that are only marked as “General” are still pending to be reviewed…

What happened meanwhile?

• I continued working on the Bullitt cargobike with BionX electric engine (99% done)
• A Rohloff 14 – gear hub for the cargobikes reached our workshop (Something nice to look at and a tecnical toy of high standard – will be tested as soon as possible)
• I visited the Portugal Bike Show in Santarem. (very interesting, will write some review later)
• We did some promo tour in Lisbon to find dealers, who are brave and innovative enough to sell commuter bikes instead of MTB´s (I am still searching…)  ;-)
• I was invited to one year ciclo-via.org in Lisbon. Nice meeting, nice people, a lot of bicycle-talk and: Bike Polo.. (Target: I must learn riding a fixed gear)
• A Fixie-Inc. Single-Speed/Fixed-gear beauty was being sent by Cycles for Heroes to our workshop: A 2009er BlackJack (my favorite toy and exercise bike – see above –  for this weekend)
• I attended Critical Mass meeting of cyclists in Porto with the Bullitt (Great event, nearly 45 people joined us – including a bunch of freestyle hard-core riders, who made the show..)

I’ ll be back!