Kalkhoff's pedal-assist electric bicycles now available in North America -- cruisers unite!
By Darren Murph 
posted February 27th 2010 7:59AM
posted February 27th 2010 7:59AM
posted February 27th 2010 7:59AM
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A Pedal Assisting Electrical Bike... So it's like a regular bike... but it costs 3 grand... I don't get it :(
@CJisohsocool I do not get it either. Almost no one here in Copenhagen uses these electric bikes. We are used to cycling since early age and we simply do no need expensive electric assisted bikes.
BTW, how much of a weakling you have to be to need an electric bike? OK, if you are 70 years old than you may appreciate it.
@stoffer 70 year old scandinavian = average American.
@stoffer I also live in Copenhagen, and true there are no electric bikes here, but that does not change that Germany and Holland sold over 500.000 electric bikes last year. copenhagen is not hilly like many other places and to be true it is not very large. pedal power assisted bikes is a whole new concept. think of it at a commuter electric car. Instead of relying on public transport of cars for your average commute to office, you can instead choose a electric bike that can take you the 10-15 km that each way to work without breaking a sweat. that is very important most hard core commuter bikers today have bike clothes on and racing along getting very worked up and sweaty , with these bikes you can get to work in your normal work wear. though expensive at first, compare this $3000 bike to a av cost of runing a car to work for those 10 km every day of the year and you get a picture of the savings. plus you save the environment also.
@CJisohsocool I think the U.S. is just one of those places where we're so used to cheap prices that there's like zero chance of us ever buying something like this.
Of course there are also cheaper e-bikes, and if you think the Europeans buy a lot of e-bikes you should look at sales in China where these things sell by the millions and millions.
For that kind of cash, they could have added a seat that doesn't numb your groin, suffocate your balls, and cause impotence.
@TareG
I don't think the intended customer (septagenarian and above) cares much for such activities.
I'd rather have a Segway.
"Supplement the power a rider applies to the pedals, providing a smooth, predictable boost." yeah, smooth, really? - Wheelie!
So basically this is a Lance Armstrong Foundation Edition motorcycle.
@Atkins i could buy a lot of things for that proce but i think the main jist here is that this bike is what you get in terms of upper class biking for the money. THIS bike is not only best in its class, it has the air tires and everything! I think im going to have to buy this sucker pretty soon here becuase i really enjoy biking around in my upants
Just pedal the damn bike!
If it kills you you probably had it coming.
(And, uh. Try to keep up?)
@stridermt2k Fantastic comment. Electric assisted bikes are for people of age 70+.
@stoffer
it's not my thing, but i believe they are actually for commuters who don't want to change out of sweaty clothes when they get where they're going. in an affluent city like san francisco with lots of hills and little parking, i can see this selling.
They got the concept backwards.
At that price point what they need to do is an electric scooter which can be pedal assisted for extended autonomy,
Please...this article is chock full of ignorance.
Electric assist bikes have been around for a very long time in the United States and at much cheaper prices than what is advertised for that POS.
I take it many of you don't have children or else you would have seen the adult e-bikes at Toys-R-US.
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3030730&CAWELAID=164083380
Only $399.
@JawZ
or this one from walmart:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=11988713&findingMethod=rr
@Atkins
You can't buy a bike for that price. At least not a highclass one.
What a rip off. This should be around $500.
@newone
You can buy a used supersport liter bike for that price.
@newone
You can buy a 125cc or even a 250 cc motorbike (Not only scooters) for that price that can get you to everywhere the bycicle can (and more, you can travel further and with a passenger) only that faster and more comfortably.
@igb
2010 Scattante CFR Pro Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 Road Bike - Platinum Series 8,999$
2010 Scattante CFR Team Dura-Ace 7900 Road Bike - Platinum Series 5,499$
I know you can buy crappy chinese motorcykles for that price. You can even get a car, Tata Nano, for the price of 2 bikes but its all relative. There's cheap crap, and then there's not so cheap not so crappy products.
@Norman Speight
Only thing left to do is put a ban on breathing, or maybe you can all just exhale into bottles and ship them to Poland. :p
@newone
So?
This Khalkoff is not a race bike, just a modest mean of transportation.
You've got plenty of scooters by Honda and Yamaha under 3,000$ that are more functional. Apparently, you don't have the 125 cc version of the Honda CB , Suzuki TU or Yamaha YBR series in your market but for less than 4000$ yor get the 250 cc models. Of course cheaper Korean models (Daelim, Hyosung) are nothing to spit on.
When I was eleven years old I came up with the concept for an electric bike, that recharges when you pedal it. This is the opposite.
Of you are going to go through all the pain of riding a bike, weather, wind blown hair, etc., you might as well get the exercise too. How lazing can we get. It doesn't take that much effort to ride a bike.
For $3,000 I'd rather have a few cars to go in The 24 Hours of Lemons.
meh get a vespa and be done with it
Is there a market for this bike? I live in Chicago and a few years back I bought a Zap electric bike. I can't physically ride the bike anymore so I tried selling it on Craigslist last summer, no one was interested. The Zap bikes sold for less than $1000.
@Norman Speight
The CO2 is no more than riding a regular bike.
@think before you act
I hope so, it'd be a lonely transition otherwise.
U can buy 2 40" Plasma TV's for that price.
@Troyb0y29
That would be the likely choice for most Americans.
I prefer my HEMI-based Magnum. ::Throws up finger at Ma Earth::
Pedal assist has the potential to be a really awesome technology for biking. Imagine getting a halfway decent race bike and throwing on a pedal-assist electric motor. Wouldn't it be fun to be able to go 25MPH while only using 15MPH amount of pedal energy? or going 30MPH while using 20MPH of energy pedaling? This is extremely great for people that would like to go faster for longer but don't have the legs to push that hard. Its not for "racers" its for weekend warriors and commuters that have a long haul that want it to go faster than if they just had only their own pedal power to get there.
HEMI based Magnum please!
ezip has electric bikes starting at $500.
@Atkins I built my dh bike for twice that! And have to push it up the hills myself:(
Vespa for that price
Isn't the point of bicycles to.... power them yourself? lol, the world is becoming too lazy
@Luffy
Agreed. Although this type of bike would be beneficial for people living in hilly areas and who don't possess any climbing abilities. Climbing on a bike uses different muscle groups than riding on flat ground, so most non-enthusiasts probably aren't very good at it.
@newone
Give me a frickin' break. The VAST majority of people DO NOT spend more than a few hundred bucks for a bike. Certainly, there are many who will spend up to a thousand for a nice bike. The amount a people that will spend more money for a high class bike then most people spend for a used car, however, is so tiny that it's not even worth mentioning. Don't get me wrong, I'm a woodworker and I believe in buying the best tools I can afford, but I'm in the vast minority.
They definitely need to reinforce the frame to support all the fat Americans.
Hi folks, not trying to be a politically correct jerk but not everyone who needs an electric bike is a fat slob or 100 years old. Unlike most people I've had a bum heart all my life. I am not overweight or lazy and I try to exercise as much as I can, but living in a very hilly area makes it impossible to ride a normal bike for very long. Always being left out sucks. Buying an electric bike (Its an ezip so I can't comment on this particular bike) a year and a half ago lets me ride with my friends and, at least for a while, I can just pretend that I'm as lucky as most people who can do what they want without having to worry about having a massive heart attack - you really don't know what a godsend that is. Go ahead and make fun of these things and the people who ride them if you want but just remember that not everyone is as fortunate as you are. Just saying.
From a HEMI Charger owner to Earth: t('.'t)
More like "hipsters unite"..
I do enjoy the fact that the engadget editors are comprised of mostly hipsters.
It doesn't surprise me.
With Envy on the Coast being displayed on every PMP they review and whatnot.
This bike being exciting to them doesn't surprise me. They need a way to get between work and their hip studio apartments filled with the latest gadgetry and this is clearly a godsend..
That being said I live in the hipster capital of the world. Portland, Oregon.
@Atkins
You can buy a motorcycle for $500.
@Atkins
I can hire someone to happily pedal me around in a rickshaw for 2 years in a country like India or Bangladesh for that! And definitely in the case of Bangladesh I'd be paying well above the average monthly wage too.
Id rather spend 1500 bucks on a whizzer!
Here we go....it amazes me that every time there's a post about electric assist bicycles.
"Too expensive"
"For lazy, fat, spoiled jerks who don't want to sweat."
Engadget doesn't seem to be impressed enough to post this, or perhaps already have:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/EZIP-Coastline-Men-s-Electric-Bicycle/12528127
Lead acid batts are pretty cheap, so you can make a cheaper e-bike with them, however, much like computing, the smaller/lighter the batts (while holding as much energy) more expensive.
Perhaps there is someone out there who has bad leg joints, or some kind of genetic muscular atrophy that can use this.
You could by an ICE motorcycle with it? Then do so. This, however, defeats the purpose of increased personal mobility without using gas.
that's the problem with these bikes there always ridiculously expensive and this is why they never catch on with lower middle class consumers. only rich people who would rather use their car.