Lotus have just announced a new road bike
Looks to use some of the features from the hope/lotus collaboration track bike, with the wide aero seat stays and interestingly the description talks about it being duel use both e bike and normal bike when the battery is removed. sounds like a recipe for jack of all trades master of none.
"The Lotus Type 136
The best of both worlds. The Lotus Type 136 is a true dual-use road bike, both a lightweight thoroughbred mechanical road bike with the battery removed and a superfast electric assist e-bike.
Quintessential Lotus lightness. With a motor weighing just 300 grams and the lightweight carbon fibre frame and state-of-the-art components, the Type 136 e-bike weighs just 9.8 kilograms.
The innovation continues with the battery which is disguised as a water bottle and detached from the frame at the push of a button.
Ride like a champion. The all-new bike from Lotus harnesses design and engineering excellence from more than 30 years of road and track cycling success, while incorporating cutting-edge technology from the present day.
In tribute to Lotus’ tradition of Type numbers for its new models, Type 136 is available as an exclusive limited first edition launch production run of just 136 bikes and available from Lotus London. The standard model will go on sale in Spring 2024."
Again, Lotus producing one of the few "not terrible" modern car firm branded bikes (Ye olde manufacturers like Rover & Peugeot excepted of course).
Battery, I'm out. Bit like the way they are going with cars - massive electric SUV !
The innovation continues with the battery which is disguised as a water bottle and detached from the frame at the push of a button.
LOL - Lumicycle want their noughties tech back! 🙂
...my Lumi HID is still in the shed and still fires up!
£20K though - -TWENTY THOUSAND POUNDS - 20, TWO with many ZEROS!!
Yeah, mid priced bikes are really good now!
That stem...
Struggle to see the point of all the aero on an e-bike restricted to 15mph tbh. Surely by the time you are beyond 15mph any aero benefit is offset by the drag from the motor and weight
also..
20k😳
I've seen a price tag of £20000 quoted.
It'll be on sale at Evans Cycles next week with 50% off like everything else in the biking world!
No Shimano version. I'm out.
The battery being removable makes a lot of sense if it's a hub drive? If so just swap out the wheel and it's a regular bike. Just a very expensive version of one.
one of the few “not terrible” modern car firm branded bikes
Aside from the Lotus (debatable), are there any other car brand greenwashing bike attempts that aren't awful? I can't think of any.
I'm no aero expert but the saddle rails, front mech, water bottle & holder don't look very aero or could at least be more sleek.
Did someone mention £20k? 🤔
Aside from the Lotus (debatable), are there any other car brand greenwashing bike attempts that aren’t awful? I can’t think of any.
I think Pashley had a tie up with Land Rover in the late 90's early 00's. Didn't do very well, and weren't widely distributed, but weren't bad bikes. 4 or 5 models all the way up to a nice ish steel HT at about 1200 quid.
Polestar have a tie up with Allebike (which are raced all the way up to World Cup XCM, XCO and XCC level) think they only do one or two models though, both top end race bikes. Not generally available outside Sweden though.
S-Bike had a tie up with one of the bigger German brands (i think Audi) back in the 90's. And more recently Audi had a tie up with Lightweight.
Aston Martin feel that telling punters the price is frightfully vulgar, so these are in the bracket of ‘if you have to ask…’
Bloody lovely though…
Volvo have had a pushbike in the past. Cutting edge (?) material science and all that. 30,000+ sold.
Honestly a bit disappointed that they don't have the same fork as the track bike. Even if they have to change it for practical reasons they could at least make it look mental, otherwise what's the point?
Anyway, I've got one on order now will post a review when it turns up.
