Vintage Electric Bikes

LockH

LockH

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Ummm.. Started out in Victoria BC Canada, then sta
Yay! Currently on Alt. Reality Planet of ES, "Search found 62 matches: +Vintage +Electric +Bikes", but finally in the news, all three Engrish words combined in one article! Seen here:
http://www.mercurynews.com/los-gatos/ci_25284068/young-los-gatos-entrepreneurs-launch-vintage-electric-bicycle

Stuff like:
Since its official launch last year, Vintage Electric Bikes has sold 58 units at an average price of $4,495. Orders are coming in from all over the world, with a hotel in Dubai recently ordering seven bikes and a French winery ordering 25.
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Gee... Makes some maybe wonder if Lady Diana EVer found the way to San Jose. Los Gatos is sorta right next door (in ebiker terms).
 
Not really that outrageously priced for a hand built custom board tracker type bike.

My longtail is half made from an old Currie Electrodrive frame. That's pretty vintage ebike in my book, Carter era I think. The motor I took off it looked designed by Rube Goldberg.

I also have a Ford Think, but it's stripped of most of the junk it came with.

Another classic, the EV warrior.

But there are Edison era E bikes of course, in museums. That's really vintage.
 
Woah... they sold 58 bikes last year? for around $4,500??

Man, I need to put some vintage bikes together. Can't be that hard
 
Well, "vintage style" (updated, of course). OK, Ready? Steady? GO! Quick, EVerybuddy on ES make lots of money, making/repairing/renting. Hint: "Vintage" sells.
 
LockH said:
Well, "vintage style" (updated, of course). OK, Ready? Steady? GO! Quick, EVerybuddy on ES make lots of money, making/repairing/renting. Hint: "Vintage" sells.
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I really thing Graucho could make a KILLING with his bikes. If some dudes out there are willing to throw down $xx,xxx for a motorcycle they will barely, if at all, ride, they'll put down $x,xxxx for a hot enough ebike.
 
Yah, the problem with "custom"? $$$

Unfortunately, Graucho didn't use the magic "V word" (vintage) once (in this Hello msg here). I am pretty sure that "V" thing thang is golden, in marketing terms. (Though the word "custom" makes me sit up often.)

L
(PS. I'm gonna start referring to my spurs as "Edwardian-style", or casually note that Teddy used them up San Juan Hill. Hehe...)
 
I really dont see how these bikes are any different than a kit bike. I read the article and the 58 sales they claim sounds like baloney to me. That price is insane!!
 
Maintaining that kind of sales is the trick. Especially once they run out of rich friends.

That stupidly rich guy market niche can be real sweet, they don't care about price, except that it's more than the other guy paid. :lol: That's their secret in the race horse market.
 
Hehe... One nice thing about "rich" folks maybe? They might like to hang w/other rich folks. And talk among themselves. And maybe try "Freds new toy".

(My first catamaran day sailer 18fter (made in Canada, eh?) started life as a "rich mans toy" (Then my uncle gave it to his nephew.) Back then, "cats" were sorta a rare thing in the NA sailing community (think Hobie ALTER, when he was a young guy w/his first "run up on the beach" cat.)

And today I hope for the electric bicycle to ALTER transportation in NA, as it has already in other places (see "Europe". See "China").
L

(PS... and alter severly, too.)
 
PS... and BTW.

One way maybe to intro new tech into established cultures is to make it look/feel like "old tech" watt folks are already well familiar with. After all, EVen ebikers don't like shocks much. :lol:

PPS... And watch out for those sneaky Trojans. There's an ugly rumour going around... They have electrified their horsey. Who'd a thought they EVer be "new age", eh?
 
That's always been my problem selling anything at all, I only know poor folks. :roll:

Cats took a while to really take hold in the boat world, but lookee now. Hydroplaning catamarans are the thing, whether it's the Americas Cup, or the new car ferry.

I think if they can run gas cars and trucks on compressed LNG, you won't see that big a push for electric in the USA. We got the country all fracked up now. Global warming just means buy a better AC to most of us.

Soon as the E bike isn't weird, I'll be less interested in them.
 
OT, but that reminds me. Must check the latest giggle (sp?) search count numbers for "UN-natural gas"...

So, will it EVer smell any better?

And technically, the catamaran (and trimaran) were always "hydroplaning". (My daughters and others too always got a kick out of the boat jumping of wave-tops... so watts that? "Flying" (through the air I guess. Literally).)

I haven't checked, but I imagine todaze "hydroplaning" boats flatten the bottoms of the hulls further.

"Oh, what's THAT??? A "car"??? Soon as the "car" isn't weird, I'll be less interested in them."

Hehe...
 
dogman said:
That's always been my problem selling anything at all, I only know poor folks. :roll:
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One way to get closer to the wealthy is to work for them. And if anyone can provide a useful or novel service, they tend to TIP ("To Insure Promptness") very well. I imagine hot air ballooning may have put you in "connection" with some of them maybe. I imagine the Picacho Hills Country Club at least has some varmints, that some puppys might like to yum right up... in an "eco-friendly" way of course.
 
Vintage Electric Bicycles on Jay Leno's Garage:
[youtube]RCPy0d2KRSc[/youtube]
 
You know the wingtip winglets on Boeing aircraft? I know the guy who owns the company that makes and designs those. He has what is.purported to be the biggest private airstrip in the US, 7800' long, paved of course, lighted and fenced ( you don't want to have a deer run out in front of the Lear on takeoff). It is in the middle of nowhere Idaho, about 120 miles from my strip, which at 400' is one of the shortest in the US ( the 12% grade helps). We hit it off right away when I flew in there last summer, and I got the grand tour, his place is like something out of a James Bond movie! I am really.looking forward to showing him the electrified Montague.
 
When I think of "vintage electric bikes", I think of Zap and Charger bikes powered by SLAs, with brushed motors, friction drive, and other such fun stuff. Maybe a Huffy Cranbrook with a Wilderness Energy kit.
 
Chalo said:
When I think of "vintage electric bikes", I think of Zap and Charger bikes powered by SLAs, with brushed motors, friction drive, and other such fun stuff. Maybe a Huffy Cranbrook with a Wilderness Energy kit.
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I still have the pieces from my mid-70's GOPAK kit. It used an SLA garden tractor battery hung from the top tube in a spiffy plastic box, a genuine AC Delco relay with ribbon strip momentary switch and two brushed motors mounted vertically above the rear axle with friction wheels pinched onto the back tire by a turnbuckle bolt.
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