News: Bristol cycle manufacturer with £200k crowdfund eyes e-bike market

[Pedelecs]

Temple Cycles was set up by Matt Mears just over 3 years ago, selling bicycles designed and built in the UK direct to consumers.



Mears started out by restoring vintage bikes to help pay his way through a Mechanical Engineering degree at the University Bristol. On finishing his studies, Mears moved from restoration to designing and developing his own range of bikes, combining his love of vintage aesthetics with the benefits of the more efficient components and improved materials on offer today.

In 2017, the growing young company have noted the “changing landscape of the UK economy,” the “growth in cycling” as well as the congestion on the UK’s roads and see the opportunities those factors present for companies wanting to manufacture in the UK.



While Mears acknowledges that continuing to reinvest the company’s profits back into new stock will provide a steady but healthy growth, his sights are set higher: production of 10,000 bikes a year, changing the way the UK thinks about cycling and venturing into the e-bike manufacturing market. To that end the company have raised £199,500 from 156 investors on Exeter-based Crowdcube.

Full story: http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/news/bristol-cycle-manufacturer-200k-crowdfund-eyes-e-bike-market/

 

[Dewey]

Alex Bowden reports Temple have launched their first two ebikes, using a Bafang M420 motor with torque sensor and 500wh battery
https://ebiketips.road.cc/content/news/temple-cycles-moves-into-e-bikes-with-classic-electric-and-step-through-electric-3441

 

[egroover]

They look nice, but £3.1k, ouch. I'd like to see Woosh do their version of this motor/battery/frame and sell for sub £2k

 

[flecc]

Style over substance yet again. The front mudguard terminating so high that the front wheel will splatter the motor and the battery-holding down tube with rain and mud. The rear mudguard not much better:

It never used to be this way, look at this Cyclemaster motor equipped Rudge bicycle from the 1950s. The front mudguard going deep around the front wheel to protect the bottom bracket and the rear one also going sufficiently far down too. This was the norm on all bicycles back then when most cycling was utility riding so practicality triumphed over style, some even having small mudflaps front and rear to keep the bike clean:

 

[egroover]

Yep, nothing special about this, style over substance. You can get a bike with the same motor and battery for half the price...add a brooks saddle and some tan leather grips if that's your thing. No doubt the Bristol hipsters will lap it up tho, until they get it knicked from outside Cafe Nero on a Sunday morning

 

[AndyBike]

They look nice, but £3.1k, ouch.

Overly expensive, and entry level componentry. Frame probably costs £30 via alibaba. No idea how much the motor costs, but it will be chosen because its considerably cheaper than Bosch or Shimano

I think Whoosh is underselling itself, if equivalent bikes are starting at £3.1k

 

[cyclebuddy]

Overly expensive, and entry level componentry. Frame probably costs £30 via alibaba. No idea how much the motor costs, but it will be chosen because its considerably cheaper than Bosch or Shimano

I think Whoosh is underselling itself, if equivalent bikes are starting at £3.1k

I think that's grossly unfair.

It's not explicitly clear from their website, but Temple claim to make their bikes - even the frames - in the UK. That frame is not a £30 Alibaba import... it's very nicely smooth welded - it makes equally overpriced German R&M frames look embarrasing by comparison. Yes, the componentry might be improved given the price, and as flecc points out the short mudguards are absurd, but the bike is (purports to be) a British made bike, not a cheap Asian import frame dressed to pretend to be something it's not (like Cube pretends to be German when the frame is made in the Far East, and Wisper make in Portugal).

The Bafang M420 motor is equivalent in power to a current Bosch, and, in my experience quieter, more reliable, and more easily fixed. That doesn't make it inferior or necessarily a budget option, just better value.

If you want a bike made in Britain as much as it can be - like Brompton, Pashley, or Temple - you need to pay at least minimum wage and absorb the much higher costs of business. That's a choice the buyer needs to make, and if you're a patriot, you'll happily pay that price.