The latest crowd-funded electric bike, the snappily named ‘JIVE Bike’, hails from a company based in London.
Its creators, JAM Vehicles Ltd, fronted by young entrepreneur, Marcin Piatowski, are taking pre-orders for the bike, which they say is the ‘world’s first folding, chainless e-bike compatible with any smartphone’ through an app currently in development for the e-bike.
Piatowski came up with the design while studying for his master’s degree in Technology Entrepreneurship at University College London. While style and easy folding were key to Piatowski’s vision for city commuters, he adds that encapsulating all the components inside the frame both “increases durability” and makes “maintenance really easy”.
When asked what sparked Piatowski’s interest in the world of e-bikes, JAM Vehicles told Pedelecs: “Marcin has always had an interest in electrics as this is the family business, but his interest in folding bicycles came about after being an avid user of folding bikes. However, he soon became frustrated with the limits of a push bicycle, so this naturally pushed him into developing an electric bicycle.”
The JIVE electric bike has a front hub 250w motor with a top speed of 15.6m/hr, chainless drive-train, 3 cycling modes: full electric, full manual, assisted pedalling and a 20-mile range on a single charge in assisted pedaling mode. It weighs 15kg and folds to ‘fit under your desk or in a cupboard’.
The accompanying app will enable its user to connect their smartphone to the JIVE bike’s Rasperberry-Pi CPU via Bluetooth, enabling speed control alongside updates on the bicycle’s battery life. Additional features planned are GPS and a calorie counter.
Concept development, from initial fundraising to prototyping, has taken Piatowski 2 years, with bike production expected to bring the finished product to market late summer this year. The company plan to make 100 JIVE electric bikes for the UK market, which will be manufactured in Poland, with plans to take the e-bike further afield to Belgium and The Netherlands later on.
Having achieved financial backing in October last year, the fundraising portal ‘Crowcube’ went on to award the JIVE ‘Product of Year 2013’. The company told Pedelecs the bike has since received “purchase enquiries from all over the world as well as gaining interest and support from global brands, Government officials and key investors. ‘
Pre-ordering requires a £99 deposit. Test rides will be available to those pre-ordering at an official product launch in London in June 2014. The electric bike will retail at £1499 (including VAT). More details at http://jivebike.com.
