We Retract Our Previous Stance on Carbon Belts and Mid-Drives
If you read our blog you know our previous stance on the mid-drive ebikes and using only Belt Drives. Previous usage had shown us that Carbon Belt Drives are far superior to chains when it comes to mid-drive motors and getting the power to the wheel. We even went as far as to find a manufacturer to work with on bringing these units to market. We had a Spring 2022 launch scheduled. That's correct, I said had, for you see, Christmas was not so merry for us this year. Another company, Bikonit, beat us to the punch. You may have seen their shameless "Youtuber Given an E-bike" marketing method. But this isn't why we pulled bringing these to market. It gets much more technical than that.
You see, before all of the recent events, we were lucky enough to meet and talk with Pushkar Phatak, CEO of Watt Wagons. We actually met over their introduction of the Watt Wagons Helios and use of a belt drive. We had a great discussion where he informed me that with the higher rates of torque today's motors produce a carbon belt drive gets eaten up. I responded that the manufacturer I'm working with is confident and has been testing to make sure, which is why we're targeting a Spring release. He wished me luck on it, but as it turns out, the luck was meeting him.
Back to this last week or so, I contacted the Manf and asked about this new company selling what appear to be the manf's bikes. They explained they both use the same frames, but are different assembly plants and no affiliation. They also informed me that after rigorous testing they will not be honoring our discussion about the belt drive units. I was shocked, this could be a huge order but they insisted, it is not stable. This made me question, well, this new company seems to have done it. To which they replied, we will not sell a product we believe to be inferior. We had to agree to work on chain drives with them as well as work on a future belt drive development. So I had to then question, Bikonit. Who is this company that has magically done what a large manufacturer has run from and what a smaller, high quality, boutique manufacturer has also told me won't work?
Yep, that's what I did, I put on my old corporate recruiter/research cap and went and researched Bikonit. Wasn't hard, says right on their website, "We are a Brand company". And to add to it, there's obvious copy and paste duplications and mistakes. It looks like the whole business was slapped together in an evening. But I digress, what should be of real concern to anyone here is that Bikonit, by their own admission is NOT a Bike, E-Bike or even a mobility company. They are a brand. They take a product like a pen someone else made and slap their name on it. They market to you via celebrities to make you think you... Well, Macklemore said it best. Now you can say I'm being salty, but I'm not. I'm brining you information you should know before you go spend a few thousand $$$ of your hard earned cash or credit to get a bike that's going to break on you.
I'm actually thankful that Bikonit came to market when it did, it caused me to ask the questions that brought to light the realities of using a belt drive on higher powered E-bikes and E-Motorcycles. For the customer it should point out, that Yes, do your research, because it doesn't look like any of the Youtubers did before they made their videos about them or maybe they wouldn't have done them? I know I'd rather put our name behind a product that's going to last. Behind supporting companies that are looking to develop new technologies and use them to better our lives. You can buy a "brand" E-bike if you want, we sell quality, electric transportation, if it has a "Brand" name on it, it's only because they're able to meet our standards.
