Lifestyle

Cowboy ebike: ‘Smooth and innovative. It will soon win its spurs’ | Martin Love


Cowboy ebike
Price
£1,760, cowboy.com
Weight 16.1kg
Range 70km
Brakes hydraulic disc
Charge time 3.5 hours
Maximum speed 15.5mph

Yeehaw! It’s time to say howdy to the latest ebike to roll into town – the Cowboy. However, you won’t be needing spurs or a stetson for this ride. It’s a super-chic, award-winning urban commuter that puts fine design, smooth lines and innovative technology in your hands at a (reasonably) affordable price. It’s also from Belgium – not Texas.

Founded in 2017 in Brussels, investors were so keen to hitch their wagon to founder and CEO Adrien Roose’s proposed bike brand that Cowboy hit £10m in its initial round of fundraising. Last month, Roose announced his firm was now ready to take its next step and expand into markets across Europe. The bikes are sold through the website direct to customers, but already there are more than 500 cycle shops signed up across the continent where repairs and maintenance can be carried out – not that they are expecting many of those. Having won Eurobike 2017 with its first working prototype, then the Red-Dot bicycle design award in 2018 for its second prototype and now the Red-Dot “Best of the Best” award for the 2019 model, there are few who would bet against Cowboy becoming an overnight hit.

If you are tempted to sign up for one of the new bikes, don’t imagine you are buying an untested ride. Just last month, Roose announced the firm had reached a milestone of 1,000,000 kilometers ridden on Cowboys. In keeping with the company’s green credentials he was quick to point out that this equated to a saving of 112,944 kg CO2. “We see fantastic potential for electric bikes,” he says, “as cities continue to grow, traffic grinds to a halt and we look for ways to cut our carbon footprint.”

And it isn’t only carbon you’ll be saving. Ebikes save you money, too. A survey by Evans Cycles of 2,000 commuters estimated that by switching from car, bus, tube or train to ebikes, commuters could save an average of £7,791 over five years, which is more than enough to justify the cost of buying a new ebike. The fact that the government’s minister for cycling, Michael Ellis, recently clarified the that there was no longer a cap of £1,000 on cycle to work scheme – an announcement timed nicely to coincide with the scheme’s 20th anniversary – means that ebikes that generally tend to start around the £1,600 mark are now well within the reach of daily commuters.

Cowboy has been designed to be sleek, agile and easy to use. Its battery weighs just 2.4kg (the whole bike tips the scales at 16.1kg) and can be quickly removed, so you can charge it at your desk before the journey home. Removing the battery is clearly also a massive anti-theft deterrent. Not that you will need to worry about it being stolen. The bike is controlled via an app that provides you with a safe digital key to activate it. The live dashboard keeps you informed of the status of the ride in terms of speed, duration, distance and battery level. You can even use the app to turn the inbuilt lights on and off. The clever rear light brightens when you apply the brake – like a car or motorbike.

There is also an integrated navigation system so that if you are unlucky enough to have your Cowboy stolen, you can use the “Find My Bike” function in the app to help locate it via GPS. The bike itself will send you messages and give you a health report if it has any servicing needs – ie if the brake pads need replacing or the tyres inspected. If you miss a few days riding, the bike might also give you a little poke from the shed saying: “Remember me? How about a ride?”

The ride is lovely – smooth, clean and quick. The bike has an oil-free belt drive powered by a ghostly quiet rear-hub motor. Hydraulic disc brakes mean that you will stop with confidence. There are no gears, it uses intuitive assistance that adapts automatically to the power and speed you need. In keeping with such a cool and design-centered bike it comes in only one colour – black.

Take one for a ride and before you know it, like Woody in Toy Story, you’ll find yourself saying: ‘You are my favourite deputy!’

Cool kit

brompton-london-waterproof-jacket-navy-blue-other-EV369349-4793-1


Step off your bike and into the office with Brompton’s rain-proof jacket. Made from a waterproof (15,000mm resistance) fabric and constructed with fully taped seams, the London Waterproof Jacket keeps you dry in city downpours. Using highly breathable material and featuring underarm vents to prevent you from overheating, the jacket also includes reflective panels and ample storage space to take on everything that the city can throw at it. London waterproof commuter jacket, £150, brompton.com

Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter@MartinLove166





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