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Flotspotting: "E-Motion" E-Bike Concept by Stefan Reichert

By Ray Hu - December 2, 2011

in Flotspotting

This week's edition of Flotspotting is a slick e-bike concept by Stefan Reichert, a German industrial design student who is six short months from completing his degree at the University of Wuppertal. Reichert recently worked with his classmates Sven Schulte-Tillmann and Arina Nechaeva on "E-Motion," a concept bike for German fitness & leisure company Kettler.Developed to create a new way to make electric bikes more appealing and usable for younger people and getting rid of the stigma that an e-bike is made for old or handicapped, the e-motion electric bike concept was designed in an cooperation project with the German bike brand KETTLER at the University of Wuppertal.

You'll have to click through to his portfolio to read the text in the full-size images, but notable features include: - Motor is integrated into bottom bracket shell - Removable battery pack, which attaches discreetly along the downtube. - Controls built into handlebars - 8-speed internally geared hub - Integrated front & rear lights

Reichert & co.'s e-bike concept is certainly a worthy competitor to IDEO × Rock Lobster's "Faraday"... assuming either of them go into production.

Tony Pereira's eye-catching take on the electric bicycle remains in a class of its own, not least for garnering "Best in Show" at the Oregon Manifest this year. He went so far as to declare that 2012 would be the year of the electric bike, a sentiment echoed by the judges, and the "E-Motion" concept is only further evidence of this trend...

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slippyfish

13 years ago

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Mike - where does overall design end, and a detail begin?

OK - evaluating it as a concept, I'd guess the red-painted calipers are more of an effort to look 'Brembo' than to (for example) suggest any regenerative braking system, which many electric vehicle concepts do incorporate.

Charles Eames said, "the details make the design". If you are going to design a concept bike, a lot of people familiar with the subject matter are going to have a sharp eye for details.

The fork wouldn't be too different with post mounts, but the rear stays would look considerably different.
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mike

13 years ago

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Come one guys.. this is a concept. I guess its more about the overall design and not about small details. And these calipers sit relatively close to the frame that a fixation there should not be a problem
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slippyfish

13 years ago

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Keith is right - the disc calipers are only attached to the rotors themselves, not to the frame. When this bike moves forward the calipers would spin along with the rotors. Or more likely, explode in a cloud of foam.
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Ray

13 years ago

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Keith F - I didn't mention it in my writeup (and, as far as I can tell, the designers gloss over it as well), but the bicycle appears to have disc brakes-- the red things near the hubs of the wheels throughout the renderings, detailed in the fourth image.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_brake#Disc_brakes

I'd be curious to hear if you see any other problems with it though.

-Ray
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HS

13 years ago

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Nice lines and sketches, keep it up!
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Keith F

13 years ago

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Apparently the designer doesn't realize the brake calipers need to attach to the frame and fork in order to function properly. This design would end up looking a lot different if it actually had to function in the real world.
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slippyfish

13 years ago

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Pretty sketches and nice model.
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