Bolt M-1 taking pre-orders

[Cameron Newland]

The Bolt M-1 (a 140lb, moped-style electric bike with a 5500-watt mid-drive motor and a 1.6kWh LiFePO4 battery) is now taking pre-orders.

The bike is so different from traditional ebikes...it's almost its own category, really. It does offer an Economy mode that ostensibly makes it a street-legal bicycles in California (1000W, 20MPH top assisted speed), but riding it as a bicycles is probably going to be illegal in most places.

Seems pretty interesting, though. This could be the beginning of a new category of light electric vehicles.

Article link

Crowdfunding campaign link

 

[George S.]

Great little discovery. They are 67% funded in one day. There have been some real failures in CF's, so this bike has got some buzz about it.

It would be great if they could cut this kind of bike some slack, put it somewhere with minimal paperwork and fuss. I kind of like it. The Crackle series, Seinfeld, features some ads from Honda in the early 60's, somewhere around there. They produced these low power motorcycles that appealed to a lot of young people. The 'fun' part of the 60's.

The battery placement is, um, sub-optimal. But it would be fun to know how hard they have to push that big motor (for an ebike) to move it along. They are clearly gaming the California regs, which are changing anyway.

http://www.gizmag.com/bolt-m-1-electric-bike/38639/