Coming Soon , Yamaha Power Assist Bicycles

[e-boy]

http://www.yamahabicycles.com

http://www.bicycleretailer.com/nort...ng-line-house-brand-e-bikes-show#.WcK45KVuhnE

 

[Over50]

Well if they were intending a big reveal with hype as suggested by that countdown clock then they sure dropped the ball.

 

[Gogogordy]

Ahhhh, the internet. I wouldn't count Yamaha out, probably the misstep of some webmaster.

When these DO make market here, the name alone will add a lot of "street-cred" to ebikes in general in my ever so humble opinion.

 

[J.R.]

It will make my day if Yamaha sells their ebikes through their existing motorcycle dealers. Many of us don't have ebike dealers, but their MC dealers are everywhere. That alone might hurt the competition.

 

[Gogogordy]

That would be good (and certainly better than at a piano store!)

 

[Gogogordy]

Eggsactly

 

[opimax]

No 28 mph bikes, all class 1, 20 mph and no throttle

 

[Solom01]

Yup, same thing as Bosch and other non-US based companies. I understand their point of view, the US is a tiny market so they make their products to comply with the rules of their larger markets. Unfortunately these bikes don't make a heck of a lot of sense for the North American markets and our infrastructure. No doubt some will say no one needs a throttle and that the market for crippled, extremely expensive bikes is ready to boom in North America, even as the bike market in the US falters. What's really concerning is how few kids are even learning to ride bikes in the US which doesn't bode well for the future. Hopefully companies like Juiced which make bikes that are geared to the US/Canada will get over their growing pains and figure out how to manage their inventory and perfect direct shipping, because if all that's left are mid-motor, throttleless bikes at high price points the future growth of ebikes looks doubtful.

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

A Q&A with a Yamaha rep. Even though the questions were fairly softball, it didn't go very well.

That's me in the backdrop!
From what I gathered speaking with the manager, their product launch will happen in many stages.
Their booth was right in front of BH and I wondered how they are going to compete with their own customers (giant, BH, haibike).

 

[Over50]

This video is a bit better ... still not a lot of details but some nice shots of the prototype bikes. Some really nice commuter potential ... can't wait to give them a try and hope they have a dealer in my area:

 

[medjed]

interesting stuff, but it seems really short sighted to go direct and compete with giant and haibike. that might cause some problems for them.