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How many of us when we were in our youth would dream about having our own Mini-Bike ? One of my neighbors had a Bennelli, and I was quite smitten with the bike.
I eventually was blessed with a 'hand me down', from a guy at my dad's employer, who was an incredible welder, and it was actually a 'chopped down to size' former dirt bike, converted with those smooth fat tires and all. Believe it or not, it was actually a "Harley-Davidson" dirt bike. Turned out to be my first and only H-D.
I'm thinking wow, my own mini-bike. Well sadly, it turned out there wasn't much 'wow', with the caveat being we had to first get it running. As the motor on that thing often would not start, or it flooded. So once we got it sort of working, while I liked riding it around, it just wasn't all that powerful or nearly as fast as my neighbor's Bennelli.
So fast forward to today, and yeah we see all sorts of these "e-mini-bikes", whether its a Super73, or a Juiced Scorpion, Rad-mini, and on and on. The market for these seemed to get quite crowded rather quickly in the past 18 months.
Anyhoo, I'm really likin' what I see here from Ruff Cycles based in Germany, with their new Lil' Buddy.
Its rather unique in this space, with a Bosch mid-drive motor. Two drive versions available in fact (Active or Performance), and two capacity options for their PowerPacks.
Can't wait to try it out, and this little snippet from an on-line preview, captures the essence of the excitement around this e-mini-bike. I don't know about you, but so many of these fat tire ebikes that are 'designed and built' in China, sort of seem a bit on the bland side. So its refreshing to see an ebike both hand-crafted and also being made in a good old fashioned factory, based in a country with a long heritage of fine craftsmanship: Germany. Again, actual hand-crafting including hand-welded frames, and now we are talking about something that actually could be quite special....its one motorized bike I always wanted too... and now I'm getting one sans the fuel, oil, smell or noise, and throw in a bit of exercise with it too...
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Re-live the feel of the 70's with your very own Bosch powered minibike, the Lil Buddy designed and crafted by Germany based Ruff Cycles.
For the development of this ebike, we have partnered up with none other than Aaron Bethlenfalvy. Aaron has been designing bicycles since 1994 and was the former Global Vice President of Design for brands like GT, Cannondale, Schwinn, Nirve, Felt and Mongoose.
“After 25 yrs of designing bicycles, I can finally say I’ve designed the bike that I want. I’ve spent the past 10 months developing the Lil’ Buddy with Ruff Cycles, and can’t say that a single day seemed like “work“ and has truly been one of the highlights of my long bicycle design career. The Lil’ Buddy redefines fun and the journey taken to develop it did as well. The opportunity to create a modern version of the minibike I wanted as a child for a company that embraces non-competitive cycling culture as its core value has been more fun that I could begin to express.
The Lil’ Buddy takes fun to an all new level. I can’t wait to get one!”
Equipped with a BOSCH Active Line – drive unit, SHIMANO hydraulic disc brakes and a SHIMANO 7-speed derailleur, the Lil’ Buddy is all set for any of your adventures. We also offer a wide range of accessories for the Lil’Buddy, such as Supernova lights, fender sets and frame bags. The 400Wh battery of Bosch offers a reach of up to 45 miles, and only needs 2.5 hours to be fully charged.
The LIL’ BUDDY will be, just as our Ruffians are, assembled in our own production facility in Regensburg, Germany. The frames are being hand welded in our own frame factory in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
I eventually was blessed with a 'hand me down', from a guy at my dad's employer, who was an incredible welder, and it was actually a 'chopped down to size' former dirt bike, converted with those smooth fat tires and all. Believe it or not, it was actually a "Harley-Davidson" dirt bike. Turned out to be my first and only H-D.
I'm thinking wow, my own mini-bike. Well sadly, it turned out there wasn't much 'wow', with the caveat being we had to first get it running. As the motor on that thing often would not start, or it flooded. So once we got it sort of working, while I liked riding it around, it just wasn't all that powerful or nearly as fast as my neighbor's Bennelli.
So fast forward to today, and yeah we see all sorts of these "e-mini-bikes", whether its a Super73, or a Juiced Scorpion, Rad-mini, and on and on. The market for these seemed to get quite crowded rather quickly in the past 18 months.
Anyhoo, I'm really likin' what I see here from Ruff Cycles based in Germany, with their new Lil' Buddy.
Its rather unique in this space, with a Bosch mid-drive motor. Two drive versions available in fact (Active or Performance), and two capacity options for their PowerPacks.
Can't wait to try it out, and this little snippet from an on-line preview, captures the essence of the excitement around this e-mini-bike. I don't know about you, but so many of these fat tire ebikes that are 'designed and built' in China, sort of seem a bit on the bland side. So its refreshing to see an ebike both hand-crafted and also being made in a good old fashioned factory, based in a country with a long heritage of fine craftsmanship: Germany. Again, actual hand-crafting including hand-welded frames, and now we are talking about something that actually could be quite special....its one motorized bike I always wanted too... and now I'm getting one sans the fuel, oil, smell or noise, and throw in a bit of exercise with it too...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Re-live the feel of the 70's with your very own Bosch powered minibike, the Lil Buddy designed and crafted by Germany based Ruff Cycles.
For the development of this ebike, we have partnered up with none other than Aaron Bethlenfalvy. Aaron has been designing bicycles since 1994 and was the former Global Vice President of Design for brands like GT, Cannondale, Schwinn, Nirve, Felt and Mongoose.
“After 25 yrs of designing bicycles, I can finally say I’ve designed the bike that I want. I’ve spent the past 10 months developing the Lil’ Buddy with Ruff Cycles, and can’t say that a single day seemed like “work“ and has truly been one of the highlights of my long bicycle design career. The Lil’ Buddy redefines fun and the journey taken to develop it did as well. The opportunity to create a modern version of the minibike I wanted as a child for a company that embraces non-competitive cycling culture as its core value has been more fun that I could begin to express.
The Lil’ Buddy takes fun to an all new level. I can’t wait to get one!”
Equipped with a BOSCH Active Line – drive unit, SHIMANO hydraulic disc brakes and a SHIMANO 7-speed derailleur, the Lil’ Buddy is all set for any of your adventures. We also offer a wide range of accessories for the Lil’Buddy, such as Supernova lights, fender sets and frame bags. The 400Wh battery of Bosch offers a reach of up to 45 miles, and only needs 2.5 hours to be fully charged.
The LIL’ BUDDY will be, just as our Ruffians are, assembled in our own production facility in Regensburg, Germany. The frames are being hand welded in our own frame factory in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
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