The Electric Bike Expo: A Touring Ebike Test Track in the USA (Interbike)

[Ann M.]

Hoping to bring more rides and smiles on electric bikes, this new concept will tour the US in the coming year to show off several different brands of ebikes with it's own test track included!

In 2016 a group of electric bike industry professionals formed the Electric Bike Expo which is a test track designed for ebikes that travels around the United States. In each city of the tour, this track will be setup in parking lots so that anyone can test ride an electric bike for free. The sponsoring companies have provided bikes including road, mountain and cruisers and some of those companies include Shimano, Haibike, Felt and ProdecoTech. The first cities to experience the Electric Bike Expo include:

- January: Phoenix, AZ
- February: San Diego, CA
- March: Austin, TX
- April, Palo Alto, CA
- May, Portland, OR
- June, Denver, CO

 

[Tara D.]

Very neat-- and in Denver in June I like that this event is free I think that will draw a lot of new people just wanting to check it out and see what e-bikes are all about.

 

[KenM.]

What do they have against the East Coast ?
Or better yet Sebastian , FLA.
Ken.

 

[David1]

I sure hope the public finds out about this Demo Tour . This is a very good thing for newbies. Glad Austin made the list. MTBs for me. New Specialized s-works Levo, and Haibikes MTBs would be great !

 

[Deleted member 803]

I rode the test track for about an hour (different bikes). I'd probably say that the implementation was for dealers who have never been on an ebike. The track took about 30 seconds to complete. Got a kick out of the two small jump ramps they installed.

Selling an ebike starts with a demonstrative need (or at least a perceived need necessary to get someone on a test ride) and then an actual experience.

Kudos to this group for starting this effort.

 

[Ray Verhelst]

The Electric Bike Expo will start the six-city tour in Tempe in conjunction with The IBD Summit conference produced by our affiliate sponsor Interbike. The location will be at Diablo Stadium, just below the Phoenix Marriott Tempe at the Buttes. We will be there on January 14-17, 2016.

The track will be a closed loop outdoors and will include the hill and terrain bumps we developed for the Interbike track. While the track inside Interbike was just over 1000 feet long, it served its purpose and allowed more than 1750 registered trade show attendees to enter the track. With the multiple return trips, we projected more than 8750 bikes were tested on their first-ever, feature-filled track. As for the comment that this was most likely meant as an introduction to e-bikes, that was part of it. The other is that space is a premium within a convention center where every square foot costs a great deal of money each and every day of use.

The response was overwhelmingly positive and we expect to update the design, which may include a larger track as well as more companies participating inside the pavilion next year. We are the strategic partner with Interbike that created this initial track and will provide this experience for the next 2 shows.

As for the rest of the tour, we have confirmed that we will be in San Diego at Liberty Square (Point Loma) on February 26-28, 2016 in conjunction with the California Bicycle Coalition.

With regard to Austin, TX we have made a change to move the tour to Houston as there is no reasonable room for the event during SXSW. The costs are too great and the crowds will be too busy to spend quality time to test bikes. The Houston choice is actually a positive as we will be working with BikeTexas and the Texas Trails and Active Transportation Conference where we will be educating more than 300 city planners responsible for designing bike lanes, paths and ride share programs, and making recommendations to officials about the benefits of implementation. We will be located on the Rice University Campus and will be working with city officials and local media to attract consumers in this emerging bike-friendly city. The dates of our event will be March 11-13, 2016.

After that, we go to Palo Alto in April, Portland in May and Denver in June.

As for the comment about the East Coast, we have not forgotten you. This initial launch of a national tour had to start somewhere and being close to the corporate centers of a majority of these companies made sense. So did being in positive weather-related cities during the first quarter of the year, that were also bike-friendly. Our plans call for us to expand this tour in 2017 and 2018.

As for the brands that will be part of the tour:
Bosch is the presenting sponsor; Trek will be the track sponsor; iZip, Raleigh, Haibike, Yuba, A2B, Tempo (is both an exhibitor and our charity sponsor), Xtracycle, Felt, Stromer, Easy Motion, BESV, Focus, Gazelle, Kalkhoff, and Polaris. We will have e-bike related accessories on display as well as local retailers from each city participating.

You can follow along at electricbike-expo.com for additional announcements or read ElectricBikeReport.com for the most up to date news.

 

[David1]

Sounds like quite an event planned for Houston, Texas USA in March 2016. Very excited to view and ride. Great list of dealers attending. Would be nice to have examples of cargo, and folding bikes so up. Like Brompton . Planned morning and evening rides showing H- towns budding bike trails , would promote event to those in town who won't even be aware of Dealers showcasing their bikes. Riding along Bayou paths would be nice for group rides. Thanks for coming to Texas.

 

[Ray Verhelst]

David,
Yes, we are very excited about the Houston stop as we will have the chance to meet with local city officials, statewide city planners and hopefully a couple of thousand consumers in our high traffic location. To be specific, the companies coming are the actual manufacturers and while they may enlist local authorized dealers to help work with the attendees, these are company representatives showcasing products. That means you will have a chance to get into the technical details as well as experience the latest bikes firsthand, right from the factory. As for cargo bikes, we have a number of them there including Yuba and Xtracycle.

The cargo bike experience will allow you to load up a number of different sized and weighted boxes and strap them on to the back and see what it's like to navigate the track. I can't say for sure, but I suspect we will have some compact and folding bikes there as well.

We are inviting one to two local ebike retailers to join in as exhibitors so that would be the immediate Houston connection.

Regarding your suggestion of a ride, I know that during our management of the test track at Interbike, Stromer used their bikes every morning and evening to host group dealer rides around Las Vegas. We hope some of our companies will take advantage of the trails you mention and organize some longer rides over the weekend.

Working alongside BikeTexas, we expect a great deal of news to reach the bicycling community in the state and hopefully attract brand-new-to-ebike consumers to the event.

Additionally, we will have some education components and a charity competition for local media with a local non-profit winning a new $4000 Tempo electric bike