Why Zen ?

[Ravi Kempaiah]

Disclaimer: Zen Electric Bikes is in product development stage and will go live sometime in summer of 2021.
Currently, we are building test models to explore the technical feasibility. We are also in the process of putting together a group of people who have the same vision of sustainable transport.
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Zen Electric Bikes is a Canadian E-bike enterprise and its HQ will be located in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The goal is to build high-quality E-bikes and enable the growth of electrified transport.

We named it "Zen" because it captures the whole E-bike experience in a wonderful way.
When someone says "oh, that was a Zen-like experience" ... they mean something peaceful, relaxing and uplifting.

Most E-bikers can relate to this and we thought "Zen" captures this wholesome experience.

1. An incredible sense of freedom. Many E-bikers when they get on an E-bike, it's like a whole new world has just opened up.
   
   
2. A deep communion with nature. They get to explore places they never thought would be possible on a bike before.
   
   
3. Absolutely fun and rejuvenating experience while enhancing one's overall physical and mental health.
   
   
   

   Opinion | How an E-Bike Changed My Life (Published 2019)

   Riding grew harder as I grew older. Then I got an electric bicycle.

   www.nytimes.com
   
   
4. One of the most efficient and environmentally friendly mode of transport.
   Whether it is recreational or commuting, E-bikes are just efficient and better in most cases.

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There is another component to Zen Electric Bikes that is unique. We firmly believe that we grow when we uplift everyone along the way.
So, we want to give back to the society in a meaningful way. Education is a truly worthwhile investment.
Initially, we are starting with Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa. 60% of the world's Cobalt reserves are in found in Congo and yet DRC is one of the poorest nations on earth.
Families live on less than $1 a day.

Products like E-bikes, Laptops, iPads, iPhones, MacBook, Samsung phones etc use Lithium Cobalt Oxide (LiCoO2) as the cathode and this cobalt mainly comes from DRC.
Kids of age 6 to 8 are found working in the mines of DRC.

So, for every one E-bike sold through Zen E-bikes, $10 will be directed towards the purchase of classroom supplies, desks for schools in DRC.

 

[TomD]

Ravi, best of luck in your endeavor and looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

Ravi, best of luck in your endeavor and looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Many thanks, Tom!
Appreciate it.
If you have any feedback, please feel free to share.

 

[bob armani]

Ravi, I want to also send you Congratulations and best wishes for your next adventure! So pleased to see you accomplishing great things. Cheers!

 

[vincent]

Ravi’s bikes are going to rock!!

 

[GBX77]

Ravi
Impressive Foundation from the very start.
Wishing you continued success and look forward to the Zen brand developing and its discovery's in the pages ahead.

 

[Explorer-1]

Hi Ravi,

I was wondering if you have any test bike that uses an electronic drive-train?

 

[Nova Haibike]

I like the name, but being only three letters EBR's forum search engine will not accept it "because the search keywords were too short, too long, or too common"

 

[drewberz]

I like the name, but being only three letters EBR's forum search engine will not accept it "because the search keywords were too short, too long, or too common"

you can report something like that to @troehrkasse sounds like there is a char minimum.

 

[GypsyTreker]

Looks like a worthy endeavor for sure Ravi. Pretty sure this will succeed in all aspects of Zens mission statement. Sure looks like eBikes could solve a whole bunch of problems for city planners if they develop the political courage to make it so.

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

Hi Ravi,

I was wondering if you have any test bike that uses an electronic drive-train?

Hi there,

I wonder what you mean by electronic drive-train?
You mean the Rohloff E-14? if so, Yes.
We could add XTR Di2 or SRAM AXS but with the derailleur version. We have few frames coming in next month and some of them are spoken for but we will reserve a few frames for our in-person demo.

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

I like the name, but being only three letters EBR's forum search engine will not accept it "because the search keywords were too short, too long, or too common"

Thanks for letting me know. I will work with the mods to get this rectified.
We will be rolling out website updates as we get closer to the launch date and this should resolve some of the search.

We did not do any marketing because we wanted to get the product right, first and only then start marketing efforts.

 

[GypsyTreker]

Thanks for letting me know. I will work with the mods to get this rectified.
We will be rolling out website updates as we get closer to the launch date and this should resolve some of the search.

We did not do any marketing because we wanted to get the product right, first and only then start marketing efforts.

Ravi....along with the roll-out. Invest in the swag side of your endeavor. T-shirts, hats etc. You have a name that really is marketable in conjunction with the growing eBike wave. No current eBike company allows for a customer to align with the product they purchased. Study Harley, Surf industry etc. It seems, imho, a very overlooked aspect of launching a brand by simply branding the launch.

 

[TomD]

3 letter words are a problem for any forum software. It simply isn't practical to index them. I don't think the forum admin will be able to fix this easily, if at all.

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

Ravi....along with the roll-out. Invest in the swag side of your endeavor. T-shirts, hats etc. You have a name that really is marketable in conjunction with the growing eBike wave. No current eBike company allows for a customer to align with the product they purchased. Study Harley, Surf industry etc. It seems, imho, a very overlooked aspect of launching a brand by simply branding the launch.

Many thanks for your helpful suggestion. I concur with you regarding the merchandise side of things.
But, our focus has been to build something that is truly high-quality and reliable. We also have couple of surprises in the pipeline but we will get there steadily.

3 letter words are a problem for any forum software. It simply isn't practical to index them. I don't think the forum admin will be able to fix this easily, if at all.

This is helpful to know. I did not know that 3 letters are limiting.
We are about to finalize the model names and this should help with indexing it would contain two words - "Zen Wave" for a step-thru bike, "Zen Samurai" for a certain model etc.

 

[Explorer-1]

Hi there,

I wonder what you mean by electronic drive-train?
You mean the Rohloff E-14? if so, Yes.
We could add XTR Di2 or SRAM AXS but with the derailleur version. We have few frames coming in next month and some of them are spoken for but we will reserve a few frames for our in-person demo.

No sorry, I mean all electric, no mechanical linkage between the pedals and the wheel. So the pedals would turn a motor (aka generator) which would charge the batteries and produce power for the electric motor drive. There might be mechanical linkages for the generator to allow the rider to set the desired cadence and torque required for the pedals.

 

[TomD]

Ravi, that will work as long as you have fairly unique model names. Might want to consider expanding or tweaking your brand name if it's not too late.

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

No sorry, I mean all electric, no mechanical linkage between the pedals and the wheel. So the pedals would turn a motor (aka generator) which would charge the batteries and produce power for the electric motor drive. There might be mechanical linkages for the generator to allow the rider to set the desired cadence and torque required for the pedals.

May I know why you think such a drive is important?
I don't know if there is enough market demand for such a product. If you know of anyone who has done such a thing, I would be interested in learning more about it.

 

[E-Wheels]

May I know why you think such a drive is important?
I don't know if there is enough market demand for such a product. If you know of anyone who has done such a thing, I would be interested in learning more about it.

Maybe something like the Bike2 project

 

[Deacon Blues]

I watched the video, but still don't understand how the whole system works. I'll have to do more research. Getting rid of the chain is a very cool idea, though.