The head of Brompton says we can “kiss goodbye” to regular bikes, hailing the dawn of a new era of e-bikes.
In a talk at Google headquarters in London earlier this month, discovered by BikeBiz editor, Carlton Reid, Will Butler-Adams said Brompton is nearing development of its own electric motor, and that although the humble bicycle’s design hasn’t changed from two wheels and a double A-frame for 100 years, that could soon change.
He points out the e-bike market has gone from “pretty much nothing” to a €1.2bn industry in Germany in ten years, and that is expected to grow around the world.
Brompton inventor Andrew Ritchie steps down from company’s board
“The [ebike] market is expected to be worth €24bn globally by 2025. So you can kiss goodbye to a normal bicycle.
“This is old tech I’m showing you”, he jokes, indicating a Google branded Brompton, “but never mind, I’ll still sell it to you”.
He compared the 1916 aeroplane “made out of cotton and wood” with today’s fighter jets, and then pointed to the two-wheels, double A-frame design of bicycles.
“Basically it hasn’t changed,” he said. “It’s gone nowhere. But now that is about to change because suddenly we’re putting technology into a bicycle, that means average sale price in Germany is €2,500, that delivers more revenue for the industry, more revenue to develop materials science.
“I think bikes are going to change, particularly when you think of them from an urban perspective,” he said.
Butler Adams said the company tried for years without success to develop an electric motor, but ran up against problems with the epicyclic gear train.
Brompton’s luck changed after the company approached one of its customers, Patrick Head at Williams, “the F1 fast car people”, who use an electric motor with KERs, or kinetic energy recovery system, in their cars.
Butler-Adams describes the device as a light, efficient dynamo with a battery pack, and says the company received funding from the Technology Strategy Board, now Innovate UK, a Government department that offers grants to businesses.
Brompton has been working on its electric drive for three years, and has come “quite close to having something”, he says, cracking a problem with the hub gear, involving a “very clever injection moulding” and a four tooth engagement, rather than three.
Butler-Adams says each part of the bike has gone through at least three upgrades since its inception, including the frame, which he says was strengthened to withstand 17 stone “rugger buggers” jumping off kerbs on 10 mile commutes.
Earlier this month Brompton’s inventor, Andrew Ritchie stepped down from the company’s board, reportedly unhappy at the company’s expansion plans.
43 thoughts on “Brompton CEO says “kiss traditional bicycle goodbye””
On a related note, I invented
On a related note, I invented a machine that lifts weights for me, so now I don’t have to go to the gym.
poppa wrote:
Awesome! Can I be your first customer?
Only someone in the industry
Only someone in the industry could say “the average sale price is €2500” and think that was a good thing. The fact that bicycle design hasn’t changed in 100 years proves how inherently right the design is. I could see me getting an ebike eventually, but I still get a kick out of putting the effort in. And in the future, when cars and bikes and God knows what else is all rechargeable, where’s the electricity coming from? We’re already close to using all we can make, aren’t we?
Pah, I’m a real man and I’ll
Pah, I’m a real man and I’ll use my real manly legs. Until I’m old and maybe some E assistance will be nice.
If I was that bothered about not really pedalling I’d just get a moped, which will no doubt soon all the electric anyway.
All great for commuters who
All great for commuters who’re sort of on the edge about the whole commute by bike thing.
No-one who actually loves cycling and is still fit to do so is ever going to buy an e-bike until they’re like 70 or whatever. By which time they’ll look like distilled science fiction and I’ll have one too. Unrestricted.
I’ll let you girls draft me. No worries.
hmm, Bromptons are more
hmm, Bromptons are more expensive than the average bike? So it will be well north of EUR2.5k. Perhaps they should have spent some of the 3 years designing some security worthy of the bike price tag. And as portable, lightweight and convenient. Probbly a bit trickier than some F1 motor technology!
Just come back from a holiday
Just come back from a holiday in Holland, I was constantly being overtaken by nutter pensioners on e-bikes which have really taken off over there so he may be right.
and when the first person
and when the first person strapped a petrol engine to a bike they said the same thing.
I hate Google and F1, so it
I hate Google and F1, so it doesn’t start well.
I’m glad to push my pedals and move by myself. Makes me happy. The shower after the effort makes me even more happy.
Like many clever people he’s
Like many clever people he’s right and he’s wrong. For sure the bike will develop and change, he’s smart enough to see that. But he is too smart to know the main, fundamental reason for the bike’s timeless appeal – it is simple. Simplicity is key to its success, you jump on , pedal and you’re off. As soon as you add things to that recipe you have diluted its attraction and the child in us all loses interest.
And something tells me that at a point in the not-too-distant future, as private car ownership plummets, governments will cotton on to the revenue possibilities of the ‘leccy bike. Much easier to tax than the humble pedal cycle.
An ebike under present
An ebike under present regulations is frustrating. I know, I use one for about a year before it packed in.
As a range extender I would certainly be interested in that 45km/h bike that’s allowed in NL, but it would be classed as a moped here. I don’t mind that exept you would never be able to exert youself with a regulation helmet without boiling your brain.
Why in all honesty wouldn’t
Why in all honesty wouldn’t the casual rider not want a decent electric bike. Less effort(couch potato dream) and the ability to destroy a pro going up hills. I can see a huge market developing.
There is sure a lot of money
There is sure a lot of money to be made selling batteries that die within two years.
Ron, what is to stop you
Ron, what is to stop you buying a dutch e-bike and bringing it back on the ferry?
I doubt people will be buying e-bikes to take Strava KOMs (They better not come near mine or I will flag them good.)
Leviathan wrote:
Simple answer. It’s illegal. Anyone doing that would be operating an unlicensed and uninsured vehicle on the road. Have a crash and the trouble starts.
I think there is a typo in
I think there is a typo in the headline. If it said “Kiss the traditional Brompton bicycle goodbye”, then he is probably right. People who buy Brompton’s are looking for an effortless way to go the short distance from A to B without using a public transport or a car, so an e-bike will meet the need. People who buy proper bikes are generally looking for some combination of a hobby and a way to get fit. An e-bike will not fulfill either of these purposes.
Griff500 wrote:
Doesn’t apply the the Brompton owners I know, who do all sorts of crazy shit on them.
One just cycled from North France to Nice on one towing a 30lb [or was it kg] trailer including riding up Mount Ventoux and only got passed by three people on sensible bikes on way to summit. He also rode the 3 British TdF stages in 24 hours [not on a Brompton] and to make us mortals feel even less able, he’s a not a young whippersnapper but a retired doctor.
Griff500 wrote:
Actually people who buy Bromptons are looking for a way to cycle to places with a bike that enables them to easily combine the journey with other forms of transport. They are looking for a bike that can do most of the stuff that other bikes can but folds up small enough and can be carried. I used to fit 2 Bromptons in the boot of my old Toyota Yaris with luggage and still have all 4 seats available, I can always get on any train with it even when the measly bike storage is full and I never have to leave it outside when I take it to work.
A standard e-bike will not meet any of those specialist needs.
The biggest hurdle to the e-Brompton is likely to be weight as being able to carry the bike on occasion is quite important.
There are of course already companies producing kits to convert Bromptons to pedelec.
When I retire in about 15
When I retire in about 15 years I hope to cycle around Europe for a couple of years following canals and long distance routes, stopping off in a different restaurant each day, painting for my supper. If I need a bit of electricity to help me on my way, so be it.
dafyddp wrote:
“Retire”? What is this “retire” of which you speak??
Oh, you fellows! They’ll
Oh, you fellows! They’ll never catch on, except they’re already enormous in mainland Europe and in China.
Just think of all the great infrastructure we’ll get in 2050, like the car bods enjoy just now, once there’s a zillion pound bike industry.
There’s nothing more
There’s nothing more satisfying than passing an e-bike commuter as I pedal home from work.
Some people just don’t understand the reason for cycling.
earth wrote:
^^ this
Especially if they’re younger
earth wrote:
This; a thousand times, this.
brooksby wrote:
There is more than one reason to cycle.
Some days I cycle for fun, others for fitness, others as a purely utilitarian way of getting somewhere.
An E bike could definitely interest me for fun rides and utility rides.
As I get older it could even be useful for fitness.
Rich_cb wrote:
Well, yes, but presumably you still prefer to cycle rather than just sitting on a scooter or something (at least right now while your knees still work properly?). That was my point.
I ride a bike because I want to ride a bike: recreationally, utility (to the shops), and yes, even as a commuter. I like the fact that it sneaks genuine exercise into my daily routine, and I enjoy it.
Why would I choose to just sit on an e-bike?
brooksby wrote:
E-bikes can usually be set up to assist rather than do all the work.
If I’m commuting in the rain and cold, lugging a couple of heavy panniers I would quite like the option of travelling a bit faster for the same effort and arriving sooner.
It means slightly less exercise but it’s still a lot better than driving!
I’m convinced that E-bikes could persuade a huge number of people to commute by bike benefiting everyone.
earth wrote:
Most people aren’t interested in cycling as you and most of the people on here would understand it.
What they might be interested in though is, for example, a cheap quick way to get around town without getting all sweaty, perhaps so they can stop using their car so much.
Existing roadies who are quite capable of banging out the miles are not the target market.
I hope they take off, but ‘proper’ bikes disappearing? No chance!
earth wrote:
the point of cycling is to get from A to B… full stop… an e-bike makes it easier for commuting use and pulling a heavy laden cargo trailer back from the supermarket…
too may roadie snobs in here…
Paul_C wrote:
Some people just don’t understand the reason for cycling.
— Paul_C the point of cycling is to get from A to B… full stop…— earth
nonsense. People often cycle just for the sake of cycling.
earth wrote:
Beating other people on the road is your reason for cycling?
I can see e-bikes for
I can see e-bikes for commuters and MTBer for certain uses, don’t need a uplife etc.
But since this is road.cc, I just can’t see roadies taking to electric bikes on the whole, if you think diskbrakes caused heat….
An e-bike is closer to a
An e-bike is closer to a scooter or something than to a “bicycle”. I ride a bicycle because it gives exercise and because I don’t want to ride a scooter. End of. Cars were invented a century ago and yet people still ride bicycles; I don’t think that “e-bikes” will change that.
These hyberboles are common.
These hyberboles are common. They’re trying to sell to people who’d get a scooter but its too expensive + potential licenses and maintenance and stuff.. plus on a bike you can “ignore laws” in most places.
They know that, they don’t care, they just want sales. And yes, a bunch of people want electric bikes for commuting actually. These people don’t specially exercise. Usual stuff.
muffies wrote:
True.
In the part of the world where I live, “electric bicycles” are actually electric scooters with a token crank and pedals. Rarely do you ever see people actually using these things to actually pedal. Very different, I’d imagine, from what the Western nations consider e-bikes, which are technically “pedelecs” because they won’t move on their own without pedal power.
hello lazy people!! this is
hello lazy people!! this is brompton!! anyone there?
Years ago people stuck little
Years ago people stuck little petrol engines on bicycles, they caught on and formed their own niche called motorbikes (or motorcycles). We still have the bicycle some 100 years later! Someone sticks an electric motor on and we will still have the bicycle.
I don’t think it will change the bicycle as we know it, because they will still be made! It’s just that there will be e-bikes in the shop alongside them. The only way some bikes will change is to have mounts and bosses fitted for the hardware so they can sell one frame but two models, much like Mechanical vs Di2 gearing.
You can buy a bicycle for less than £100 in a supermarket (rubbish, but still a bike!) but I doubt you will see an e-bike for less than £500. That means, the pedal bike will still dominate the bottom of the market anyway!
LegalFun wrote:
True enough, but that’s also the reason why we now have cycle paths with insanely awkward barriers stuck across them that make it impossible for any slightly wider-than-normal bicycle to access them. Its why police and locals sometimes oppose any kind of bike routes through housing estates.
The more the boundaries get blurred between bikes and motorised vehicles, the harder it is to ensure truly bicycle-exclusive infrastructure. That’s the one reason to be concerned about e-bikes (otherwise I’m not at all bothered)
Ebikes are not targeting “us”
Ebikes are not targeting “us” as consumers, they’re aimed at the marginal user who declines to cycle because it’s too far/slow/sweaty. Personally if I see another Ebike user I think good, one less car.
There’s a huge amount of change coming to urban road usage and Ebikes, uber and car share/rental vs ownership are all pieces of that jigsaw.
arfa wrote:
Exactly what I was going to say. When I’m riding in to work and see an ebiker, I don’t think “cheat”, I think “one fewer car”. And obviously, I do my damnedest to drop them.
We have to remember that many people are put off by the ‘effort’ of cycling, aren’t interested in the purity and efficiency of the machine, don’t particularly want to wear Lycra even if they receognise the good reasons for doing so. My wife, for example. Would I rather she never came out on a ride with me and resents me disappearing at weekends? Or would I rather she had an ebike, it gave her 200W of help and we go for a ride together?
I think/hope that e-bikes
I think/hope that e-bikes will expand the overall bike market, but the amount of sales they will take from traditional/proper bikes will be 15-20%, no more.
As pointed out above, people like proper bikes for the simplicity and fitness reasons, and these people are unlikely to all switch to e-bikes (especially at 2,500 Euros a pop!).
The great thing about e-bikes is that they should give a new lease of (cycling) life to those who thought they weren’t fit enough to cycle.
Germany is a special case and
Germany is a special case and I doubt that this holds true for the UjK and certainly not the USA. $2500 e-bikes? Can’t see the point.
But a nice electric scooter? Bring it on. I think self-pedalled bikes will survive no problem but why copy that design for an electric bike? Surely we have found that a scooter-style is much more comfortable and efficient?
I know motorcycles started out as bicycles with motors bolted on, but we’ve learned a lot since then. Why should e-bikes make the same mistakes? Because once you’re carrying all that weight, you want to keep it low. And you’ll want more fuel (bigger batteries) also heavy and best kept low.
No – the e-bicycle is a flash-in-the-pan.E-scooters will rule
Give it 5 years and they’ll
Give it 5 years and they’ll be taxed/legislated out of existence by the govt. Cost-effective transport really isn’t a priority for them and once they become anything other than niche the ebike-rage will start. Which is a shame because they’re the only way the missus can join in a ride with me and the nipper. Legislation as it stands is perfect given average speeds of an unassisted cyclist on a cycle path; what I don’t want to see is 25mph+ pedelecs on shared-use paths. Dangerous for unassisted cyclists and also much more dangerous for peds. Could also easily end up being a backdoor for requiring tax/insurance for unassisted bikes.