Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

news

New startup gBike combines golf and cycling

No longer a good walk spoiled...

They say golf is the new cycling, but what if you wanted to combine the two?

A new startup aims to get golfers round the course faster by getting them on two electrically powered wheels.

As Mark Twain's saying goes, golf is a good walk spoiled, so why not ruin a cycle ride instead?

Eileen Harrison, the former magazine publisher behind gBike, a startup aimed at selling electric bicycles to golfers, says she took her  inspiration from American oil magnate John D Rockefeller, said to be the first golfer to cycle round his 18 holes.

Harrison also took notes from her 77-year-old father, who as a keen golfer also got into mountain biking in his 70s.

He designed a special golf bag to be carried on his bike, and patented the idea.

Eileen told the Times: “It quickly became clear that one needed to be ‘golf bike fit’ and that some people using the golf bike would not necessarily have the required fitness,” she says. “It was at this point that we decided to make it an e-bike. That way, with the pedal assist, fitness was not a requirement.”

The bikes, known as gBikes, are hand made in New Zealand, and are crowdfunding on Indiegogo to set up a larger production facility in Detroit.

They are designed to work with any golf bag.

It works in either pedal assist or fully electric mode, or, if your battery runs out, on pedal power alone. The early-bird price is $2,999 plus $200 shipping and the estimated delivery time is next June.

 

Add new comment

12 comments

Avatar
Yorkshire wallet | 6 years ago
0 likes

With the right amount of weight over the back I can see this being a wheelie machine.

Avatar
Stable2309 | 6 years ago
0 likes

That Is just plain ugly.

Only people who would put up with that are those who need a younger friend to tell them where their ball lands.

Imagine the grief your mates would give you if seen getting out of this.

Avatar
janusz0 | 6 years ago
0 likes

@Deeferdonk
There is nothing interesting about being curarised, while a machine breathes for you. I'd rather not remember the nightmare hallucinations.

Avatar
Beecho | 6 years ago
0 likes

I play golf (sorry, cricket & football too - love sport, me). This is bollocks.

Avatar
janusz0 | 6 years ago
1 like

I'm worried that there are at least 2 people on this short thread who seem to have some knowledge (i.e. too much:) of golf. Keep cycling friends! I've had a near death experience and, from what I hear about golf, that experience was more interesting.
There's no point in the half dead pointing out that you can get a lot of social interaction going, we can do that better with real sports and physical activities.

Avatar
Deeferdonk replied to janusz0 | 6 years ago
1 like

janusz0 wrote:

I'm worried that there are at least 2 people on this short thread who seem to have some knowledge (i.e. too much:) of golf. Keep cycling friends! I've had a near death experience and, from what I hear about golf, that experience was more interesting. There's no point in the half dead pointing out that you can get a lot of social interaction going, we can do that better with real sports and physical activities.

 

 

a near death experience has got to be more interesting than just about anything so you are setting the  bar quite high!

 

 

Avatar
BehindTheBikesheds | 6 years ago
0 likes

Seriously, just why, to get golfers round quicker? People just play through if there's a group ahead who are slower.

And if it's two or more people in a group and one can't walk too fast then the whole group would need them otherwise you're still waiting for the slowest person and that's unsocial. Can just imagine 2/3/4 of these on at any given hole and if one group takes them and the group in front are on foot, then what, oh yeah, play through again, then you have another big gap between groups of players.

Those who can't walk fast are unlikely to want to use a two wheeled bike with a heavy load on the back anyway, a trike would have being far more useful both stability and safety wise given that a course is grass with all it's undulations on a course. Afterall you're aiming this at those who are less physically capable right?

Even the seat is too small.

An idea that could have helped but actually next to zero thought went into it as to who this is supposed to be helping and hence why the design falls short of being useful/capable of actually solving the supposed problem of slow play.

Avatar
cyclisto | 6 years ago
1 like

@StuInNorway the tires seem more fatbike than MTB and given that it is a single seater it will probably have less surface load than usual 2-seaters golf buggies.

Avatar
davel | 6 years ago
2 likes

" They say golf is the new cycling..."

I thought cycling was the new golf? Or is it back round to golf again?

Avatar
StuInNorway | 6 years ago
2 likes

Might be an idea to ask the golf clubs if they will allow these on their courses first. I know a LOT of courses that would simply flat out refuse to allow these on the grass as they are likely to leave ruts in teh grass if there has been any rain at all, with both rider and clubs weight on 2 narrow wheels. 
There is a reason golf trolleys use big, wide, flat wheels.  
There are also plenty clubs don't even allow trolleys. 
 

It also looks like it'll be unstable, if they'd simply gone with an E-fat-bike and hitch for golf trolley the weight would at least be better spread.

Avatar
Grahamd | 6 years ago
5 likes

Is it April 1st already?

Avatar
don simon fbpe | 6 years ago
7 likes

Why spoil a good ride?

Latest Comments