Electric bicycles, like bowties, have typically been reserved for the true believers.
Unlike bowties, they’ve always been unstylish and extremely difficult to pull off.
Until SF startup Faraday Bicycles came along with their initial public offering: the Porteur, an all-form, all-function game-changer of an electric bike, available now for pre-order.
At first glance, nothing about the Porteur says electric.
With elements of bicycle construction drawn from the annals of European postal portage circa WWII, Faraday have eschewed every e-bike tradition. No toy-like futurism, just classic city-cycling design.
Plus batteries, of course. The Faraday’s charge in less than an hour and give you up to twenty miles of silent, 250-watt hilltopping assistance … should you need it.
The rest is all bike, though, including an eight-speed internally geared hub (because a derailleur is as annoying to deal with as it is to spell), bamboo fenders and the finest of disc-brakes.
All that in under forty pounds.
Seeing as you won’t be sweating from this ride, maybe you should go with the bowtie this morning.
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