Would ‘free’ Citi Bike rentals sway you on Lyft’s Pink subscription service? That’s what the Uber rival is testing with a new pilot program in New York City. Starting next week, select Lyft customers — including those who are yet to try Pink — will be offered two-month access to Citi Bike’s blue two-wheelers. The experiment will include unlimited ‘classic’ Citi Bike rides with a 45-minute cap, which should be long enough to travel between Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge. E-bike enthusiasts, meanwhile, will get a 10-cent-per-minute discount during the trial. If you start an electrified trip outside of Manhattan, Lyft will also cap the first 45 minutes at $2.

The ride-hailing company launched Lyft Pink as a replacement for its All-Access Plan last October. It costs $19.99 per month and gives subscribers a 15 percent discount on all car rides throughout the US. In addition, members get airport priority pickups and — more importantly in the current climate — three ‘free’ rides on a ‘classic’ Lyft bike or scooter, capped at 30 minutes. In select markets, the company also offers three e-bike unlocks and discounted rates in New York City and San Francisco. Adding Citi Bike’s fleet to the mix could increase Pink signups and persuade a few more people to ditch cars and mass transit until the pandemic is over.

The Eeyo 1, therefore, is a lightweight steed designed for the city. The standard model weighs just 27.5 pounds (roughly 12KG), which is lighter than every e-bike I’ve reviewed to date, including the VanMoof S3 and fast-folding Gocycle GXi. It’s not the lightest ever created — the folding Hummingbird is only 23 pounds, for instance — but it trumps the vast majority of e-bikes on the market, and should be comparable with many entry-level road racers.

Gogoro

“It’s designed to bring forth the joy of riding,” Horace Luke, CEO of Gogoro told Engadget. “While other e-bikes look to solve utilitarian challenges, what we wanted to do was bring the fun and excitement into the ride. I gave the team a very simple thesis: I said, ‘give me a bike that makes me feel like I’m 18 again.’” 

The weight can be partly attributed to the carbon fibre frame, which doesn’t have a conventional seat tube connecting the saddle to the bottom bracket. The “open-frame” design means that you can easily stick an arm through and carry the bike over your shoulder. The company hopes this will appeal to people who live on the upper floors of an apartment complex, or would like to carry their bike down into a subway station. 

That’s important because you can’t remove the battery (not easily, anyway). Gogoro has packed all of the bike’s electric components — including the 250W motor, 123Wh battery and all of the sensors required to monitor your speed and effort — inside the rear hub. The so-called Smartwheel is a self-contained system that can be developed and easily ported to future Eeyo bikes.  In theory, it should mean that customers only have to send off the back wheel, rather than the entire bike, if they encounter any electrical problems.

Gogoro

According to the Gogoro team, the Smartwheel is also more efficient than most e-bikes that use a trustworthy but off-the-shelf Bosch system in-between the pedals. “Most mid-drive systems are somewhere around 50nm (of torque),” a company spokesperson explained. “If we measure ours in force, at the motor, we’re equivalent to 50nm, even though we’re only a 20nm motor.”

You can think of it like the adaptable ‘platform’ that so many electric car companies are keen to develop and license to rival manufacturers. Gogoro has taken a similar route with its core business, working with companies like Yamaha to build electric ‘Powered By Gogoro Network’ scooters. “[We will] work with other bike manufacturers and brands to accelerate their path to market by helping them quickly integrate Eeyo Smartwheel into a range of new e-bikes,” the company teased in a press release today.

The bike doesn’t have a power button or integrated computer in the top tube or handlebars. To use the Eeyo 1, therefore, you’ll need to download a companion app. Gogoro says it will support Bluetooth proximity, which means the bike will automatically unlock as you approach and, conversely, arm itself when you walk away. When the Eeyo 1 is ‘locked,’ the motor will deactivate and generally make it difficult for a would-be thief. “You can still push it around a little bit, but if you try to ride it, you’ll feel like you’re riding up a very, very steep hill,” Luke said. There’s little to stop them lifting the bike up and into the back of a truck, though, so you’ll probably want a conventional lock if you intend to leave it outside a store.

Gogoro

If you like to check your speed and charge while riding, fear not: Gogoro will also be offering some kind of mount so you can attach a smartphone and reference the Eeyo app for this sort of information.

The e-bike will offer two riding moods, Sport and Eco, that prioritizes power and range respectively. Regardless, the Eeyo’s top speed will be capped at 20MPH in the US and 15.5MPH in Europe. (These restrictions are set by local regulators and are pretty standard for the industry.) The bike’s acceleration and general level of assistance will increase in Sport mode, however. The Eeyo 1’s range, meanwhile, should fall somewhere between 40 and 55 miles (roughly 89 KM) on a single charge, depending on your preferred riding mode, the number of hills you typically climb each day, and a bunch of other factors such as your body weight and pedalling cadence.

That’s not the highest range I’ve ever seen, but Gogoro believes it should be enough for most city dwellers. To charge the battery, you’ll need to clip a horseshoe-shaped connector to the back wheel or slot the entire bike into an optional stand. And, because the battery is part of the rear hub, it’s impossible to perform a hot swap similar to Gogoro’s electric scooters.

The standard Eeyo 1, available in Cloud Blue and Lobster Orange, will set you back $3,899, which is more expensive than the Cowboy and VanMoof’s S3 range. Gogoro will also be selling a special 1s model in Warm White that couples the ultra-light frame with a carbon fibre seat post, handlebar and wheel rims. It will cost you $4,599, but in return you get an e-bike that weighs just 26.4 pounds (roughly 12KG). Both models are undoubtedly expensive. In the current e-bike market, though — where top-end Riese & Müller models cost $8,000 — the prices aren’t surprising.

Gogoro

“Sure, we could have made a much more affordable  bike, but that wasn’t our interest,” Luke said. “We wanted to make something that was out of this world.” Gogoro is keen to stress, too, that other e-bikes at potentially cheaper price points will follow. “We will bring out bikes in the future, as well as other bike makers [using the Smartwheel],” Jason Gordon, vice president of Gogoro added. “This is not meant to be a one trick pony. This is meant to be the start of something bigger, and a Gogoro commitment to a new micro-mobility category that we haven’t gone into before.”

The Eeyo 1 and 1s will be available in the US and Taiwan from July, before being sold in Europe “this summer.”

It’s a bold move for Gogoro. Until now, the company has focused almost exclusively on its domestic market of Taiwan. The company has worked with shared rental services in France and Germany, and offers its scooters to delivery companies in South Korea, too. Gogoro has never had a meaningful business in Europe and the US, though. With the Eeyo 1, that’s all about to change. To be successful, though, it’ll have to convince new and veteran cyclists alike that its e-bike vision is better than the competition.

While not without its flaws, the bike is an easy recommendation for those who want power and flexibility at any cost.

Design

Engadget

From afar, the GXi looks identical to Gocycle’s previous wares. And that’s perfectly fine because the company’s trademark design language doesn’t feel outdated in 2020. The frame doesn’t have a top tube and is, therefore, both eye-catching and easy to step over. The removable battery is contained in the chunky downtube, and the front hub motor, while noticeable, matches the smaller five-spoke wheels nicely.

The clever design elements extend to the handlebars, too. You won’t find any exposed cables — they’ve all been cleverly routed through the frame — or plastic gear shifters because the company opted for a stealthier twist-grip option instead. They might seem small, but these details add up to ensure the bike’s clean lines are rarely interrupted. Of course, they could also make the GXi difficult to repair. The bike comes with a three-part warranty, though — one year for the battery, two years for basic components and three years for the frame — and Gocycle is older than other e-bike upstarts, which increases the chance they’ll still be around when you need advice and replacement parts.

Unlike the GX, the bike has a strip-shaped Daytime Running Light (DRL) between its two brake levers. The beam has four possible settings — high and low, with an optional flashing strobe effect — that makes you more visible to other road users. The DRL isn’t designed to help you see at night, though. If you want to illuminate your surroundings, Gocycle recommends buying an aftermarket solution (the review sample I rode already had front and back Supernova bike lights installed.)

Engadget

On the opposite side is a Formula One-inspired “cockpit” that uses bright LEDs to visualize important information. When you’re standing still, 10 lights on the left-hand side will display the bike’s remaining charge. They fill from left to right and each LED represents 10 percent of battery life. Once you start pedaling, the lights will switch off temporarily and fill in the other direction to show how hard the motor is working. Four blue LEDs placed above and below this section explain the current DRL mode. Shift your eyes toward the center and you’ll notice three vertically aligned LEDs — these denote your current gear. Finally, 10 LEDs on the right-hand side explain how fast you’re riding. 

It’s a massive improvement over the GX, which only had five LEDs capable of showing the battery’s remaining charge. Still, the new cockpit is not intuitive. Would anyone understand what it meant without referring to the bike’s manual first? I don’t think so. My brain adjusted after a few rides, though, and quickly appreciated the size and brightness of the LEDs. In a laid back or upright riding position, they’re easier to read than a traditional bike computer, which usually has a small, monochromatic display, and practically fade into the handlebars when the GXi is switched off.

I used the app for my first ride but quickly switched to the LEDs.

If you don’t like the LED lights, you can use Gocycle’s companion app instead. The GX comes with two rubbery loops that can slide on to the handlebars and hold your phone in landscape mode. In this orientation, the app will switch to a car dashboard-inspired view with relevant riding information. That includes your current speed and gear, the battery’s remaining charge, how hard the motor is working, the distance you’ve travelled and a button that cycles through riding modes. I used the app for my first ride but quickly switched to the LEDs to save my phone’s battery life and, more importantly, innards from the occasional shower.

Performance

Engadget

When you first set up the bike, the companion app will ask whether you want North American or European firmware, which caps your top speed at 20MPH and 15.5MPH respectively. These restrictions are set by local regulators and are standard for the industry.

Out of the box, you have four riding modes to choose from: City+, City, Eco and On Demand. On City+, the motor will kick in immediately and slowly scale up as you pedal harder. In City mode, the motor won’t activate until you supply some light (100 watts) pedaling, but scales up to 100 percent with less effort. Eco mode, meanwhile, is a battery saving option that requires slightly more effort (200 watts) to trigger the pedal-assisted motor. In all of these modes, you can twist the left handlebar grip for a temporary boost that disengages when you stop or slow down your pedaling.

Finally, there’s On Demand. In this mode, the motor won’t switch on until you wrist-down. Once held, the system will engage until you let go, stop pedaling or reach the firmware-controlled maximum speed. It makes the bike feel more like an electric scooter, though you still have to pedal and can’t, therefore, treat it like a Vespa or Ducati.

If none of the modes suit your riding style, you can build one from scratch. The app’s Mode Editor lets you drag two nodes on a graph — similar to an audio equalizer — to set exactly when and how strong the motor should spring to life. I was happy with the City mode for most of my riding but occasionally switched to a custom profile that forced the motor to engage immediately and ramp up to 100 percent assist with minimal pedaling.

Engadget

The GXi has three gears that help you pedal at low and higher speeds. Unlike its fast-folding predecessor, the bike will automatically shift up and down when it senses a change in momentum. In theory, that means you should never be in the wrong gear after stopping at a traffic light or climbing a steep hill. 

I found the system to be a tad unreliable, though. Sometimes I would reach top speed and momentarily stop pedalling to examine a road sign or let a looming car overtake. The bike would then downshift even though I was still cruising at a speed that demanded a higher gear. Thankfully, you can change gears manually by twisting the right handlebar grip up and down. There’s a small learning curve — the system won’t execute the change until you’ve eased off the pedals slightly — but it doesn’t take long to understand and memorize the timing.

Another small nitpick: The motor is a little noisy. It’s not loud enough to be a dealbreaker or spoil an otherwise idyllic ride through the countryside. But for this kind of money, I would prefer the electrical innards to be a smidge quieter.

The bike is generally responsive and aware of how you’re riding.

The bike is generally responsive and aware of how you’re riding. While climbing a slope, I could see the motor’s assistance slowly building on the left-hand side of the cockpit. Conversely, the LEDs would disappear when I started cruising down a hill at higher speeds.

Gocycle has nailed the basics, too. The GXi’s Velo D2 saddle was comfortable, and the hydraulic disc brakes were sharp but not overly aggressive. I appreciated the one-inch ‘Lockshock’ suspension, too, which helped absorb the odd pothole and speed bump. (The GXi isn’t a mountain bike, though, so you shouldn’t take it on dirt and gravel trails.)

Engadget

The GXi promises up to 50 miles on a single charge. Of course, that number will fluctuate depending on your riding mode and the number of hills that you like to conquer each day. I managed 30 miles, for instance, riding predominantly in City mode around my hilly neighborhood. (In line with the UK’s social distancing guidelines, I only rode the e-bike once each day.) Some of my excursions were in the evening, too, which meant the DRL was working a little harder.

Any range anxiety was mitigated by the Fast Charger, which can replenish the battery in roughly four hours. While functional, the accessory is a massive and utterly hideous brick. Still, it’s better than the GX’s charger, which needed seven hours to top up the bike’s smaller battery. You can charge the GXi using a large port hidden by a rubbery seal on the frame. Alternatively, you can fold the bike down and charge the battery separately — a convenient option if you work in a fancy office that doesn’t appreciate muddy or rain-soaked tires.

Folding

It can be daunting at first, but the GXi is surprisingly quick and simple to break down. Here’s the process:

1. Ensure the kickstand is lowered.

2. Turn the cranks so the pedal on the side with the chain guard is pointing down and away from the rear wheel.

3. Pop the red switch on the head tube and lower the handlebars so they rest against the front wheel.

4. Flip the red switch on the center of the frame and fold the front half so the two wheels sit next to each other.

5. Unlatch the rubber band on the frame and stretch it over the designated hook on the handlebars. If you don’t do this, the front half of the frame can freely swing back and forth.

Engadget

The band is functional and barely noticeable while riding the bike. It’s plenty thick, too, and never showed signs of stretching or tearing. Still, I worry about its long-term durability — if anything is going to break or perish, it’s probably this. The band doesn’t feel like a particularly graceful solution, either. And that’s a shame because the rest of the bike feels oh-so cohesive and cleverly thought out. I just wish they had found a smarter way to keep the two halves glued together (magnets in the wheel hubs, perhaps?) because at the moment the design is one step short of greatness.

With the bike folded down, you can hold the protruding saddle and wheel the whole thing forward like a suitcase. Annoyingly, though, you can’t roll it backwards — doing so will cause the pedals to turn and eventually hit the frame. Still, I suspect it’s useful when you’re boarding a train or moving the bike through some revolving office doors.

At 39 pounds, the GXi is 300 lighter than the GX but still a tad heavier than both the electric Brompton (37 pounds) and Hummingbird (23 pounds). Moving the bike along the floor, therefore, is always preferable to picking it up. You could feasibly carry the GXi up some stairs, but your arms would probably ache for the rest of the day (unless you’re built like ‘the Mountain’ from Games of Thrones.)

Engadget

If you want to make the bike even smaller, you can take out the seat post and slip it through the centre loop of the rubber band. On the back of the saddle, next to the rear reflector, is a circular piece of plastic that usually hides a multitool. You can rotate it downward and drop it into the hole where the bottom of the seat post usually goes. At this point, everything on the bike is secure again. For a final flourish, you can remove the right pedal and stow it in a special holder next to the Lockshock.

The bike’s folded form is wonderfully compact. I live in a carpeted one-bed apartment (carpet is very popular in the UK, don’t ask) that needs to be covered with a vinyl protector after riding in the rain. The folded GXi fits neatly on my front doormat, though. That means I can easily stow it in the corridor — a gully too small for most bicycles — or neatly propped up in the corner of my living room. I wish Gocycles were even smaller, of course, so I could hide them in a wardrobe or cupboard. But they’re still practical if you live somewhere that doesn’t have a garage, shed or a landlord that appreciates you sticking a large bike rack on the living room wall.

Wrap-up

The GXi is undeniably expensive. But it’s in the same ballpark as other design-centric folding e-bikes, including the Brompton (£2,595, or $3,231) and Hummingbird (£4,495, or $5,598). 

Admittedly, you could buy a regular folding bike for a fraction of the price. But as I’ve written many times before, electric bicycles make more sense when you think of them as a car replacement. They’re a healthier and greener way to complete shorter journeys without breaking a sweat. If you live somewhere like London, a folding bike might allow you to ditch the Tube or ride-hailing apps like Uber entirely. Depending on your use, something like the GXi could earn its sticker price in a matter of months. But you have to be willing to make that trade, otherwise an electric bike will always be a decadent purchase.

(Well, until the price of high-quality e-bikes comes down, anyway.)

Engadget

Gocycle’s latest bicycle isn’t perfect. I wish the predictive gear shifting was better and the pedal-assisted motor ran a little quieter, like the VanMoof S3 and X3. The Fast Charger is an eyesore and the app, while functional, could use some work. These are small complaints, though, that I think most people can live with. The bike is an obvious improvement on the GX — which is heavier and doesn’t have the DRL or expanded cockpit — and broadly competitive with the Brompton and Hummingbird. I’m also glad the GXi doesn’t have any overly complicated smart locks or location tracking. Instead, Gocycle has focused on the essentials and delivered yet another e-bike that feels like the future of urban transportation.

The budget agreement creates three classes of e-bikes: pedal-assist bikes that max out at 20 miles per hours, throttle-powered bikes that max out at 20 mph and throttled-powered bikes that max out at 25 miles per hour in cities of one million people or more. All classes, as well as e-scooters that max out at 15 miles per hour, are now legalized statewide. Though, municipalities can still apply additional regulations. For instance, scooter share programs are not permitted in Manhattan, so don’t expect to see Bird, Lime or Jump scooters there anytime soon.

There may be good reasons for the price. The QuietKat-developed machine’s 750W motor may pack power as Jeep claims, and the Fire-Link suspension should help you handle rocky trails with some grace. The 40-mile range doesn’t hurt, either.

The bike doesn’t ship until June. Jeep clearly has high expectations, though. Like many automakers, it’s expanding into mobility options that go beyond the usual car sales. This lets it sell an accessory to typical Jeep buyers who want an e-bike for their backwoods excursions, but also gives it a way to court people who might not even own a car and want a bike for their wilderness adventures.

It’s billed as the “most powerful” off-road mountain bike yet, and there are some specs to back that up. The machine mates a 750W motor with chunky 4.8-inch tires that (along with Fire-Link suspension) should handle rougher trails. You can also expect up to 40 miles of range. Electrek suspected that the motor is actually a Bafang M620 unit capable of up to 1.6kW, but it might be toned down to avoid destroying the bike chain or tossing riders. It also appears to have high-quality disc brakes from either Magura or Tektro.

The e-Bike won’t go on sale until June 2020. It’s not certain how much Jeep intends to charge, although it’s clear from the choice of components that this won’t be cheap. It’s intended as a companion vehicle for Jeep owners who fully intend to go off-roading, and that kind of ability seldom comes cheap.

A new e-bike is on the way, Citi Bike said in a statement, but for the time being all three companies are replacing e-bikes with classic pedal bikes in their fleets. “Out of an abundance of caution, we are proactively removing the pedal-assist bikes from service,” the companies said in respective statements. “We know this is disappointing to the many people who love the current experience — but reliability and safety come first.”

Lyft, which recently began trading publicly with a valuation of over $24 billion, acquired Citi Bike, Capital Bikeshare and Ford GoBike parent Motivate in November. At the same time, it announced a deal with NYC to expand Citi Bike through a $100 million investment. The plan sought to triple Motivate’s required 12,000 bikes to 40,000 within the next five years, and more than double the coverage area to 35 square miles. It also promised a fleet of conventional and pedal-assist e-bikes, and 12 new valet stations.

Citi Bike’s e-bikes arrived on the streets of New York in August, following the city’s approval of new rules on electric bicycles. The pedal-assist system on the bikes can reach a maximum speed of about 18 miles per hour, a Lyft spokeswoman told the NYT. Citi Bike had reportedly planned to have 4,000 e-bikes available by June.

Move closer, however, and you’ll notice a new clasp in the center of the frame. Gocycle has redesigned the folding mechanism and claims the GX can be broken down in under 10 seconds. Unlike the company’s previous models, you don’t have to take the wheels off. You merely flip the switch and fold the frame in half so that both wheels are facing each other. A second clasp brings the handlebars down to the side, next to the front wheel. You’re then able to hold the saddle with your hand and roll the bike along like a suitcase. Alternatively, you can remove the seat post entirely and slip it through a rubbery loop that keeps the folded frame together.

Truthfully, I couldn’t fold or unfold the bike in less than 10 seconds. My times slowly improved, though, and with a little more practice I’m confident that I could do everything in under 15 seconds. That’s fast enough, in my opinion, to not feel like a chore while preparing to leave the house or office. I can imagine some frustrated looks if I spent that long in front of a subway ticket barrier, however. You should probably stop and fold the bike, therefore, in a quiet corner before interacting with the public.

It’s a smart system, though I wonder how long the aforementioned loop will last. The stretchy material is critical to the design and could, I fear, wear out after a few years of daily use. A Gocycle spokesperson told me, however, that the company has stress-tested the folding mechanism and is confident in its durability — for now, I’ll have to take their word for it.

On the road, the GX performs like many other electric bicycles. It has a 500W motor and a top speed of 20MPH, which by law are capped at 250W and 15.5MPH in Europe. (The bike won’t be restricted in the US, where legislation allows “low-speed electric bicycles” with a 750W motor and a 20MPH top speed.) The GX has three manual gears that you switch between with a tradition twist-grip on the right-hand side. The highest of the three is still a fairly low gear, however, so it’s hard to breach the 20MPH ceiling without a steep hill or the ferocity of a Tour de France winner.

The bike has various levels of assist that you can tweak inside the GocycleConnect app. The pre-loaded profiles, such as “City” and “Eco,” are sensible and self-explanatory. I was more interested in the “Custom” tab, however, that lets you build a rider profile from scratch. You can decide when the motor kicks in — specifically, how much power the rider needs to be generating — and the overall strength of the assist. You can set a low power threshold, for instance, to maximise your acceleration at traffic lights. Or, if you fancy a workout, cap the motor assistance for a day.

The GX has small tyres, similar to a Brompton. I liked the riding position, which is fairly upright thanks to the straight handlebars, and never once felt like I was on a child’s plaything. Gocycles aren’t meant for mountain trails but I appreciated the rear ‘Lockhock’ suspension whenever I bounced off a curb or over a large speed bump. The hydraulic disc brakes were sharp and the manual gear shifter, while basic, was reliable and responsive.

Nestled inside the frame is a 300Wh battery. Gocycle says the GX will carry you up to 40 miles on a single charge, depending on the terrain and how you’ve set up the assistive motor. It takes seven hours to recharge or four with an optional fast charger. I wasn’t able to test either claim, unfortunately, during my brief stint on the bike. The battery is removable but, notably, you can’t buy extra cells and keep a fresh one in your bag.

The bike is available to order now for £2,899/$3,299. It sits in-between the entry-level GS (£2,499) and flagship G3 (£3,499), both of which use the older and slower method of disassembly. The G3 is still the top-tier model, however, because it has predictive gear shifting, an adaptive daytime running light on the handlebars, and other ‘smart’ features not found on the mass-market GX. All three bikes, while expensive, are competitively priced with the electric Brompton (£2,595) and folding Hummingbird (£4,495). As always, you need to think of them as car replacements, rather than slightly more powerful bicycles, to justify the steep asking price.