With gyms closed or offering only limited hours, riding a bicycle has become a popular way to maintain cardio health for countless shelter-in-place households. Unfortunately, in our experience strapping on a helmet with a mask on while riding in our local hillside neighborhood has proven above our pedal payscale. We’ve since begun investigating electric bicycles, curious how the aid of an electric-assisted hub can kick in when the legs and lungs need help. Gogoro, a Taiwan-based micro-mobility manufacturer, caught our eye with the Eeyo 1, a sleek, ultralight carbon fiber bicycle that negates any compromise in form or function.
What’s immediately obvious is the Eeyo 1 ultralight e-bike silhouette takes its cues from a traditional flat bar city bike/hybrid rather than the awkward frankenstein frames often represented within the e-bike category.
The Eeyo’s minimalist and very subtly branded frame weighs a mere 26.4 pounds, thanks to a fully kevlar-reinforced carbon fiber frame and fork design, alongside the inclusion of a seat post, handlebars and rims made using carbon fiber. In comparison, an e-bike from the likes of the Aventon Pace 500 weighs in at 49 pounds, the affordable Rad Power Bikes RadMission 1 coming in at 48 pounds.
The Eeyo 1’s weight and design are its primary accolades as a city commuter bike, but the bike’s all-in-one digital drive with fully integrated motor, battery, sensor and smart connectivity housed within a compact self-contained rear hub that will appease bike riders the most significantly during regular use, an assistive feature good for a range of 40 – 55 miles and with a top speed of 19mph.
The Eeyo’s Gates Carbon Belt Drive based Smartwheel Intelligent Power Assist system is also engineered to detect a rider’s effort and increase supplemental pedal power when needed. And of course, par for the course, there’s an Eeyo app optimized to keep tabs on distance and effort.
The Eeyo is available in two flavors, the Eero 1s ($4599), that includes a fully carbon frame, fork, seat post, handlebars and rims, weighing 26.4 pounds or the slightly more affordable Eeyo 1($3899) features a carbon frame and fork with alloy seat post, handlebars and rims, and weighing just a little over a pound more at 27.5pounds.
