B8 N THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESSFRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2020
AUTOMOBILESThe residents of Garberville, Calif.,
didn’t know what to make of 15-year-old
Mike Radenbaugh and the odd motor-
ized bikes he was concocting in his
family’s garage.
It was 2005, the home-brew era for
electric vehicles, and there he was, a
high school freshman zooming by at up
to 35 miles an hour, not even pedaling.
He seemed to defy gravity as he as-
cended the region’s steep winding
roads lined with 300-foot redwoods.
As the captain of the school’s moun-
tain-bike racing team, he had collected
a heap of spare frames and parts. Mr.
Radenbaugh started tricking them out
with old motorcycle-starter batteries,
moped motors mail-ordered from Japan
and crude powertrains held together
with bungee cords, pipe clamps and
thick layers of electrical tape. “I needed
to find a solution where I had freedom
as a young person without a lot of dol-
lars,” he said.
Before long, he was making his 16-
mile school commute on his electric
Frankenbike.
Wires fried and batteries died. But
after six months of experimentation,
Mr. Radenbaugh had a semi-reliable
electric bike. “It got better and better.
And it got faster,” he said. “All of a
sudden, I’d be riding into town passing
slow cars. I quickly became known as
the kooky e-bike guy in my little home-
town.”
By his junior year, he’d founded Rad
Power Bikes. Now based in Seattle, his
company approached $100 million in
sales in 2019. It has sold over 100,000
electric bikes. Numbers aren’t well
reported for this young industry, but
Rad Power Bikes is widely considered
the largest e-bike seller in the United
States.
When he was starting out in Hum-
boldt County — home to back-to-the-
landers and backwoods pot farmers —
Mr. Radenbaugh fielded requests.
“They wanted high handlebars, com-
fortable seats, powerful motors and
long range,” he said. In other words, a
blend of a bicycle, moped, scooter and
motorcycle. This was in contrast to the
few light and low-powered European
and Japanese e-bikes available a dec-
ade and a half ago.
Sixteen years later, Rad Power Bikes
is sticking to its formula: comfort,
power and simplicity.
And that was before a pandemic sent
the country searching for a socially
distanced way to get around. In spring
2020, Rad’s sales tripled compared with
the year before. Many models now have
a three-month wait for delivery. What
had been a niche product for Hum-
boldt’s aging hippies heading to Burn-
ing Man has become a mainstream
option for Everyman.
Guidehouse Insights, a market re-
search firm, conservatively forecasts
that electric bike sales in the United
States will grow to nearly a million by
2023, up from 650,000 this year. “For
years we’ve been saying that the mar-ket needs a decent, good-quality, rela-
tively high-performing e-bike for $1,000
to $1,500. That’s the sweet spot,” said
Ryan Citron, a senior research analyst
at Guidehouse Insights. “Rad Power
Bikes hit that mark.”
Mr. Citron cautions that Rad, which
sells direct to consumers, might lose
customers who want to take a test ride.
Brick-and-mortar stores also offer
e-bikes from the likes of Specialized,
Trek and Giant — although commonly
selling for $2,500 to $5,000. Deluxemodels climb to $15,000 and higher.
Regardless, an accessible joy ride is a
welcome pandemic diversion. For the
past couple of months, I ditched my car
and used a Rad Power Bike as my
primary mode of transportation.
The company sells 11 models: city,
cargo, folding and all-terrain options. I
went with the $1,199 RadRunner, one of
the company’s top sellers. Like most
Rad Power Bikes, it’s equipped with a
750-watt motor; that’s the legal limit for
a Class 2 bicycle and provides electric
assist up to 20 miles an hour. No permit
required.
Its battery pack, about the size of a
loaf of bread, is 48 volts and 672 watt-
hours. It takes about six hours to fully
charge from a household outlet. On a
mostly flat surface, and with light ped-
aling, the pack provides 30 to 40 miles
of range.
On my first few trips, I wasn’t so
much as riding as zooming. The road
manners and the ability to cut through
back alleyways are like any other bicy-
cle — except my legs had reserves of
backup power. Rad equips all its e-bikes
with a half-twist hand throttle. It’s
irresistible to launch with the flick of
the wrist. There’s always a chance to
pedal, but it’s not obligatory. It took
some pedaling to propel the 65-pound
bike up the steepest Berkeley hills. But
it’s not onerous.
“Ninety-nine percent of your riding isblissfully electric. It’s an exciting
amount of power,” Mr. Radenbaugh
said. For the other 1 percent, he says,
“you can overcome it with pedaling or
by planning your approach to a hill.”
What’s most impressive about the
RadRunner is its use of smart design,
wringing value from clever choices.
The RadRunner has extra-fat tires to
absorb bumps rather than an expensive
front suspension. The rear hub motor is
simpler and more cost-effective than
what is known as a pedal-assist mid-
drive. The LED controller mounted on
the handlebars is basic, but it’s user-
friendly and gets the job done. The
detachable battery can be brought
inside to charge.
Squeeze the hand brakes to engage
the 180-millimeter Tektro disc brakes,
cutting off the motor and illuminating a
rear red brake light. The chunky alu-
minum frame comes in two colors,
black or forest green, and precisely one
size, with an adjustable seat post mak-
ing it adaptable to riders of nearly all
heights.
“It’s the Volkswagen Beetle of e-
bikes,” Mr. Radenbaugh said. “When we
thought up the RadRunner, it was with
that sense in mind. What’s the best-
selling car in history? What’s the e-bike
to do it all?”
I’ve also been test-riding the Rad-
Wagon 4, the company’s latest release.
The Runner’s 67-inch length isstretched nearly a foot to 78.7 inches on
the RadWagon. This is an e-bike for
grown-ups with family responsibilities.
It extends the cargo-style frame to
accommodate a long list of accessories:
running boards, sturdy metal baskets of
various sizes, sizable insulated delivery
bags and a Thule child seat. Adding
cushions and handgrips for passengers
now allows my wife to hop on back for
trips to visit friends. I also added a
large basket so we can load up on
produce at the farmers’ market. The
company’s easy universal accessory
and mounting system would make Ikea
jealous.
The RadWagon has seven gears. The
low gears, when combined with a high
level of electric power, allow the rela-
tively heavy cargo bike to climb harsh
inclines with little effort. But the real
fun comes when setting the electric
motor to 5, its highest setting, thumb-
ing the shifter to the top gear and ped-
aling hard.
Jeff Loucks, executive director of
Deloitte’s Center for Technology, Media
and Telecommunications, believes
there will be 130 million e-bikes sold
globally between 2020 and 2023. “They
make so much sense, especially in a
Covid world,” he said. However, he
added that the United States still needs
to catch up to cities in Europe and Asia
with a biking culture and proper lanes
to make cyclists feel safe. Cities have
accelerated that process because of the
pandemic. “People are turning to cy-
cling for transportation, exercise and
just to keep sane during this time,” Mr.
Loucks said.
Mr. Radenbaugh, now 30, manages a
staff of 200 people. He described the
current pace of change — and the myri-
ad business challenges it poses — as
“hyper-growth.” It’s not easy steering a
transportation revolution. He said,
“Every night, I feel like my brain was
beat to pieces.”
Fortunately, Mr. Radenbaugh has a
way to clear his head. Every day, rain
or shine, he rides his e-bikes to com-
mute, shop or haul things around. He
often uses prototype models to dream
up new features and uses. “One of my
favorite things to do is e-bike camping,”
he said. He has a favorite campground
about 30 miles east of Seattle, within
reach of the RadWagon’s battery range.
That’s where he can forget about the
worries of the world, glide through
country roads and relive the thrill of
riding an e-bike for the first time.The Teenage Tinkerer Behind an E-Bike Revolution
By BRADLEY BERMANMaking a 16-mile school
commute on an electric
Frankenbike.
Rad Power Bikes, founded by Mike Radenbaugh, right, has sold over 100,000 electric bikes and, in 2019, approached $100 million in sales.
The $1,199 RadRunner, left, one of the company’s top sellers, has extra-fat tires to absorb bumps rather than an expensive front suspension.PHOTOGRAPHS BY MERON TEKIE MENGHISTAB FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESMetal. Rubber. Leather. When it comes
to motorcycles, the materials used to
make them are as elemental as the
experience of riding them.
Pineapples, flax seed and algae?
They sound more like the ingredients
for a vegan salad than a two-wheeler,
but a new Brooklyn start-up hopes to
change that.
It’s called Tarform. What Tesla has
done to bring zero-emissions trans-
portation into the mainstream, Tarform
hopes to do for zero waste, building
electric motorcycles that are recyclable
and made from natural materials that
can biodegrade.
“The idea was to create the motor-
cycle of tomorrow,” said Taras
Kravtchouk, Tarform’s founder and a
New Yorker by way of Stockholm. If
you were to build a bike with sustain-
ability in mind, he said, “What princi-
ples would it be? Electric, but also with
the least harm to our environment.”
Instead of using polyvinyl chloride,
Tarform is crafting its vegan leather
seats from pineapple, mango, corn or
other naturally derived fibers. Flax
seed replaces the plastic on its side
panels. And the pigments coloring the
bodywork are derived from natural
algae rather than toxic paints. Its alu-
minum frame is, of course, recyclable.
And its battery pack is swappable as
technology improves.
Available later this year as a custom-
izable Founder Edition model that
starts at $42,000, the Tarform Luna will
go into production next year with a
$24,000 version. The company already
has 1,500 orders, 54 of which are for the
handmade Founder Editions that will
be built in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
“Today, we design things for obsoles-
cence,” Mr. Kravtchouk said. “In the
’60s, we used honest materials. That’s
why vintage bikes from that era still
last if you take care of them.”
Classic, timeless elegance also helps.
Beauty is its own form of sustainability;
no one wants to throw away something
gorgeous.
It was a chance encounter with a
fetching 1972 Triumph Bonneville that
inspired Mr. Kravtchouk to start Tar-
form and build its retro-futuristic cafe
racer. He was running a design agency
by day and wrenching his own bikes at
night when one of his clients — the
motorcycle clothing company Belstaff
— asked him to customize a bike for its
Los Angeles store. That bike led to
other customs for Belstaff shops glob-
ally and the realization for Mr.
Kravtchouk that building individual
motorcycles was tedious.
“I was covered in oil, and I loved it,
but I thought, ‘Surely this is a dying
world,’ ” he said. “Looking at what Tesla
did in the car industry, it completely
changed people’s perception about
what is automotive and what is clean
technology.”
He started researching electric
motorcycles with the idea of building a
brand instead of one-offs. He hired an
engineer, solicited investors and, by
October 2018, had a working prototype.
“For a very small amount of money,
they had built an incredibly beautiful
bike with a unique electric riding expe-
rience,” said Karl Alomar, a partner
with M13, a venture capital firm.
M13, which has invested in SpaceX,
Lyft, Bird and other mobility tech start-ups, gave Tarform $300,000 last year
after Mr. Alomar saw the prototype in
person and the reaction it was getting
online.
“They were nonriders — young,
affluent people inspired by the technol-
ogy and design aspect who had the free
cash flow to be able to buy these luxury
items,” Mr. Alomar said. “It led us to
start believing there’s an opportunity to
build a really great luxury brand ori-
ented around environmentally con-
scious thinking and the ability to create
real premium beauty.”
Many electric motorcycle brands are
pursuing the same audience, including
Harley-Davidson, which introduced itsfirst electric motorcycle, the LiveWire,
in 2019, and Zero Motorcycles, the
12-year-old California company that has
seen interest in its electric motorbikes
double over the past year.
“We feel very strongly about the
growth opportunity with electric motor-
cycles,” said Andrew Leisner, senior
vice president of the Bonnier Motor-
cycle Group. The company publishes
Cycle World and Motorcyclist maga-
zines and introduced the Cycle Volta
website for electric two-wheelers last
year.
“The traditional baby boomer motor-
cyclist doesn’t think much at all about
motorcycles burning gas and rubber, or
about sustainability or the organic
nature of the components that bike is
coming with. But that’s very important
to Gen Y and even more so to Gen Z,”
Mr. Leisner said. “Sustainability is
going to be a huge priority for the gen-
eration that’s really entering the work
force right now.”
That generation is already transform-
ing the motorcycle industry, as baby
boomers age out of the sport, replaced
by younger riders and more women.
Almost 70 percent of millennial riders
are interested in electric motorcycles,
according to the 2018 Motorcycle Indus-try Council ownership survey. Women,
who account for 20 percent of motor-
cycle riders, make up 40 percent of
electric motorcycle owners.
Like electric cars, battery-powered
motorbikes make up about 1 percent of
the national market for new vehicles,
but the segment is expected to grow as
battery prices come down and reduce
their overall price. They currently cost
about 50 percent more than their gas-
powered counterparts but are expected
to reach price parity by 2025.
Brammo, Alta Motors, Mission
Motorcycles. The last 12 years have
been littered with failed electric motor-
cycle start-ups, but Mr. Kravtchouk is
betting that a new generation of motor-
cycle buyers will choose sustainability
over convenience.
Modular design plays a part. Like
many electric motorcycles, the Tarform
is limited by current battery technol-
ogy. For now, the Tarform can travel
about 120 miles per charge.
“If there’s a new battery pack that
comes out in three years with much
higher energy density, you can simply
swap the battery and suddenly you get
50 to 100 percent more range,” Mr.
Kravtchouk said. “That makes a lot
more sense than constantly pushing
new models and pushing people to get
rid of something that’s perfectly us-
able.”
The earth, after all, has only so much
to give.
“There’s a lot of interest in renewabil-
ity right now because we have a finite
amount of resources,” said Martin
Thuo, an assistant professor of ma-
terials science and engineering at Iowa
State University.
Engineering the old way — mining
resources, grinding them up, melting
them down and beating them into
shape — is not the answer. “It’s very
expensive, energy intensive and it’s not
sustainable,” Mr. Thuo said. “The min-
erals we use right now, nature has
taken thousands of years to put them
together. We don’t have that time.”
Plant-derived products like Tarform
is using, Mr. Thuo said, are part of a
push toward materials that can be
remade or resupplied more quickly,
with far less damage to the planet.
“Science and technology are driven
by the demands of society,” he said.
“With seven billion people in the world
and growing, we don’t have a choice.”
Mr. Kravtchouk is sourcing many of
his bio-based motorcycle parts from
fellow start-ups in far corners of the
world in the belief that it’s a company’s
responsibility to be as sustainable as
possible.
“People are tired of constantly being
told to buy, to recycle, to be green. In
the end, they don’t know what to do,” he
said. “The thing that is ultimately the
most sustainable is the one you don’t
throw away.”Where Recycling Meets Motorcycling
Brooklyn-based Tarform creates its retro-futuristic cafe racer with pineapples, flax seed and algae.
Wheels
By SUSAN CARPENTER
PHOTOGRAPHS BY BEN SKLAR FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESTaras Kravtchouk, above, founder of the
motorcycle manufacturer Tarform, riding in
the Brooklyn Navy Yard. From far left, a
charging port is underneath the rear
taillight and the seat is made of vegan
“leather,” not polyvinyl chloride.