Nat King Cole may have wooed Daisy with a tandem ride in On a Bicycle Built for Two, but I wonder if he would have won her over quite as easily if he had propositioned her with this funny little three-seater electric bike.
It may be odd-looking, but I love the weird combination of utility and style that makes this thing so awesome. That’s why it’s perfect for this week’s edition of the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week series!
There’s so much to break down here, folks.
This isn’t just any electric bicycle. This is an e-bike for the whole family.
It may look like a three-seater to the untrained eye, but that simply reveals your lack of creativity. With Dad working the bars and Mom on back, Junior can sit comfortably in the jump seat up front.
Then add Junior’s younger sibling sitting on Dad’s lap and the family’s chihuahua in the bird cage underneath, and I count five souls on this pleasure cruiser!
But this two-wheeled minivan isn’t just a full family vehicle, it’s also packed with a surprising number of features.
First of all, we’ve got real foot rests for all three seating positions. Spring-loaded pegs pop out for the main rider, the rear seat gets foot platforms on either side of the rear wheel, and the front jump seat occupant gets the entire step-through deck area to rest those little piggies.
Next, you might not have noticed, but this is actually a full-suspension e-bike. Not only did they outfit this high-performance hot rod with a front suspension fork, but there’s even a rear swingarm with dual coilover shocks. Hello comfort city, here we come!
And in case you’re ready to head to the comments section and whine at me about how this is a scooter, not a bike, take a closer gander, my pedantic friend. Those funny little pedals on 2-inch cranks might only offer a top speed of 3-4 mph under pedal power but they at least qualify this as a functional electric bicycle!
In actuality you’ll never really pedal something like this, though it might make a nice backup if you ever ran out of battery.
For storage, they include a cute bag up front, and there’s even that bird cage area under the seats. And I know what you’re thinking:
Be real, Micah, that’s surely not actually a bird cage. No one would put an animal in there. It’s probably just a cargo box.
No! Just look at the features list below! It’s actually a pet storage basket!
The list of features keeps going, too! We’ve got lights! We’ve got fenders! We’ve got disc brakes! We’ve got a folding stem. We’ve got a motor lock! We’ve got a horn and turn signals! There’s even a built-in onboard charger on this little wonder bike. Why don’t $3,000 e-bikes in the West have half of these features? I bought a high-dollar e-bike last year, and there’s literally no pet storage on the entire thing – I kid you not!
Plus you even get a number of colors to choose from, which is also more than I can say for most e-bikes in the west. There’s white, black, red, and pink. I’d love a bright blue or yellow, but for $745 I can’t complain.
Oh yeah, and there’s the kicker – this thing is dirt cheap. $745 gets you the small battery version (384 Wh), though the 48V system still means there’s decent power. They claim a 400W power rating, but I’d guess it’s a bit higher. Most of these little bikes have 12A controllers, meaning this bike likely has closer to 600W of power.
For a bit more cash you can upgrade to a bigger battery of 528, 720, or 960 Wh.
That’s not bad. And these are lithium-ion batteries, mind you. Not some gutter trash lead acid battery. What are we, animals?!
And the cherry on top is that the seller offers free shipping!
I don’t know what kind of quality construction this family bike offers, but they claim a load rating of 250 kg (550 lb), or the equivalent of three pygmy circus elephants if I’m reading their infographic correctly:
This isn’t just a family vehicle, though.
Once the kids are in bed, this becomes a date-night motorcycle for you and your sweetie.
Just look at those star-crossed lovers down there!
Alright, alright. So here’s the part of each Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week where I tell you not to be silly and not to buy this week’s vehicle – that this is all for laughs.
But here’s the thing, folks. I actually bought one.
While researching it for this week’s article, I just thought it was too funny and too weird and too cheap to pass up. So I shelled out $844 for the upgraded 48V 15Ah and 720Wh battery option, and now I have a candy apple red one (presumably) headed my way (sometime) by October 15.
I still say that you shouldn’t risk your money, but at least this one is through AliExpress, which offers buyer protection by holding the payment in escrow until you confirm that you received the goods and they fit the description.
I’ve bought literally hundreds of things on AliExpress before, though not usually items that are this large. A couple of smaller things I bought weren’t up to snuff, and the platform gave me my money back, so I’m not too terribly worried about risking it this time, though this is definitely still a risk.
If I were you, I’d sit pretty and just wait to see if mine shows up. As something of a professional e-bike rider, this is a hazard that comes with the job.
While we wait to see if I just flushed $800 down the toilet, consider checking out some of my other fun Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week finds, such as a $2,500 electric house on wheels, a $1,850 one-wheeled electric motorcycle, or a $2,000 stretch limousine electric trike.
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