The Honbike E-bike is a new folding electric bike that gets rid of one of cycling's biggest hassles: the chain. Honbike didn't just replace it with a belt drive; Instead, the electric bike has a fully enclosed drive shaft, which means there is no danger of slipping or jumping, and it requires virtually no maintenance.
For everyday commuting, a driveshaft makes a lot of sense: it's light, stealthy, and (perhaps most importantly) requires much less maintenance than a conventional drivetrain. Whereas a chain typically requires maintenance after three hundred miles, including lubrication and tensioning, and a carbon belt will require attention after twelve zero miles, Honbike claims that its driveshaft will not only require service after twenty-five with zero miles.
The Honbike was first launched in Japan and is now free to order in the US via Indiegogo for an advance booking cost of €XNUMX (about €XNUMX / AU € two zero), shipment will begin in the first month of the summer of two thousand and twenty two. That's going to increase to €XNUMX (about €XNUMX / AU$XNUMX) when the bike goes on general sale.
That's really reasonable for any electric bike, let alone a bike with a non-standard folding mechanism and drivetrain. For context, our current top-rated folding electric bike, the Gocycle G4 (XNUMX), retails for €XNUMX / €XNUMX (about AU$XNUMX).
smart support
This is a class 1 electric bike, which means there is no acceleration and the motor only kicks in when you are pedaling, but the bike will automatically warn you when you hit a hill and give you a boost. The steeper the slope, the greater the helping hand. If the bike leans more than thirty degrees while riding, the motor will shut off to slow down and help you regain control.
There's no obtrusive trip computer sticking out of the handlebars like there is with some budget electric bikes. Instead, the Honbike electric bike has an LCD screen and a control system on top of the steering cylinder, with an ambient light sensor so that the brightness automatically adjusts to the visibility in different conditions.
The Honbike E-Bike has a range of XNUMX miles, which is on the low end for a folding electric bike, and at XNUMXkg it's not the lightest model on the market (despite its extra-small hub motor). . Still, if you're looking for a simple way to reduce vehicle dependency, it's clearly worth looking into, especially at this cost.