First look: Cowboy proves that electric bikes with removable batteries can be beautiful

Cowboy, the most beautiful electric pedal-badisted bicycle with a removable battery that I've never seen. And it's not just my opinion either.

When shooting above, several Amsterdamers stopped to ask me questions about cycling. It's remarkable for a bike culture as diverse and sophisticated as Holland's. An owner of VanMoof S2 exceeding even stopped after having read it. "Do you want to exchange?" He asked with a sly smile. It is a eulogy on the part of someone who overlaps what could be the most attractive electrified urban commuters in the world.

Oh, that cowboy threshold has its faults, I'll get there in a moment. But the 2019 prototype with GPS anti-theft technology that I tested is a very good electric bike that does what VanMoofs and Amplers can not do: lets you leave your heavy bike outside while you're carrying the battery inside. And it does it for around € 1,000 less.

The bike has a bulge of the battery at the back of the seat tube. But his placement is less offensive than a slab on the rear rack or a big Bosch tumor stuck on the down tube. This is something that allows this electric bike to approach the clean lines of those who have built-in batteries.

Most likely, you have never heard of Cowboy, the $ 1,999 electric bike, or Cowboy. No surprise, the Belgian start-up, which currently employs 40 people full-time, has only been selling its electric bike in Belgium for a year. This now changes that the company has raised 10 million euros of funding to leave his home. As of Monday, the 2019 Cowboy will enter mbad production in Poland and will be shipped to Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and France in July, with other countries to come.

The Cowboy I tested is a recent prototype, probably 95% complete. Do not confuse these words with a criticism. Instead, let me help you decide if a branded electric bike you've never heard of is worthy of your interest and maybe even your hard-earned money.

Let's first see the elephant in the room: mudguards. The Cowboy does not have any and the company does not even offer them as accessories. Urban commuters, in particular, need dampers when it rains to avoid road splashing when they go to the office. This bike also lacks a crutch option when ordering, another suburb no-no. Of course, it can be equipped with commercially available components, and Cowboy will gladly recommend suitable accessories. But it's not the wait you expect when you deposit € 2,000 on a bike, is not it? Fortunately, these unfortunate omissions will soon be corrected.

Cowboy's first accessories, the mudguards, will come after the summer, after the delivery of his first 2019 electric bikes. "When we start selling mudguards, I want us to be proud of them and to be not just a piece of metal or plastic that completely ruins the design of your bike, "said cowboy co-founder Adrien Roose at my last meeting. the week. "We take another approach. More details about this soon. If you buy a bike now, you can order the fenders later, of course. Other accessories manufactured by Cowboy are also coming soon.

One of the main criticisms made with regard to the 2018 Cowboy was its dependence on your phone: the electric bike can only be activated with the Cowboy app. Frankly, it sucks because taking out your phone from a pocket or purse just to ride a bike is a pain in the bad, in my experience. But I ride my bike several times a day – the more casual runners might not be so annoyed. Fortunately, Cowboy says that it will also have to work around the problem, but not the first day.

The 2019 Cowboy electric bikes will eventually have the option of turning on their bike without the application, by inserting the removable battery into the bike. How is it going to work exactly has not been decided yet, but it is likely that the owner will have to insert the key that locks the battery in place, eject the battery slightly (it is not necessary to remove it completely), then put it back in place. It's difficult, compared to a button, but not as difficult as fishing your phone, unlocking it, launching the Cowboy app, then pressing the unlock button and storing your phone again. Roose told me that they did not want to add a physical button to the bike because everyone could activate it. They wanted to make sure that the link was tied to the owner, via a physical key or via the application.

Well, but I've used a lot of pedal-powered electric bikes with physical power buttons and this has never been a problem. Especially when they are properly locked and set to turn off automatically after a predetermined period of inactivity (Cowboy bikes already have an auto power off timer but I have not could not test it on my bike prototype.) Otherwise, they could still adopt VanMoof's ingenious button that forces the owner to enter a PIN to turn on the bike.

Riding the Cowboy is very similar to flying an Ampler Curt. Both bikes place the rider in the same sporting position. Both bikes offer a single belt-driven gear and a nearly silent 250W rear hub motor. Both are light for electric bikes, although the Cowboy is a little heavier at 16.1 kg or just under 36 pounds. However, the Cowboy provides significantly more power at the stop, helping you get started more easily when under load or on a slope.

In fact, I find that the Cowboy's torque sensor is perfectly suited to my aggressive driving style. Lightly press the pedal and the motor provides a light touch without feeling malnourished. Push harder and the bike responds with confidence. The pedal badistance has never felt too choppy or too weak, even on my test bike prototype.

I could not test everything though, because my bike was an almost final technical prototype. For example, the rear light, which is supposed to intensify when braking is not activated on my bike.

Some other observations:

• If your Cowboy is stolen, you can locate it with the Cowboy app via GPS (Cowboy suits all bikes with real GPS, not just a GSM triangulation). You can then narrow your search with a Bluetooth tag if you need to search for the bike in a building. Best of all, it's a free feature on any new Cowboy. I was able to follow my bike correctly during the tests because the report was postponed from 2018 Cowboys.
• I like the application, even if it is in beta (and therefore buggy). The Cowboy codes are their own and this is one of the best electric bike companion apps I've ever used, either on the bike or when I'm away from the bike. The dashboard is useful for real-time information such as navigation, energy consumption and range. It also traces the history of your course, which I like to see. The app can also be used to chat with a representative of the Cowboy support team of 10 people.
• The application is necessary to turn on and off the lights because there is no light sensor to make this function automatic.
• The bike calls home occasionally to report its health, and Cowboy tells me that it will proactively alert you if something goes wrong. As such, you should probably read the company's data protection policy if you plan to buy this electric bike.
• The Cowboy bikes will be usable in 500 bicycle shops, about 100 per country of launch at the end of June. These can be located in the application.
• Cowboy will bring his electric bike to your home for a test drive in 24 cities in Europe, which will increase to 50 by the end of the summer. According to Roose, 1 in 3 people who test a Cowboy buys one.
• As expected, the bike is difficult to pedal without power because of this simple report.
• Cowboy claims to use the latest Samsung 21700 lithium-ion battery cells instead of the traditional 18650 cells, which allows it to claim a range of 70 km from a compact 360Wh battery. I could not confirm it on my test bike prototype.
• The battery recharges in 3 hours, I can confirm it, using a slightly less ugly Cowboy charge brick.
• The bike can go from 25 km / h (European limit) to 30 km / h after having released a liability disclaimer acknowledging your hooliganism.
• The belt drive is clean and requires no maintenance.
• Hydraulic brakes stop the bike with confidence.
• The saddle is designed for speed and not for comfort over long distances.
• The battery indicator built into the top of the tube is useful but difficult to read in direct sunlight.
• Handlebar grips are exactly what you need.
• Available only in black.
• The bike is ballasted to the rear due to the location of the battery and the rear hub motor. It did not have a noticeable effect on my day-to-day driving but facilitated maneuvering … yeehaw!

That's what I remember after meeting Roose and living with his company's 2019 prototype for a week and a change: Cowboy is a name to watch in the booming electric bike industry.

I am a supporter of the Cowboy business model that favors slow growth compared to a global launch. While it is tempting to get rich in the short term by opening its doors to international sales, the young company has chosen to develop slowly to keep control of the quality of its bike and its after-sales experience. "Our success depends half on the product and half on the service," said Roose. This does not guarantee that this second generation bike will not suffer any problems. But if you buy one, you can rest badured knowing that a support network will be put in place to help you fix the problems.

If you are in Europe with € 1,990 to spend on an attractive e-bike with a removable battery, then Cowboy should be on your list. Just make sure you have some money in reserve for props.

Photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

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