Kona Electric Ute, version 2.0
Posted: May 21, 2010 Filed under: 5. Alt Transportation | Tags: car replacement bicycle, cargo bike, electric ute, kona ute, longtail 5 Comments »
OK, time for a major reset from recent lessons learned.
I just bought the new Kona Electric Ute. It’s not yet in their catalog, but the Ute product manager – very helpful fellow named Mark – reached out after finding this blog and made the offer. The bikes arrived at their warehouse end of April and in my local bike shop today. He sent me this snapshot.
Going to swap out all my customizations from the 2010 model to the 2011 model and sell off the non-electric Ute, which is a great bike in its own right.
Finally, I can see a positive end to this journey to build a car replacement bicycle capable of hauling some serious loads up serious hills.
I’m very interested to hear how the Ute works for you! It has been a long time coming, but now it looks like we’re on the verge of several cargo bike/motor packages from multiple manufacturers. I just recently found out about the elMundo electric cargo bike from Yuba, which appears to be another interesting possibility.
I’ve been riding a Rans Hammer Truck with an after-market BionX motor for the last 6 months. You can see a video of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIea5W4U8Wc.
I also write a blog about my bike (and electric cargo bikes in general) at MyCargoBike.net.
Let’s hope these bikes work well and gain some traction in the market!
Don, that Hammer Truck + Bionx setup is awesome. Well done. I think the Bionx system is a much better choice for cargonista than adding an eZee system.
Love the video. I’ve been experimenting with rotating my dual Down Low Glow lights from facing downward to facing sideways on my tubes. Facing sideways loses the cool UFO ground light effect but makes you *very* visible from the side.
What are the prices of your latest upgrades? And I’d love to hear your thoughts on what items are worth the extra money and what items are optional. A full rundown of your suggestions and the related prices would be awesome.
The Electric Ute has an MSRP of $2300. The tweaks I’ll add to it are Ergon grips and SKS Chainguard. I’m bringing the entire back deck including the custom child seat we did over to the new bike, as well as all my lights (front, rear, and down low glows).
Seems expensive until you think about replacing a car with it. Then it seems crazy cheap.
What I need is one with a sidecar. That’s your next e-bike experiment, I hope.