Why the Karmic Kyoto has to be made.
it’s not about the bike
I was really nervous about launching our second Kickstarter campaign for the new Karmic Kyoto. We designed it as a women’s bike from the outset, but right away we started getting push-back.
Why do you want to make a women’s ebike? It won’t sell. They won’t buy it.
Why do you want to use such expensive components? They don’t need it.
Use cheaper parts, give it less range, don’t waste time designing the details.
They won’t notice.
And on, and on, and on. I just kept my head down and pushed forward. The Kyoto was going to be made the Karmic Way. It had to be made in this way. No compromises, no watered-down version of our first model, the Koben. Kyoto had to be 10x better just to have a chance of equaling the success of our first Kickstarter. Because that’s the world that women face every day.
I was nervous that women would look at the Kyoto and dislike it. Not just the color palette or the parts selection, but dislike what we did at the core of the project. But my friends (thank you!) convinced me that it would be well received by women. And it was. But oh boy, the #DudeManBros of the Internet would not let us attempt something as threatening as making a women’s ebike! What would women want next? The right to vote!?!
The Kyoto has to be made. We can’t let the DMBs continue to rule our world and shape our reality. This isn’t just about a new women’s bike. It is about creating a movement. #BeKarmic is about getting more people to ride, and the Kyoto is specifically about getting more women to ride. Gloria Steinem was right about men and fishes, but women do benefit from having a bike designed specifically for them. Any guy who claims otherwise is simply being ignorant. Or worse, he’s actively reinforcing the bike industry’s male bias.
Cycling is a sport heavily geared for men. And it shouldn’t be. I hope this is just an American oddity, because in the rest of the world, women ride bikes as much as men. Only here in the States do we have this gender disparity. And it starts with the bike industry. We are new to the industry, but we aren’t just going to play along. So it is on us to question the way things have always been done, and examine the root cause of this disparity. We will change the bike industry.
These criticisms of the Kyoto project isn’t outright sexism. It’s more subtle. It’s sexism covered in a veneer of politically correct language, because the DMBs want to continue to exert their power, but they don’t want to be called out on it. Saying that we are being sexist because we make a women’s ebike is a sexist statement in itself. “Why can’t men ride this!” they shout at us. Well that’s a stupid thing to say. It is a bike, of course men can ride it too. I ride the Kyoto more than my Koben these days. But these poor men who feel so maligned have approximately 1000 ebikes to choose from.
Women get to select from three models. Four if we hit our Kickstarter goal.
Our campaign is off to a great start, and I’m sure the haters will continue to question us every step of the way. But their opinion doesn’t matter. Their dissenting voice is but an annoying little squeak compared to the voices of our supporters and the strong voices of the future generations of women who ride strong, who ride proud. Don’t just ride a bike. Be Karmic.
Cheers,
Hong
