Just Sayin' No
Karmic Road Prototype (2016) — #GONE
Another phrase that Parents know well is, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should.” Maybe you have perfectly obedient children and you’ve never had to say that. I’m glad my kids push the limits enough for us to use that line more than a few times. What does this have to do with bikes though?
Project Femke was meant to be an experiment from day one. I knew that the market for an eRoad bike was non-existent, not just here in America, but around the globe (at that time). You could imagine the Venn diagram of Roadies and eBikers as two distinct circles, very far apart. I also have this fundamental belief that given enough time, all bikes will be electric. Sounds crazy, but that was the premise upon which Karmic was started. We had a unique perspective on batteries and the applications for the tech was as boundless as the opportunities. A lot of Founders never ask for permission, and technologists don’t think about their repercussions. I quite enjoyed the first episode of the Should It Exist pod. So we stopped. We never passed Go.
The bike itself was amazing! I still say that it was the closest I have ever felt to being a professional cyclist. Having been lucky enough to ride with more than a few of them, the reality is that my best analog effort was barely at their recovery-ride pace. In fact, I’ve had Ted King provide “assistance watts” in the form of a firm hand on my lower back to bridge back to the group. I joked that I should have ridden my eBike instead of my Evo. The other anecdote is from a test ride up our local reference climb. A recreational cyclist can manage about 30 minutes up Old La Honda. My average time is about 25–26 minutes on a carbon road bike. The KOM belongs to Phil Gaimon (of course!) in a time of 13:26! — breaking the long standing 14 minute barrier. He’s a ‘retired’ pro climbing specialist, so I don’t feel so bad taking twice as long. But I’ve gone up it once on Femke and recorded a time around the 15 minute mark. I wasn’t even using full boost! I imagine I could get under 14 minutes next time up*.
If I was any good at Marketing, I would say something pithy like “Electrons are Everything” and sell a ton of these. But we don’t. The tech is there, but the market was not. And even today, when there are dozens of eRoad bikes available, we still won’t. It would take much longer for me to explain why.
*I’ve never taken it up the climb a second time. Just because I can…
