Standing on our balcony, gulping down copious volumes of chai (as is tradition at our household), Rachit ventured a question that sprung forth from watching a school kid awkwardly pedal by on an “electric” bicycle —
Why do electric bicycles in India suck?
Neither Daksh nor I answered immediately. It struck us as nothing short of absurd that while an electric revolution was sweeping through Indian roads with scooters, bikes, autos, cars, and even trucks, the electric bicycles were still just… terrible.
Given the thousands of shared bikes and e-bikes we’d deployed over the last year at Tilt, we knew that Indians definitely wanted to get into cycling, both for mobility and fitness. This was not a demand-side problem.
The tale-telling trouble
What is an electric cycle? Why should you use one?
It’s puzzling to us that there is a perplexing lack of storytelling about the sheer magical feeling that envelops you when you experience the thrill of gliding on an electric cycle for the very first time. An experience that practically guarantees that you will buy one as long as the price is right.
Sitting on the light, lithe frame, propelled fluidly by a powerful motor, the experience of friction-free pedalling is only second to the joy of discovering cycling itself.
And once you’re hooked, your e-cycle rapidly becomes a replacement to most mobility and fitness routines. Every traffic-laden car ride to work, every scooter trip to the barber, every morning walk where you wished you could be doing something more fun while also burning calories.
E-cycles are fabulous because they bring mobility and fitness together like never before, in a novel, new form-factor. The e-cycle revolution hinges on being able to tell this magical story well.
The philosophy problem
The balcony conversation that ensued (with more chai being irreverently ingested) and the months of research that subsequently followed, was quite telling:
It seemed like Indian e-cycle manufacturers thought that they could just slap on a battery kit on the regular bicycles they were already making, and call it a day.
They were treating it as a mere checkbox exercise. But a battery doth not an e-cycle make.
This is the average e-cycle in India:
Run-of-the-mill motor, re-purposed battery, clunky battery pack, imported controller. Wires and buttons all over the place. Sinfully boring.
They don’t think of e-cycles as a whole new form-factor that solve a set of new, unique problems. They don’t think of e-cycles as deserving of fundamentally new first principles. We beg to differ.
The design dilemma, the quality quandary
All this added to our already growing discontent with retail players for not catching up to the quality of design and manufacturing which, for years, had been standard across the world.
We are intimately familiar with what drove much of the global quality leap — bike-share boom of the late 2010s. The Mobike / Jump era of shared bikes (despite their horrendous business models) ignited a fresh wave of innovation in bike and e-bike production. They introduced novel manufacturing principles that birthed sturdy, top-notch bikes boasting minimalist designs and an almost eternal lifespan.
Principles that we at Tilt then Indianized, and built on top of. Principles that the rest of India’s cycle retail ecosystem seems to have conveniently ignored.
An electric expedition
So, true to our mission to make cycling accessible and enjoyable for the millions of Indians, we embarked on a fun new endeavour: to craft an entirely new breed of electric cycle tailored for India.
Allow us to introduce you to the E1 — a creation that has us brimming with excitement. It’s beautiful, powerful, and ultra accessible. Oh, and you’ll never guess where we hid the battery.
A minimalist, ergonomic design, with hidden cables and premium parts. It hums like Morgan Freeman getting a deep tissue massage, and goes 70 km on a single charge.
It’s also fully tech-enabled: you’ll always know all your cycling stats, have the whole Tilt community at your fingertips, and never worry about losing your bike.
Pre-orders for batch 1 are now closed! You can expect delivery by Christmas Day 2023, as promised. 🤞
The waitlist for batch 2 open at the heavily discounted introductory price of Rs. 29,999 only.
For this batch, we’re accepting orders only from anyone who lives in Bangalore, Delhi, Pune or Mumbai, so it’s easy for us to handle assembly and servicing. Reach out to Rachit, Daksh or me (or click here to email our support) if you have any questions or feedback. We’re keen to learn and help. We appreciate all the support!
