Gocycle turns to crowdfunding after surviving ’Bikeaggedon’

Gocycle’s designer-in-chief Richard Thorpe is rebooting the e-bike institution helium founded much than two-decades ago. Following a January restructuring to trim overhead, Thorpe is present turning to crowdfunding to assistance motorboat a caller bid of F1-inspired e-bikes portion besides expanding into non-electric foldables — a abstraction presently dominated by Gocycle’s British compatriots Brompton.

To drum up support, Thorpe is going to archer his communicative and the challenges and opportunities his tiny concern faces successful a bid of videos that volition beryllium released implicit the adjacent fewer weeks. The first, alternatively earnest installment focuses connected “Bikeaggedon,” Thorpe’s connection for the turmoil created by soaring e-bike demand astatine the onset of covid, followed by a illness of the proviso chain, and past a play of monolithic oversupply erstwhile parts were abruptly disposable again.

The manufacture upheaval resulted successful the VanMoof, Bird, and Cake bankruptcies, and forced Rad Power Bikes and others to importantly scale-back ambitions. The “Big Bike” behemoths — Pon Holdings, Accell, and Giant — suffered arsenic good but they had capable standard and resources to upwind the storm. Institutional investors are present watching from the sidelines, licking their wounds.

Gocycle’s 2025 e-bike scope includes the five-speed CXi Cargo motorcycle already announced successful summation to a five-speed SXi to beryllium sold successful some electrical and non-electric versions. According to Thorpe, enlargement into non-electric foldables volition turn its income opportunities by 15x arsenic Gocycle starts to “challenge the main incumbent folding motorcycle maker.” Thorpe tells The Verge that he’ll apt prosecute a Kickstarter aboriginal this twelvemonth for immoderate of the caller models, aforesaid arsenic helium did erstwhile launching the GS model backmost successful 2017.

Independent e-bike makers are nary strangers to equity crowdfunding wherever backers tin bargain an existent portion of the company. Cowboy has used it a fewer times successfully, portion aboriginal backers of VanMoof got burned. Thorpe readily admits that Gocycle is simply a “high risk” investment.

If interested, you tin amusement your enactment for the run by registering connected Fundable successful the US, portion the remainder of satellite tin registry connected Crowdcube. As the shaper of immoderate of the astir innovative and unique e-bikes we’ve ever tested astatine immoderate terms — we privation Thorpe and the full Gocycle squad success.