The demand for urban personal transportation exploded during and after the global pandemic. E-bikes and other small and lightweight electric vehicles quickly rose to prominence as the most practical substitute for public transportation and, for some, the sole means of getting around. These days, a plethora of new bikes have emerged, and a lot of them are lighter, more high-tech, and more expensive than ever imagined. Case in point, the new Vello Titanium e-bike.
Valentin Vodev and Valerie Wolff founded the Austrian e-bike manufacturer Vello in 2013. Vello creates smart pedal-powered and smart e-bikes using commercially available parts, but they also have a proprietary folding frame and battery-integrated hub motor. The newest model, which was unveiled at the 2022 London Cycle Show earlier this year, is an electric bicycle that is so light that it might just be the lightest in the entire world, has an unlimited theoretical range, and has a unique design from every other electric bicycle that is currently on the market.
With a weight of just 9.9 kilos, the Vello Bike+ Titanium is lighter than many common non-electric bicycles, let alone the vast majority of electric bicycles in the market. If you are a city dweller who depends on personal mobility devices, you are aware that one challenge the e-bike industry is currently working to solve is the weight of the e-bike. It would be simple to carry one this light up the stairs, into the trunk of a car, and on the bus or metro. Additionally, the Titanium model is foldable, much like other Vello bikes, and the manufacturer promises that the entire procedure takes just eight seconds.
The e-bike's technological features allow for an extraordinarily elegant design that could very well pass for a conventional, pedal-powered bicycle, as the battery is incorporated into the rear-hub electric motor. All Vello bikes also include KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), which recharges the battery when braking or going downhill. According to Vello, the system can cover a respectable 31 miles on a single charge.
Vello motors incorporate slope sensors that change cadence to further enhance battery life and motor performance. Additionally, they may be equipped with either a Mountain Drive for ascents in rural areas or a Schlumpf Drive gear system Speed Drive for metropolitan environments. The latter would enable your bike to travel faster than the legal limit of 15 mph, while the former would easily climb slopes up to a 17 percent grade. The new titanium e-bike from Vello appears to be the ideal urban commuter on paper. Now, whether or not this is the case in the actual world is still up for debate, especially in light of the $4,586 USD price tag that it carries.
