Bird Reveals Its New Electric Bird Bike

The list of bike brands that doesn’t have an e-bike on its line up grows ever shorter, as Bird reveals its new e-bike.

Each bike is equipped with a high-powered electric motor capable of powering riders up hills with as much as a 20% grade while its 75-pound frame and step through design offers riders of all sizes a sturdy yet manoeuvrable vehicle for increased safety. Additionally, the shared Bird Bike has a front basket for storage, large pneumatic tires for a smooth ride, and IoT features such as self-automating onboard diagnostics, geospeed technology and multi-mode geolocation to ensure compliant operations in cities and towns of all sizes. 

Bird

Wait… a basket? A step through? What the what?

Yup, this is not the same Bird that brought you the Aeris or the Aether. This is the Bird that rents out electric scooters in the USA and now has plans to launch this e-bike Bird Bike as part of bike share schemes in cities in North America, Italy, Spain, Germany, Ireland and France.

In fact, we can reveal that Bird Cycleworks (that’s the official name of the one you know) is planning an eMTB, but that it won’t be released under the name Bird. To complicate the birds in bikes naming shenanigans further, there’s also ‘Birdy’, a name trademarked by Riese and Muller – a brand well established in the urban and utility bike market. So, we’re guessing no clever Bird-E name is an option for Bird Cycleworks.

Ben Pinnick from Bird (Cycleworks) explains a bit more:

‘We are launching eBikes in 2022 and they won’t be under the brand name Bird for 2 reasons; 1 the obvious messy TM situation regarding e-bikes and Bird, and secondly because we’re moving to a more indirect model for the eBikes where we’ll be working closely with retail partners in a manner similar to what we have with Bennachie Bike Bothy and Bird, as well as investing in options with our partners to allow customers to access the bikes without the high upfront costs of purchase or the maintenance overhead, something that we see as the two key drawbacks to current eBikes Both of those are a different business model from what we do at Bird, and so we want to develop a brand and marketing around that proposition.‘

A little bit of sniffing around the internet reveals that Bird Cycleworks has recently lodged a trademark application for ‘Ethic’. Will we see the EthiC (carbon) and the EthicAL (alloy) models? How about the Work Ethic – a utility bike? Should we get our coats, or is the cheque in the post?

It’s interesting to hear that Ben is looking at a different sales model for e-bikes – we look forward to seeing what he comes up with. Will it put a Bird e-MTB within your reach?

Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.

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