New Custom Electric Bike Partnership Hopes to Help the Environment

A new company has just been launched in Tempe Arizona, called Velocis Bikes, its mission is to help get more gas guzzling, pollution spewing cars off the road by getting people onto bikes. To make that happen, they've designed a process whereby they can make a custom electric bike for anyone that wants one, all at a reasonable price. And because the bikes don't go over twenty miles an hour, riders don't have to get a motorcycle license to ride them. UA News has just done a nice write-up on the two and the company they've created.

The whole idea came to co-owners Mark Bantock and Taylor Hedberg when they started looking at a way to start a ride-share program as part of a project called the UA McGuire Entrepreneurship Program while at Arizona State University last year. Upon graduation the set to work starting their own company, and thus far have found great success.

The goal, they say on their site, is not so much to get rich and famous, though that would be nice obviously, but to promote environmental sustainability. They figured one of the best ways to do that was to get people to start riding bikes back and forth to work, or any other place they travel to regularly. Unfortunately, they soon discovered that a good bike costs a lot more money than most are willing to lay down, plus, there always seemed to be a "fit" issue. People wanted a bike that felt good when they rode it. That's how they hit on the idea of building bikes individually for individual customers. Now, those that want an electric bike that not only fits them physically, but is put together in a way they want, can have one built for them. Some don't like the bar brace between the legs for example, or the height of the bike when they're on it. Other people want a trike, or even a version somewhere in between. It all comes down to what the customer wants.

The two have taken on bicycle design engineers of course, and are putting to good use the degrees that both received in management to run their new enterprise. Also helpful was the fact that they won the first place in the entrepreneur program at AU and a few other green Earth competitions as well, which helped them bring in start-up capital from a few local investors. After that, it was all about making the bikes, saving the planet, and making people happy.