By Jeff Glucker
Vintage Electric has taken its Scrambler model and applied a familiar blue and black paint scheme and a Cobra badge. That’s right, this is a Shelby-themed electric bike. It’s a limited-edition model from Santa Clara, California’s Vintage Electric and we want to see what it’s all about. Pricey? Sure, but it is limited and with the available Race Mode you can hit speeds up to 36 miles per hour.
Are you down with this retro-themed machine or do you like your e-bikes more modern?
[Disclaimer: Vintage Electric let us borrow the Shelby model for a week or so.]
I’m a fan, but not a customer. I like what Vintage is doing, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Future Batshitbox owns an electric bicycle. Present Batshitbox already has a $7K bicycle, so future Bats’ e-bike will be in the “whatever I sell the old Italian motorcycle for” price range. (Also tied to the “whatever extra I can justify as money not spent commuting on the giant Honda” index.)
Didn’t blue Shelbys have white stripes, though? (Can I name my The White Stripes cover band The Blue Shelbys?)
It’s just paint and a $250 sticker on the Roadster model, not really anything that follows any particular design theme related to CS or any of his creations. I guess that battery case is supposed to look like an air-cooled V twin motorcycle engine, but I keep seeing vintage tractor grille. https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/abandoned-rusty-vintage-tractor-old-field-43879680.jpg
It isn’t a bad looking bike, but last night’s dinner was inspired by Shelby more than this bike (I ate at Chili’s; look up the connection if you aren’t aware).
Maybe they could do a Mustang version–Iacocca gave birth to that car and later was an e-bike pioneer.
As far as e-bikes with an automotive tie-in are concerned, I’m content with my 2004 EV Global Motors Mini-E-Bike, which was manufactured bearing Lee Iacocca’s signature because, well, he founded the company.
https://www.villages-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Lee-Iacocca-E-Bike.jpg
I’m kind of wondering how that came into your possession. Were you searching for parts for the KV Mini 1, and Google responded “No results. Did you mean EV Mini-E”?
That’s… not a bad guess. I was searching for moped parts on Craigslist. That’s also how I ended up with my Itera bicycle, so the lesson is to search Craigslist for moped parts either regularly or never under any circumstances, depending on one’s life goals.