A few months ago, I suggested that builders should start taking advantage of the tools and materials we have at our disposal today and start building prototypes instead of customs, create something that solves a problem or answers a need and could be manufactured in larger numbers if it was successful. I just ran across the URB-E folding scooter and it seems to do exactly that. Once you look at it, you’ll realize the simplicity of the final product, but you’ll also see how much innovative design and engineering is involved.
This is not a sport bike, it’s not a cruiser and it doesn’t try to be, it’s basic, but highly practical transportation with a very specific use. Outside of the urban environment its utility rapidly disappears, but if you ride a train or bus to work, this covers the last mile after you get off at your stop and does it with ease. If you’re in the city and just need a short ride to work or the store, this will do it.
Fully designed and built in California, URB-E is the leader in portable transportation. It’s quality is engineered by our CTO, Sven Etzelsberger, former lead engineer at Porsche, Saleen, and Fisker Automotive. URB-E’s patented design enables it to fold conveniently to fit in a boat, plane, car trunk, bus, train, closet, coat check, office–literally anywhere you want to put it! URB-E goes 20 miles on a single charge and has a max speed of 15mph, making it legal to ride anywhere a bicycle is allowed.
There are no swoopy curves, no fairings, no huge engine, it’s square aluminum tubes and carbon fiber. This could have literally been built in a garage shop, but I’ll bet there aren’t many builders even thinking along these lines. No custom builder or rider would be caught dead on a scooter like this, it’s easier to make fun of it and laugh, but after a few minutes, even those builders might appreciate how much this little scooter does with so little material, how light it is, how practical and they might be struck by the fact that it solves the problem of the last mile, quickly carrying the rider with little fuss and then folding up to be out of the way until it’s time to go.
This is what I mean by looking at a problem and solving it instead of coming up with another design for a custom motorcycle that, in the end, doesn’t do anything different than the thousands of customs already out there. If you don’t need this, you won’t want it, but if you have the problem this tries to solve, you might see it in an entirely different light.
This isn’t something I need because I don’t live in a big city, but I really like it, the thought that went into it, the design and engineering, it’s pretty slick.
They’re selling the URB-E on Amazon, for $1699. Nope, not everyone will want one or need one, but if you’re an urban dweller, this might be just the ticket.
Michael Dickson says
Now this is just lazy. Walk that last few blocks and stay healthier.
Paul Crowe says
Of course, this goes 15 mph vs an average walking speed of 3 mph, so it’s 5 times faster and can cover much greater distance in a given time.
Also,this could work very well for a person with a bad knee or hip or other difficulty walking. If you’re on a large college or business campus and you have to often go from building to building, this could make it much quicker and easier, especially if you had things to carry that would fit into a basket on this scooter.
Or pack it in your camper or RV and have convenient transportation available. Even use it as emergency transportation in the event of a breakdown.
A few minutes thought will suggest even more uses.
Shant says
This isn’t a cooler “hoverboard”. It’s not meant for you to be lazy. It’s meant for you to have an easier, quicker, greener transport to work, school, or the store.
Yeti2bikes says
Move to Phoenix and that one mile walk make you need a shower. People in an office don’t want to sit next to someone that smells like they’ve just been to the gym.
blackbird says
It wouldn’t have killed them to include the weight (35Lbs.) in their slick video.
When is the first race scheduled?
Paul Crowe says
That is one of the coolest features and when you said that, I reread the article and saw I forgot to mention it. Yes, it weighs only 35 pounds! Toss it in the trunk, carry it up the stairs, when it weighs so little it opens up even more possibilities.
Bob Lofgren says
Really? C’mon, there are a multitude of folding bikes that weigh less than 35 lbs, and, they aren’t limited to a one mile range because they have pedals! Solves a problem? Causes more than a few, such as the reality of hustling that dead weight on a bus or tram that is crammed to capacity during that last mile ride home during rush hour. Or lugging the frikker behind you (your claiming usefulness to the impaired?) and relying on this as a problem solution to effort ot fatique? Laughable. How about lugging little useless wheels up and down stairs or from the office to the bus/subway because the battery power sure as slick won’t go the distance from office to bus and bus to home unless you live so ridiculously close to work that it becomes another moot point. Now find a place in your urban/metro work cubicle to store and charge the little POS or do you expect your employer to provide indoor parking and charging for your toy? Innovative, perhaps, A justification for your oracle status touting the knowledge and use of modern software or prototyping? No, no, noooo.
Paul Crowe says
“one mile range”? “Last mile” is a figure of speech referring to the last separate and distinct portion of a trip, not a literal distance. You know that, … right? The range of this scooter is 20 miles, as noted in the article.
Enjoy your walk, Bob.
Paul Crowe says
Sven Etzelsberger, former lead engineer at Porsche, Saleen, and Fisker Automotive, as noted above in the article, is the CTO of the team that built the URB-E. He dropped me a line to mention a previous build of his from a few years ago called the “Bob Racer,” shown below:
It’s a cafe racer/bobber based on a KTM 690 Supermoto, a pretty cool build all on its own, but this underscores even more the idea I want to focus on that builders of all of the usual customs shouldn’t limit themselves to building what’s been done before. Taking the same building skills, but expanding them and using the tools, materials and techniques available today, you can build something totally different, like the URB-E without somehow losing your custom builder credibility.
Wave says
I’m really not sure what your argument is here Paul.
The URB-E is a nice piece of design, but it isn’t intrinsically “better” or more relevant to society than a custom motorcycle. A bicycle or a normal electric scooter will do the same job just as well, although maybe without such a slick folding mechanism.
Designing consumer products is a job, not a hobby. I would say that most custom motorcycle builders don’t aspire to be industrial designers.
Paul Crowe says
Your comment indicates, again, how I fell short in my explanation of the point, both in my original article and here, and as I began to write a reply, it became apparent I would need to restate and refine what I mean in a much clearer way, taking many more words than would fit here, so, an article is on the way.
Wave says
To be honest, I think you’ve explained your point quite clearly, but the majority of readers disagree with you. I’ll be interested to read the article though.
Paul Crowe says
First you say you don’t understand my argument, then you say I’ve explained it quite clearly.
Then you say the majority of readers disagree with me, but I think what you really mean is you disagree with me.
In either case, I don’t think there’s much more I can say.
Wave says
Oh, and by the way, if I understand your argument correctly, you are trying to say that people should be enthusiasts of the process of creating something, rather than the end product.
Based on my observations, there are some people who are ‘process’ enthusiasts, and others who are ‘product’ enthusiasts.
If you’ve ever watched YouTube videos from guys who have 200 lathe machining videos, or metal casting videos, then they are the ‘process’ enthusiasts. They don’t really mind whether they’re casting a piston or a doorknob, they love the work in creating the finished product.
Then you have the ‘product’ enthusiasts. One guy might love Willys Jeeps and refuse to work on anything else, because he knows everything about Jeeps and that’s all he wants to drive. He might rebuild an engine, he might even fabricate his own winch bar or recovery points, but it’s not because he enjoys doing the process.
There is nothing wrong with being a ‘product’ enthusiast. If you love Moto-Guzzis and are not interested in electric scooters, that’s fine! It’s your hobby, so you can focus on your favourite things and ignore everything else.
Paul Crowe says
You make it sound like process vs product is some sort of competition, I don’t think so, but they are different.
If you say I’m a process guy, you’re right, I’m big on “doers” and people who make things happen and what they do and how they do it is extremely interesting to me. It makes no difference whether the work at hand is on Harleys or Hondas or anything else, I like them all.
You seem to say I believe it’s wrong to focus on a particular brand or type of product, but there you’re absolutely wrong. If you prefer one over another, great! Focus often leads to expertise.
In my comment above I said builders “shouldn’t limit themselves,” which is another way of saying they should learn new skills and expand in new directions. So, yes, I’m guilty of encouraging them to learn and try new things, which is what The Kneeslider has been about for the entire 12 years it’s been in existence. Readers who are comfortable with that perspective tend to stick around. Readers who aren’t, don’t.
Bob says
I know of a few racers that have already bought these as pit bikes. They make a lot more sense for that purpose than the usual mini dirtbikes, scooters, gopeds, or bicycles. I’m guessing it would make a lot more sense being carried inside an RV that the usual Trail 70 on the back of an RV (Does anybody still do that?).
Please compare the price of this to a Bike Friday folder. Or even a Brompton.
Tinkerer says
My peeve with your philosophy is this: you keep using the word “should” -as in, “… builders should start taking advantage…”-.
“Should” is an imperative. It means “people HAS to do this”. There’s no room for personal choice.
Easily, you could have written “Could”: “people CAN CHOOSE to do this if they want”.
In short: you sound like you’re trying to tell people what to do, what to enjoy, and if their personal preference is not the one you belive in, then they’re wrong and must change. That might NOT be what you actually think, but is what it sounds like.
Paul Crowe says
You’re incorrect. “Must” is the imperative, “should” is my opinion of the best choice among available options, “could” is simply listing available options and often too obvious to state for what I assume are the intelligent readers who frequent this site. I write here to offer my opinions. You “can choose” to agree, disagree or ignore them altogether.
Andy says
How much weight can it support? Since you mentioned carrying it in an RV – which are rarely parked on pavement I must also ask can it handle gravel alright with the small tires? It would be nice addition to see a video of it preforming on gravel, going up inclines and over small bumps.