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Gi FlyBike, the Most Beautiful e-Bike That Never Was, Was Not a Scam

Crowdfunding campaigns always present some risk for backers, whether in terms of the actual finished product or smaller stuff, like delivery times. In some cases, they might not even get a product at all, and their money will still be gone.
The Gi FlyBike was a lot of things but not a scam, says company founder 12 photos
Photo: Gi FlyBike
The impossibly beautiful, record-folding electric bike that fell flat, the Gi FlyBikeThe impossibly beautiful, record-folding electric bike that fell flat, the Gi FlyBikeThe impossibly beautiful, record-folding electric bike that fell flat, the Gi FlyBikeThe impossibly beautiful, record-folding electric bike that fell flat, the Gi FlyBikeThe impossibly beautiful, record-folding electric bike that fell flat, the Gi FlyBikeThe impossibly beautiful, record-folding electric bike that fell flat, the Gi FlyBikeThe impossibly beautiful, record-folding electric bike that fell flat, the Gi FlyBikeThe impossibly beautiful, record-folding electric bike that fell flat, the Gi FlyBikeThe impossibly beautiful, record-folding electric bike that fell flat, the Gi FlyBikeThe impossibly beautiful, record-folding electric bike that fell flat, the Gi FlyBikeThe impossibly beautiful, record-folding electric bike that fell flat, the Gi FlyBike
In June 2020, we ran a cover story on an e-bike that was a hit on crowdfunding sites but that never materialized, save for a few early pledgers who got it. It was called the Gi FlyBike and was the brainchild of Lucas Toledo, Eric Sevillia, and Agustin Agustinoy from Argentina. They set up Bignay Inc. in 2014 and introduced the absolutely gorgeous bike to the world (of crowdfunding) in 2015.

The original story is available at the link in the paragraph above, so here’s a short recap.

Gi Flybike made a huge splash and looking at it, it’s easy to understand why. It was gorgeous throughout its many iterations, it claimed to fold down to half its size in as little as one second, it came with airless tires, decent range (60 km / 40 miles on a single charge), a very comfortable seat, four riding modes, connectivity, the works. Bear in mind that this was happening in 2015 when a bike like this was what you could justifiably call revolutionary.

The first complaints started coming in after the first batch of deliveries because the bike was not what had been advertised. Deliveries stopped soon after. By early 2019, pledgers from Australia we spoke to said all attempted communication with Bignay hit a brick wall: four years after the campaign, they were still without a bike and still waiting for refunds. Reports of a $6 million scam began to circulate on forums.

Mr. Toledo, one of the three founding members of the company behind what has been called the most beautiful e-bike in the world, says that there was no scam. All claims to the contrary, made here or elsewhere, are false. What happened was just a series of very unfortunate events that came to put an end to a beautiful, eco-friendly dream.

The first batch of Gi FlyBike e-bikes was delivered on schedule, Mr. Toledo says, and things took a turn for the worst afterward. Issues like raising more capital, improving on the product, and scaling production compounded with delivery delays from Asia and airline restrictions for shipping the product. The health crisis of 2020 and everything it entailed were the final nail in the coffin, Mr. Toledo says.

“This is not the ending we hoped for. Unfortunately, the closure of operations means that we will not sell any more units and that we will close all services related to our apps, websites and servers,” Mr. Toledo tells autoevolution.

He says lack of communication with backers suffered for the same reason: lack of resources. Despite what we were told by backers, namely that they were unable to communicate with Bingnay as early as the first months of 2019, Mr. Toledo says the broken communication “might have been happening during the last months,” for which he extends sincere apologies.

There is some sliver of hope, though. “As soon as we find a solution with a potential partner, we are going to communicate again and bring solutions,” Mr. Toledo says.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
Elena Gorgan profile photo

Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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