The Angell e-Bike Is Light as a Feather but Incredibly Smart

This is just a fancier way of saying that, these days, e-bikes are a dime a dozen. Well, almost. E-bikes are increasingly popular but still have to cross a couple of lines in the sand to become widely accessible: price and weight. The Angell e-bike promises to do away with all your concerns on the latter.

Most electric bicycles, even those for cities, are on the heavy side. This means that the same people who are supposed to be buying them, commuters living in cramped apartment buildings with no room for storage and at least one flight of stairs to climb daily, won’t because the task of taking them out and back again is in itself discouraging.

Developer Marc Simoncini, most famously known as the guy who founded the French dating site Meetic, has heard these complaints and is out to make a difference. At the end of last year, he announced the launch of the first product from his new company, Angell: an electric bicycle designed by French designer Ora-ïto, with a frame so light it rivals non-electric counterparts.

Angell is currently available for pre-order, with the first shipments expected to take place in May 2020. The company says more than 1,000 pre-orders have already been made.

The Angell e-bike comes with a classic frame made of aluminum, and weighs a mere 14 kg (30.6 lbs) – nearly half the weight of other e-bikes on the market right now. The classic design is enforced through the stripping of all unnecessary elements, which makes this e-bike ideal for the city.

The obvious downside to this is that, well, you can’t really take it out of the city. It has no suspension (only a carbon fork that will absorb some of the shocks), no gears and there is little you can do to customize it to carry stuff. With a top speed of 25 kph (15 mph) in fully-assisted mode and not exactly a very powerful motor, it doesn’t stand out for peak performance either.

But what Angell lacks in brawn it compensates for in brains. “We want to be to the electric bike market what iPhone has become to the mobile phone market,” Simoncini boldly announced at the official launch. As he puts it, the e-bike is “70 percent software,” so it comes with an integrated, color, touchscreen LCD display and a cockpit, and Bluetooth connectivity.

The LCD shows anything from speed level and battery charge, to calories burned, weather and pollution index, and even GPS instructions. To keep the rider from constantly looking at the screen, vibrations are incorporated into the handlebars to let them know when it’s time to turn.

Smart connectivity offers some peace of mind to the owner: the Angell comes with anti-theft alarm and GPS tracking, so that they always know the location of the bike, in the eventuality it does get stolen. The company also offers insurance for a monthly fee, through a partnership with an insurance company. A fall detection feature is included, with the bike sending a notification to a pre-selected contact if sensors detect a fall or accident.

For safety, Angell comes with a brake light integrated in the taillight and turn signals on the handlebars. The cell is placed at the back of the bike, the 250W electric motor in the hub of the rear wheel, and the battery can be fully charged in 2 hours, delivering an estimated range of 70 km (44 miles) in the lowest power-assisted mode.

Speaking of modes, Angell offers 3 riding modes, Free Ride, Navigation and Sport, and four levels of pedal-assist, Fly Free, Fly Eco, Fly Dry and Fly Fast. Fly Free is the no-motor mode, while Fly Fast is fully-assisted.

Angell comes in one size only and is guaranteed to comfortably accommodate riders from 1m 55cm to 1m 95 cm. Available colors are silver and matte black. Some customization options are available (like mudguards, a wooden basket in the front and water holder), but they will drive up the final price. Which, to be fair, is pretty steep as it is: pricing starts at €2,690 ($2,923) but there’s an option to use a 36-month payment scheme as well.