Sep 12, 2024

The Verge Gocycle turns to crowdfunding after surviving ’Bikeaggedon’ / The boutique e-bike maker is rebooting and moving into non-electric foldables. By Thomas Ricker , a deputy editor and Verge co-founder with a passion for human-centric cities, e-bikes, and life as a digital nomad. He’s been a tech journalist for almost 20 years. Sep 12, 2024, 5:24 PM UTC Share this story Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge Gocycle’s designer-in-chief Richard Thorpe is rebooting the e-bike company he founded more than two-decades ago. Following a January restructuring to reduce overhead, Thorpe is now turning to crowdfunding to help launch a new series of F1-inspired e-bikes while also expanding into non-electric foldables — a space currently dominated by Gocycle’s British compatriots  Brompton . To drum up support, Thorpe is going to tell his story and the challenges and opportunities his small business faces in a series of videos that will be released over the next few weeks. The first, rather earnest installment focuses on “Bikeaggedon,” Thorpe’s word for the turmoil created by soaring e-bike demand at the onset of covid, followed by a collapse of the supply chain, and then a period of massive oversupply when parts were suddenly available again. The industry upheaval resulted in the VanMoof, Bird , and Cake bankruptcies, and forced Rad Power Bikes and others to significantly scale-back ambitions. The “Big Bike” behemoths — Pon Holdings, Accell, and Giant — suffered as well but they had enough scale and resources to weather the storm. Institutional investors are now watching from the sidelines, licking their wounds. Gocycle’s 2025 e-bike range includes the  five-speed CXi Cargo bike already announced in addition to a five-speed SXi to be sold in both electric and non-electric versions. According to Thorpe, expansion into non-electric foldables will grow its sales opportunities by 15x as Gocycle starts to “challenge the main incumbent folding bike maker.” Thorpe tells The Verge that he’ll likely pursue a Kickstarter later this year for some of the new models, same as he did when launching the GS model back in 2017. Independent e-bike makers are no strangers to equity crowdfunding where backers can buy an actual piece of the company. Cowboy has  used it  a few times successfully, while early backers of VanMoof got burned. Thorpe readily admits that Gocycle is a “high risk” investment. If interested, you can show your support for the campaign by registering on Fundable in the US , while the rest of world can register on Crowdcube . As the maker of some of the most innovative  and  unique e-bikes  we’ve ever reviewed at any price — we wish Thorpe and the entire Gocycle team success.