What makes for a beautiful custom eBike?

[E-HP]

I'm in the beauty is in the eye of the beholder camp. The engineering side of me prefers function over form, but there's a reason I moved away from engineering, because the aesthetics are important to me as well. Mainly, I think keeping things neat is appealing; no extra wires dangling around or parts that look like they were tacked on because there was an open spot; rather a planned execution.

I rode my bike to the Berkeley campus a couple of weeks ago, and guy on a electric scooter came over and stared at my bike for about a minute before he said "that's electric, right?", which was just fine for me. I don't want it to scream electric.

 

[Chalo]

Hiding necessary components because you don't like to see them is an infantile urge. That's why carmakers indulge it so thoroughly. They're playing to the cheapest seats in the house.

 

[wturber]

Ultimately it is personal of course. If I could put it in one word, I'd say "balance." But interpreting that is awfully subjective.
I prefer simple and clever designs that just work. I prefer an original solution over the generic or typical one - so long as it has a real purpose. I generally prefer curves to straight lines, but there are exceptions. And on e-bikes I find that I prefer bold colors - often as accents. I generally don't like anything that is tacked on for the purpose of appearance and I generally don't like designs that pretend to be something they aren't ... unless doing so is a particularly clever joke of some kind.

 

[thundercamel]

Simplicity right here! lol

I've since moved the motor controller in the bag as well. Images can be opened in a new tab for full resolution.

 

[cal3thousand]

This one always strikes me as beautiful. It's not that it looks amazing in any one way, but when you take a look at all the thought and craftsmanship put into something like this and also realize the utility/convenience of owning such a bike, the beauty starts to materialize in your mind. At least for me. He's also an amazing contributor to this forum and overall sport.

It's all custom... take a gander at the switchwork and how he designs it all. Perfectly doable from a garage, using common wordworking and some power tools.

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=36959&hilit=telektik

 

[dogman dan]

As a serious fan of how it feels to ride a long tail, I have to also find that one beautiful. You got a bad back, you need to ride long bikes.

But then, I'm also a bit of a fan of ugly enough to not get stolen. For that, I keep my bikes, and motorcycle, kind of dirty and fugly looking.

A comment was made about it has to fit on the bus bike rack. My "pretty to me" lengthened Schwinn will not.

But it was made specifically to still fit my cars bike rack, with the wheel loops at farthest extension. I can break down, bus home, and go get the thing with my car.

 

[999zip999]

Two bikes stolen. I now go for the homeless look at 43 miles an hour.

 

[OCD]

Hand built from scratch including: fenders/frame/forks/handlebars/72v 24ah LGHG2 pack. Also features CA, led head/tail lights, 8" Avid brakes, Brooks leather grips, etc. Upgrading to QS motor soon!

 

[Z0RR0]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder indeed.

To me, it has to look as clean and as normal as possible. A few models qualify, as prebuilts.

While I love how integrated everything is, they are mostly euro bikes with the power and speed limitations we're all familiar with. I don't know that they could pull off a similarly clean look with 1000W or longer range.

Now, achieving this as a DIY might be quite the challenge. But that's a goal I like.