This summer, Faraday had the pleasure of working with Marketing intern Sam Borsos - a student at Loyola Marymount studying Communications. It was an action-packed summer of writing (particularly for this Faraday Bicycles Blog) and riding. And after a few rides around San Francisco, Sam realized she had forgotten how fun riding a bicycle is, and questioned why she forgot about it in the first place. Below are Sam’s thoughts on her experience, which we found pretty universal.
We’re excited to announce the arrival of the Faraday Porteur S to America, our newest model of beautiful electric bicycles. Hundreds of Grey and White Porteur S’s arrived in San Francisco from Taiwan by cargo ship this week.
We love to talk bikes. And when we’re not talking about them, we’re reading about them. Recently, we’ve been trying to use our blog (along with social media) to jump into conversations about bike innovation, safety, technology and infrastructure. So, we’ve picked out some bike blogs that we love, so you can join the conversation too.
To celebrate riders who love their Faradays, we’re highlighting one of our first customers in Texas, Jeremy Myers, who lives near Austin where we now have a dealer at Rocket Electrics. Jeremy loves his Faraday for the same reasons that Hum of the City did: It’s, “the cool bike.” Hear about Jeremy’s experience using his Faraday to spend time with his son and commute to work:
Flashback to the first time you rode a bike. Once the training wheels came off and you learned how to ride a bike, you probably learned the next step in biking: safety.
I think we can all agree that bike commuting has a ton of upside. It’s great for the environment, cost effective and a healthier alternative to driving. Despite this, you and most people you know have come up with all sorts of reasons not to commute by bike. “It’s too far.” “I’ll get all sweaty.” “My dog ate it.” We’ve heard them all. (though we’re not sure that last excuse has anything to do with bikes)
We love when customers are as enthusiastic about electric bikes as we are. So, when we spoke to Kingdon Knowles in New York City (or, we should say, when Kingdon called to speak to us!), we knew we wanted to share his story.
The new Porteur S is almost here. Get a sneak preview as we take you behind the scenes of the making of an electric bike.
The ways people get from one place to another is constantly evolving. From electric bikes to electric scooters, the future of transportation is looking like it will continue to rely on electric power.
For a number of reasons, bike commuting is becoming a more viable option for many Americans. It’s healthier, better for the environment, and in some cases, can be faster than cars when factoring in traffic and parking. Find out how changing your commute can lead to a better life, and make each morning something to smile about.
A couple weeks back, we sent a survey to our email list, asking folks to provide their thoughts on what makes electric bikes interesting, how they would eventually use them, and more. We were thrilled with the level of response, and thanks to everyone who participated.
As a San Francisco startup with tech neighbors like Airbnb, Adobe, and Pinterest, we’re always fascinated by innovation – especially in the bike and transportation world.
At Faraday, most of our employees commute on our eBikes and love it! So, since we’ve turned the morning into something for us to smile about, we wanted to share simple tips on changing your own lifestyle that can go a long way.
We recently had a chance to exchange emails with the folks at Rocket Electrics to discuss how it’s been being at the forefront of the electric bike revolution in a town that is none for being at the forefront of just about everything.
Picking out Father’s Day gifts can be a stressful task — racking your brain every year for hobbies and sports teams that Dad likes, while picking out a last-minute card at the local convenience store. This year, use our Faraday Father’s Day guide to pick out something for every bike-loving Father, from quality helmets to bike-mounted bottle openers (yes, those exist and we think they’re awesome). Father’s Day is less than a week away, so get goin’!
For years, millions Americans have piled themselves into a car every morning to fight ever increasing traffic on their way into work. For others, the overcrowding isn’t on the road but on the bus or train, where more and more commuters seem to be crammed into a stretched and stressed public transit infrastructure.
Our first dealer spotlight, highlighting Dean Mullin of Clever Cycles in Portland, OR. Fitting, as Portland is the honorary birthplace of Faraday (with Faraday founder Adam Vollmer being from Portland and the Oregon Manifest Design Contest being our jumping off point).
Today was the official Bike to Work Day here in our hometown of San Francisco, and the Faraday crew marked the occasion by heading to Market Street to greet riders with our friends at Huckleberry Bicycles.
After a whirlwind month in which we delivered our first full production run of bikes to nearly every corner of the United States, and some far reaches of Canada, we’re happily easing into May. The Spring riding season is in full bloom, and we’re thrilled to see so many new Faradays out on the road!
Hello and happy Spring!
It’s been a bit since we updated you on the goings on about Faraday, and for good reason. We’ve been busy putting the finishing touches on our first official production run of Porteurs and overcoming obstacles like the West Coast port closures to get those brand new bikes out to shops and riders across the country.
Sometimes start-up life can feel like a whirlwind. Days pass like hours and weeks vanish in a heartbeat, but somehow the beginning feels like a lifetime ago. When we look back at 2014 it’s exciting to see how far we have come in 12 short months. In short, our young brand is growing up.
No one is a more fervent e-bike evangelist than a brand new, first-time e-bike customer. Sometimes you meet them in the most unexpected places.
The holiday spirit has been overflowing at Faraday HQ this year. So, we polled the office, and without further ado we bring you our cycling chic wish list. From the casual cruiser to the fervent commuter, we think we found a little something for everyone.
‘Tis the season for celebrating and this year we have plenty to celebrate. While an electric bike may be a little tough to hide under the tree we are delighted to see the Faraday Porteur on a number of holiday wish lists.
Here at Faraday Bikes we know you want more than just an another electric bicycle. You want a bicycle crafted to be functional and beautiful. Our second round of production is underway, and we wanted to share a peek behind the scenes as the next batch of beautiful bikes are created.
When most people think of bike riding they don’t think of winter as the premier riding season. Think again! If you were planning on tucking your bike away for the holidays, think twice – there are plenty of reasons why an electric bike is a holiday hero.
We enjoyed reading this week’s All Things Considered, in which NPR reporter Susanna Capelouto interviews Atlanta e-bike commuter Joel Bowman. A central theme of the story is the trajectory of e-bikes in Europe, which originally entered the market primarily among older riders, before being embraced by a much wider and younger audience.
We have to let you in on a little secret: Faraday riders are an amazing bunch. Sprinkled throughout the United States from Honolulu to Cambridge, it is hard to find a more diverse, enthusiastic and forward-thinking group. While they are notoriously hard to track down as they zip through their neighborhoods at 20 mph, we managed to catch up with a handful of riders to share a photo and a few words about their bike.
People start riding their bike to work for many different reasons. Terrible traffic, congested or hard to access public transportation, expensive parking, etc. My path to becoming a bike commuter has nothing to do with any of those things.
Working late last night, there was a knock at the door. Drop-in visitors are typically folks who have seen Faraday’s sign in the window and are curious to learn more or take a test ride. At this time of night, well past dark, that seemed unlikely.
(*For a week. You have to give it back.) You can look at pictures all day long but nothing beats putting your seat in the saddle and taking the bike for a spin. How else will you know how the bike rides?
The popular web series and podcast This Week in Startups swung through SF recently and Faraday founder Adam Vollmer had a chance to sit down and talk bikes, design, and startup life with the show’s host Jason Calacanis.
We are happy to announce that Faraday has begun shipping bikes from our first production run of Porteurs! So far dozens of our Kickstarter backers in the Bay Area have received their bikes, and by the end of July we will have put close to 200 Faradays on the road.
Doing a bike event in Austin recently, we had the chance to give a few hundred folks a test ride on a brand new production Faraday. Test rides are always fun, and this one was especially fun. Maybe the best part, though, was this email that came in a few days later from a gentleman who’d tried out a Faraday. This literally made our day.
Faraday is at CES this week, and we’re very excited to be unveiling the brand-new, pre-production Porteur that will begin shipping only a few short months from today! We’re happy to have a featured spot in the booth of E Ink, whose display is featured on the Porteur’s handlebar controller.
We’re heads-down on a Saturday afternoon here at Faraday headquarters soldering, coding, and building bikes. We wanted to take a break from all the fun, though, to share a big announcement: Pre-orders for Faraday’s first production run end THIS WEEKEND!
We’ve been enthusiastically following the roll out of New York’s much anticipated (and much debated!) new bike share program. As the Daily News reports in this recent article, the program has all the early signs of being a great success.
Whole Foods’ online magazine Dark Rye put together a video to feature Faraday’s story of changing the way we get from one place to the next. Faraday’s story captures just a small piece of an enormous global narrative about the ways in which our car-centric lifestyles are being altered – for the better.
Use Spotify? Prefer AirBnB to the Marriot Club? Get around with Uber or Zipcar? Then you get it. Consumer, particularly younger ones, are making a dramatic shift away from an economy based on big, depreciating expensive assets (like cars), and towards assets that cost less, offer more freedom and flexibility, and fit better into their increasingly urban lifestyles (like bikes).
‘Big Data’ is the (very valid) idea that vastly greater amounts of data about our behaviors is available than ever before. As a primarily hardware entrepreneur, I admit to at times feeling a bit resentful of the enthusiasm over Big Data. Where’s the relevance to a bicycle company?
Mayors, policymakers, planners, and business leaders are coming to realize what cyclists have now known for years – that a quiet revolution is brewing in the US. More and more people are now opting out of their cars and instead choosing to navigate our city streets by bike.
Fresh off the heels of Faraday’s recent appearance in the Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards (big congrats to Fisker for taking the top honor!), Fast Co. Design published a really fantastic piece on Faraday, titled “How to build an electric bike that people will actually want to ride.”
Faraday returned from Interbike last week, where we were fortunate to be guests of Brooks England, makers of some of the finest cycling accessories on the planet. Among the many folks who stopped by to check out the bike was ElectricBike.com, who described the Porteur as “a piece of e-bike art.”
We’re very excited to announce that the Faraday Porteur has been selected as a finalist for the Fast Company “Innovation By Design” Awards. It’s a true honor to share the finalist position in the Transportation category with the likes of Ford, Boeing, Fisker, and Ossur - true leaders in the development of novel transportation solutions.
Posters are here! If you pledged $15 towards Faraday’s recent Kickstarter campaign, it’s your chance to pick which collector’s poster you like the most.
Over the last few weeks, a lot of you have been asking about our process for designing the original Faraday Porteur with Rock Lobster for the Oregon Manifest design challenge. True to our IDEO roots, we used every bit of the design thinking process and were lucky enough to catalogue the journey with Core77 in the Design/Build Chronicles.
Our Kickstarter campaign officially ends Friday, August 10 at 10:39pm PDT. And, there’s more exciting news: the winning color of our survey was British Racing Green!
From baby boomers to errand runners, electric bicycles appeal to all types of people. Design lovers especially like riding the Farady Porteur.
The New York Times reports that e-bikes “represent the largest-ever adoption of alternative-fuel vehicles — far more prevalent than electric cars”.
A chance run-in with Lorn Dittfeld, owner of Propeller Modern in Hayes Valley, San Francisco, led to the exciting event taking place this afternoon (6/10) from 4-6 pm at Propeller.
