Making a great bike is just part of the story. We want to be sure you have everything you need to enjoy your Faraday - whether you take short trips to the store, commute daily through a city, or prefer a long ride in the countryside. The new accessories we’ll be launching later this year will help you do all of those things.
Take a look below at each of these advances, and then scroll down to the bottom for a compatibility chart and FAQ. If you have further questions, never hesitate to email us at riders@faradaybikes.com
Auxiliary Battery Pack: We’ve been told that once someone rides a Faraday, they want to ride it everywhere they go. So we’re creating an auxiliary battery pack that can double your range to over 40 miles - freeing you to take your Faraday wherever you want without worry of running out of juice.
This stylish, lightweight, detachable pack will also let you charge your battery without having to get your bike near an outlet. And all you have to do is plug it into the existing charge port on your bike, and the bike knows to start using both batteries. Just plug the Auxiliary Battery Pack into the charge port on your bike and your bike will start to use both batteries (the built-in battery and Auxiliary Battery) as if they’re one.
Easy to remove, easy to secure: The Auxiliary Battery Pack clips easily under your seat, is easy to remove, and locks in place for those days you don’t want to take it on and off the bike
Charge wherever you want: Don’t worry about finding an outlet that you can get your bike close to. You can charge the Auxiliary Battery Pack wherever it’s convenient: at your desk, at a cafe, in your house.
Ride twice as far on a charge: When you clip the auxiliary battery into your Faraday you’ll get over 40 miles of assisted riding – freeing you to take your Faraday wherever you want without worry of running out of juice.
FAQ
The auxiliary battery weighs approximately 5 pounds.
Replacement keys for the auxiliary battery pack are available for purchase from Faraday with proof of purchase.
Faraday’s newest controller has built-in intelligence to balance the internal and auxiliary battery so that both packs drain safely and at the same rate. This means that you can plug in and use the auxiliary battery regardless of the state of charge of the bike’s internal battery or the aux battery.
The auxiliary battery can be charged with a standard Faraday charger when disconnected from the bike. A full charge will take approximately 3 hours. When the auxiliary battery is installed and plugged into the bike, the aux battery and the internal battery can be charged SIMULTANEOUSLY by plugging a Faraday charger into the auxiliary battery.
When installed, the auxiliary battery reports its state of charge to the bike’s controller, so the bike’s eInk display can accurately report the combined state of charge. As an example, with the aux battery installed, a “33%” reading on the eInk battery gauge would correspond to approximately 15 miles remaining based on a total estimated range of 45 miles.
The auxiliary battery doubles the battery capacity of your Faraday. Based on our testing, the auxiliary battery delivers 40-50 miles of assisted riding in “standard” assist mode.
The auxiliary battery includes a discrete LED display to show it’s state of charge.
If your internal battery is completely discharged, adding a fully charged auxiliary battery will result in 50% total state of charge, or approximately 20-25 miles, running off the auxiliary battery only. The auxiliary battery will not, however, charge the internal battery.
We’ve created a study yet simple-to-use under-seat clip that allows you to quickly latch and unlatch the Auxiliary Battery from your bike. You then plug the cable into your bike’s charge port, and off you go. The battery clip will attach to any standard bicycle saddle, not limited to our stock Faraday Comfort Saddle.
There is a small lock on the side of the Auxiliary Battery Pack that will keep it securely on your bike.
GPS Tracker: It’s extremely rare for a Faraday to go missing, but bike theft remains an understandable concern for many riders. That’s why we’re developing a GPS tracking device that can be hidden in your Faraday and, when connected to your Faraday app, make sure you always know where your bike is.
FAQ
We don’t want to give away the exact location, because we don’t want someone who isn’t you to be able to remove it. But it will be easily hidden inside of your bike in a way that it can still transmit a signal. Tamper-proof hardware provides extra insurance that the Tracker can’t be easily removed.
No. The GPS requires very little battery to run and won’t impact the range of your bike.
The retail price for the GPS Tracker alone is $250. Because all Faraday bicycles currently in the field will require a controller replacement for GPS compatibility, the Kickstarter pledge amount for the GPS add-on includes the cost of a new controller ($200). As a special offer for our current customers, we’re making the replacement controller available at our cost to make it as easy as possible for you to upgrade your Faraday. Faraday does not cover installation/labor costs for controller replacement, which can be easily handled by your local bike shop or Faraday dealer.
All Cortlands will be compatible with the device when they ship. Current owners and those who purchase a Porteur in the coming months should consult the compatibility chart on our site to determine what upgrades they will need to use the GPS Tracking Device. If you have a question, don’t hesitate to contact us at info@faradaybikes.com or 415-834-5860.
If you choose the device as a Kickstarter reward, we are making the parts you will need to upgrade available at cost, which is $200. You will then need to cover the labor/installation costs at your local dealer.
While it should be a pretty quick procedure, the length of time your bike needs to be at the shop will depend on how busy their mechanics are. We recommend checking with them ahead and trying to schedule a specific time window for your upgrades.
Because the GPS receiver and Cellular chip adds a significant amount of cost to the bike, we have opted to make the GPS Tracker an optional add-on to keep the base pricing of our bikes as affordable as possible. If you order a Cortland + GPS Tracker, your bike will come pre-installed with all the necessary hardware. No assembly required.
We aren’t likely to offer the device as a free, standard part of future models. But it could certainly be added on before you receive your bike.
In the current version of the GPS Tracker, if you believe your bike is stolen you will need to select “Find my bike” through the menu of our new mobile app. This will report back the GPS coordinates of your Faraday. We are working on an enhanced “security mode” that will alert you to disturbance or motion of your Faraday so that you can respond, track, and report the theft as quickly as possible.
The Faraday GPS Tracker is a small piece of hardware that can be installed discretely onto the frame of a Faraday bicycle (either Porteur or Cortland). The GPS tracker adds a GPS receiver and antennae to the bike along with a cellular connection so that the bike can communicate its location to a mobile phone remotely. If your bike is stolen, the GPS tracker will allow you to determine the bike’s GPS coordinates to report to the police and recover your Faraday.
Faraday App: Want a little more boost in your boost? Or maybe you want to dial back the assist to extend your range, or ride with your lights off during the day. Our new Faraday App will enable all of this and more. Including ride tracking, route mapping, and other features you need to get where you’re going on time, and in style.
FAQ
We are working to build in compatibility with Apple Watch, Android Wear, and other smart devices.
At the moment, the app does not allow a speed limit higher than the Federal 20mph limit. As individual states adopt more clear laws to distinguish Class 1 and higher speed Class 3 ebikes, we will be able to offer riders the ability to lift their Faraday’s speed limit above 20mph (subject to state and local law).
Yes, Faraday’s mobile app will be released for Android and iOS.
Not at all. The Porteur and Cortland remain as user-friendly and intuitive to operate as ever. Our new mobile app simply adds an extra layer of interaction and functionality for riders who want to dive deeper.
This is a feature that we plan to add as soon as we can, as it will allow you to always have the most up-to-date firmware on your bike. We won’t, however, have this available at launch.
We are working to add connectivity to the popular ride-tracking site Strava to allow our riders as many options as possible to record, track, and share their rides.
The App uses a low-energy Bluetooth connection to communicate with your bike’s controller.
The mobile app will allow you to “lock” the battery of your Faraday to prevent the bike’s motor from running if it is stolen. The bike will still pedal - but without assist. If you also purchase the GPS add-on, which is a hardware upgrade for the bike that we expect to ship in September, 2016, you will be able to track your bike through the app. So if it is stolen, you will be able to retrieve it.
Bike compatibility chart : Bikes from different production runs will have different compatibility with our upcoming hardware offerings. The chart below should give you a guide as to which model you have, and what would need to be updated for the different technology upgrades. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at riders@faradaybikes.com
FAQ
Similar to current owners, you will have to verify which model you are buying. All of the new Cortland and Cortland S models will be compatible with the new accessories. But the likelihood is that you’ll need to make some changes to any Porteur you buy before the accessories are available.
We are still working through pricing, but there will be a cost associated with the necessary upgrades. We are trying to keep that cost as low as possible and will update the site as soon as we know what those costs will be.
Over the past year we’ve been fortunate enough to sign on some great partners around the country. If you don’t have a Faraday Dealer near you, we will find a bike shop that can do the work and walk them through the process to make sure its done properly.
The actual work to make the changes shouldn’t be more than an hour or so.
As the chart above notes, there are a number of different hardware and software components that are necessary for the bikes to work with the new accessories. As we’ve been improving those components with each new release of bikes, it’s created a disparity between models and thus the need for different riders to make different changes in order to use the new accessories.
