Radical Radiant Carbon Ebikes By TheRide Come From The Mind Of A Master Mountain Bike Designer

If you’ve been big into mountain biking in the last 30 years, you probably know the name Tony Ellsworth. Beginning in 1991, Ellsworth built and designed some of the most radical and forward-thinking mountain bikes on the market, many of which landed in professional racing, including at events like the Red Bull Rampage. He was one of the first to work with carbon fiber as a frame material.

Ellsworth’s mountain bike business wound down about five years ago, but he was far from done designing innovative cycles and in 2017, he decided to go in a new direction: electric bicycles. Now, his initial vision is complete with the reveal of the Radiant Carbon series under his new brand-name, TheRide.

Forbes.com met with Ellsworth near one of his old haunts on the Oregon coast to spend some time on a pre-production and a production bike, which are now available for pre-order on TheRide’s Indiegogo campaign site. To say the bike’s design is unusual is an understatement. First of all, it’s not a mountain bike.

The Radiant Carbon bikes are designed more for use on the street, but if need be, they can get dirty as well, as I found out while riding around the Oregon beach town on a damp day. The bikes are built around carbon fiber frames that make you do about three double-takes. The feature you spot first is the single-sided front fork. But as the eye moves down the highly geometric but also asymmetric frame to the back of the bike, you realize the rear wheel is also supported in an unusual manner, with a low horizontal frame spar on one side and an angled spar on the other. It seems parts of the typical bicycle frame triangles are missing, but Ellsworth, ever the designer, claims this layout is both strong and light. It looks like a prop from a science fiction movie.

The 500-watt/60Nm Shimano mid-mount motor and in-frame 630-watt/hour battery integration is very clean, almost to the point of invisibility. Ellsworth says in mixed riding, the big battery can give 100 miles of range. In back, a NuVinci Optimized Enviolo hub silently changes gear ratios internally but it’s also here where there’s another departure. Instead of a stepless twistgrip to change ratios like you find on the handlebars of most bikes using a NuVinci hub, there’s a small trio of buttons on the right handlebar that electronically selects your pedal effort (effectively “Eco, Normal, High”) and once chosen, you simply…. pedal. The gear change mechanism uses power from the bike to automatically optimize the gearing out back, so essentially, your pedal effort stays the same, no matter your speed (up to a max of 20mph). This is a Class 1 bike, so there is no thumb throttle.

Climbing a hill felt essentially like riding in the flat. If you’re used to shifting gears on a bike – any bike – this is a very unusual experience. Yes, you could call it an automatic transmission, but even that doesn’t seem to quite accurately describe the smoothness and seamlessness of this system. If you want to go faster, just pedal a bit harder, and the Radiant Carbon outputs more power to increase speed, while pedal effort, essentially, stays the same. It takes a minute to get used to it, and the three buttons do act a bit like gearing or power selectors, but after a while, you sort of forget about it and let it do its thing. It’s brilliant – and quiet. The bike seems to be a self-contained course in mechanical design and materials.

There’s more tech, of course. Braking is well-handled by overbuilt hydraulic four-pot Magura calipers and Shimano controls gripping 180mm slotted discs front and rear, and a quiet, clean, ultra-low maintenance Gates carbon belt Ellsworth says is good for 50,000 miles has replaced the usual chain. Part of one of the pedals is designed to fold down as the kickstand. Smart touches abound. More and more bikes are moving to belt drive and these NuVinci-style “stepless” hub systems, and it’s making bicycling much more approachable for new, casual and commuter riders across all markets. They are still premium features at present, but it’s good to see that more bike makers are moving to incorporate these worthwhile technologies. Bicycling is changing before our eyes.

Up top, a Shimano LCD info panel relays battery, speed and range data (for all power levels at once), and Ellsworth said he worked hard to use established, industry-standard gear on the bikes to minimize repair or replacement issues down the road. That includes Bluetooth smartphone pairing and use of the Shimano app to keep tabs on bike settings. Nearly all of the wiring and cables on the bike are hidden, giving a clean, uncluttered look that shows off the unique geometric lines. A bright LED headlight and a tail light with a flashing option are integrated into the frame. Fat Schwalbe Moto 2.8 tires ride on 27.5-inch, 50mm wide alloy rims, and I had no problem pointing the Radiant Carbon down some sandy trails or across a grassy field along our test route. The bikes have no suspension, but they were easy to ride off the pavement. Just tick up the power output on the right side buttons.

Tony claims the bikes will fit anyone from 5 feet tall to 6-foot-4 by virtue of his “Expanding Universe Geometry” system, which changes the way the seat adjusts in relation to the overall frame geometry, and we put that claim to the test as I’m 6-foot-1 and my son just recently cleared the 5-foot mark, and sure enough, after some quick adjustments, we both fit well on our respective mounts, even though the bikes are identical in size. One bike we were riding was a pre-production version, but Ellsworth said that it was essentially identical to the production bikes except for details so minor I couldn’t spot them. Both bikes worked as advertised with no problems on our too-short shakedown cruises.

Too soon, we had to hand the bikes back over to Ellsworth, but I’m hoping for a longer test after Ellsworth completes his initial Indiegogo campaign, which recently launched. The venture already has solid backing and Ellsworth said Indiegogo supporters won’t have long to wait long for their bikes – 60 units will be ready to ship in January with more on the way each month until the first wave of 360 bikes are sold. Early bird pricing starts at $4,995, and goes up from there.

Inexpensive? Clearly not, but those willing to take a chance on Tony’s considerable engineering talent will be getting a unique ebike unlike anything else on the market. The shifting system was a revelation, and the design is both robust and stunning, especially in person. While the carbon fiber construction certainly saves weight, this is clearly not a delicate machine and seems built to last. Ellsworth said certain features like the single-sided fork were heavily tested for strength and durability by outside certification laboratories, and scored far beyond even mountain bike standards. The NuVinci hub is good for 150,000 miles of use, Ellsworth said, and while the big battery is internal in the lower frame spar, it’s also designed to be replaceable. Basically, he’s thought this bike through in just about every way possible.

Ellsworth said the Radiant Carbon is just his first go at the ebike business, and more ideas are in the pipeline if he finds success. Seeing how he piloted a mountain bike business for over two decades before this venture, I’d have to say he’s got a solid chance, especially after riding the bike.

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