Gocycle Hits EU Markets with Remarkable Low Price

LONDON, UK - Two years ago it attracted lots of attention at the Taipei Cycle Show and now the Gocycle hits the EU markets through Karbon Kinetics Ltd. Gocycle is the world’s lightest production electric bicycle that retails at a remarkable affordable price of € 1,399. Karbon Kinetics Ltd. (KKL) opts for a dealer-direct distribution in Europe.

KKL was founded in January 2002 by Richard Thorpe after he left McLaren Cars, and is funded by private investors and corporations from the USA, UK, Holland and Taiwan. From 2002 to 2008, KKL concentrated efforts and investment into setting up an advanced technology assembly line, which includes robotic processing, capable of delivering the Gocycle breakthrough design into the EU and North American market at significant volumes and competitive pricing.

The company planned initially to set up magnesium production in Holland with final assembly at Ideal Bike Poland; however, the enormous investment cost for the special Thixomoulding machinery used to produce the frameset and wheels proved too high a barrier to start magnesium moulding in Holland, and KKL moved production to Taiwan with final assembly at Ideal Bike Taiwan headquarters.

Here KKL and Ideal produced 200 ‘breakthrough’ production models in 2007 and debuted Gocycle at the Taipei cycle show in 2008, winning two first place awards for innovative design.

Increasing production volume too many thousands—while keeping quality high, production costs low and timing production supply with EU market launchl, KKL made the decision to move production for the first few years to two local EU suppliers to the automotive and defence industries. In April 2009, KKL successfully completed the move of its assembly lines and has since produced significant volumes from these EU-based facilities capable of producing up to 2,000 units per month.

Ideal Bike continues to support KKL’s Gocycle project and will contribute its core expertise in higher volume production in the coming years. However, KKL will continue to retain 100% ownership of all aspects of the Gocycle brand, design and engineering intellectual property, as well as the entire value chain, and remains committed to developing the Gocycle brand with worldwide consistency.

KKL officially launched Gocycle to the UK public at the ‘The Gadget Show’ in April 2009 and won the Top 5 gadget award at this electronics exhibition premier. Since then, KKL has established a dealer network in the UK and delivered a substantial volume of product to these UK dealers, as well as to some EU-based early adopting dealers in Spain, Germany, Hungary, France and Switzerland.

This month KKL is officially launching its EU dealer-direct strategy, and has already begun marketing directly to bicycle retailers throughout the EU. Gocycle meets EN 14764, BS 6102, North American Bicycle Standards and has CE certification on electric components.

For more information, visit www.gocycle.com. To become a Gocycle Certified Dealer, the retailer must have a bicycle showroom, a certified bicycle mechanic, and must be able to offer test rides and demonstrations of this unique product by knowledgeable staff. KKL offers point-of-sale displays free of charge as part of our consistent marketing strategy to the end customer in communicating Gocycle’s innovative features.