"That's the whole idea; to be not restricted by these thoughts: 'it needs to be doable, commercial, legal, acceptable.' We don't care. That's the whole point of it. A project where we remove all these barriers, and we say, 'Okay, we have an idea. Let's do it.'" That's what Van Rysel's e-bikes product manager Wim Van Hoecke, told Escape Collective at Velofollies show, where the French brand unveiled a head-turning new concept bike.
As much as the bike – and its attendant accessories – the timing is bold. The cycling industry has had a rough couple of years, dealing with inventory piles, discount wars, and an overall vibe that's the opposite of "Let's spend money building a neon spaceship." Even big, well-known brands are talking about needing to make cuts to keep going.
That is why Van Rysel's FTP² is interesting even before you get to the super-aero, futuristic concept itself and the non-cafe-stop-friendly clogs of shoes. A concept bike isn't a launch in the usual sense, because no one can buy the bike; rather, it's a brand's decision to spend time and money on something that, at least in the short term, doesn't pay back. Yet what's clear from the concept and what Van Hoecke said is that concept bikes continue to drive conversation, and down the line, some of the now-concept features – if not in their current form – will become part of real products available to purchase.
'We wanted to give you the legs of a pro rider'
Van Hoecke explained that every two years Van Rysel runs an internal "advanced design" project that happens alongside the brand's normal development cycle. "It's not only a bike, but it's also a full panoply, so shoes, helmet, garment, and so on," he explained of the FTP² project's purpose. "It's like exploring the day after tomorrow."
The futuristic idea that the team of designers, engineers and product managers ended up centring the project around was to double the rider's FTP, hence the name if the bike. "We wanted to give you the sensation of a pro rider – to give you the legs of a pro rider," Van Hoecke explained. "So we wanted to simulate the feeling of a pro cyclist doing a race." But because the regular rider is unlikely to be able to push the watts of pro riders, Van Rysel added a motor and treated the entire bike outside the normal boundaries of what an e-bike is "allowed" to be.
Mahle's specially tuned Mahle M40 motor is powering the bike.
In a traditional bike that is for sale in Europe, that'd cap the speed drastically, but because this is a concept bike, Van Rysel could obviously go wild, and so they did, and the press release claimed a maximum speed of 100 km/h.
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