There's not a day that goes by here at
The New Wheel where somebody doesn't
come in and look at the Farday and go: 'I
thought you only sold electric bikes?'
Hi I'm Karen Wiener here at The New
Wheel with the Faraday Porteur. Now for
us the Faraday is more than just
a bike; it's actually a company. We've been
interacting with Farday and Adam Volmer
who is the owner of Farday for about
four years now. Adam actually lives
down the street and we've had the
opportunity over the last several years
to have conversations with him about
spec, about what the future of e-bikes really is and so we're thrilled to have the final
product in our store. So today I'm gonna
tell you a little bit about the features
about what's exciting about this bike in
terms of technology and I hope it'll get
you excited to come and try it for
yourself. The bike uses a Sturmey Archer
five-speed internally geared hub,
mechanical disc brakes. The construction
of frame is all steel which gives the
ride feel a really comfortable almost
suspension like handling quality.
The centerpiece of the bike of course is
the drive system. On this bike it's
seamless, you hardly even know that it's
there. If there's one thing that Faraday did
exceptionally well it's the way that
they designed their controller so this
bike really feels like there's just a
tail wind pushing you. And that is a
really magical sensation. The motor and
drive train combine in a way that is really
unexpected. The torque sensor is
actually at the pedals but it's talking to
a motor that's at the front of the bike.
This little box here, that's the
controller, you can think of it as the brains
of the bike. You turn the bike on with a
simple push of a button right back here.
When your bike is on you'll know it's on
because the front and rear lights are
day running lights.
One of my favorite things about the design of the Faraday is actually the selector switch. So you've
got no assists and two levels of pedal
assist and the feel is really crisp
and almost interacts with you like a
shifter does. So when you're at a
stop you kinda push this guy down; the
power will help you accelerate and then
you tune the bike how you want to. The battery on the Porteur S is located right down here
in the down tube. This means a couple of
things: super super nice place to have
your battery, keeps the weight very low.
It's also very lightweight. You charge the
battery right here at the back of the
bike. With the on-board batteries you are
looking at somewhere between 15 and 25
miles depending on the hills that you're
riding.
The bike comes with braze-ons to attach
a front rack which is super
stable. It actually attaches to the frame
instead of the fork so when you stear it
has no effect, or a rear rack which has a
Yepp seat adapter built in so that you can
stick your little ones on the back and go
where you need to go. The best way to
keep your bike safe is to always have a
lock with you so their little lock holster
will allow you to fit a u-lock
right here with no rattling.
The bike comes in three sizes and two colors: this really understated gun metal
gray and a nice cream white are the two
color choices. The cream white is gonna give
you a little bit more visibility on the
street. It comes in three sizes:
this is a small, medium and large. Fits
people from about five feet or five feet two all
the way up to six six approximately.
The Faraday is a bike that really appeals to like a new group of people because
fundamentally it's beautiful. Maybe you
live in an apartment or you carry your
bike onto Caltrain every day or BART
this bike is one of the latest in the
shop weighing just under 40 pounds it's
a bike that even I can just stick on my
shoulder and take where I need to take it.
This bike is like French postal
sitting at a cafe eating a croissant. Maybe your dipping it into hot chocolate. This is
like the ultimate sweet ebike: it will up your street cred, it will make your outfit
look better, it is the ultimate accessory;
but it's a useful accessory, so we love
it here at The New Wheel.
The only way to really understand this
bike is to get on it so come in and take
a test ride. We do free test rides every
day and there's no pressure at all so
you can come in, we'll take you out on a
ride, we'll show you what it feels like
what the magic is up a hill and I think
you're gonna see that he ebikes are more
than you ever imagined.
