Best known for blurring the lines between e-bike and motorcycle, ONYX shows they can absolutely build a proper e-bike!
ONYX CEO James Khatiblou chose this weekend’s Electrify Expo in Long Island, NY as the place to show off the new LZR e-bike to the world, and it looked to us like just about everyone who saw the minimalistic e-bike loved it.
“A lot of work went into making minimalist,” James explained. “We looked at all the e-bikes out there and they had screens and modes and settings and apps and they connected to things, and we just wanted to do the opposite of that. We want you to be able to hop on the bike and just ride, like when you were a kid.”
If that was the goal, it seems like the team at ONYX delivered. At first glance, the ultra-clean LZR may not even look like an e-bike to the untrained eye. Instead, it looks like a high-end, ultra capable off-roader … and it seems like it’s delivered there, as well. “When we let pro-riders try the LZR for the first time they came back with a huge smile,” explains Tim Seward, founder Chief Design Office of ONYX. “we are going to change the way everyone views e-bikes!”
LZR PRO Launch Gallery
As with ONYX’s other bikes, though it’s not so much the specs that stand out — though they’re impressive! — instead, it’s the inspired attention to detail and authentic adherence to the original concept of the bike.
“We could have done the dime welds,” James says, when we point out the seamless welds on the new LZR eMTB. “But no matter how good they looked, it was never going to be as clean as the seamless welds. And since we’re making our own frame, we wanted to be what we wanted.”
That’s commitment to detail, but so too are the ghosted ONYX logos and dot-matrix style graphics that, while nearly invisible in photos, really pop as you walk around the bike in direct sunlight. Those dots mean that the LZR’s design language still carries that same 1980s hi-fi accent, despite being totally different in concept to the CTY2 and RCR models.
You can check out a few of the photos we took of Tim Seward as he showed off the bike to us, below, and head on over to ONYX’s website to find out more about the brand’s latest high-performance e-bike.
Tim Seward Walks Us Through LZR
SOURCE | IMAGES: ONYX.
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