Tern to take e-bike folder to Kickstarter

Tern launched its folding e-bike at Eurobike. The Elektron has a Bosch Active mid-motor, and also features an integrated Valo 150-lumens front light. The bike uses eight of Tern’s patented technologies, such as the adjustable Andros stem and ultra-stiff Physis 3D handlepost.

Tern is a Taiwan-based company with an American aesthetic. It was founded five years ago.

Tern bills the Elektron as “best in class” and the “world’s most compact Bosch-equipped e-bike”. The bike’s 300Wh battery will give a range of between 50 and 100 kilometers, said the company.

The Elektron will be launched on Kickstarter in October, priced at €3300. Tern successfully crowdfunded a folding cargobike via Kickstarter last year.

Part of the Tern booth at Eurobike was exceedingly English – there was a gentlemen’s-club-style leather chair, and in it was sat Mark Bickerton. Son of Harry, the founder of Bickerton Portables (which kick-started the folding bike revolution in 1971), Mark Bickerton was launching the Argent, an updated, stiffer version of the original folder.

Many of the items on the booth belonged to Harry Bickerton and his close family, including a family writing desk, old-fashioned umbrella, and even the books, such as a 1974 reprint of Archibald Sharp’s “Bicycles and Tricycles: An Elementary Treatise on Their Design and Construction”, a classic 1896 book on cycling.