anga

Mods: if this is not the appropriate location, please move.

Based on the frame geometry, how would you classify this bike?
Trekking/commuting/.....

FBinNY 

Judging by the rear wheel and battery case in the frame, I'd simply call it an electric bike.

Trying to define it by application is more difficult, but as a rule, electric bikes are made for urban and suburban uses like commuting and running errands, rather than for sport or touring.

AnkleWork

A kludge.

anga

I know it is an electric bike
Ignore the battery and rear hub.
Looking at just the frame design and geometry, how would you classify this bike? Is it closer to a touring bike or commuting bike or something else?

fietsbob

Pedal-electric commuter , branded by a German auto company..

they fitted trekking figure 8 bend handlebars, but I would not head out on a major trek on it
as once the battery is drained its just dead weight.


Touring is an activity , the bike you tour on is a conveyance, to do that activity.

FBinNY 

It's impossible to make that kind of judgement from a photo. As I said earlier, the fact that it's electric, makes it more likely that it's made for things like commuting.

However a bicycle is whatever his owner wants it to be. While there may be fairly obvious differences such as drop vs. upright bars, or fat vs skinny tires, between a bike designed for sport road, and off road use, it isn't black and white. Between those extremes is a large gray area, where a bike can be whatever any wants it to be.

Go to the commuter forum and look at the photos of the commuter bikes people post and you'll see that anything can be a commuter bike.

All I can say with any certainty is that it's electric. It's up to the owner to classify it further by how he chooses to use it.

AnkleWork

Structurally inefficient (i.e. heavy).

FBinNY 

My old Ducati was also very heavy, but nobody called it "structurally inefficient".

LesterOfPuppets

I guess I'd go with Comfort Bike.

AnkleWork

A mere twist of logic. Structural inefficiency manifests as excess weight for a given strength. Excess weight does not necessarily imply poor structural efficiency.

FBinNY 

No, not at all. A mere poke in the ribs.

fietsbob

IDK about Ducatis, but I recall a number of aftermarket frames being built for the old BSA/Triumph Twins ..

seems they were not the best handling things when there was a time keeper posting the results
of the Cafe to Cafe rides over those bendy British single lane roads ..

probably another place where the TI Reynolds steel tube mills supplied a lot of Cr Mn Mo steel tube.

JanMM

Maybe the good folks in the Electric Bikes forum could shed some light on what kind of [electric] bike it is?

Wanderer

Did you ever have to pedal it any distance ........... I mean, other than to start it**********? A couple man powered miles, uphill, would prove that hypothesis..... MHO

FBinNY 

It's a 2001 era discontinued bike, so I wonder why the Op is asking about it the first place. If he's considering buying one the E-bike forum is where he'd most likely get info about it, or he can go back to the source where he found the photo (E-bike images) and find links about it.

As to comparing it to conventional bikes, that's like asking which citrus fruit an apple is most like.

BigJeff

A portable "Lifecycle".

curbtender

So are you asking what it would be without a motor? Maybe SS/comfort/beach cruiser. But you can pretty much classify any bike as a commuter. Around here , they'd hook up some strobe lights and a fogger and call it a burningman bike...

davidad

No matter how you try to classify it, it is just an electric assist bike. :

xenologer

comfort bike
also the upturned bars and lack of chainstays is bothering me
why ya need to know ?

FBinNY 

Would the lack of chainstays bother you less on a $1,700 CF Trimble frame?

xenologer

No, that's actually worse
cross frame, lots of stresses not much triangulation
I'm sure they've used fancy materials engineering to compensate, but why create the issue to begin with?

dabac

+1

Seems to be a fairly slack headtube angle, wide saddle. Bars set up high.
And isn't the rear wheel smaller than the front, or is the pic just playing tricks with me?
Not that that would be a common feature for comfort bikes....

And look at the size of the rear sprocket. Unless there's an IGH at the core of that motor hub, you'd need a HUGE front ring to get that thing much above walking pace through muscle power.

And call me safety junkie if you wish, but it always bothers me when I see Trekking bars set at such an angle.
Hit something big enough to cause the bike to come to an instant stop when you're riding with your hands on the rearmost part, the arms can go through the "loops", then as the body continues forward you're a good candidate for a matching set of very nasty forearm fractures.

mconlonx

Electric Comfort/Hybrid bike.

BenPS

That's a badass motorcycle, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

anga

Interesting that most responses do not focus on the frame.

Let me state the questions again: consider only the frame. What type of bike (touring, trekking, commuting, comfort,....) is it best suited for?