“We have to reclaim the city”, interview with Cowboy founder

Cowboy is a Belgian start-up that wants to make the best electric city bikes. The company raised 23 million euros in a capital round and delivers its product, the Cowboy 3. It is a trendy electric bicycle that you connect to an app on your phone. Will these bicycles manage to get the car out of town?

Cowboy e-bikes

With the push of a button on your Cowboy app, the lights on the front and back switch on and the motor is ready for assistance when pedaling. The app also helps with navigation, guides you to places with minimal air pollution and also shows estimated battery capacity when you arrive at your destination. Afterwards, after your ride with the Cowboy 3, you will see statistics of the ride such as the total duration and average speed.

Although you don’t even need all these features to see that Cowboy is taking a different approach with his bikes. When you think of e-bikes, you probably imagine heavy ladies’ bikes, mostly ridden by seniors, equipped with a sturdy motor and a small display on the handlebars. The Cowboy, on the other hand, has a sleek and sporty design. Although you also pay a premium price tag of 2290 euros.

“My colleagues had a home delivery company, and it was noticeable that none of the delivery drivers wanted to use an electric bicycle. So even though they worked in big cities like Paris and London, it was much more efficient for them. and it turned out that electric bikes felt like “cheating,” and they look like they were made for our grandparents, “Androidworld speaks to Tanguy Goretti, one of the founders of Cowboy.

The Cowboy founders (from left to right): Adrien Roose, Tanguy Goretti and Karim Slaoui

“For us it was very interesting to take a critical look at the electric bicycles that were on the market at the time. They seemed very heavy, clumsy and poorly designed. Still, those e-bikes did well, mostly for over-45s, but were in Belgium they accounted for 40 percent of the sales of all bicycles sold. We sat together and came up with a product that was more aimed at young people like you and me. “

AW: How did you develop that idea into a product that is ready to hit the market.

“We deliberately chose not to have a Kickstarter campaign four years ago. At that time there were many failed crowfunding campaigns, and if that mark was left on us, it could later be detrimental to us. prototype built with the help of investors, and that is how we further developed the product. In the end we started a pre-order campaign, but it only started two months before we delivered the bicycles. “

Crash Detection

AW: The design is of course one of the advantages of Cowboy that you put forward, but there is also the aspect of safety and durability. The tires have a thick protective layer so that you do not easily have a flat tire, the lighting is integrated in the bike and there are hydraulic disc brakes. Can you say a little more about it?

“For me, the Cowboy 3’s crash detection is the most important safety feature, and we rolled out that feature last year. We had previously experimented with other systems such as a separate device that connects you to the bike, but they took too few factors into account. , leaving you with errors in the results and even false positives.

Today at Cowboy we use a system that uses the speedometer, information about the pressure you exert on the pedals, the accelerometer and the bluetooth signal from your phone. That way we can say with certainty that you have had an accident with your bike somewhere, and then a contact can be automatically called who can then check whether everything is in order. The handy thing is that this system is activated by default and therefore all bicycles are protected with it. In the meantime, our bicycles have already covered 7 million kilometers with this function activated. “

AW: Do you sometimes get feedback from users who have been helped thanks to the crash detection?

“Yes, there was a message in the Facebook group recently from a user who had a serious fall that also included multiple fractures. The man was unable to move himself, but his friend was automatically called and called the ambulance for him. We regularly see stories like this on Twitter and Facebook. “

Smart pedal assistance

AW: My rides with the Cowboy were really enjoyable and the crash detection is also a good feeling, but I did wonder from the start why the bike has no gears.

“Well, do you need it when you ride your bike around town?”

AW: Maybe not in the city, but they come in handy outside of it.

“Our goal was to make the best electric bike for the city, which is why there is no bigger motor or battery. Statistics show that our customers average 5 kilometers per trip, eight times a week. With such use you have to charge once a week and that seems fine to us.With the help of our motor it is very comfortable to drive up a hill, but if you want to go mountain biking of course the Cowboy 3 is not for you.

As far as the gears are concerned, we mainly want to let the engine do the work, which is why it helps you a little more when starting. Even if you want to gain speed, you can still easily reach 30 or 31 kilometers per hour. If you want to go even faster, it will indeed be a bit more difficult. But we think the current system is very suitable for use in the city. “

AW: The bike’s motor makes it very pleasant to ride as the support is good, but it also happens smoothly without jerking. Yet there were also situations where I would have liked to be able to determine for myself to what extent the motor assisted when pedaling. In other words, a system in levels.

“That’s a good question. From the start, we’ve put a lot of effort into a bike that feels intuitive and simple to operate. That’s why there’s no button on the bike to turn it on and it can also be automatically unlocked. like to keep it simple, and okay that makes for a little less options, but the overall experience is better.

Still, I don’t rule out adding additional levels of assistance later. In addition, we are also working on a system that ensures that you always reach your destination without the battery running out. When you enter a destination in the app, you will see that your battery capacity is normally too low for the trip, but you will be suggested that the level of assistance is reduced so that you can still reach your destination. In this way we can use the pedal support in a smarter way. “

Formula 1 technology

AW: The Cowboy made us think about ways to use energy even more efficiently. Years ago, the Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) system was developed in Formula 1, which is also found in racing cars. Every time you brake, the kinetic energy is converted to electrical and energy. Is it realistic to build such a system in a Cowboy?

“We also consider these kinds of technologies when we look for ways to improve our product. In this specific case, it is a difficult trade-off between the extra weight that such a system produces, the added value of the energy that you recover and the extra costs. that it delivers. In this case, we expect you to be able to save maybe 10 to 15 percent energy on a ride, so that’s not a huge savings.

AW: Cowboy expresses itself as a company that cares about the climate. After each ride I was shown how many grams of CO2 I had saved.

“Environmental friendliness is important to us and that is why refurbish we also bicycles that are traded in by our customers. We don’t even make money with that. We also pay attention to the climate in the office and in the factories. All along the line. “

AW: You can argue about whether electric bicycles are environmentally friendly, because of course it remains polluting to make the lithium-ion batteries that are used in the bicycles.

“Half of our customers used a car before they started using a Cowboy. Obviously, the Cowboy is the better choice in many areas. It is also healthier for you and for the city. that area is one of the best modes of transport after the regular bike and walking.

The electric bicycle makes the choice of bicycles feasible for everyone, while that was not the case for everyone with the normal bicycle. I am happy that we are on this side of history and can see how mobility in the booth is changing. “

The 15-minute city

AW: Let’s say you’re as rich as Elon Musk tomorrow, and besides Cowboy, you also own public transportation companies and other companies that make transportation. What would mobility look like then? Let your ideas flow.

(Laughs) “That’s a very good question. I strongly believe in strongly planning mobility in the city. We need to do something about the means of transport that are used in the city to change the cityscape. At Cowboy we have the slogan: “Take the streets”, and I fully support that. As cyclists we have to reclaim the city. When I look outside, I see that the car is the boss in the city and not people like you and me. “

I support the concept of the 15-minute city. That is an idea where everything you need in a city is accessible after a journey of 15 minutes. You can do this by walking or by cycling, but you would no longer need a car. I hope we will see this concept in a few major European cities in the next 15 years. Car use in the city must become a thing of the past. Obviously you still need a way to get out of the city, and I don’t have a plan for that. I do think that shared cars could play an important role in this. “

AW: So in the city center we see pedestrians and cyclists, but also buses and trams?

“Electric scooters and other small ones also have a place in our cities, but I think that you simply should not take up someone else’s space when traveling in the city. That principle will become important if we want to enjoy cities again. We see already beautiful changes, for example in Paris where the Champs-Élysées [een bekende straat in de Franse hoofdstad, Nvdr.] is being redeveloped, and the city is really giving them back to the people. It’s beautiful to see. I would like to see such examples in even more European cities. “

AW: Tanguy Goretti, thank you for this conversation.

“You’re welcome.”