California eBike Maker Wants to Offer Karmic Goodness in a Kit

Hong Quan, Karmic Bikes, visited Taiwan to line up his manufacturing operations.

The ebike's battery pack, as first conceived and designed in SolidWorks.

The bike's frame detailed in AutoCAD

The latest incarnation of the bike's frame, rendered in Autodesk Fusion 360

Hong Quan has just returned from Taipei City, known for its thriving street-food culture. But he was there for more than just a stroll along the late-night food stalls. The Vietnamese-American entrepreneur is launching a new series of electric bikes, branded Karmic Bikes. Taiwan’s capital is a manufacturing hub for bikes sold around the world, and the Taipei International Cycle Show in early March gave Hong the best opportunity to size up his competition.

Hong said, "Most of the bike industry manufactures in Taiwan, China, and Southeast Asia. New bike brands are always coming out, but the successful ones have built their business over decades. We look for manufacturing partners who are going to stick with us for the long ride ahead. Meeting in-person was critical to starting these important relationships." Hong's own background has taught him that, in the relationship-driven Asian culture, a handshake over dinner and drinks is more reliable than a contract sent via email.

The bike has evolved, from hand-drawn sketches and AutoCAD schematics to a partially developed 3D model. Currently it exists as a mix of SolidWorks and Autodesk Fusion 360 3D data. Eventually the entire assembly -- consisting primarily of the frame, battery, and motor -- will be modeled in Autodesk Fusion 360.

"We wanted to design a battery that's smaller, lighter -- something that stands out more against the bike frame," explained Hong. So the battery case went from a square to an elongated enclosure. This seemingly minor change prompted Karmic Bikes to take a new look at its frame. "Once we decided on a different battery case, we also found out we had more frame choices," said Hong.

The final design for the battery pack's enclosure may not be coming from Karmic Bikes but from the general public. Hong and his team are gearing up for a design challenge to invite ideas.

Hong is also exploring the idea of a do-it-yourself e-bike kit as one of the products.

"For a bike that we built, we may be looking at retail prices around $1,500, which may still be beyond the reach of some. So we're thinking of also selling Karmic kits," he said.

Such a kit, Hong estimates, may cost roughly half the retail cost of the ready-to-ride e-bike itself. The kit -- comprising the Karmic Bikes-brand battery and motor -- should be easy enough to fit onto a standard bike.

Karmic Bikes recently added two new members to its advisory board: Scott Miller, cofounder and CEO of Dragon Innovation, and Matt Johnson, president of Slipstream Sports. Having been part of iRobot's Roomba project, Miller brings with him production design, engineering, and manufacturing experience. Slipstream's Johnson brings insights from his management of a U.S. pro cycling team.

DE plans to follow Karmic Bikes’ 90-day design challenge and report on the progress.

For more on Karmic Bikes, read the following:

A previous blog post, "California Startup Wants You to Help Design an Electric Bike for Good Karma."

Autodesk Fusion Forum blog post, "Karmic Bikes 90 Day Challenge -- What Have We Been Up To?"