When it comes to bicycles, lifelong Portlander Brad Davis has always been more interested in the machine than the act of riding. Now, as the owner of Nomad Cycles on Northeast Sandy Boulevard for the past nine years, he’s finally able to offer a bike of his own.
The new DoubleDown electric bike is Nomad’s first model. It represents over 20 years of Davis’ insights and experiences in the e-bike industry. A former mechanic at (now closed) Coventry Cycle Works, Davis cut his teeth in the e-bike world at EcoSpeed, which he claims was the first e-bike company in Oregon. He met the founder at the Oregon Country Fair and was “Blown away by the social and environmental implications of e-bikes.” EcoSpeed made motors and batteries that could be fit onto existing bicycles. It was at EcoSpeed where Davis filed for a patent for a mid-drive electric motor system way back in 2003. By 2014, Davis had gone from the company’s first employee, to its owner, and the products had such a strong reputation that he sold 94 EcoSpeed units and raised nearly $100,000 in a Kickstarter campaign.
Davis, now 46, started Nomad Cycles in 2016 and has built it into the go-to destination for high quality e-bike conversions.
“It’s always been my dream, since before I even opened the shop, to launch my own bike brand,” a smiling Davis shared in my backyard on Thursday. He and Tim Weeks, Nomad’s designer and fabricator, rolled by to show off the new rig (they came to me because I’m unable to ride due to my knee replacement surgery rehabilitation).
Davis’ expertise is batteries and motors, so he needed a bike builder. He found Weeks to be an extremely capable and willing partner.
“There are a lot of bikes out there that are mass-produced and don’t meet basic comfort standards,” Weeks said. “You can ride a lot of e-bikes that don’t feel like they’re riding a bike, and that’s kind of It’s a bummer. Why not have an e-bike that actually feels like riding a bike and makes it a little easier for you to get around?”
Going into the project, Davis and Weeks had three goals: They wanted a bike that was: fun to ride; had enough power for serious hauling and hills; and that would be modular and “future-proof” so customers could choose their drive system and update it without the bike becoming obsolete.
“Future-friendliness was a core part of the idea,” Davis explained. “It’s not built around a Shimano or Bosch system; we made it so you can use any battery or motor.” That being said, Davis is in love with one drive system in particular — it’s from CYC Motor in Hong Kong. “This is by far, hands down, the best battery on the market that I’ve ever seen,” Davis gushed.
The DoubleDown was also built to be more easily serviced by the end-user than most e-bikes. The bottom bracket has a relatively standard 73 millimeter spacing holding on the rear wheel is a 142 mm thru-axle. If you don’t want a mid-drive (where the motor is near the bottom bracket in the middle of the bike), there’s also a hub motor option available.
The frame itself was designed to be resilient. “It works on a cantilever design, so it actually has some amount of give to it,” Weeks shared. “What that does is smooth out all those bumpy Portland roads.” Davis calls the steel tubing design a, “passive suspension” system. “It rides like a custom bike and it feels great. I think that’s pretty dope.”
For an extra $400 on top of the $5,500 retail price you can get a very cool front basket rack made by Weeks. It’s got an integrated lock carrier and a spot to hold a drink cup.
The bike can be a Class 2 or Class 3, meaning it can go up to 20 mph with a throttle or up to 28 mph with just pedal-assist. battery is a 10 amp hour. 52 volt battery. It also can have a 15 amp hour 52 volt battery.The 750 watt CYC Motor drive system (paired with either a 10Ah or 15Ah, 52V battery) gives the bike plenty of power. That’s something that sets Davis apart from some local bike shops: he embraces power.
“I like enough power to get up to the top of Mount Tabor,” Davis said in what sounded like a defense of strong e-bike motors. “I know what it feels like to ride with power and be able to haul a load and be able to do all the things. Some people might be afraid to talk about it, but that’s why electric-assist is a democratizing force in the the world of cycling.”
So far Weeks and Davis feel like they’re onto something. They haven’t even launched the bikes and they’ve sold two. Shop customers saw them on the showroom floor, asked to test ride them, and came back sold. The bike will launch officially at the MADE Bike Show in Portland on August 22nd. Davis plans to use Kickstarter for the first batch of customers.
This dynamic duo of Weeks and Davis know the challenge ahead. The bike industry can be brutal and we’re in especially tricky times.
The DoubleDown name comes from the bike’s distinctive twin downtubes. When I asked about that, Weeks replied with laughter, “It’s also kind of like what we’re doing with this launching a handbuilt e-bike. We’re doubling down.”
“Yeah, we’re all in,” Davis added.
Thanks for reading.
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Heck yes, ya’ll! Stoked to see this come to market
It’s a great option to have. Converted an old hybrid a few months ago, very useful for those “too tired to ride, but despise driving with a seething passion” type days.
What material is the bike frame? It doesn’t say in the article.
Steel!!
Given that the vast majority of manufactured ebikes on the market are hydroform aluminum, I’d think they would want to emphasize the steel (likely cromoly) construction a bit, especially with a higher-than-average $5,500 price tag. For those of us who are big & tall (i.e. obese) it’s very hard to find a steel ebike in a standard size (as opposed to a Surly which tends to be extra long), let alone an ebike frame made in the USA.
I really appreciate that they’re trying to create a e-bike that doesn’t completely source soon to be obsolete components. Forcing owners to relay on a small business for lifetime support would definitely make it a harder sell and I hope to see more open-ish source e-bikes enter the marketplace.
At that price point I’d expect well executed fenders, integrated lights, and a chain guard at a minimum. I’m currently working for a company that’s manufacturing it’s critical bits in Oregon with lots of fabrication and machining in the Portland metro area so I’ve got some idea of what’s involved.
Or at least some braze-ons so you could easily add them yourself. I didn’t notice any in the video.
On the video I saw they had added fender and rack braze-ons on both the front fork and rear dropouts plus on the inside of the seat-stay bridge.
I don’t care about a chain guard, but fenders would be nice. Does it come in sizes? Looks small in the pictures, with a giant stack of headtube spacers.
Maybe correct sizing isn’t as important on electrified bicycles, because you’re sort of just sitting there?
Fenders are so subject to personal preference (width, material, color, length) that I wouldn’t want the bike company making that choice for me.
How much does the bike weigh?
When you’re running an e-bike, one doesn’t need to count every ounce (just look at all the fat-tires around). Sure, lighter is better for battery efficiency, and I bet this bike is a lot lighter than the average mass-produced e-bike. Its design is so sleek and without extra bulk.
My question has more to do with lifting the bike and bringing it on transit rather than riding with the motor on.
If you have a pack or sturdy shoulder bag along, you can dismount the battery while you wait for the train. The 10 pounds or more of the battery makes a big difference in lifting the bike onto the hook. This also means that if someone grabs an unlocked bike they can’t ride away with e-assist.
Some of the newer “fat tires” out there are amazingly light, with or without inner tubes, and some are even puncture-proof folding tires (e.g. Continental Pure Contact), even compared to 700c racing tires. The main weight is typically the motor and the battery, which together often weigh more than the rest of the bike.
This is true for those with the luxurious privilege of roll-in parking at their “house” and “work” (often the same thing for the expensive-e-bike class) but not true for many people who are e-bike curious.
For $5900 it better be under 20lbs
Impossible
Maybe a 12-lb $5,000 custom track or fixie bike with a $900 8-lb Swytch road system?
I ride a 25 lb city commuter e-bike that is very much over-built so this is absolutely possible.
(I have to lug my e-bike up a flight of stairs so don’t @ me about why light e-bike are unnecessary).
What brand ebike?
lemond prolog purchased for 4k* in 2021. (do not recommend at all as the bikes are poorly designed and the company does not stand by its warranty at all.)
*tax the actual living **** out of rich people like me
Bummer. I wanted those bikes to be good.
He never answers. I asked him before when he brought it up, but got no reply.
He did answer though.
No specs on there website yet. From the CYCMOTO site the motor is 12.4lbs and the battery is 11.0 lbs. I will use my own steel frame road bike for reference 28lbs. It would put this bike at 51.4lbs. It could be less or could be more. That 50 lbs. seems to be where a lot of EV bikes run.
Amtrak has a 50lb limit on how heavy a bike they’ll put on their baggage car hooks. In any case, the rider has to lift the bike usually about 5 feet from low-platform stations to the baggage car attendant and back again at their destination, which for many riders even 40 lbs is way too much. (High-platform stations like you see in Europe where you can simply roll the bike onboard are pretty much limited to certain US stations in the NE Corridor.)
Most ebikes seem to be in the 50-75 lbs range, especially with fenders, rack, water bottles, panniers, tool kit, etc. Trek now offers a road ebike that is 32 lbs for around $3,500, Specialized and Santa Cruz have something similar, but that weight is before accessories are added. Batteries typically weigh 6-8 lbs but can be easily removed and carried separately.
So here are the issues with E-bikes on Amtrak.
E-bikes:
Batteries in Baggage:
Airlines are even more restrictive. The max size is 100 watt hours. 101 – 160 can be carried with airline permission.
When I looked at CYMOTO site the two battery sizes listed were 520Wh and 780Wh.
So travel with an E-bike is not easy.
I believe every E-bike should be sold with a lithium-ion battery that is certified.
Oddly enough, probably 95% of people I see riding ebikes seem capable of this daring feat using human power alone.
No lithium mining required!
Could be hard if you have a trailer with a couple children in tow. I know I switched to electric after having a kid. And now my bike mode share is higher than it has been any time in my life.
Looks good. I’d ride one without a motor even
Glad to see a local build. Unfortunately at that price it’s only for the wealthy capitalists.
Really? Let’s think about that price. This isn’t a toy (which is how a lot of Americans think about anything with two wheels). It’s a transportation option that can replace the great majority of car trips and mix with any roll-on transit to cover an even wider area. Lots of people who are neither wealthy nor capitalists operate cars. Assuming that you could find an operable car for $5400 that car would continue to get right in your pocket in a way that no bike ever will.
For the price I would also like fenders and lights, of course, but you have to consider it’s being built by local humans in small batches at most. Also remember that most of that price is labor and the money stays in town and cycles through the economy multiple times. The builders and the dealer are in town, if there are any issues you can go see them in person (if you’re part of the cohort that likes that sort of thing).
Easily affordable on an average income, assuming you don’t spend thousands every year on an automobile.
I got my Breezer converted at Nomad. It’s heavy and fast. I hope this is the beginning of a series highlighting other Portland dealers, including PX Cycles on N. Interstate.