The Retro Rayvolt Cruzer — A New Face On The Electric Bicycle Cafe Racer Scene

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’60’s café racers and surfing beach cruisers have left an indelible mark on the psyche of a few generations, especially with The Beach Boys grooving on Fender Jaguars while riding Tritons sleekly from one end of the avenue to the other. We’re not talking about a Harley Chopper here. We’re talking about British bikes rearranged for more cafe cruising efficiency.

Cool Retro Look For Electric Bikes

retro cafe race e-bike

The retro cafe racer look for an electric bicycle (e-bike) is an appealing one. We’ve covered a few so far, and while some are downright cool, others have left us scratching our heads. The Rayvolt Bike’s Cruzer certainly comes in setting the bar very high.

This e-bike retro cafe racer uses a rear-hub electric motor that is completely controlled by an ingenious “EIVA” Rayvolt Hub.

retro cafe race e-bikeEIVA is another acronym used by Rayvolt to mean Intelligent Virtual Assistant. An e-bike that looks like a retro cafe racer and comes with a virtual assistant is a little intriguing, don’t you think? At the very least, it shows the incredible marriage of technologies that can be achieved and offered to the public with a wink on the past.

Where EIVA particularly shines is how it handles the mechanical aspects of the Cruzer. With the use of 6 levels of assistance ranging from no aid to maximum assistance, a screen allows you to tweak almost anything you need for your ride. If you just feel mentally lazy, or perhaps want to let someone try your Cruzer who has never ridden an e-bike before and feels skittish, you set the Cruzer to Auto mode. This mode detects the environment and adjusts the e-bike to deliver the right amount of assistance according to the terrain. This might seem as a nice added feature, but speaking from personal experience, we’ve meet a lot of people who want to ride our e-bikes but are scared, as if they were about to jump on a race motorcycle. It could be a handy feature.

A Retro Cafe Racer That’s An Electric Smart Bike

Technically, the Rayvolt Cruzer is a retro-looking smart e-bike. The AI manages the battery through the controller to apply the right amount of energy to the electric motor.retro cafe race e-bike The Rayvolt EIVA system has a built-in GPS. The rider has access to maps and virtual city guides for a more scenic ride. Technically, the EIVA system provides a diagnosis in case of an electronic fault in the motor and will launch a repair demand.

We were impressed to see that the Cruzer also offers regenerative braking with its RBS system. The EIVA handles the data flow to the controller in order to find the perfect torque. And the Rayvolt RBS can be tweaked through the Rayvolt Smart Computer.

Rayvolt Cruzer Battery & Motor

The Cruzer uses a 48V Samsung SDI battery pack instead of a more traditional 36V pack. The reason behind this is to use less current for the same speed. The 48V pack is rated at 10.5Ah with 567Wh of capacity, and the optional HQ Battery brings the latter figures up to 21Ah and a whooping 1,134Wh!

The Rayvolt Hub is a brushless 3 phase DC Motor with 48 copper coils positioned as far out as possible in order to squeeze even more torque out of it.

Conclusions on Rayvolt’s Smart E-Bike Retro Cafe Racer — Cruzer

There you go. The variety in e-bikes is pretty astonishing today, especially considering the lack thereof a few years back. Although the e-bike industry hasn’t yet hit its full market potential, we’re getting there. Companies offering a variety of e-bikes and that keep on innovating are the e-bike companies of tomorrow. Will the Rayvolt claw its way into a prime spot in the world of retro cafe racer e-bikes? Only time will tell.

Oh, and what about colors? Our favorite color is probably the Clockwork Orange, but the distinct title probably does help there. The Cruzer also come in British Green and Cool Grey.

Use our affiliate link KEEPSAFECT to get a free helmet with purchase of a Rayvolt Bike. If you use our link, we also get a few bucks from the sale, which costs you nothing, but helps us keep doing what we do here at CleanTechnica.

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Nicolas Zart

Nicolas was born and raised around classic cars of the 1920s, but it wasn't until he drove an AC Propulsion eBox and a Tesla Roadster that the light went on. Ever since he has produced green mobility content on various CleanTech outlets since 2007 and found his home on CleanTechnica. He grew up in an international environment and his communication passion led to cover electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, renewable energy, test drives, podcasts, shoot pictures, and film for various international outlets in print and online. Nicolas offers an in-depth look at the e-mobility world through interviews and the many contacts he has forged in those industries. His favorite taglines are: "There are more solutions than obstacles." and "Yesterday's Future Now"

Nicolas Zart has 572 posts and counting. See all posts by Nicolas Zart