Broadly talking, there are two kinds of e-bikes: Ones with a motor in one of many wheels, and ones with the motor mounted between the pedals. These within the former group, generally known as hub motors, are low cost and bountiful, however lack the oomph required to cowl tough terrain and excessive inclines. These within the latter group, generally known as mid-drive motors, have all the ability, however are heavy on the pockets as properly in your arms as you lug them round. Consequently, I’m excited by what Urtopia turned up with to CES 2025: Titanium Zero, a 3D-printed titanium idea e-bike weighing lower than 20 kilos packing Quark DM1.2, a custom-designed mid-drive motor that’s sufficiently small to suit inside the underside bracket and weighs simply 2.6 kilos by itself. By its personal admission, it’s not as brawny as chonky mid-drive fashions from Bafang and Bosch, however it could be an ideal various for much less excessive trails.
In fact, proper now it’s only a idea machine so we must always maintain the salt of affordable skepticism in our left palm always. Even so, Urtopia’s Titanium Zero is a lot gentle sufficient within the hand, wanting much more like an everyday steel-framed three-speed bike than an e-bike. Hell, if it didn’t have the little controller seen on the crossbar, you could possibly simply mistake this for an old-school racing bike, right down to the drop handlebars.
After which there’s the aforementioned Quark DM1.2, which provides one other layer of theoretical desirability onto the package deal. Urtopia says the tiny mid-drive motor can produce 65nm of max torque, which isn’t going to provide any of the larger names any nightmares; a Bafang M560 can output 130Nm. Nevertheless it’s a tough rule of thumb {that a} common rear hub motor can output round 40nm, so there’s a major efficiency increase. It’s the type of {hardware} I’m fairly keen to check on the comically steep hills close to to my house, simply to see if the claims match the fact.
Sadly, the Titanium Zero and Quark DM1.2 aren’t prepared for prime time, and so we’ll have to attend for now.
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