If you thought electric bikes were just for commuting to work or cruising the local beach path, think again. High end electric bikes that combine electric motors with quality bike components result in some high-flying eMTBs that can safely and repeatedly catch big air. And the latest example comes to us by way of Canadian e-bike company Biktrix’s updated Monte Capro line.
You’ll want to see the big air this e-bike can catch when ridden by a capable jumper.
The Monte Capro series actually debuted over a year ago, but now Biktrix is launching a second generation of the e-bikes with upgraded features.
The carbon frame e-bikes feature high quality front and rear suspension that makes those cheap knock-off eMTBs look like bicycle shaped objects.
There are also two different motor options depending just how nuts you want to get with your power.
The more modestly outfitted version is the Biktrix Monte Capro Lite, which uses a 500W Bafang M600 motor with 120 Nm of torque. It’s probably more than enough for most riders out there, but there’s a bigger brother option for those that want to get crazier.
The Biktrix Monte Capro Ultra 2 uses the infamous Bafang Ultra M620 motor that puts out over 1,000W of continuous power and 160 Nm of torque.
That’s the version that you can see hitting a 30 ft (9 meter) jump in the video below (though it’s actually the first generation bike).
Both the Lite and Ultra 2 versions of the Monte Capro come with torque sensors for more responsive pedal assist. They also both feed that pedal assist through a pretty decent 11-speed SRAM NX transmission. Each model comes standard with a 48V 17Ah battery with 840 Wh of capacity, which is probably a wise choice to provide enough range for those powerful and torquey motors.
Quad-piston hydraulic disc brakes grace both models, which will help with those punchy one-finger stops while flying downhill on loose terrain.
Thumb throttles are also available for those that want to blast along without pedaling — a thought that is likely blasphemous to our European readers across the pond.
The Lite version comes in three different carbon fiber frame sizes and three colors of black, red or white. The Ultra 2 seems to have just a single frame size but comes in either a 3″ MTB tire or a 4.8″ extra fat tire. The Ultra 2 also has four color options of red, yellow, black and blue.
The Lite is of course more budget-friendly, though the $4,499 price tag isn’t exactly chump change. It definitely goes down easier than the $5,999 price of the Ultra version.
Electrek’s Take
These e-bikes look pretty darn impressive. Between the two Monte Capro models, I think I’d be more at home on the Lite. It’s just 40 lb (18 kg), which is a pretty crazy low weight for a high-power full-suspension e-bike like this. It’s only a pound and a half heavier than a significantly more expensive Specialized eMTB that isn’t even as powerful.
The 500W motor on the Lite model is also plenty of power. I love that Ultra motor and I’ve ridden plenty of e-bikes that use it, but for true trail riding, that big motor is likely overpowered.
Just make sure you ride these types of e-bikes responsibly when you’re around other riders and that you stick to trails that allow throttle-enabled e-bikes. Or unplug that throttle and limit the speed to 20 mph to stay legal as a Class 1 e-bike, which will likely net you access to a larger number of trails and bike parts.
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Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura oil refinery and oil terminal
Ahmed Jadallah | Reuters
Saudi state oil giant Aramco reported a 15.4% drop in net profit in the third-quarter on the back of “lower crude oil prices and weakening refining margins,” but maintained a 31.05 billion dividend.
The company reported net income of $27.56 billion in the July-September period, topping a company-provided estimate of $26.9 billion. The print is also a 5% drop from the previous quarter, which came in at $29.1 billion, as lower global oil prices, weaker demand and prolonged OPEC+ production cuts led by Saudi Arabia continue to impact crude prices.
The average selling price of oil for the second quarter of 2024 stood at $85 per barrel, but dropped to $78.7 per barrel during the third quarter, according to Saudi-based bank Al Rajhi capital, as non-OPEC supply volumes grew.
The oil firm said its year-on-year decline was partly offset by a “reduction in selling, administrative and general expenses primarily driven by a gain from derivative instruments, and a decrease in production royalties largely reflecting lower crude oil prices and a lower average effective royalty rate compared to the same quarter last year.”
Aramco’s dividend includes a base payout of $20.3 billion and an atypical performance-linked one of $10.8 billion. The Saudi government and the kingdom’s sovereign wealth vehicle, the Public Investment Fund, are the main beneficiaries of the dividend, holding stakes of roughly 81.5% and 16% in the company.
The remaining shareholding trades freely on Saudi Arabia’s Tadāwul stock exchange, with the company having finalized its second public share offering back in June.
Aramco’s earnings before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) came in at $51.45 billion in the third quarter, down 17% year-on-year. Aramco’s capital expenditure guidance was brought up 20% to $13.23 billion.
The company was trading at 27.45 riyals following the announcement, down 0.18% on the previous day.
The earnings align with a broader trend across oil majors, whose third-quarter profits have also suffered from declines in crude prices and refining margins. Aramco said it achieved average realized crude price of $79.3 per barrel in the third quarter, compared with $89.3 per barrel in the same period of last year.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter who produces roughly 9 million barrels per day of crude at present, serves as the de facto leader of the OPEC+ oil producers’ alliance, a subset of whom agreed over the weekend to delay a planned December output hike by one month.
“Aramco delivered robust net income and generated strong free cash flow during the third quarter, despite a lower oil price environment,” CEO Amin Nasser said in a statement. “We also progressed our upstream developments, strengthened our downstream value chain, and advanced our new energies program as we continue to invest through cycles.”
The revenues will be a boon to the Saudi economy, which is currently undergoing a diversification process under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s legacy Vision 2030 scheme spanning a slew of high-cost infrastructure “gigaprojects.”
Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance cut the kingdom’s growth forecast to 0.8% in 2024, in a steep decline from a previous projection of 4.4%, and raised the outlook for the national budgetary shortfall to roughly 2.9% of GDP, from a prior indication of 1.9%.
On today’s episode of Quick Charge, Tesla’s Cybertruck is now available in Canada – and, like in the US, there’s no waiting! Plus, we’ve got an “actually” smart summon Tesla that’s actually stuck, GM reaches a sales milestone, and we get a brand-new title sponsor!
Today’s episode is the first with our new title sponsor, BLUETTI – a leading provider of portable power stations, solar generators, and energy storage systems.
New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonusLucid proves than an EV company can keep its promises while Xiaomi teams up with Chevrolet and Honda to prove – at least conceptually – that records are made to be broken. audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news!
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Mobile car care company Yoshi Mobility launched a DC fast charging EV mobile unit that it likens to “a supercharger on wheels.”
November 4, 2024 update: Yoshi Mobility will only be charging EVs on the side of the road now – it announced today that it’s selling its fleet fueling operation to EZFill Holdings (Nasdaq: EZFL).
It was originally founded as a direct-to-consumer, mobile fueling business in 2016, but now it’s going to focus on mobile EV charging, virtual vehicle inspections for partners like Uber and Turo, and onsite preventative maintenance.
Bryan Frist, Yoshi Mobility’s CEO & cofounder, said, “By spinning off our fuel business and focusing all of our energy on solving hair-on-fire problems that fleet owners face, we are meeting the changing needs of enterprise customers while making the future of transportation safer, cleaner, and more sustainable.”
May 22, 2024: Yoshi Mobility saw that its existing customers needed mobile EV charging in places where infrastructure has yet to be installed, so the Nashville-based company decided to bring the mountain to Moses.
“We recognized a demand among our customers for convenient daily charging, reliable private charging networks, and proper charging infrastructure to support their fleet vehicles as they transition to electric,” said Dan Hunter, Yoshi Mobility’s chief EV officer and cofounder.
The company says its 240 kW mobile DC fast charger, which can turn “any EV” into a mobile charging unit, is the first fully electric mobile charger available. It can provide multiple charges in a single trip but doesn’t detail how they charge the DC fast charger or who manufactured it. (I asked for more details, and they replied that they won’t disclose client names or the manufacturer of its DC fast charger yet.)
Yoshi is launching its mobile charger on two GM BrightDrop Zevo 600s and will introduce additional vehicles throughout 2024. It aims for full commercialization by Q1 2025. (I wonder if the Zevo 600 ever charges itself? Yes, I asked that too.)
Yoshi Mobility says it’s already deployed its EV charging solutions to service “major OEMs, autonomous vehicle companies, and rideshare operators” across the US. Its initial customers are made up of large EV operators managing “hundreds” of light-duty vehicles requiring up to 1 megawatt of energy per day that don’t yet have grid-connected EV chargers. I’ve asked Yoshi for details of who it’s working with, and will update if they share that info.
The company says pricing is based on location and enterprise charging needs. Once under contract for service, the service will be deployed to US-based customers within 10 days.
To date, Yoshi Mobility has raised more than $60 million, with investments from GM Ventures, Bridgestone, ExxonMobil, and Y-Combinator in Silicon Valley.
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