Super73: Meet the e-bike company that old fogies love to hate
Anyone that’s into e-bikes is almost certainly already aware of Super73. And if you aren’t into e-bikes, then you’ve probably at least seen some Super73s riding around your town. They’re the admittedly motorcycle-looking electric bikes that haven proven extremely popular with young riders in the US. And perhaps that’s the first clue as to why Super73 seems to get more hate than anyone when it comes to criticizing e-bikes.
That always seemed a bit strange to me since I’ve only had positive interactions with the brand. I’ve enjoyed joining on organized Super73 group rides in Los Angeles and even rode a Super73 across Germany with my publisher. So to learn more, I sat down with the company’s CEO LeGrand Crewse to discuss e-bikes, riding culture and why Super73 seems to have such a big target on its back.
Electric bike sales have been booming for years in the US as riders discover the useful and fun alternative to car ownership or public transportation. But with more riders has also come more scrutiny, especially when a subset of those riders flout traffic laws.
If you’ve been following the slew of anti e-bike stories in the New York Times and other publications, you’ll notice a common thread. Super73 is often singled out as some type of key offender. It seems that if you’re at least middle-aged and have a bone to pick with people on e-bikes, then Super73 is the go-to punching bag.
Part of that is likely due to Super73’s appeal with younger riders, which is by design. “We say that we fuse motorcycle heritage with youth culture,” Crewse explained to me.
Based on the company’s data, the average age of a Super73 rider is in their 30s. “Popular opinion might think that it’s 15,” he laughed, “but it’s not.”
Outside of Super73’s K1D balance bike, all of the company’s e-bikes are design for ages 16 and up. Of course that doesn’t mean that younger teenagers won’t find their way onto e-bikes purchased by adults, but that’s not an issue that is entirely unique to Super73.
That moto-heritage in the company’s mission statement is quite evident when you look at the customization culture of Super73’s community of riders. “There’s an incredibly strong and storied history of customization in the motorcycle world that’s something that we’ve embraced,” Crewse explained.
And that customization is on full display when you see the diversely decorated and customized e-bikes in action. I’ve personally seen Super73s without a single inch of visible frame left, entirely wrapped in colorful vinyl or otherwise turned into rolling works of art.
Super73 has a decently large accessory catalog, but for serious customizations the free market has stepped forward. Entire companies have sprung up offering aftermarket customization kits that can personalize a Super73 e-bike in seemingly unlimited ways to make each bike one-of-a-kind. Many of those companies were actually started by Super73 riders from the brand’s own riding community, Crewse boasts.
One the reasons that the company is often at the forefront of the debate over e-bikes is likely due to the brand’s recognizability, said Crewse. “We have a very visible brand, our bikes don’t just blend into the background. Most traditional e-bikes are hard to identify from a distance, but that’s not so with a Super73.” Furthermore, since the company landed on the scene in 2016 and popularized moto-styled electric bikes, dozens of brands have sprung up to imitate the Super73 styling, further muddying the waters.
Another facet of Super73’s culture that tends to raise grey eyebrows is the extensive and close knit community built around the brand. I’ve worked in the e-bike industry for nearly 15 years and covered it online, in print and in videos for 10 years. I’ve never seen an e-bike brand with a more loyal or dedicated community than what has sprung up around Super73’s bikes.
This level of community dedication is perhaps most visible in the company’s group rides. Super73 often organizes group rides, which are open to any riders regardless of brand and usually take a path through a mixture of public streets, on-road bike lanes and off-road bike trails – all places where e-bikes are legally allowed to ride. I’ve been on a couple of these rides over the years and seen the effort put into safety, including a rider briefing at the start to cover road rules and route, as well as lead and tail riders from the Super73 team keeping the group together and safe. That doesn’t mean you won’t see riders popping wheelies along the way, but there’s also no law that says both bike tires have to remain on the ground – no matter how much it seems to bother some onlookers.
Any riders who are legitimately reckless or endanger others find themselves less-than-welcome at future rides. This is often done by the community itself, which tends to be fairly self-policing. No one wants to ride around someone who could end up hurting them.
As Crewse explained, many of those types of troublemakers don’t stick with Super73 long anyway, often moving on to other brands that offer higher power and have a looser interpretation of safety regulations (my words, not his).
In fact, the blending of motorcycle heritage with youth culture has created another interesting effect in the community: Many riders voluntarily don much more safety gear than most other e-bike riders. While you’ll still see plenty of helmetless riders just like any e-bike brand, there’s a somewhat confounding appreciation for increased safety gear among many riders.
It’s common to see Super73 riders wearing motorcycle helmets, gloves, and other moto-style protective gear. This is despite the bikes traveling at the same speed as nearly all other e-bike brands, and is perhaps merely a reflection of the community’s embrace of several aspects of motorcycle culture.
Riding two-up, another common sight on motorcycles, is also common on Super73s (though many e-bikes now support this). The bikes have longer saddles and have optional rear foot pegs to support a second rider. This isn’t some dangerous modification, but rather a designed-in feature.
I’ve ridden Super73s with my wife on back (and been ridden around on the back of the bike while she drives), and it’s a fun experience to share.
In addition to company-sponsored official group rides, there are also unofficial Super73 group rides put on by bike owners themselves. They can even occur somewhat spontaneously, though these admittedly aren’t likely to carry the same emphasis on safety compared to Super73’s officially staffed group rides.
“Just like any other motorized vehicle, there are people who are going to follow the laws and ride in a conscientious manner. And there are going to be others that will disregard laws and show a lack of respect for others,” Crewse explained. “We always try to highlight and embrace the former, people who follow all the laws and rules.”
The company has made efforts to promote safety in a number of ways, especially among its younger rider base. Much of the work has begun locally with pilot programs that can hopefully be expanded nationally. The company has worked with schools to create safe riding instruction as well as secure bike parking on high school campuses, with one of the stipulations for accessing that secured parking area being the completion of the safety courses.
“I think what is most exciting to me is our work done directly with schools,” Crewse added. Since Super73 e-bikes have proven popular as a way for high schoolers to ride to school, these programs help target those young riders where they are.
Another issue often attributed to Super73 is e-bike hot-rodding, or modifying electric bikes to reach illegally fast speeds.
In most but not all states in the US, there are three legally defined e-bike classes for use on public roads. Class 1 e-bikes can reach 20 mph (32 km/h) on pedal assist only. Class 2 e-bikes are the same, but can do so with a hand throttle instead of pedal assist. Class 3 e-bikes can reach faster 28 mph (45 km/h) speeds but can’t have a throttle. All three are limited to 750W of power (one horsepower) and must have functional bicycle pedals.
As Crewse explained, Super73 e-bikes ship to customers as Class 2 e-bikes. Riders can use the smartphone app to switch them into Class 3 mode, though only temporarily. When the bike shuts off, it always reverts back to Class 2 limitations.
There’s also an off-road mode that is meant for use on private property, though no one is naive enough to think it isn’t likely still used on the road by many riders. As Crewse explained though, even the off-road mode isn’t all that much faster. “You can’t go insane speeds on a Super73,” he said.
Depending on their weight and the riding terrain, some riders are able to achieve slightly over the 28 mph Class 3 limit when riding in fully unlocked mode, he explained, but added that it’s “well within the +/-10% threshold that is well established in the industry as well as in automotive and other circles.”
As Crewse explained, “the bikes mechanically can’t go much faster than 28 mph.” This is where I get to dust off my engineering degree and confirm that he’s right. Electric motors spin proportionally fast to their supplied voltage. Removing the software speed limiter on a Super73 lets the motor hit its theoretical limit, but that limit is only around 30 mph with a lightweight rider on flat ground. A Super73 e-bike battery simply doesn’t have enough voltage to make it spin any faster.
That doesn’t stop many naysayers from claiming they see Super73 bikes zipping around town at motorcycle speeds. Part of that is likely because 28 mph – the legal limit for e-bike speeds in the US – looks quite fast. And it is fast. Closing in on 30 mph is no joke.
But another reason is because there are companies out there that make complete drivetrain swaps for Super73s. The kits enable much higher power and speed levels and make the resulting bike “very illegal,” as Crewse says.
Such kits come with new high voltage batteries as well as replacement motors and speed controllers. Often all that is left of the original bike are the mechanical components – essentially the frame, seat and pedals. The rest is a new high-power electric drive system.
Crewse detailed how the company clearly doesn’t support this. But also, there’s not much they can do. GM can’t stop someone from buying a Chevy Bolt and dropping in a Tesla Plaid powertrain.
Through the course of an hour talking shop with Crewse, it became clear that the e-bike bogeyman painted by many in the media here simply doesn’t exist. At least not in the way it’s been presented.
Sure, younger riders gravitate towards Super73 because the company gives them a community in which to flourish. The bikes are ripe for personalization and become more than just a means of transportation – they become a source of pride and self expression.
And yes, you’re likely going to see groups of Super73 riders cruising the streets together. But as long as they’re following the law, they have every bit as much right to be there as the 7,000 pound SUVs that also cruise the streets together.
As a company and as a community, Super73 has embraced a focus on rider education and safety while still providing a fun alternative form of transportation.
At the end of the day, it’s just an electric bike. For better or for worse, what really matters is what you do with it.
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Tesla will continue to extend its “one-time” FSD transfer scheme for at least another quarter, according to CEO Elon Musk at today’s Tesla shareholder meeting.
Tesla’s shareholder meeting is underway, and the big headline is that shareholders have enthusiastically voted against their own interests, diluting their own voting rights and handing more control of the company to the one person on Earth currently negatively affecting its business the most, CEO Elon Musk.
At the end of the meeting, Tesla hosted a Q&A session with shareholders in attendance, and one of them asked a question we’ve heard before: whether Tesla owners who purchased Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software, which still has not been delivered despite the first purchases happening almost a decade ago at this point, would be able to transfer the licenses to that undelivered software if they choose to buy a new Tesla vehicle.
So far, Tesla’s official policy has been that owners must purchase FSD with each new vehicle they buy, and can’t transfer the licenses between them. However, it did offer a “one-time” exception to that rule for a two month period in 2023. After that, Tesla owners would never be allowed to transfer their FSD license again.
Well, except for the next time that Tesla allowed it. Then the next time. Then Tesla saying no, it won’t come back. Then it came back.
And now, it’s still active, having started in April.
So, the question was perhaps a little out of date. The program hasn’t just been active for a single quarter this time, but for the last half-year. There is no listed end date on Tesla’s website.
Nevertheless, Musk answered the question thusly:
We have done that a few times. I guess we could extend it again. Alright, we’ll extend it for at least another quarter, and then play it by ear after that.
This in fact seems like a limitation as compared to the current status of the program, since it is active with no end date at the moment. Musk mentioning that it might only last for another quarter suggests it may end earlier than Tesla’s website language currently suggests.
However, it’s been apparent all along that this is more of a way to stoke demand, hoping to get current owners to purchase FSD on new cars, so Tesla can hold on to the up to $15,000 it charged those owners for undelivered software.
Musk has continually stated, for more than a decade, that FSD is right around the corner. Consumers were led to believe that their FSD systems would be active soon, with Musk often stating it would be released by “next year.” Musk said that owners would be able to make money by running a robotaxi service, and that their cars would be “appreciating assets” because of it – and now Tesla is making revenue like that, but you can’t.
The years have come and went, and many cars are either out of service, getting old and reaching time for replacement, or owners have been scared away by Musk’s disgusting and high-profile political actions which have included sympathizing with Nazis.
Those owners who have moved on will seemingly never get back their investment into the false promises that Musk advanced, but it only makes sense that owners who do want to retain their license and move it to a new vehicle should be able to do so. Tesla sold software, the software still isn’t working, and people should be able to enjoy that software for a reasonable amount of time if they bought it.
And yet, Tesla continues jerking its most loyal owners around, those who have held strong through the incredible brand damage Musk is doing, and suggesting that the right thing to do is only available as a limited opportunity – trying to nickel and dime the most loyal owners into buying new cars earlier than they would have planned, with the specter of having to re-purchase FSD if they didn’t do so.
That said, there are several current cases in court covering the issue of Tesla’s false advertising regarding FSD. So this issue might be solved for the company by outside forces eventually anyway. But it would have been better if Tesla just did the right thing to begin with – which it continually resists doing.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk pushed back the dates for a demo of the next-gen Tesla Roadster, which he has said will be able to “fly” and suggested that it might not even be a car at all.
Tesla has been teasing the existence of a future, high-performance sportscar model for years now. Originally it was unveiled in 2017 for a 2020 release, but has been repeatedly pushed back, with another delay today.
Just last week, Musk said that a demo was coming at the end of the year of the Roadster, and that it would be perhaps the most exciting demo of any product ever. Musk also stated that the Roadster will have more tech than all James Bond vehicles combined
Today, he was asked a question at Tesla’s shareholder meeting about the status of that project (including whether the “James Bond” tech would make it to other Teslas – to which Musk responded “um, no”). Here’s the full answer regarding the product’s unveiling:
The product unveil of the Roadster 2, which will be very different than what we’ve shown previously, that demo event will be April 1 of next year. I have some deniability because I can say I was just kidding. But we are actually tentatively aiming for April 1, for what I think will be the most exciting, whether it works or not, demo of any product. And then I guess production is probably about 12-18 months after that. I think production is about a year or so after that.
When the questioner seemed to respond with disbelief with that answer (who ever thought that this car could ever possibly be delayed?!), Musk answered:
Well, I can’t give away secrets, but you won’t be disappointed.
Musk also said, during the meeting, that owners of Founders’ Series reservations, which represent a $250,000 loan given to Tesla for the last 8 years, would all be invited to the demo.
This new timeline represents yet another delay for the oft–delayed vehicle. The most recent official announcement suggested it would go into production this year, though Musk has waffled on that.
So, this official announcement puts us back to a timeline of April 1 for the reveal, which is a delay of at least 3 months from when it was supposed to occur as of last week, and production starting (not cars hitting the road) at least in April 2027, or at late as potentially October 2027. If we take the higher end of that range, then the Roadster is likely to only be available in 2028, 11 years after its first unveiling and 8 years after original estimates.
That said, it’s not much of a surprise that the Roadster would be delayed again. Just last week, we saw a new job listing for the Roadster, looking for a “concept development” engineer. That’s a fairly early part of the production process, and even makes it seem like a 2027 release could be optimistic.
In the interim, several other high-performance electric cars have appeared to give the “hard-core smack down” to gas-powered cars that Musk promised.
We’ve seen records set by the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, built by a smartphone company from concept to production in just a couple years. We’ve seen the Rimac Nevera R get to 186mph faster than a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport. We’ve seen the Lotus Evija X, which set the third-fastest Nurburgring lap ever, only beaten by two one-off, track-only, purpose-built racecars (one of which is a hybrid, the other is electric). And we’ve seen the BYD Yangwang U9 Xtreme become the fastest production car ever at 308(!!!) miles per hour.
These are milestones that the Roadster might have been able to take a shot at, but time has passed it by, and others have stepped in in the Roadster’s absence.
But maybe that doesn’t matter, because Musk’s comments today suggest the Roadster might not be what we expected.
All along, it has been assumed that the Roadster will be something like the original version unveiled in 2017. But today, Musk said it will be “very different than what we’ve shown previously.” We don’t know what those differences entail – whether it just means the car will have new tech, or if it will be a completely different style of car.
We can imagine that anyone who gave Tesla a $250,000 loan for ten years might be bothered by ending up with a totally different bill of goods than they put their money down for, though, so we hope the plan is to at least keep it a sportscar.
There are some questions about whether these technologies Musk has mentioned will be on the car, though, and if they will be helpful for anything other than a demo if so.
Recently, Tesla patented a “fan car” system which would enhance grip. It’s actually a pretty cool patent, with interesting improvements over previous implementations of the same idea.
But it is decidedly not a “flying car.” In fact, being able to fly would not actually help sportscar performance, and would actually hurt it. Sportscars are typically looking to maximize downforce in the most efficient manner, in order to enhance grip, but to fly, one must create “upforce,” which isn’t a term anyone uses because it creates no actual performance benefit.
So, while it is highly expected that the Roadster demo might be able to “fly,” we hope that doesn’t make it to production on a sportscar, as that’s more of a parlor trick and would take performance benefits away from where they would be more useful – like having a fan car system, or directional jets to increase lateral acceleration, rather than useless upwards acceleration.
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Elon Musk announced today that Tesla will enable its electric vehicle owners with (Supervised) Full Self-Driving (FSD) to “text and drive” in “a month or two,” without explaining how they will get around the clear laws that prohibit that.
As recently as a few months ago, Musk was again claiming that Tesla would finally deliver its long-promised “unsupervised self-driving” to consumer vehicles by the end of the year – something he has done every year for the last 6 years and never delivered.
The latest timeline is less than 2 months away.
At Tesla’s shareholders meeting today, Musk updated his timeline – now saying Tesla is a “few months away” from unsupervised FSD – potentially pushing it into 2026.
He also added that Tesla is “almost” ready to allow “texting and driving’ on FSD and said he expects Tesla to enable it within “a month or two.”
However, the CEO didn’t elaborate on how Tesla plans to enable that.
Texting and driving is illegal in most jurisdictions, including the US. There are significant fines and legal penalties if caught. To “allow that”, Tesla would need to take responsibility for the consumer vehicles when FSD is driving, which would mean the previously promised “unsupervised self-driving” or SAE levels 3 to 5 autonomous driving.
There are several legal and regulatory steps Tesla must take to make it happen, and so far, there’s no evidence that the automaker has embarked on that journey.
So far, Tesla has limited itself to pilot projects with internal fleets to offer ride-hailing services with in-car supervisors where regulations allow.
Musk said that Tesla will “look at the data” before allowing texting and driving.
Tesla has notoriously never released any relevant data regarding the safety of its autonomous driving features.
The automaker does release a quarterly “Autopilot safety report”, which consists of Tesla releasing the miles driven between crashes for Tesla vehicles with Autopilot features turned on, and comparing that with the miles driven by vehicles with Autopilot technology with the features not turned on, as well as the US average mileage between crashes.
There are three major problems with these reports:
- Methodology is self‑reported. Tesla counts only crashes that trigger an airbag or restraint; minor bumps are excluded, and raw crash counts or VMT are not disclosed.
- Road type bias. Autopilot is mainly used on limited‑access highways—already the safest roads—while the federal baseline blends all road classes. Meaning there are more crashes per mile on city streets than highways.
- Driver mix & fleet age. Tesla drivers skew newer‑vehicle, higher‑income, and tech‑enthusiast; these demographics typically crash less.
For the first time today, Tesla appears to have separated the Autopilot and FSD mileage, which gives us a little more data, but it still has many of the same problems listed above:
The main issue is that this data doesn’t prove that FSD crashes once every 4.92 million miles, but that human plus FSD crashes every 4.92 million miles based on Tesla’s own definition of a crash.
In comparison, we have official data from Tesla’s Robotaxi program in Austin, which is supposedly more advanced than FSD, showing a crash every 62,500 miles. That’s also with a safety supervisor on board, preventing more crashes.
Electrek’s Take
Another false promise and false hope to keep Tesla owners and shareholders going for a few more months.
You can’t just “allow texting and driving”. Laws are preventing that. Musk must mean Tesla officially making FSD a level 3 to 4 autonomous driving system and taking responsibility for it when active.
So far, in the US, only Mercedes-Benz has that capacity for stretches of highways in California and Nevada under SAE level 3 autonomy.
I feel like there are so many things that need to happen before that.
First off, logically, Tesla removing its in-car supervisors in its robotaxi service in Austin should come way sooner. Then, it should be able to demonstrate that they don’t crash every few tens of thousands of miles, which is the case right now with supervisors preventing further crashes.
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