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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Environment
EcoFlow DELTA 3 Plus exclusive offer at $535, Hoverfly foldable e-bike $423, Anker 90K mAh power station $198, more
We’re kicking off a new week here with a nice roundup of power station, e-bike, and other various markdowns in today’s edition of Green Deals. For starters, we’ve unpacked an exclusive offer on EcoFlow’s mid-range DELTA 3 Plus portable power station at $535, but you can also find the rather affordable Hoverfly foldable H3 e-bike as low as $423, and that’s alongside Anker’s SOLIX C300 AC 90,000mAh LiFePO4 power station at $198, but don’t sleep on that one because it expires at the end of the day.
Head below for more and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.
Exclusive: Here’s one of the best prices to date on EcoFlow’s mid-range DELTA 3 Plus portable power station at $535
We have secured an exclusive discount on the EcoFlow DELTA 3 Plus 1024Wh LiFePO4 Portable Power Station today for 9to5toys readers. Coming courtesy of the folks at Wellbots, using code 9TO5D3P at checkout will drop your total down to $534.65 shipped. Regularly listed at $799 directly from EcoFlow where it is currently marked down to $598, today’s deal delivers up to $264 in savings and the lowest price we can find.
For further comparison, this model is currently being sold for $699 on the EcoFlow Amazon storefront where the previous few deals had it sitting down at $616. We are also looking at a price drop that undercuts our previous exclusive discount from back in early February that had this model sitting down at $541.
EcoFlow’s DELTA 3 Plus first landed on Amazon back in September 2024 to deliver a mid-range portable power supply ready to handle both emergency situations and the modest off-grid setup you might have planned for this summer.
Carrying a 1,024Wh LiFePO4, it features an 1800W AC output, 2200W (surge 3600W) with X-Boost alongside five methods of recharging (AC, Solar, 800W Alternator Charger, Smart Generator 3000 (Dual Fuel), Multicharging) and as many years of coverage on the included 5-year warranty.
For me these power stations have always been as much about peace of mind as they are useful on the campsite. Just knowing I’ve come some serious battery power at the ready just in case of the worse at home is equally as valuable to me as the portable power action, and more than worth the price of entry. With this in mind, this model in particular sits right in that sweet spot for me – enough to handle some tech out in the wild and more than enough to me through power outages and the like.
Amazon takes Hoverfly’s foldable H3 e-bike with up to 28-mile range down as low as $423 (Reg. $529)
Over at Amazon you can now find the Hoverfly H3 16-inch Folding Electric Bike in blue down at $423.20 shipped. You can also score the black colorway for $424.99. Typically priced at $529, you’re looking at as much as $106 off. This is a return to the price we saw late last month and comes within $23 of the all-time low we tracked back in January. It’s not hard to spend well over $1,000 or an electric bike, so this is an affordable way to take one for a spin this year. You can learn more about this model down below.
Folks who have been itching to pick up an e-bike, but cannot justify a premium model that’s often accompanied by a high price can now pick up Hoverfly H3 for a much more affordable cost. The brand touts that it “can travel 15.5 miles on pure electric” and nearly double that when switching to a pedal-assisted mode which ratchets that up “to more than 28 miles.” Speeds top out at 15.5 MPH and the 280.8Wh battery is removeable, allowing you to easily swap it out with a second battery if you want to go even further. My favorite feature here is that not only is the e-bike more compact than most, but that it also can be folded when not in use.
Today only: Grab Anker’s SOLIX C300 AC 90,000mAh LiFePO4 power station at $198 (Reg. $250)
As a part of its Deals of the Day sale, Best Buy is offering Anker’s SOLIX C300 AC 90,000mAh power station for $198 shipped. This is regularly a $250 power station which is now seeing a straight up $51 discount. We’ve seen this model fetch as low as $179 during Black Friday last year with our exclusive promotional discount, but it hasn’t been that low in quite a while. Today’s deal lands it within $9 of our previous mention from earlier this year, and it’s now fetching $2 less than Anker’s discounted price.
Anker’s SOLIX C300 packs a hefty 90,000mAh LiFePO4 battery, delivering up to 600W of peak power (300W continuous), making it great for charging multiple devices and powering small appliances. Unlike the DC version that’s more USB-focused, the AC model featured here has three AC outlets, three USB-C ports, one USB-A port, and a 120W car/aux port. You can recharge the C300 in multiple ways – plug it into a wall to hit 80% under in under an hour, connect up to 100W of solar panels, charge via your car, or you can even use the PD 3.1 USB-C input. For added convenience, it includes a built-in carrying handle and a light bar above the display.
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Kia announced pricing for the upcoming 2025 EV6, with lots of improvements from a mid-cycle refresh and only a slight price bump from the previous model.
The 2025 Kia EV6 has been a long time coming… and unfortunately it’s still “coming,” but at least today we’re seeing one more step towards its imminence, and the news is honestly pretty good.
To recap some of the details of the refresh of Kia’s popular electric model, this year’s EV6 is getting a few interior and exterior design changes, a quieter interior, much better vehicle-to-load capability (12kW, up from 1.8kW), a ~10% bump in battery capacity for both the smaller and larger battery options, and support for over-the-air vehicle software updates. The EV6 GT trim gains some more horsepower, but other models stay the same.
The new EV6 also comes with a native NACS port, making it one of the first non-Tesla vehicles to have this feature. It joins its cousin vehicle, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 with which it shares the E-GMP platform, as some of the only cars on the road with a native NACS port (the Ioniq 5 recently charged faster than a Tesla on the same Supercharger), after the Ioniq 5 also got a big refresh this year.
The native NACS port is also accompanied by a relocation of the EV6’s charge port (on all but the GT model) – from the right side of the car to the left, to better mirror Tesla’s charge port location and make it easier to fit into Superchargers (while we wait for Tesla to add longer cables).
So, with all these changes, alongside stupid government actions aimed at increasing inflation for Americans, we’d perhaps expect a price bump… and it turns out we got a relatively small price bump, of just a few hundred dollars on the low-end specs, though rising to a $2,200 increase on the top-end GT spec (the only one with a horsepower boost).
Here’s the new pricing, compared to the old pricing:
| Pricing – MSRP1 (excludes $1,475 destination) | Old price | New price |
| EV6 Light | $42,600 | $42,900 |
| EV6 Light Long Range RWD | $45,950 | $46,200 |
| EV6 Light Long Range AWD | $49,850 | $50,300 |
| EV6 Wind | $48,700 | $50,300 |
| EV6 GT-Line | $52,900 | $54,200 |
| EV6 Wind AWD | $52,600 | $54,300 |
| EV6 GT-Line AWD | $57,600 | $58,900 |
| EV6 GT | $61,600 | $63,800 |
Perhaps one reason Kia was able to avoid larger inevitable price increases that are coming to many products for Americans as a result of boneheaded tariff announcements is because the 2025 EV6 will be built in Kia’s facility in Georgia (except for the top-end GT trim).
And best of all, the EV6 still qualifies for the US EV tax credit (again, except for the GT trim, which is still built in Korea). So you can still get it for cheaper than the listed price above, at least until Donald Trump and Elon Musk continue on their quest of making your life more expensive.
Kia says the models are in production now, but we’re still waiting on them getting delivered to customers. Usually vehicles come out a little bit before their model year starts (so 2025 cars will ship in the last few months of 2024), but the 2025 EV6 has taken its sweet time coming out. We suspect the NACS transition has had something to do with this (there has, after all, been a lot of back and forth about Kia Supercharger compatibility…), but Kia is tight-lipped about the reasons for such.
This move suggests that we finally might not have much longer to wait, though, so start getting ready and maybe call your local dealer if you want to get in line for the new EV6 (and hopefully get it before some bonehead tries to raise its price more or gets rid of tax credits because his oil bosses said so).
If you’d like, you can use our affiliate link to get in touch with your local dealers about the Kia EV6, and try to be one of the first in line to get the newest iteration of one of the better EVs on the road.
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Environment
Tesla is being squeezed out of the Chinese market, workers are being pushed to their limits
Tesla is being squeezed out of the Chinese market, and the pressure is currently falling on the sales workers, who are reportedly being pushed to their limits.
Over the last few years, Chinese automakers have stepped up their game significantly, and they are now not only competitive at the lower end of the market with affordable electric vehicles. They are also starting to put pressure on higher-end automakers, like Tesla.
China is the world’s biggest EV market by a significant margin, and it has been a critical part of Tesla’s growth phase from 2020 to 2023.
But now Tesla is facing incredible competition from the likes of BYD, Xiaomi, NIO, Li Auto, and others.
We reported earlier this year that Xiaomi’s SU7 has overtaken Tesla’s Model 3 in China, and now it is coming with a Model Y competitor.
Tesla has been hoping that its updated Model Y would help it stay comptivie in the Chinese market, but there are now reports to the contrary
The automaker has already been offering subsidized 0% financing to try to boost Model Y and Model 3 sales in the country.
Now, a new report on China’s Jiemian News based on interviews with current and former Tesla salespeople in China claims Tesla is now pushing for its Chinese sales staff to work 13 hours a day every day (translated from Chinese):
As the group that deals with the most front-line consumers, Tesla sales have in fact clearly felt the strong pressure to close deals. Many Tesla sales told Jiemian News that due to the inability to meet assessment targets on time, they have given up their two-day weekend off and switched to working seven days a week, “working from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, with an average daily working time of nearly 13 hours.”
The report claims that Tesla has instructed sales staff to aim for selling a car every day, but they are having trouble achieving half that rate:
According to the Tesla salesperson, the store assessment standard in Beijing is to sell at least one car per day, which means that they need to sell about 30 cars per month. But in reality, it is difficult for many salespeople in the store to sell 3 to 4 cars per week. They need to keep following up with customers and try their best to persuade them in order to get as close to the target as possible.
To sell a car per day, Tesla sales staff are told to create 10 user profiles, complete three online test drive invitations, and complete four test drives every day.
According to the report, the higher requirements also come with limited pay – resulting in record turnover at some of Tesla’s stores in China.
They used a Tesla store in Beijing as an example, where they claim they can do a full sales staff turnover in just a month and a half.
One Tesla salesperson told Jiemian that it is now way more difficult to sell Tesla vehicles in China:
“The days when we didn’t have to introduce products to users and orders were ‘automatically’ delivered to their doorsteps are gone forever.”
Tesla was also a victim of its own success in the country, where its vehicles have become somewhat familiar in the last few years, and the brand is no longer perceived as premium as it was in 2022-2023.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla was having problems in China before Trump’s election, but the problems appear to be getting worse.
Since last year, Tesla has already basically not been making any money on the Chinese market since it primarily sells lower-end RWD Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, which are already low-margin products, and Tesla has to subsidize them with 0% financing on top of it.
That’s in large part due to competition.
Unlike in North America and Europe, Tesla hasn’t been suffering from brand issues due to Elon Musk’s involvement in politics in China, but it might be changing now.
Trump’s escalating trade war with China is reaching new heights, deterring Chinese consumers from purchasing American brands.
I think Tesla was already being squeezed out of the Chinese market due to competition, but the trade war is likely to accelerate this process.
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