Thanks to the Italians, who never disappoint, for creating Cykno, an ebike that is new and yet timelessly elegant. Transforming like a swan in transit, art meets travel meets low environmental impact in the Cyklo. If you missed this year’s Milan Design Week we’ve got the rundown.
The Cykno Electric Eclectic Bicycle has a retro design despite its electric motor. Stirring longing within the esthetic hearts of vintage-inclined bicyclists, Cykno is a different take for the up-and-coming ebike market that is blooming in our midst.
Mythology, electric beauty, metamorphosis, and swans are some of what this creation is about. Cykno is born of the collaboration between engineer Bruno Greppi, designers Luca Scopel and Gianpietro Vigorelli, and Italian advertising genius Riccardo Lorenzini. They unfold a means of transportation that also remains art. Drawing from the past in design, while using the most progressive technology of the present, the streamlined Cykno is lightweight — just 57 pounds.
Architects and Artisans share some of the details and mythology:
A pair of them – engineer Bruno Greppi and designer Luca Scopel, both motorbike aficionados – designed it and call it Cykno. They say it winks an eye at Greek mythology. Cykno was a hero with the gift of invulnerability, but also a mortal transformed by Zeus into a swan.
It’s an electric pedelec bicycle, with a German torque sensor and an Italian motor controller from the power side. It offers carbon fiber wheels, a double-layered carbon fiber front fork, and carbon fiber seat, and a LED rear light. Then there are the stainless steel fenders and handlebars, and leather made in Italy.
“Cykno is a personal vehicle, and we will produce it to client size, by the way handlebars and seat spring made to order,” they say. “The client can choose frame color, wheel color, as well as leather type and color.”
Diversity exists, and we all make our way to a simpler life in our own fashion, in our own time. One thing those hooked on the classics absolutely need, like water, is a vintage style all around — now they will find the sophistication they are accustomed to and be able to take it on the road just about anywhere. This vehicle is designed to impress the style conscious and bring them into the environmentally concerned transportation realm. Becoming vegetarian, thanks to Doc Doolittle, since the age of 7, I still recognize that we are all different shades of green together. I really appreciate this meeting of two worlds. Cykno stretches the market, bringing style joined with low environmental impact a bit further.
Inhabitat shares more details of quality Cykno: “Complete with a monocoque frame, carbon fiber wheels and fork, and stainless steel pipes, Cykno also features a leather seat, In addition to a long-lasting lithium polymer battery that charges in just four hours. A single charge lasts 60km, and the bike weighs only 26kg, and both the charging cable and battery are stored on board. Cykno is also pedal-powered with a torque sensor for easy use.”
A sign of times past and present, this aptly given name, Cykno, hints at what some market analysts have predicted — that ebikes are going to thoroughly transform the globe in the coming decades.