Cowboy launches electric all-road bike to attract riders beyond European city centers

Cowboy it is best known for its sleek electric bikes that can be seen in many major cities across Europe. And if you look at the people riding these Cowboy bikes, more often than not, you’ll see a young adult headed to an office with a laptop in a backpack.

That’s why the company is launching a brand new bike called the Cowboy Cross. It is an all-road model aimed at comfort and long-distance travel.

I had a chance to see the new Cowboy Cross last week and take it for a test ride for a few minutes. Design-wise, it certainly looks like a Cowboy bike with its pill-shaped front light, angular design and soft matte colors.

Likewise, Cowboy bets on a fully integrated design with as little maintenance as possible. There is no (natural) gear, the brake cables are hidden as much as possible and the company uses carbon fiber belts.

New with the Cowboy Cross are the tires. The wheels are slightly smaller (26.5 inches), but the specially designed tires are much larger.

At the front of the bike, you will see front fork suspension. But unlike most road bikes, the front fork is inverted with the suspension close to the wheel. In addition to a better design, this is how Cowboy manages to hide the front brake cable in the frame.

There is also seat position suspension for navigating rough terrain. For both the front fork and the seat post, the suspensions can be adjusted with a screwdriver.

And if you’re a small person who just can’t ride a Cowboy bike because of your height, the saddle can drop a little lower on the new bike. The steering wheel is also slightly larger. Again, everything is designed to make the Cowboy Cross more comfortable than existing Cowboy bikes.

There are two designs for the aluminum frame, as the Cowboy Cross is available in step-over and step-through variants. The bike is available in three different colors – light grey, dark gray and green. You’ll also find a rear rack that can support a child seat or various bags.

The battery is slightly larger with a 50% increase in capacity. The company claims you should be able to drive for 60 to 120 kilometers (37 to 75 miles) on a single charge.

That’s it for the specs. However, potential customers expect to keep their new bike for years to come. Therefore, it will be important to make sure that the Cowboy Cross can easily be maintained at a long distance. But it’s hard to say how it will fare on launch day. In addition to this hardware release, Cowboy is also announcing a new “Check My Bike” diagnostic tool.

Pre-orders start today at a price of €3,499 (that’s $3,800 at today’s exchange rate). Ultimately, Cowboy expects to sell the Cowboy Cross for €3,999 ($4,350).

As a reminder, Cowboy’s “classic” bike models cost €2,699 ($2,940), but there are two software upgrades which cost €199 and €299 each. The €199 Cowboy Connect package is included on Cowboy Cross models.

“According to our studies, this will double our total addressable market,” Cowboy co-founder and CEO Adrien Roose told me. “I think it’s a different customer altogether. It is a customer who is looking for more comfort. So they’re usually a bit bigger and have a bit more budget.”

Image Credits: Romain Dillet / TechCrunch

On my test ride, I also played with Cowboy’s mobile app. This app hosts all the smart features of the electric bike. You can turn on the lights, switch between Eco and AdaptivePower mode, get turn-by-turn directions and view historical data. AdaptivePower is the feature that automatically adjusts motor power depending on the current gradient and weather conditions — and that’s what came to the fore after a patent application with eBikeLabs.

The company also added some minigames that will encourage you to push harder without being too distracting. For example, the app will tell you to push as hard as possible within 30 seconds. Or the app can tell you’ve entered a popular segment and tell you if you’re faster than your friends.

These Strava-like features won’t replace Strava just yet — they can even be turned off if they become too distracting. But it’s interesting to see the company go down this road and make software a first-class citizen.

Different models for different needs

Cowboy mainly sells its bikes to customers living in Belgium (its home country), Germany, France, the Netherlands and the U.K. Instead of launching into new markets, the company decided to expand its product range with more form factors.

“We mostly spent the first two years of the company building prototypes. Over the next five years, we improved our platform. Now we want to offer our product in different form factors to meet different needs,” said Roose. So you can expect other models in the coming months and years.

In July 2023, Cowboy’s main competitor VanMoof filed for bankruptcy. This led to a difficult summer for Cowboy as well, as many prospective customers rejected Cowboy’s products. “There was a large overlap of customers who considered both VanMoof bikes and Cowboy bikes,” Roose said.

But now he believes Cowboy can move on, as the company is in a different position than VanMoof. “There are about 100 employees at Cowboy. The number I saw when they closed up shop was 700 people working for VanMoof,” Roose said.

With a gross margin of 40% on each direct-to-consumer bike, Cowboy expects to break even on an EBITDA basis this year and generate net profit next year.

Image Credits: Romain Dillet / TechCrunch