And we're loaded and off to Portland this weekend for our first time attending the Pacific Trike Fest celebration of all things recumbent trike. If you live in that part of Cascadia and want to field test a dual motor drive Catrike or generally talk shop with Justin at his booth, come and pay visit!

It's on Saturday from 9am to 4pm at the Portland Community College, Sylvania. 

Well thanks everyone, with over 16 video submissions we had a great representation of builds for our final best project video awards category. In the end, we felt that Martin from Normandy with his "Super 73 Upgrade" pulled all the elements together to just nudge out in front.

As a video it gives a compelling back story of Martin's experience with his first ebike taking him from high school to now studying electrical engineering in univeristy. It seamlessly flows into the challenges and solutions of fitting a motor into a bike with a different dropout standard, and demonstrates just how much new life you can bring into an old factory ebike. The entire production itself is top notch and a joy to watch. So congratulations Martin, $1000 of Grin buckeroos are now on your store account for whatever future endeavors suit your fancy!

We look forward to seeing more build content on your channel, you've clearly got a knack for this.

And 2nd Place

OK, so we were only planning a single prize but some of the others were so good that we needed to do more than a token thank you.  It was a very close 2nd place for Oliver in Australia with his dual motor Cyclopes build.  This fully custom fabricated sheet metal frame frontloading cargobike is an inspiring piece of art in itself, but one with demonstrated great utility for his rural lifestyle. 

And Many More

Finally, there are a number that didn't necessarily have the same video production chops as Martin and Ollie but that still featured great content and builds. It's a bit random but we felt that the following 3 submissions all had unique character and are also getting a $100 store credit prize

Grinvestors

So that's it for this campaign, thanks again to all who participated, and a big thanks as well to the Grinvestor who helped sponsor this. He wanted to remain anonymous, but is one of several dozen generous people who have helped finance Grin's growth and R&D by loaning funds to us in exchange for interest payments in the form of store credit.  Collectively our Grinvestor community has contributed more to enabling our success than all the traditional banking and loan finance partners combined, and they all deserve a shoutout!

The responsibility of finding our final week winners for the Grin it to Win it context fell to Justin, who had a lengthy shortlist of great builds to choose from. 

Here's a number so far:

We're now in our final 6th week of the "Grin it to Win it" campaign that has seen over $3000 in prizes given out to people submitting details of their ebike builds to our customer project gallery. Noteable submissions in the last week include Jack Butler who managed to upload his solar bike build while actively competing in the final stages of the 2024 Suntrip race, just a few days before he came out on top in a nailbiting finish!  

We'll be extending this last random draw and staff pick to May 20th to give people a little bit more time, then after that we are giving until the end of May to select the final $1000 prize for the best project video. 

A remote thanks to everyone who came to see us at the Spezi show in Germany last weekend. What an amazing congregation of innovators, enthusiasts, and business leaders pushing the envelope of small scale human transport. From pedal generator drivetrains to collapsible solar quads, this fair had it all and we look forward to coming back.

It was encouraging to see so many setups already sporting Grin hardware and to talk to so fans of hub motors, regenerative braking, and open systems. Europe is ready to challenge the Boring Bosch takeover, and we will be working hard to make our stuff more readily available that side of the pond.

Ever since we heard about the Spezi bike show in Germany we knew this was an event we were born to attend. Covid got in the way the last few years but finally now the stars are aligned and thanks to the help of our partner ebike-solutions, we will be there to exhibit! 

This is the show featuring all the "special" bikes that get a short shaft at the normal trade shows. That includes recumbents, tandems, cargo bikes, velomobiles, folders, trailers, quads, and all the other creative wheeled misfits that the mainstream bike culture doesn't quite know what to do with. 

We'll be there with examples of Grin's All-Axle hub motors, air shippable LiGo 10X batteries, and regen capable motor controllers. This open hardware standard provides electrification options and versatility that stand in sharp contrast to the proprietary locked Bosch and Shimano systems that currently dominate Europe. 

The show is in Southern Germany, close to Switzerland and France, and we looks forwards to meeting up with many of our European customers and partners at our booth. So come by and check it out. 

It was exactly 1 year ago that we announced the release of three new torque arm designs. The torque arm V5, V6, and V7 set a new benchmark for both performance and bike compatibity, making the most of a dumb Chinese axle standard. We've now completed the final and most complex installation video for this set, with the "Built for Regen" Torque Arm V7: 

That follows in the footsteps of the V5 and V6 installation videos from a bit earlier. 

These splined insert torque arms have now largely replaced our previous designs, and are also available from our own store but also directly from Amazon for customers in the US (V5,  V6,  and V7).

M16 Axles

By popular request, we've also made a 16mm axle insert option for the V5 and V6 arms. This gives compatibiilty with more powerful motors that use larger M16 axles. A similar option for the clamping V7 Torque Arms is also in the works.  

Thanks to all who came to visit us at the BC bike show the previous weekend!

The attendance levels were great and our talk on our 20 year experience dealing with lithium battery safety on ebikes was also well received. For those who wanted watch but couldn't attend the show, we've just published a filmed version of this talk on youtube:

Grin's Perspective on Ebike Battery Fires, 20 Years of Experience - Live from the BC Bike Show

Non-UL Battery Blowout: 25% Discount

As explained in the video above, the recent media attention around micromobility battery fires has brought a large scrutiny to the industry, and dramatically changed the insurance landscape so nearly everyone in North America is required to have batteries with UL2271 certification. 

We of course are included in that, and in order to meet the insurances' requirement that 100% of our battery packs are UL certified we have just started a blowout sale on ALL our current battery inventory. Every single non-UL battery model is currently discounted by 25%. This is your chance to get a high quality pack with the best cells at a great price.

Are these batteries less safe?

Absolutely no less safe than a UL certified pack. Given an expected construction standard and BMS functionality, the safety of a battery is almost entirely determined by the brand of cells used in the pack. These batteries are all built using top-of-the-line Panasonic 18650 GA cells or Samsung 50G 21700 cells which have a nearly flawless track record. They have an established robust BMS circuit and sound mechanical construction, but due to peculiarities in UL's BMS requirement they can't quite be UL certified, and our insurers don't like that.

Their stubbornness is our pain and your gain! 

Are they warrantied

Yes, our standard Grin warranty still applies and the batteries are as reliable as they have always been. Our plan was to offer both UL and less expensive non-UL batteries and give customers a choice, but the insurance folks want us to exclusively carry UL certified batteries to renew our term.

When will you have UL listed packs

By later this spring we will be offering exactly the same batteries but with UL2271 certification. Because of the expensive testing fees we will start off with just a couple of the most popular models, and gradually add more varieties as cash flow allows. The UL certified packs will be functionally identical to what we offer now, but will simply cost more, both to pay for the testing fees and the more expensive UL BMS boards.

It's that time of year when people are thinking more about the upcoming bike season and the BC bike show is just around the corner to help kick it off!

We will have a booth showcasing our new kit systems using the Superharness with modern displays if you want to come by and have a look. 

Plus you'll get to see how our almost fully flushed out and almost fully regulatory certified LiGo 10X Batteries are progressing. There are many other local bike and ebike exhibitors at the event and it's a great chance to check out BC biking and outdoors scene.

Live Presentation

On Saturday at 11:30 am we will also be giving a presentation on the Cycle Stage all about lithium battery safety, which has been a topic heavy in the news recently.  With nearly 20 years in the field we have more than enough firsthand exposure to share relevant experiences and separate the facts vs fiction. 

Free Tickets

We've also got a handful of free tickets to give away to our loyal customers who want to attend, so send us an email if that will help you show up. They are first come / first serve. 

 

What do you want? A superharness! When do you want it? Now! 

After a lengthy development effort we're launching a product that ties together all the great features of a Grin kit together with the standard modern ebike displays that everyone keeps asking us about. 

This Superharness is more than just a main cable harness, it's a bit like having a mini Cycle Analyst hidden inside your wiring to implement some key features. This includes:

• Supporting Digital Ebrake Cutoffs that let you modulate and increase the regen brake force with the throttle.
• Supporting Analog Ebrake Levers that generate a proportional braking signal as the lever is pulled.
• Supporting Bidirectional Throttles, which twist forwards for power and backwards for regen control.

In addition to that, the harness also includes convenient DC power taps for hooking up both front and rear lights, with various options in how the lights are controlled.  For full details on this and other functionality, have a look at the hot-off-the-press Superharness User Manual. 

We decided to go with the popular waterproof Higo signal plugs for the throttle and ebrake connection, and over the coming months you will see more and more throttle and ebrake options listed with the Higo termination. 

There is currently a SuperH Kit Option for all of our motors that terminate with the L1019 cable, which you can find on the SuperH Kits Page. We've also wrote a Kit Types getting started page which explains the differences between these new kits and our traditional Cycle Analyst based system. We are working hard to get the V6 Baserunner_Z9 controllers out so that we can do the same with the lower power kits as well and expand this to our complete catalogue of motors.