Vintage Electric offers a few emission-free ways to get around California, and for its latest retro-inspired ride it has enlisted one the Golden State’s most iconic figures. Big wave surfer Jeff Clark is best known for spending 15 years paddling into the Mavericks break alone before it became world famous, but for his latest ride he is taking a much drier (and safer) approach. The Jeff Clark Signature Cruz e-bike has the legend’s fingerprints all over it, and offers fellow surfers a clean and stylish way to cruise down to the beach.
The steel-framed special edition Signature Cruz hides a 750 W hub direct drive motor in its rear wheel, which is a decent amount of grunt for a street-going electric bicycle. This makes for a top speed of 36 mph (58 km/h) in race mode, though Vintage Electric does stress that this should be for private property riding only. In the street mode meant for general use, speed tops out at 20 mph (32 km/h).
Drawing power from a 52 V, 702 Wh lithium battery, the Signature Cruz can ride 30 miles (48 km) on each charge in street mode, with power delivered to the rear hub motor by way of a hand throttle. A regenerative braking system that includes Shimano hydraulic discs will bring you to a stop.
Vintage Electric took care of technical side of things, and left Clark to guide the accessories and overall aesthetics. That means a removable surf cradle wrapped in leather and a separate rack at the rear flanked by removable leather panniers.
Thoughtfully, these panniers are insulated so they can be used as a cooler, and there’s even an integrated bottle opener to pop the top of your beverage when the mood strikes. All of this is finished in differing shades of brown, and the orange and yellow livery hanging over the wooden tank from the top tube helps complete the vintage feel.
“When I first stumbled onto Vintage Electric, I had fond memories of the bikes we rode as kids and they also reminded me of cool old surf cars and I immediately wanted one,” says Clark. “It was a pleasant surprise to learn that the young team at Vintage are bunch of mavericks in their own right taking chances by not compromising on their vision to build such cool and thoughtful bikes. I’m so pleased to team up with them to produce this special edition modern yet iconic surf rig. What a way to get to the waves.”
Vintage Electric plans to only produce 20 of the Signature Cruz e-bikes, and will be selling them for US$5,995 a pop. You can hear from Clark in the video below.
