This June, Pedelec Adventures explored the limits of the latest achievements in electric bikes. Three experienced test riders - trial world champion Marco Hösel, LEV designer Norbert Haller and head of Pedelec Adventures Susanne Brüsch - set out to discover the versatile nature of Trefecta, an e-bike that can be pushed to 70 km/h by pedal power and a 4-kW-motor. The film ‘Berlin Trefected’ about their journey through the urban scenery of Berlin before hitting the trails in the city‘s surrounding woods will be launched at Eurobike show in Friedrichshafen, Germany, with the team sharing their experiences live on stage.

Trefecta is a new kind of speed-pedelec that comes with the power of an electric motorcycle, easily flowing with city traffic or dealing with the toughest paths. While driven by pedal- power and optionally controlled by a throttle, the bike reaches 45 km/h within seconds, the top off-road model even up to 70 km/h. Thanks to 1,600 Wh battery capacity and regenera- tive breaking it can do over 100 km on a single charge.

Trefecta is the mind-child of founder Haiko Visser. “It all started with a speeding ticket and a gift,” he remembers. “The first resulted in a driving ban; the latter secured my agility on wheels” as he took to an e-bike once his car was off limits. It opened Visser‘s eyes for the “pleasure of cycling, the freedom of body and mind while riding in an urban as well as inter- urban environment,” as he describes it.

Coming from a military background, the e-bikes on offer back in 2011 did not live up to the entrepreneur‘s expectations especially when riding in such challenging terrain as the Swiss mountains, where Visser lives. Hence, he set out to recruit a Swiss-Dutch-German enginee- ring team from the aerospace, automotive and biking industries to construct a precision engineered, high performance, all-terrain vehicle.

This summer, a pre-series of Trefecta was ready to face a Pedelec Adventure in Berlin. After spectacular tours through Morocco, Mongolia and Iceland, this time the adventure took place right at the doorstep of the tester‘s headquarter in Germany‘s capital city.

Led by chief pedelec adventuress Susanne Brüsch, designer Norbert Haller known for his works for A2B, and trial champion Marco Hösel set out to explore Trefecta’s suitability to city life and see how the urbanites would react to the hitherto unseen vehicle. “I was amazed by how many people of all ages got attracted to the bike,” said Hösel.

Trefecta was a discovery to everyone who got on it. “Even after three years of development it still surprises me every time I ride it,” said Norbert Haller who designed the 22,500-EUR- luxury-bike. Susanne Brüsch “felt like super woman,” as she enjoyed riding in “pedelec mode at 45 km/h and still feeling the pedalling resistance. Flying off at traffic lights, keeping up with cars and passing through traffic jams, while on a bike that would catch everybody‘s eyes was great fun and extremely efficient,” found the pedelec expert.

And perfectly street legal in the 45 km/h version with 4-kW-motor that will be available soon. “Finding the right balance between power, function and design while fulfilling legal requirements was a big challenge,” resumes Haller who builds on 18 years of experience in LEV development. With the Trefecta a “new category of vehicles” has been created Haller continues. “While combining the riding feeling of a bicycle with the power of a motorcycle this e-bike offers a smooth ride up to a speed of 70 km/h. This is unique,” he says.

A passersby in Berlin agreed, when concluding that “this is a bike that James Bond would ride!“. The truth is that after getting used to the 40-kg-bike over the trails and freeride tracks of Berlin‘s Grunewald, Marco Hösel pulled out some impressive stunts and jumps. His first time of riding the Trefecta resulted in “one of my best trail days ever. With Trefecta, a new sport is born for me! A mixture of MTB enduro and motocross”, said the 6-time trial world champion.

Watch the stunts, meet the team and learn about the bike live on stage when the project film “Berlin Trefected - exploring the limits“ premieres at the world‘s leading bicycle trade show EUROBIKE in Friedrichshafen on Friday, August 28, 2015. The presentation will take place on the fashion show stage in the East Foyer during the ExtraEnergy Pedelec Show from 12:55 to 1:45 pm.

Further information on the ExtraEnergy Pedelec Show:

Further information on lectures, organised by ExtraEnergy:

Pedelec Adventures was born from Susanne Brüsch‘s experience and pioneer spirit in com- municating e-mobility in a worldwide network, since 1997. In 2011, the widely published journalist, photographer and inventor of the word ‘pedelec‘ started developing, organising and riding multi-week expeditions on electric bikes together with a specialist team in expedition planning, technical service and film.

During tours through Morocco (www.tour-de-sahara.com) and Mongolia (www.tour-de- mongolia.com), (wo)men and material had to prove duress under stress, while solar-trailers served to re-charge the bike batteries. In 2013, the adventurers went on a 4,000-km challen- ge through Iceland‘s northern beauty (www.iceland-challenge.com).

Unique reports, spectacular pictures and videos as well as live presentations in Europe, Asia and the USA have seized worldwide attention to the team‘s expeditions. Berlin Trefected is the fourth project under the Pedelec Adventures flag with more to come.

By sharing their experiences, Pedelec Adventures wants to promote the new bike species and reach out to upcoming markets and target groups in a way that shows the fun and the endurance of electric bikes.

Copy, translation, picture: Susannes Brüsch (www.pedelec-adventures.com)

Online release: Angela Budde

22 August 2015