Balans: E-bike from Sweden focuses on anti-theft device

Balans Bikes from Sweden aims to have created the world’s lightest and safest full-featured bicycle and e-bike, which is now being funded on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.

Balans Bike in detail

The goal of Balans Bikes from Sweden was to make their own bike or e-bike particularly theft-proof without sacrificing comfort and quality.

For this purpose, the manufacturer hides, among other things, the battery, motor and the entire electronics in a hub on the rear wheel and thus wants to have created the lightest and most compact e-bike system in the world. Overall, the e-bike, with all accessories, comes to a weight of 23 kilograms – and thus already marks not the lightest e-bike in the world, after all, for example, a Urtopia Carbon One (our test) comes to only about 14 kilograms.

Especially in the city, the bike and e-bike should offer a special level of theft protection and be secured, for example, via a special security nut on the wheels, which should make it almost impossible for thieves to dismantle the wheels. The nut is simply secured to the front wheel with a key and is said to be virtually indestructible.

At the same time, a U-lock that can be mounted and removed from the bike and a particularly secure frame lock are used alongside anti-theft screws.

The technology in the Balans Bike

From a technical and quality perspective, however, the Balans Bike also has a lot to offer. In addition to the safety features, the manufacturer relies on high-quality materials such as Italian leather or strong and robust mudguards from France.

Overall, the e-bike is designed to weigh up to 140 kilograms, has an aluminum smartphone holder and luggage racks front and rear.

The battery has a capacity of 172.8 watt hours, which is supposed to provide a range of over 60 kilometers in eco mode. Alternatively, the e-bike can also be used without pedal assistance or in the two faster modes Turbo and Turbo Custom. The Zehus motor is located on the rear wheel and produces 250 watts. In addition, KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) is supposed to recover energy during braking and feed it directly into the battery to increase the range.

There is also a companion app that communicates with the Balans bike via Bluetooth and provides information on distance, motor power and battery status, for example. In addition, the motor can be locked via app.

Price and availability

The Balans Bike is currently being funded via Kickstarter. 16 backers have already exceeded the targeted funding goal of 20,358 euros with 16 days left in the campaign.

In the Super Early Bird offer, at least 1,554 euros for the normal bike and at least 2,553 euros for the e-bike will be due. Delivery is then expected to take place in September 2023.

But beware: In a first campaign the manufacturer tried to finance exactly the same bike once before – at that time with a financing amount of 100,000 euros. However, this could not be achieved in the end, so that the project failed on December 02, 2022.