A wild week for boutique car manufacturers, eh? Earlier this week came the Aston Martin-branded titanium road bike, and now comes British car manufacturer Lotus with a new bike. Called the Lotus Type 136, it features a frame design inspired by Great Britain’s Hope HB.T track bike designed for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Oh yeah, and it’s an e-bike that costs £20,000 (€25,000).
Details behind the Type 136
As mentioned, this isn’t the first bike that Lotus Cars has had their hands in. Their involvement goes as far back as the 1992 Olympics, where Chris Boardman rode a Lotus Type 108, a swoopy carbon fiber rocket that was revolutionary for its time. Its design brought Britain’s first cycling gold medal in 72 years.
More recently came the Hope / Lotus HB.T, a wild track bike with some of the widest fork blades and seat stays we’ve seen, with some bikes such as the BMC Teammachine R starting to follow its lead.
Now comes the Type 136, the latest (and possibly first?) production bike to come from this process. The seat stays and fork blades may not be quite as wide as the UCI limit-pushing HB.T bike, but they’re still dramatic in shape. Matching that is a V-shaped handlebar stem that comes from the Cervelo S5 cockpit finishing school.
The frame’s aero features are said to be co-designed by Lotus’ aerodynamicist Richard Hill.
It isn’t enough for this to just be an aero road bike, however. Lotus has added an HPS Watt Assist Pro electric bike motor system to the Type 136. This system is said to weigh just 1.2 kg (2.65 pounds); most of that is the 900-gram battery, which is paired to a 300-gram motor that integrates into the bike’s frame.
Total ride from the battery is said to be three hours. Total bike weight is quoted at just 9.8 kg (21.6 pounds).
The 193 Wh battery is stored where a water bottle cage might otherwise be placed on the seat tube; simply remove the bottle-lookalike battery and the bike is said to ride like a high-end road bike, just without the motor.
All HPS motor systems are controllable and monitored via HPS-Sync, which allows the bike to share information with bike computers from Garmin. Further, HPS says its integrated power meter means the system can add motor assistance whenever your heart rate rises. This is similar to what is found from Mahle’s X20 system found on the likes of the Orbea Gain, so good to see here.
Builds and Pricing
Lotus will start with the First Edition Type 136. It is said to be limited to just 136 bikes, each individually numbered. Bikes will feature Campagnolo Super Record Wireless groupsets and Campagnolo Bora Ultra Wheels. The price? A cool £20,000/€25,000.
After will come the Type 136 in either yellow or black colorways. Two builds will be available with either a Sram Red or Sram Force drivetrain. Either will be paired with DT Swiss ARC 1100 50 wheels.
These builds are said to be available starting in Spring 2024. Sram Force builds start at £15,199/€17,950, while Sram Red builds are available at £16,999/€19,950.
Pricing is yet unavailable for North America. Those curious, however, can learn more at lotuscars.com.
