Cowboy is best known for its sleek electric bikes that can be found in many major European cities. And when you see these cowboys riding their bikes, you almost always see young adults with laptops in their backpacks heading to the office.
That's why the company is launching an all-new bike called the Cowboy Cross. This is an all-road model that pursues comfort for long-distance travel.
Last week I had a chance to see the new Cowboy Cross and test drive it for a few minutes. As for the design, it looks exactly like a cowboy bike, with its pill-shaped front light, angular design, and soft matte color.
Similarly, Cowboy is betting on a fully integrated design with minimal maintenance. There are no (physical) gears, the brake cables are hidden as much as possible, and the company uses carbon fiber belts.
New to the Cowboy Cross is a new pair of tires. The wheels are slightly smaller (26.5 inches), but the custom-designed tires are much larger.
At the front of the bike, you can see the front fork suspension. However, unlike most all-road bikes, the front fork is inverted and the suspension is closer to the wheel. In addition to a better design, Cowboy thus managed to hide his front brake cables within the frame.
It also has a seatpost suspension that allows you to ride on rough terrain. Both the front fork and seatpost can be adjusted with a single screwdriver.
Also, if you're a smaller person who can't ride a cowboy bike because of your height, your new bike may have a slightly lower saddle. The handlebars are also slightly larger. Again, everything about the Cowboy Cross is designed to be more comfortable than existing cowboy bikes.
Image credit: Romain Dilet / TechCrunch
The Cowboy Cross comes in step-over and step-through variations, and the aluminum frame comes in two designs. This bike is available in three different colors: light grey, dark grey, and green. It is also equipped with a rear rack that can store child seats and various bags.
The battery is slightly larger and has 50% more capacity. The company says it should be able to travel 60 to 120 km (37 to 75 miles) on a single charge.
That's it for the specifications. However, potential customers expect to keep their new bikes for many years to come. Therefore, it will be important for the Cowboy to be able to easily maintain his crosses over long periods of time. However, it is difficult to predict what will happen on release date. In addition to this hardware release, Cowboy is also announcing a new “Check My Bike” diagnostic tool.
Pre-orders start today with an early bird price of 3,499 euros ($3,800 at current exchange rates). Eventually, Cowboy will sell the Cowboy Cross for 3,999 euros ($4,350).
Cowboy's “classic” bike model costs 2,699 euros ($2,940), but there are two software upgrades that cost 199 euros and 299 euros respectively. The Cowboy Connect pack, priced at 199 euros, is included in the Cowboy Cross model.
“According to our research, this doubles the total addressable market for us,” Cowboy co-founder and CEO Adrian Roos told me. “I think it's a different customer overall. It's a customer who wants extra comfort. So they're usually a little older and have a little bit more of a budget.”
Image credit: Romain Dilet / TechCrunch
During the test drive, I also played around with the Cowboy mobile app. This app hosts all the smart features of your electric bike. Turn on your lights, toggle Eco Mode and his Adaptive Power, get turn-by-turn directions, check historical data, and more. AdaptivePower, a feature that automatically adjusts motor power depending on the current hill and weather conditions, gained attention following a patent lawsuit with eBikeLabs.
The company has also added some mini-games to encourage you to try harder without getting too distracted. For example, the app will tell you to press as much as possible in 30 seconds. Or the app might say you're in a popular segment and tell you if you're faster than your friends.
These Strava-like features are not yet a replacement for Strava. You can also disable it if it's too distracting. But it will be interesting to see the company go down that path and make software a first-class citizen.
Different models to meet different needs
Cowboy primarily sells bicycles to customers located in Belgium (home country), Germany, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Instead of launching into new markets, the company decided to expand its product range with more form factors.
“We spent most of the company's first two years prototyping. Over the next five years, we refined the platform. Now we are using a variety of products to meet different needs. We want to offer products in a form factor,” Roos said. Therefore, we can expect to see other models in the coming months or years.
In July 2023, Cowboy's main competitor VanMoof filed for bankruptcy. This made for a tough summer for Cowboy as many potential customers rejected Cowboy's products. “There was significant overlap in customers considering both VanMoof and Cowboy bikes,” he says Roose.
But he believes Cowboy can move forward because the company is now in a different position than VanMoof. “Cowboy has about 100 employees. The numbers I looked at when he closed the store was he had 700 people working at VanMoof,” Ruth said.
With a 40% gross margin on each bike sold directly to consumers, Cowboy expects to break even on an EBITDA basis this year and generate net income next year.
Image credit: Romain Dilet / TechCrunch