Gocycle turns to crowdfunding after surviving ‘Bikeaggedon’

Gocycle's designer-in-chief Richard Thorpe is rebooting the e-bike company he founded more than two decades ago. Following a January restructuring to reduce overhead, Thorpe is now turning to crowdfunding to help launch a new series of F1-inspired e-bikes while also expanding into nonelectric foldables - a space currently dominated by Gocycle's British compatriots Brompton.

To drum up support, Thorpe is going to tell his story and the challenges and opportunities his small business faces in a series of videos that will be released over the next few weeks. The first, rather earnest installment focuses on "Bikeaggedon," Thorpe's word for the turmoil created by soaring e-bike demand at the onset of covid, followed by a collapse of the supply chain, and then a period of massive oversupply when parts were suddenly available again.

The industry upheaval resulted in the VanMoof, Bird, and Cake bankruptcies and forced Rad Power Bikes and others to significantly scale back ambitions. The "Big Bike" behemoths - Pon Holdings, Accell, and Giant - suffered as well, but they had enough scale and resources to weather the storm. Institutional investors are now watching from the sidelines, licking their wounds.

Gocycle's 2025 e-bike range includes the five-speed CXi Cargo bike already announced in addition to a five-speed SXi to be sold in both electric and nonelectric versions. According to Thorpe, expansion into nonelectric foldables will grow its sales opportunities by 15x as Gocycle starts to "challenge the main incumbent folding bike maker." Thorpe tells The Verge that he'll likely pursue a Kickstarter later this year for some of the new models, just as he did when launching the GS model back in 2017.

Independent e-bike makers are no strangers to equity crowdfunding where backers can buy an actual piece of the company. Cowboy has used it a few times successfully, while early backers of VanMoof got burned. Thorpe readily admits that Gocycle is a "high risk" investment.

If interested, you can show your support for the campaign by registering on Fundable in the US, while the rest of the world can register on Crowdcube. As the maker of some of the most innovative and unique e-bikes we've ever reviewed at any price - we wish Thorpe and the entire Gocycle team success.