Subscribe
Biria bicycles
September 25th, 2008 by Fritz 
Biria USA imports their Euro-designed bikes from their parent company in Germany. They have a nice looking design with a step through frame that allows riders to mount the bike without dislocating anything.
They’ve sold an electric bike in Germany for the past couple of years. Biria’s American dealers kept asking for the electric bike. Biria will bring their eBike to America beginning next March for about $1700. A Lithium Ion battery provides about two hours of riding at 15 to 18 mph. According to Biria, dealer reception at Interbike has been tremendous.
Biria will also launch their National Breast Cancer Foundation special edition bike on March 1, 2009. This is their standard step through bike but with some nice Pink Ribbon graphics.
According to Biria, Florida is their biggest market in the United States, with their busiest North American shops in Toronto and Vancouver. For more details about their commuter bikes and a dealer list, visit Biria.US. I took photos but they disappeared from my computer (!) so I’ll try again later tonight or maybe tomorrow. These are great looking commuter bikes.
September 26th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Address Not Found
Firefox can’t find the server at ww.biria.us.
Change that link to http://www.biria.us!
September 26th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Ooops, that doesn’t work either. Try this one: http://www.biria.com/
September 26th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Electric bikes are just wrong. This is what our lazy society has come to, we would like to ride a bike but don’t want to expend the energy to pedal it.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Rick, I thought the same thing, and even said so on our website, but was lustily shouted down by folks who offered some valid points to think about. For example, an electric bike or e-assist could be the tipping point for folks getting on a bike AT ALL — that assist will help when they get tired from pedaling. And how about those with limited leg/hip mobility? Electric would get them out there, too, with less pedaling effort.
I could go on and on, but the important thing is that there are applications for e-assist that go beyond catering to the lazy. Here, read the comments for yourself:
http://www.bikecommuters.com/2008/08/08/is-electric-the-way-to-go/
September 27th, 2008 at 1:20 am
I visited the site. There are lots of great looking commuter bikes. I can’t decide which one I like. Thanks for the links.
October 4th, 2008 at 10:59 am
I have a Biria “Eazy Boarding”. I have owned it for 15 months now, and ridden it about 1100 miles. I rode it daily through one Portland winter, and here is my take on it.
I didn’t need the extreme step through design for any real physical reasons, but I liked it’s style. I have found, however, that it is significantly easier being able to just step through to get on and off, especially when I have a tag-a-log attached or stuff on my back rack.
The bike is extremely comfortable, and I like it very much. It also looks very cool, and draws lots of attention.
Here are the warts:
1. The stock brake calipers that come with it were crap. Totally crap. Both have been replaced by the dealer with upgraded versions. Supposedly Biria has recognized this and the current models have better calipers. But they are still not all that good. Plan on putting some good ones.
2. The bracket on my dyno headlight snapped in two. I had wanted to upgrade to a better LED one anyway, but the stock bracket is weak where it bends and will probably snap.
3. My dealer replaced the stock “knobby” tires with some better street tires. At purchase time. Neither of us understood why they were selling bikes like this with knobby tires. I don’t know if they still come with the knobby versions.
4. The seat angle is very high. This causes a couple problems. One is the rear rack loses some of it’s capacity because the seat actualy hangs over it. The second is if you want to pull a tag-a-long or use any accessories which mount to the seat post. Most are not made for such a steep seat post angle. I had a local welding shop make an adapter for our tag-a-long.
5. The stock rear fender was about an inch or two too short. I would get a rooster tail in the rain which would shoot straight up. It didn’t hit me, but the splatter would land on my paniers and stuff. I replaced the fenders with ones that were longer, and the problem was easily solved.
6. The bottom bracket grease was gone after riding through the winter. I don’t know if this was because they used non-water resistant grease, or if it was assembled wrong, or if they used poor parts. The bracket was re-packed with good grease by the dealer, and we will see how it does this winter.
That’s it. Like I said, I really like this bike. I just wanted to give my experiences with it after one year of riding on it.