The Riese & Müller Urban Line: made for the urban jungle.
30.06.2022 | Mobility
The Urban Line represents a new generation of Riese & Müller bikes. Markus Papke, Head of Innovation Strategy, shares some intriguing background information about the development of the new product line in our podcast. We start by asking him: How do you get an idea off the ground?
The world of E-Bikes is diverging.
We have 21 ranges of Cargo Bikes, and all shapes and sizes of long-distance bikes. The question we have to ask ourselves is: Where is there still potential? In a meeting, Markus Riese presented a slide putting forward the thesis that the E-Bike range could diverge into two very separate product ranges in future. On the one hand, there are E-Bikes used as a mode of transport and as a replacement for cars, equipped with more and more automotive technology. On the other hand, huge numbers of people love cycling. They may be looking for a mix of both worlds – an E-Bike that is closer to a bike, more streamlined and lightweight.
It's about more than just the bike per se.
We quickly realised that we were no longer just dealing with bikes per se, but also with connectivity, digitalisation and services. Our aim is to launch this idea onto the market with the quality customers have come to expect from Riese & Müller. And as this revolved around connectivity, we approached the whole process from a new angle. We got together people from virtually all departments of the company, as well as representatives from our suppliers and partners: all in all probably over a hundred people.
The Urban Line cleverly complements our existing series.
The Urban Line does not replace anything, but rather cleverly and intelligently complements our existing series. We opted to use the Riese & Müller brand's quality features and offer our customers further access to the brand through the new product. We made a clear distinction, for example by discreetly applying the logo in the frame colour and using a reduced '&' symbol on the head tube by way of brand awareness.
Sustainability has played a major role in the development of the Urban Line.
We have weighed up the quality, price, sustainability, functionality and weight of every component fitted. We considered this in great detail and had dialogues about it with our partners. Naturally we discussed it with Fazua, our drive manufacturer, but we also went over the tires with Schwalbe, which are produced from fair-trade rubber as part of Fair Rubber e. V. Our vision is to be the most sustainable company in the E-Bike sector by 2025. That is why we are also focusing on the shortest possible delivery routes for the Urban Line: among other components, we are sourcing the frame from Portugal and the handles from Finland. We are in the process of discussing this with our partner companies and asking them what we can do jointly. This approach really moves things forward and generates real commitment.
You can listen to the extensive conversation with Markus Papke in our podcast Riese & Müller unplugged.