We took a page from the book of mountain bike origins when we designed the Sirius. It’s easy to handle on all kinds of roads, and the suspension fork adds just enough cushion to tame big potholes on the pavement as well as rutted gravel and occasional singletrack use.

Compared to the Sirius, Centauri works better with commuter accessories, has a little more upright riding position, and more neutral handling. There's also the Centauri S, our stepthrough frame version that fits riders from 4'9" to 6'4".
Read on to find out if the specifics of the Centauri are right for you.

For Centauri, we mixed the power of our Proxima and Sirius mid-drives with the fit and handling of the Alpha series. The result is a pair of “Goldilocks” ebikes…balanced in all the right ways, darn-near perfect for urban commuters and rewarding for weekend fitness riders. The powerful mid-drive motor adds up to 550w of power and 80Nm of torque to rider leg power, silently routed via Gates drive belt to the internal rear transmission. 

With ebikes exploding in popularity, cities, counties, power districts and other public organizations are implementing rebate programs offering rebates ranging from $100 to more than $1000. Read on to find out if there's a local program in your area.

Driving less sounds like a great idea, right? Gas is expensive, but riding has more advantages than simply saving at the pump. Riding your ebike for transportation means less time spent stuck in traffic, less money spent on auto ownership costs, and more time to get some fresh air while you’re out and about. 

Read the service bulletin we issued to mid-drive ebike customers in July 2022. 

We're posting this copy of the bulletin in case any riders who purchased a Proxima or Sirius BEFORE 7/1/2022 did not receive their mailed copy or other communications from us or their Vvolt dealer. 

All Proxima, Sirius or Centauri bikes purchased after 7/1/2022 are NOT affected by this service bulletin.

...it helped when I stopped thinking of an ebike as a bicycle that helps you climb hills and started thinking of it as a bicycle that allows you to modulate the difficulty of your workout at any time. We’ve talked about it before: the best cardio fitness programs include a mix of low-intensity, medium-intensity and high-intensity workouts (read more here.) An ebike allows you to access any of those three levels of workout at any time.

Picture yourself getting home from a ride on your electric bike. You raised your heart rate and pushed yourself to climb “that hill” a little harder. The stresses of the day have receded because you’re still thinking about the ride. The best part—you’ve gotten your daily exercise in! You’ve invested time today in having a healthy body tomorrow—that’s worth celebrating. Now if only there were exercises that could do the same thing for your brain…

Good news: there are. Even better news: they’re the exact same exercises. 

We used spray.bike paint to create a one-off "hidden rainbow" paint job for a bike displayed at Electrify Expo Austin in Fall 2021. Read on to see how we created this sparkly wonder!

On bikes with an electric motor, and you’re able to further tune your workout by using the motor assistance to help determine how hard you need to pedal. For example, you can use higher assist on inclines to transform a challenging hilly route into a low-intensity pedaling workout. Conversely, if you want to maximize interval training you can reduce motor assist to ensure maximum difficulty for short bursts, then bump up the assistance so your between-interval recovery is optimized!

All of our models come out of the box as Class 1 Electric Bikes, with pedal assistance up to 20mph. This is the least restricted category in most states and localities, and Class 1 ebike riders are welcome to use bike lanes, multi-use paths and even certain off-road trails in most areas. 

Not only that, they’re still pretty darn fast! As an example - if a rider was riding at max assist speed (or even slightly faster) on level ground, they could make a 5-mile trip in only 15 minutes. 

She was a frequent bike commuter, but started looking for an ebike in order to make it easier to bike commute every day. She and her partner began looking at ebikes but found most entry-level options uninspiring with their tangles of wires and protuberant batteries. Premium ebikes were appealing, but hard to justify. So when they saw the Vvolt Alpha in Bike Portland’s story covering our launch in June they said to one another “that’s the one” and placed their reservation– our very first order!