Compared to the last few years, Ampler is making it really exciting this time: the significant price reductions on current models already suggested that something new was coming. And indeed: the first teasers for a whole new generation of bikes are now being published on the social media channels, with Ampler itself talking about “Don’t miss out on the biggest news we’ve ever had”. On 1 March at 4 p.m. CET, we will all know more. Until then, let’s take a closer look at what we can already see.
A first photo of one of the supposedly new bikes can be seen on the Save the Date page. And already here you can see a few things that differ from the Ampler models known so far.
We first see a grey comfort frame in trapezoid shape, which could indicate a successor model to the previous Stellar model. At the front, we notice a new fork that is much wider and probably also straighter — and thus similar to the fork used on the sporty Curt model.
We also see a rather classic cockpit with visible brake lines. Ampler has thus dispensed with the current trend of placing as many cables and lines as possible invisibly on the handlebars inside the bike. Although this may not look as neat, it proves to be much easier and more flexible when it comes to maintenance. Individual changes to the stem and handlebars are therefore still quite easy.
It is noticeable, however, that only two lines are visible — for the two brakes. This could mean the following:
Either a singlespeed model without gears is now also available with a comfort frame, possibly also in combination with a belt drive instead of the conventional bicycle chain. Until now, only the Curt diamond frame model was available as a singlespeed bike.
A second possibility would be that Ampler has nevertheless installed a gearstick on this bike — but this is unlikely for several reasons: Up to now, they have relied on the self-developed drive consisting of a hub motor in the rear wheel and motor control via torque sensor. If they were to continue using this type of drive system, it would only be conceivable with the Pinion bottom bracket gearbox. But: the Pinion gearbox needs some supply lines, which would then also be visible on the handlebars. An alternative would be to use the continuously variable automatic transmission from Enviolo Automatiq. This does not need a cable connection to the handlebars, but would then sit in the rear wheel hub. Ampler would have to switch to a mid-mounted motor, which would mean a departure from the previous drive principle. In addition, this drive would certainly make the bikes significantly heavier, which makes such a combination even less likely — after all, Ampler likes to emphasise the light weight of its e-bikes.
Looking at the top tube of the frame, a new black element can be seen. Until now, Ampler had not installed anything at this point; the charging socket and on/off switch were always located above the bottom bracket. Although this position was quite inconspicuous, it was also rather suboptimal for operation. According to the photo, both parts could now move to the top tube, with the charging socket on the bottom and the switch and possibly a battery status display on the top.
Finally, the tyres also reveal that new paths are being taken: instead of 28″ rims, the more compact 27.5″ format seems to be used, which creates space for thicker tyres. With a width of 50 mm, these tyres are slightly wider than the previous 42 mm on the Stout and Stellar models and even significantly wider than the 32 mm narrow tyres on the Curt. This is a great gain in comfort for bikes without suspension, as such wider tyres can also be ridden with less air pressure and thus dampen bumps better.
More cannot be seen at the moment, but Ampler will certainly show one or two teaser photos before the bikes are released – the article will be updated accordingly.
Update (28.02.2022): Due to political events, the presentation of the new bikes has been postponed by one week and will now take place on 7 March at 4 pm. There is also another teaser photo, which – apart from the B+M Lumotec IQ-XS headlight – does not reveal any new information. The area of the bottom bracket is visible, but only blurred. However, it seems that neither a gearbox nor a mid-drive motor is installed there.
