"We won a gold award out of 600 entries."
Join Adrian Maidment on the EV Quest Podcast as he chats with Dan Wallace, co-founder of Velduro. Fresh off their gold award win at the 33rd China International Bicycle Fair held in Shanghai , Dan shares the story behind Velduro’s cutting-edge designs, the game-changing DJI Avanox motor system, and future plans for Velduro.
Plus, Dan shares an "EV QUEST Exclusive" on the rules of speed.
Find out more on Velduro: https://www.velduro.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And welcome to the EV Quest Podcast. I'm Adrian
Maidment. This episode, I'mtalking gold, gold, gold. My
guest is Dan Wallace, cofounderof ebike maker Valjuro. Dan is
back in Tauranga after recentlywinning gold at the thirty third
China International Bicycle Fairheld in Shanghai for Velgero's
(00:30):
new Phantom e gravel bike.
Good day, Dan.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Good day, Adrian. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Good. Thank you. Last time I saw you, we were we were
riding some Valkyries at themounts in summer. Now it's all
about a new brand. So what'sgoing on?
What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
That's all in the news. Velduro. Yeah. So I seem
to be very much immersed ineverything electric bike
related. So Velduro is a newelectric bike brand that are
powered by quite a revolutionarymotor by DJI.
Valduo was created by myself, mybusiness partner Anthony Clyde
(01:04):
and our China business partnerDick Lai midway through last
year. Basically, Anthony cameout of retirement to kinda
create this new brand, and whatdrove us is basically the DJI
Avanox motor system.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yep. And he's got a very extensive history in the
the e bike space, such as SmartMotion. Yeah. But I just
mentioned that DJI. I know thembecause of cameras and well,
cameras and drones, and I waslike, what's this DJI doing on
the side of a bike?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah. Yeah. So they they so yeah. Absolutely. So
DJI, China company, you know,long heritage with making high
powered motors in the droneindustry and then also extremely
intelligent interfaces andsoftware programming in the
camera and drone industry.
And essentially what happened acouple of years ago is the found
(01:54):
one of the founders of DJI, whois also an avid mountain biker
in China, and that's quite a abig growing segment of society,
turned around and said, listen.We can do better than what's
being produced from a motorpoint of view, and we can do
better from a software interfacepoint of view. So the DJI Avinox
motor system was born. Now inorder for them to turn around
(02:16):
and to show kind of consumershow good it is, they also
created a brand of mountain bikecalled, Amflow. And Amflow kind
of a an EMT bit.
They were designed with, a lotof European right writers and
designers and the the founder ofDJI. And then they basically
showcased this and launched iteighteen months ago at Eurobike.
(02:39):
Since then, the world's gonekind of nuts because no one has
been able to match the power andintelligence of the motor. The
Avinox itself, it rides in NewZealand in a couple of months.
It's gone through the roof.
It's nuts as well. Yeah. So now,you know, it is a motor that's
surpassing every competitor,basically.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah. We've got one in the studio, but you can't see
it, but we've got one that looksvery looks very impressive. What
so just the just the performancespecs that make it such a
standout?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
What makes it so standout is I actually met with
one of the designers in the atthe Shanghai bike show, and one
of the thing he explained itquite well. He turned around and
said, listen. You know, theother top brands in e bike
motors is like Bosch motor,Shimano motor, Brose motor.
Those are probably your threetops. And he turned around and
said, the way the West views itis they see an e bike motor as
(03:25):
as a pit as transmission.
It's an engine. We don't becausethat transmission or that engine
is something that we can achieveeasily through our drone
technology. What we've viewed itas is the interface, the
connectivity, and howintelligent it is. So the the
AVINOX motor, although it isextremely powerful, the way that
the power is delivered is reallysmooth and really adaptable to
(03:49):
whatever you want. So you canbasically program that motor to
link it to garment, to heartrate motors.
He alluded to that it's alreadybeen preprogrammed for AI, so
the whole bike will basicallybecome an extension of your
legs, things that no one elsehas ever really done. From a
power point of view, the topmotor, on the market is really
the Bosch six performance or theShimano e p eight motor. They
(04:14):
both have 85 nanometers oftorque. DJI's Avanox, when it
came out of box eighteen monthsago, had a 20 nanometers of
torque. So it's already, youknow, almost 50% more powerful
and peaks at a thousand watts ofpower versus the top motor by
specialized S Works or Bosch asseven fifty.
(04:34):
So automatic, they blew that outof the water. But what they did
really well is that the way thatit's delivered is so smooth, you
don't feel like you're on apiece of machine that's that
powerful. And then size is tiny.Weight is tiny. Batteries are
big but small.
So range anxiety goes. So, youknow, all of those things make
(04:55):
it the most sought after motorin the world, basically.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
And how was that sort of design put together with your
bike? Because it's only sort ofpart of it. You've to put the
rest of the bike
Speaker 2 (05:04):
together. Yeah. So we created the brand kind of last
year because our China partner,Dick basically approached
Anthony and I and said I'd liketo create a new brand. I've got
the partnership with DGI whichwas you know opened some doors
that we never thought we'd havethat ability do and then we use
a carbon frame factory in Chinathat's the top three in the
(05:25):
world. They do some massivemassive brands and basically you
design a bike up with thatmotor.
And because it's carbon, you canactually change and tool quite
easily. So when you see ourbikes, very hard to actually
tell it's an e bike now, becauseof the size of the motors and
size of batteries.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
And on your website, it also mentioned you've got a
partnership part with Australiaas well.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah. So the partnership with Australia so,
obviously, it's all well andgood to create a brand of bike.
And even though DJI will carryyou a lot of places because of
its reputation, you still haveto have a bike that is rides
well. It's kinetics are reallygood. It's all numbers are good
and designs and suspension,etcetera.
So what we've done is we've kindof done a massive collaboration
(06:10):
where we've worked with a lot ofdesigners in New Zealand, some
in China, some in Raider Rooerand also a guy in Adelaide
Australia who has painted asuspension system called iTrac
and Hugh basically was part ofalso the process to make sure
that our next model which hasbeen tested next month which is
a full suspension mountain bikethe rear suspension was able to
(06:31):
handle the power of the DJIAvanox basically and to make
sure it was smooth, know, awhole lot of stuff. So he was
part of that as well and you'llsee him like on the back end of
our in the rear triangle you seeiTrack Peyton. So Norco used
them for the race team, forexample. So he's pretty pretty
well known in that high end kindof stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah. Okay. So was it sort of about the bike? What
made you wanna go to the theshow in China?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Well, the the thing is, like, we had to produce a
certain amount of models for DJIto kinda partner with us. And so
although the brand is kinda aKiwi faced and it's designed
Kiwi and China side, everythingis tested in New Zealand. All
your or you'll see the reviewswill be always be New Zealand
First. Content will be NewZealand First, but it is also a
(07:17):
global brand. So in order tokind of get that out there, you
kind of gotta go to these bikefairs.
There's kind of three or fourmajor ones in the world. The
Shanghai China bike show is nowone of the biggest. It used to
be not so, but it's now beingseen as one of the world
leaders. So we had our gravelbike, which is our first one.
We'd just tested it.
(07:38):
We've just launched it on awebsite. We literally three days
before we flew out to China, thereview from New Zealand Cycling
Journal came out, which was a agreat review. And then we're on
this world stage in this bigkind of showroom. And then day
one, I arrived there and Dickwas like, hey, Dan. Just to let
you know we've won an award.
I was like, oh, yeah. We thoughtwe might have a rec recognition
(07:59):
award for kind of, you know,token kiwi's kind of jumping in
there. And then next minute,like, I'm on a stage with maybe,
you know, 80 media people takingphotos of me, maybe three or 400
people in the crowd, dudes from,like, Beijing, high up,
sustainable, you know, and I'm,like, smiling as kinda like
this. The only white guy in theroom kinda thing. It was it was
(08:21):
pretty mind blowing, but then itjust kind of exploded, went
viral.
So at the fair, we had obviouslyour our gravel bike. We had two
variants of it showcasing, andwe also had a three d print, so
plastic three d print of ourmountain bike, which is tested
next month, and that kind ofgrew so much attention that we
had media organizations aroundthe world interviewing and doing
a whole lot. If you look onYouTube, there's all this crazy
(08:41):
stuff. So, yeah, kind of guessit would be the definition of
viral.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
In the real world, going viral
Speaker 2 (08:46):
on
Speaker 1 (08:46):
just other phones.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah. And and and yeah. And the way that Bike
World works, interesting enough,it's like China produces, and I
remember this, food and74,000,000 bikes a year. That's
how much they produce. And47,000,000, for example, go to
The US.
And so, like, the the it's huge.The innovation is huge. The
factories are huge. It's it'smind blowing. So the show itself
(09:08):
is so big, it would take youprobably three days to walk it.
Like, I'd do two hours eachmorning to try to have a look,
and I didn't cover. I coveredmaybe 60%. It's just
overwhelming.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah. I read a couple of the specs. What was it? It
was I got it's a 60,000 squaremeters Oh,
Speaker 2 (09:23):
that's mind blowing.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
13 exhibition halls and a hundred and 1,600
companies participating.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah. Yeah. And that doesn't really do it. Just as
like when I walked in there, Idid not really know what to
expect, and it was I was likeholy heck. It was huge.
And then the crazy thing is likenext week that might be another
show like for power sports orfor boats or something like so
is that the kind of the WorldExpo Center in Shanghai? But,
yeah, huge, huge, huge. But,yeah, yeah, kind of chucked us
on the global stage.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
And the actual award you got was gold award for
creative product. Yeah. So wegot a gold award. We got a
Speaker 2 (09:54):
gold certificate. We got a very nice gold trophy, a
crystal trophy, which I shouldhave bought. But, yeah, really
cool. A really awesome award,and it also meant, like, all the
gold award winners. So there was15.
We went up there was 600,entries. So we won out of 600,
and there's and we won the bikecategory. And then there's,
like, 15 others. So and you'reall in the showcase in this hall
(10:16):
in the middle of the expo sopeople can come and see the gold
winners. So, like, one of theguys that was also winner and
was amazing was another motorsystem, but it uses only
magnets.
So zero resistance. So, yeah, itwas it was really, really,
really cool. But what alsohappened was because where we
were at and I would have lookeda little bit different to the
rest of the people on stage,there's a lot of media there
(10:37):
from The US and UK and they werelike, right, who are these guys?
Love the Kiwi story kind of blahblah blah. So
Speaker 1 (10:43):
yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Not saying. Honestly, it's it's ridiculously
overwhelming. I I liked comingback to New Zealand and having a
breather.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Must be pretty hard to stand out in that show with
so many bikes.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And it did, which is amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah. So I'm guessing what's the I guess what's the
response been since that?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Huge. So the response has been massive. Probably every
day. We haven't even, like,really marketed. Every day,
probably have 30 to 50 emails.
I came back to New Zealand andhad over 400 in the inbox. I was
like, oh my god, what am I gonnado? And you know, lot of that's
Kiwis really keen to get behindthe Kiwi brand, especially DJI
brand. And then a lot of it is,people abroad that love the
(11:24):
story. Our whole premise was,you know, create high quality
products, DJI powered andcollaborate with riders and
designers and then try to asmuch as we could put New Zealand
back on the spotlight and forthe mountain biking and cycling
kind of world because we kind ofget in New Zealand like because
I own I have lots of differenthats and I own a e bike retail
(11:46):
store as well.
What happens is New Zealandalways gets allocated whatever
is left over. So we either get areally good model of bike, but
we're only allocated a smallamount because we're just little
old New Zealand, or we getmodels that are really designed
for European markets, so they'remore kind of urban. And then we
have to adapt them for NewZealand. So our whole thing was
that we want to put New Zealandon the in the front first. Our,
(12:08):
you know, Kiwi riders are someof the best in the world, if not
the best, and our trails, if notthe best, but we seem to be
forgotten about.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
So who's actually your target market for the
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It depends. So we have we have three three
variants. There's three modelscoming out this year. So the
first one, the one that welaunched in kind of one was the
e gravel market and that's forgravel riders and that's a very
high end electronic shifting,full carbon rims, a beautiful
bike, high high price tag.Right?
People in that in that kind ofbike road gravel circuit,
(12:41):
that's, you know, we're we'reabout 30% cheaper than our
competitors, we've done that onpurpose. And then we also
created a flat bar variant,which is what I'm riding, and
it's more of a urban commuterdoes everything but spec down so
it's got mechanical Shimanoqueues, derailleurs, alloy rims
blah blah blah. Our store DJI,store car and frame but that it
will retail like in the 7 grandswhich is crazy for what it is.
(13:04):
So that's kind of for theeveryday commuter but the one
that we what we've done forevery single model is we also
produce frame only and that'squite unique. So that means
that, for example, you mighthave a quiver of bikes in your
garage and you might go, I don'tuse them.
A lot of people won't goelectric bikes, but they will
for DJI because the hype aroundit and because they're super
(13:26):
light and and and sophisticated.So the frame only options means
that kind of it's more like abike for the people, so you can
basically use your old bikes tospec up your new bike and you
can get a relatively stillexpensive, you know, but
relatively cheap, DJI fullcarbon powered bike and, you
know, customize it your way. Sothe target market's kind of bit
(13:48):
of everybody. So that's the onethat's in production. The second
one that's being tested, is, thein June in New Zealand is EMTB.
So a 60 mil travel, which ismore of an all mountain with a
mid pivot system suspensionsystem by iTrack. And then once
again, you'll have we'll have ahigh, component level, a mid
(14:09):
component level, and then we'lldo frame only. And I think I've
got about 300 pre orders for theframe only alone in New Zealand
because no one really does itand no one's ever done it with
DJI so you can literally youknow get your old mountain bike
you might be a really avidmountain biker and just
customize our frame to putwhatever you want on it. And
that's kind of unheard of andthat's what seems to be, know,
(14:33):
people are really excited aboutthe mountain bike session.
Gravel is a massive market inoverseas, but it's only growing
in New Zealand.
Yeah. So that's really kind ofexciting. And what it means is
like moving forward, like,Adrian could you know, you could
spec one yourself. You couldthen we'll have a YouTube
channel. You can talk about itand why you spec that and how
you made your motor systemadaptable to you and blah blah.
(14:53):
So it becomes a realcollaborative brand. So
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Yeah. Was wondering. I saw that thing just by the
frame. Was like, is that athing?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Yeah. It's not really, but it's it's it's
people want it. Like, what we'retrying to do is listen to the
industry. Bikers, cyclists areprobably the most pedantic
people in the world. They reallyare.
And and really go down therabbit hole pretty deep. So even
if you produced a bike that hadthe most every single one's the
best components, they would findsomething they don't like. They
might like like the brand or thetravel or the size of or the the
(15:20):
the, you know, whatever. They'llfind something they don't like.
So we're like, that's cool.
We we wanna also, you know, giveyou the opportunity to do
whatever you want. Frame onlygives people the opportunity.
Those that that section thatdon't wanna buy a bike that's
set up for them, they cancustomize it any way they want.
So and there's been a hugeamount of interest in it. It's
kinda mind blowing.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Yeah. And you I mean, you have got a website up. You
asked very sort of a a veryyoung business, but the
website's up.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah. The website's up. So Velduro.com will change
to Valjuro.co.co.nzed as moredistributors around the world.
Like, I've got meetings afterthis with Europe and Eastern
Europe, and there's, like, listof countries that want the
brand, which is cool. Kiwi'sstory is really resonating.
I like for the gravel section,preorders will open for that
next week. All sizes. So whenyou get a test bike, you only
(16:07):
can choose one size. So the sizethat was tested on is a medium.
So now the frame factory nowcreates all the other sizes.
So large, XL, small, and thenthat takes a little bit longer,
then production occurs. Now withframe only, you can actually get
that relatively fast. So ineight weeks, we can order and
admits in our doorstep. But whenyou're doing complete bikes,
(16:27):
you're waiting for OME partsfrom SRAM or Fox or Shimano,
whatever the components. It isalways a longer wait time.
So frame only will always betopped up in New Zealand, which
is super cool because it's easy.And then the complete bucks are
a little bit later on. Yeah. Thepreorder for the gravels starts
next week. Stocks like superlimited and then the Rogue,
(16:49):
which is the EMTB, they'll betested throughout June and July
and then once it's ready to go,you know, we produce as fast as
we can.
Realistically, we can get frameand medium probably August, but
all other frame sizes will be amonth after and then complete
bikes, more likely November forNew Zealand.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
And maybe just because it's all happening so
fast well, so happening I guessit's happening. What sort of
maybe some tips for the for thebusiness person, the developer?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Yeah. It's a hard one. Like, yeah, I think it's
all about what I've learned.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
What have you learned? What have have learned,
Dan? What have you learned sofar from this?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Well, I don't like, lots of hats in the ebike land,
but I think predominantly it allcomes just down to
relationships. I really think itis. I just think, you know,
everybody has this view that youhave to be a dick in business or
you have to be arrogant or youhave to be, I don't know, a
different nature to us. WhenAnthony and I went into
business, we're like, we wedon't we we just wanna be good
people. And I think if you'regood people, people see that and
(17:46):
they actually respect it.
And then you surround yourselfby those like minded people. And
for us from a bike point ofview, we're very aware that a
new brand is a new brand. But ifyou collaborate with the
industry, you listen to theindustry, you use components
that are known to the industry,high end, high end
manufacturers, and thenobviously DJI, you know,
(18:07):
ultimately, yes, you might havethe heritage of your brand, but
you're also telling a storythat's, you know, by the people
for the people. And, you know,the other thing is, like, the
bike industry is unbelievablyoverpriced. So what we've been
able to do is, you know, we wedon't have massive buildings in
Geneva or New York, but we'realso able to strip costs right
back so we can, you know, createa product that like for like is
(18:30):
generally 30% cheaper, which isgreat for consumers because
money's money.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Just summing up, when when are the bikes actually
gonna be available? Get to the
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Crux of it. For the gravel bike, which is the gold
winner, they are available andwill be in in October. People
will need to preorder themprior.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Can I preorder now?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
You can oh, as in next week, you'll be able to,
and we're just all we do forpreorders is you put a $500
deposit, % refundable, but itlocks you in because size is
limited because in all honesty,we were with GJI last week and
Shenzhen, and, you know, theystruggling to keep up with
demand because there's otherbrands that are using their
motors too. So we're alsodictated to what how many they
(19:14):
units they can provide usbasically. So New Zealand will
always get first dibs and thenit will go to the rest of the
world.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
What's the warranty? How what's the warranty on
there?
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yeah. So everything's in the e bike lane is pretty
similar. It's all it's all twoyear warranty on anything
electrical. DJI is an unusualcompany because they don't
really have any warranty issueswith the motor. Like, the actual
quality is just is next level.
Here's an interesting story foryou and might hopefully get
picked up by the New Zealandmedia, they can talk to you or
me a bit further.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Can I say the word exclusive here?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Exclusive. Yeah. Exclusive.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
EV Quest exclusive.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
EV Quest exclusive. So the DJI motor, the way that
so every country around theworld has a restriction on how
fast a motor can go. So forexample, if our bike, the
Valduro Phantom, that's the thegravel bike, if we took that
over to Australia and startedriding it, that bike would be
limited to 25 kilometers an hourbecause that's a speed
(20:09):
restriction for Australia. If wethen took that bike to UK, it
would sit at 32 kilometers anhour, for example. Now most
motor manufacturers, you have tomanufacture the motor
specifically for each country.
So if you bought an Australianmodel here, it would be crap
because it's only 25 an hour.DJI is so advanced that uses
satellite and GPS. So thosemotors are geofenced. So
(20:33):
wherever the bike goes aroundthe world, it automatically
changes. So you don't nothinghappens from a manufacturing
level.
We're like, okay. That's cool.So then we, you know, we created
this Phantom gravel. We had itwe're get about to get it out
for testing. We're like, contactDJI.
Hey, DJI. What's the speedrestriction gonna be for New
Zealand? It's all geo fenced anddon't worry. It's it's it's it
(20:54):
will move or sell it. Okay.
That's cool. And I'm like I'vebeen in the industry eight
years. Anthony's been in it for,like, eighteen years. New
Zealand's, E bike rules are verygray. In 02/2002 they were
created so very outdated.
Anyhow, we get this bike and westart testing it. It is
unlimited.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Oh, okay. I thought there was a limit. Thought there
Speaker 2 (21:13):
nothing. And if in New Zealand's government doesn't
we don't have a limit. So we'vegot motor power restrictions
that apply to hub driven motors.That was 02/2002. We don't have
a motor.
So the actual the the actualpolicy is as long as you're
adhering to the road rules in a50 k zone, you're going under
50, you're fine. Now that's notnecessarily great either
(21:34):
because, we don't want a motorthat is unlimited. So now we can
DJI to actually cap it, but itdoes have a bigger EV quest
exclusive discussion point thatmaybe we could get like I talked
to Michael Woods who was the oldtransport minister about this
eight years ago but maybe wecould have this stuff updated so
everybody has some clarity
Speaker 1 (21:53):
give me a call What's the plan for the next say oh can
you plan six months ahead ofsome
Speaker 2 (21:57):
sort Yeah so plan so obviously the gravel's in
production all sizes cool sohigh commuter and then frame
only Second one is the AllMountain. That's being tested
and it arrives about the June15. That gets tested in Rotorua,
some really big riders, topriders, and experts in the
field. That all goes tickityboo, then we start production of
(22:17):
that. And then so that will beavailable for a sale in New
Zealand in kind of October,November.
You'd have to put your preordersin. And then we actually have
another model that's in thedesign process, so it's already
on paper and on on the computer.Thing is with our bikes because
our DJI and carbon are extremelylight. Like, so our Phantom top
(22:38):
model is like 14 and a half KGsand our alloy is like 15 KGs and
our mountain bike, you know witha 60 mil of travel will only
weigh at about twenty one andeight hundred watt battery which
is crazy.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Thank you very much for your time and look forward
to what happens next.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Thank you, Adrian. Thank you.
And welcome to the EV Quest Podcast. I'm Adrian
Maidment. This episode, I'mtalking gold, gold, gold. My
guest is Dan Wallace, cofounderof ebike maker Valjuro. Dan is
back in Tauranga after recentlywinning gold at the thirty third
China International Bicycle Fairheld in Shanghai for Velgero's
(00:30):
new Phantom e gravel bike.
Good day, Dan.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Good day, Adrian. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Good. Thank you. Last time I saw you, we were we were
riding some Valkyries at themounts in summer. Now it's all
about a new brand. So what'sgoing on?
What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
That's all in the news. Velduro. Yeah. So I seem
to be very much immersed ineverything electric bike
related. So Velduro is a newelectric bike brand that are
powered by quite a revolutionarymotor by DJI.
Valduo was created by myself, mybusiness partner Anthony Clyde
(01:04):
and our China business partnerDick Lai midway through last
year. Basically, Anthony cameout of retirement to kinda
create this new brand, and whatdrove us is basically the DJI
Avanox motor system.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yep. And he's got a very extensive history in the
the e bike space, such as SmartMotion. Yeah. But I just
mentioned that DJI. I know thembecause of cameras and well,
cameras and drones, and I waslike, what's this DJI doing on
the side of a bike?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah. Yeah. So they they so yeah. Absolutely. So
DJI, China company, you know,long heritage with making high
powered motors in the droneindustry and then also extremely
intelligent interfaces andsoftware programming in the
camera and drone industry.
And essentially what happened acouple of years ago is the found
(01:54):
one of the founders of DJI, whois also an avid mountain biker
in China, and that's quite a abig growing segment of society,
turned around and said, listen.We can do better than what's
being produced from a motorpoint of view, and we can do
better from a software interfacepoint of view. So the DJI Avinox
motor system was born. Now inorder for them to turn around
(02:16):
and to show kind of consumershow good it is, they also
created a brand of mountain bikecalled, Amflow. And Amflow kind
of a an EMT bit.
They were designed with, a lotof European right writers and
designers and the the founder ofDJI. And then they basically
showcased this and launched iteighteen months ago at Eurobike.
(02:39):
Since then, the world's gonekind of nuts because no one has
been able to match the power andintelligence of the motor. The
Avinox itself, it rides in NewZealand in a couple of months.
It's gone through the roof.
It's nuts as well. Yeah. So now,you know, it is a motor that's
surpassing every competitor,basically.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah. We've got one in the studio, but you can't see
it, but we've got one that looksvery looks very impressive. What
so just the just the performancespecs that make it such a
standout?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
What makes it so standout is I actually met with
one of the designers in the atthe Shanghai bike show, and one
of the thing he explained itquite well. He turned around and
said, listen. You know, theother top brands in e bike
motors is like Bosch motor,Shimano motor, Brose motor.
Those are probably your threetops. And he turned around and
said, the way the West views itis they see an e bike motor as
(03:25):
as a pit as transmission.
It's an engine. We don't becausethat transmission or that engine
is something that we can achieveeasily through our drone
technology. What we've viewed itas is the interface, the
connectivity, and howintelligent it is. So the the
AVINOX motor, although it isextremely powerful, the way that
the power is delivered is reallysmooth and really adaptable to
(03:49):
whatever you want. So you canbasically program that motor to
link it to garment, to heartrate motors.
He alluded to that it's alreadybeen preprogrammed for AI, so
the whole bike will basicallybecome an extension of your
legs, things that no one elsehas ever really done. From a
power point of view, the topmotor, on the market is really
the Bosch six performance or theShimano e p eight motor. They
(04:14):
both have 85 nanometers oftorque. DJI's Avanox, when it
came out of box eighteen monthsago, had a 20 nanometers of
torque. So it's already, youknow, almost 50% more powerful
and peaks at a thousand watts ofpower versus the top motor by
specialized S Works or Bosch asseven fifty.
(04:34):
So automatic, they blew that outof the water. But what they did
really well is that the way thatit's delivered is so smooth, you
don't feel like you're on apiece of machine that's that
powerful. And then size is tiny.Weight is tiny. Batteries are
big but small.
So range anxiety goes. So, youknow, all of those things make
(04:55):
it the most sought after motorin the world, basically.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
And how was that sort of design put together with your
bike? Because it's only sort ofpart of it. You've to put the
rest of the bike
Speaker 2 (05:04):
together. Yeah. So we created the brand kind of last
year because our China partner,Dick basically approached
Anthony and I and said I'd liketo create a new brand. I've got
the partnership with DGI whichwas you know opened some doors
that we never thought we'd havethat ability do and then we use
a carbon frame factory in Chinathat's the top three in the
(05:25):
world. They do some massivemassive brands and basically you
design a bike up with thatmotor.
And because it's carbon, you canactually change and tool quite
easily. So when you see ourbikes, very hard to actually
tell it's an e bike now, becauseof the size of the motors and
size of batteries.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
And on your website, it also mentioned you've got a
partnership part with Australiaas well.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah. So the partnership with Australia so,
obviously, it's all well andgood to create a brand of bike.
And even though DJI will carryyou a lot of places because of
its reputation, you still haveto have a bike that is rides
well. It's kinetics are reallygood. It's all numbers are good
and designs and suspension,etcetera.
So what we've done is we've kindof done a massive collaboration
(06:10):
where we've worked with a lot ofdesigners in New Zealand, some
in China, some in Raider Rooerand also a guy in Adelaide
Australia who has painted asuspension system called iTrac
and Hugh basically was part ofalso the process to make sure
that our next model which hasbeen tested next month which is
a full suspension mountain bikethe rear suspension was able to
(06:31):
handle the power of the DJIAvanox basically and to make
sure it was smooth, know, awhole lot of stuff. So he was
part of that as well and you'llsee him like on the back end of
our in the rear triangle you seeiTrack Peyton. So Norco used
them for the race team, forexample. So he's pretty pretty
well known in that high end kindof stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah. Okay. So was it sort of about the bike? What
made you wanna go to the theshow in China?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Well, the the thing is, like, we had to produce a
certain amount of models for DJIto kinda partner with us. And so
although the brand is kinda aKiwi faced and it's designed
Kiwi and China side, everythingis tested in New Zealand. All
your or you'll see the reviewswill be always be New Zealand
First. Content will be NewZealand First, but it is also a
(07:17):
global brand. So in order tokind of get that out there, you
kind of gotta go to these bikefairs.
There's kind of three or fourmajor ones in the world. The
Shanghai China bike show is nowone of the biggest. It used to
be not so, but it's now beingseen as one of the world
leaders. So we had our gravelbike, which is our first one.
We'd just tested it.
(07:38):
We've just launched it on awebsite. We literally three days
before we flew out to China, thereview from New Zealand Cycling
Journal came out, which was a agreat review. And then we're on
this world stage in this bigkind of showroom. And then day
one, I arrived there and Dickwas like, hey, Dan. Just to let
you know we've won an award.
I was like, oh, yeah. We thoughtwe might have a rec recognition
(07:59):
award for kind of, you know,token kiwi's kind of jumping in
there. And then next minute,like, I'm on a stage with maybe,
you know, 80 media people takingphotos of me, maybe three or 400
people in the crowd, dudes from,like, Beijing, high up,
sustainable, you know, and I'm,like, smiling as kinda like
this. The only white guy in theroom kinda thing. It was it was
(08:21):
pretty mind blowing, but then itjust kind of exploded, went
viral.
So at the fair, we had obviouslyour our gravel bike. We had two
variants of it showcasing, andwe also had a three d print, so
plastic three d print of ourmountain bike, which is tested
next month, and that kind ofgrew so much attention that we
had media organizations aroundthe world interviewing and doing
a whole lot. If you look onYouTube, there's all this crazy
(08:41):
stuff. So, yeah, kind of guessit would be the definition of
viral.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
In the real world, going viral
Speaker 2 (08:46):
on
Speaker 1 (08:46):
just other phones.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah. And and and yeah. And the way that Bike
World works, interesting enough,it's like China produces, and I
remember this, food and74,000,000 bikes a year. That's
how much they produce. And47,000,000, for example, go to
The US.
And so, like, the the it's huge.The innovation is huge. The
factories are huge. It's it'smind blowing. So the show itself
(09:08):
is so big, it would take youprobably three days to walk it.
Like, I'd do two hours eachmorning to try to have a look,
and I didn't cover. I coveredmaybe 60%. It's just
overwhelming.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah. I read a couple of the specs. What was it? It
was I got it's a 60,000 squaremeters Oh,
Speaker 2 (09:23):
that's mind blowing.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
13 exhibition halls and a hundred and 1,600
companies participating.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah. Yeah. And that doesn't really do it. Just as
like when I walked in there, Idid not really know what to
expect, and it was I was likeholy heck. It was huge.
And then the crazy thing is likenext week that might be another
show like for power sports orfor boats or something like so
is that the kind of the WorldExpo Center in Shanghai? But,
yeah, huge, huge, huge. But,yeah, yeah, kind of chucked us
on the global stage.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
And the actual award you got was gold award for
creative product. Yeah. So wegot a gold award. We got a
Speaker 2 (09:54):
gold certificate. We got a very nice gold trophy, a
crystal trophy, which I shouldhave bought. But, yeah, really
cool. A really awesome award,and it also meant, like, all the
gold award winners. So there was15.
We went up there was 600,entries. So we won out of 600,
and there's and we won the bikecategory. And then there's,
like, 15 others. So and you'reall in the showcase in this hall
(10:16):
in the middle of the expo sopeople can come and see the gold
winners. So, like, one of theguys that was also winner and
was amazing was another motorsystem, but it uses only
magnets.
So zero resistance. So, yeah, itwas it was really, really,
really cool. But what alsohappened was because where we
were at and I would have lookeda little bit different to the
rest of the people on stage,there's a lot of media there
(10:37):
from The US and UK and they werelike, right, who are these guys?
Love the Kiwi story kind of blahblah blah. So
Speaker 1 (10:43):
yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Not saying. Honestly, it's it's ridiculously
overwhelming. I I liked comingback to New Zealand and having a
breather.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Must be pretty hard to stand out in that show with
so many bikes.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And it did, which is amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah. So I'm guessing what's the I guess what's the
response been since that?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Huge. So the response has been massive. Probably every
day. We haven't even, like,really marketed. Every day,
probably have 30 to 50 emails.
I came back to New Zealand andhad over 400 in the inbox. I was
like, oh my god, what am I gonnado? And you know, lot of that's
Kiwis really keen to get behindthe Kiwi brand, especially DJI
brand. And then a lot of it is,people abroad that love the
(11:24):
story. Our whole premise was,you know, create high quality
products, DJI powered andcollaborate with riders and
designers and then try to asmuch as we could put New Zealand
back on the spotlight and forthe mountain biking and cycling
kind of world because we kind ofget in New Zealand like because
I own I have lots of differenthats and I own a e bike retail
(11:46):
store as well.
What happens is New Zealandalways gets allocated whatever
is left over. So we either get areally good model of bike, but
we're only allocated a smallamount because we're just little
old New Zealand, or we getmodels that are really designed
for European markets, so they'remore kind of urban. And then we
have to adapt them for NewZealand. So our whole thing was
that we want to put New Zealandon the in the front first. Our,
(12:08):
you know, Kiwi riders are someof the best in the world, if not
the best, and our trails, if notthe best, but we seem to be
forgotten about.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
So who's actually your target market for the
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It depends. So we have we have three three
variants. There's three modelscoming out this year. So the
first one, the one that welaunched in kind of one was the
e gravel market and that's forgravel riders and that's a very
high end electronic shifting,full carbon rims, a beautiful
bike, high high price tag.Right?
People in that in that kind ofbike road gravel circuit,
(12:41):
that's, you know, we're we'reabout 30% cheaper than our
competitors, we've done that onpurpose. And then we also
created a flat bar variant,which is what I'm riding, and
it's more of a urban commuterdoes everything but spec down so
it's got mechanical Shimanoqueues, derailleurs, alloy rims
blah blah blah. Our store DJI,store car and frame but that it
will retail like in the 7 grandswhich is crazy for what it is.
(13:04):
So that's kind of for theeveryday commuter but the one
that we what we've done forevery single model is we also
produce frame only and that'squite unique. So that means
that, for example, you mighthave a quiver of bikes in your
garage and you might go, I don'tuse them.
A lot of people won't goelectric bikes, but they will
for DJI because the hype aroundit and because they're super
(13:26):
light and and and sophisticated.So the frame only options means
that kind of it's more like abike for the people, so you can
basically use your old bikes tospec up your new bike and you
can get a relatively stillexpensive, you know, but
relatively cheap, DJI fullcarbon powered bike and, you
know, customize it your way. Sothe target market's kind of bit
(13:48):
of everybody. So that's the onethat's in production. The second
one that's being tested, is, thein June in New Zealand is EMTB.
So a 60 mil travel, which ismore of an all mountain with a
mid pivot system suspensionsystem by iTrack. And then once
again, you'll have we'll have ahigh, component level, a mid
(14:09):
component level, and then we'lldo frame only. And I think I've
got about 300 pre orders for theframe only alone in New Zealand
because no one really does itand no one's ever done it with
DJI so you can literally youknow get your old mountain bike
you might be a really avidmountain biker and just
customize our frame to putwhatever you want on it. And
that's kind of unheard of andthat's what seems to be, know,
(14:33):
people are really excited aboutthe mountain bike session.
Gravel is a massive market inoverseas, but it's only growing
in New Zealand.
Yeah. So that's really kind ofexciting. And what it means is
like moving forward, like,Adrian could you know, you could
spec one yourself. You couldthen we'll have a YouTube
channel. You can talk about itand why you spec that and how
you made your motor systemadaptable to you and blah blah.
(14:53):
So it becomes a realcollaborative brand. So
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Yeah. Was wondering. I saw that thing just by the
frame. Was like, is that athing?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Yeah. It's not really, but it's it's it's
people want it. Like, what we'retrying to do is listen to the
industry. Bikers, cyclists areprobably the most pedantic
people in the world. They reallyare.
And and really go down therabbit hole pretty deep. So even
if you produced a bike that hadthe most every single one's the
best components, they would findsomething they don't like. They
might like like the brand or thetravel or the size of or the the
(15:20):
the, you know, whatever. They'llfind something they don't like.
So we're like, that's cool.
We we wanna also, you know, giveyou the opportunity to do
whatever you want. Frame onlygives people the opportunity.
Those that that section thatdon't wanna buy a bike that's
set up for them, they cancustomize it any way they want.
So and there's been a hugeamount of interest in it. It's
kinda mind blowing.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Yeah. And you I mean, you have got a website up. You
asked very sort of a a veryyoung business, but the
website's up.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah. The website's up. So Velduro.com will change
to Valjuro.co.co.nzed as moredistributors around the world.
Like, I've got meetings afterthis with Europe and Eastern
Europe, and there's, like, listof countries that want the
brand, which is cool. Kiwi'sstory is really resonating.
I like for the gravel section,preorders will open for that
next week. All sizes. So whenyou get a test bike, you only
(16:07):
can choose one size. So the sizethat was tested on is a medium.
So now the frame factory nowcreates all the other sizes.
So large, XL, small, and thenthat takes a little bit longer,
then production occurs. Now withframe only, you can actually get
that relatively fast. So ineight weeks, we can order and
admits in our doorstep. But whenyou're doing complete bikes,
(16:27):
you're waiting for OME partsfrom SRAM or Fox or Shimano,
whatever the components. It isalways a longer wait time.
So frame only will always betopped up in New Zealand, which
is super cool because it's easy.And then the complete bucks are
a little bit later on. Yeah. Thepreorder for the gravels starts
next week. Stocks like superlimited and then the Rogue,
(16:49):
which is the EMTB, they'll betested throughout June and July
and then once it's ready to go,you know, we produce as fast as
we can.
Realistically, we can get frameand medium probably August, but
all other frame sizes will be amonth after and then complete
bikes, more likely November forNew Zealand.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
And maybe just because it's all happening so
fast well, so happening I guessit's happening. What sort of
maybe some tips for the for thebusiness person, the developer?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Yeah. It's a hard one. Like, yeah, I think it's
all about what I've learned.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
What have you learned? What have have learned,
Dan? What have you learned sofar from this?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Well, I don't like, lots of hats in the ebike land,
but I think predominantly it allcomes just down to
relationships. I really think itis. I just think, you know,
everybody has this view that youhave to be a dick in business or
you have to be arrogant or youhave to be, I don't know, a
different nature to us. WhenAnthony and I went into
business, we're like, we wedon't we we just wanna be good
people. And I think if you'regood people, people see that and
(17:46):
they actually respect it.
And then you surround yourselfby those like minded people. And
for us from a bike point ofview, we're very aware that a
new brand is a new brand. But ifyou collaborate with the
industry, you listen to theindustry, you use components
that are known to the industry,high end, high end
manufacturers, and thenobviously DJI, you know,
(18:07):
ultimately, yes, you might havethe heritage of your brand, but
you're also telling a storythat's, you know, by the people
for the people. And, you know,the other thing is, like, the
bike industry is unbelievablyoverpriced. So what we've been
able to do is, you know, we wedon't have massive buildings in
Geneva or New York, but we'realso able to strip costs right
back so we can, you know, createa product that like for like is
(18:30):
generally 30% cheaper, which isgreat for consumers because
money's money.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Just summing up, when when are the bikes actually
gonna be available? Get to the
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Crux of it. For the gravel bike, which is the gold
winner, they are available andwill be in in October. People
will need to preorder themprior.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Can I preorder now?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
You can oh, as in next week, you'll be able to,
and we're just all we do forpreorders is you put a $500
deposit, % refundable, but itlocks you in because size is
limited because in all honesty,we were with GJI last week and
Shenzhen, and, you know, theystruggling to keep up with
demand because there's otherbrands that are using their
motors too. So we're alsodictated to what how many they
(19:14):
units they can provide usbasically. So New Zealand will
always get first dibs and thenit will go to the rest of the
world.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
What's the warranty? How what's the warranty on
there?
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yeah. So everything's in the e bike lane is pretty
similar. It's all it's all twoyear warranty on anything
electrical. DJI is an unusualcompany because they don't
really have any warranty issueswith the motor. Like, the actual
quality is just is next level.
Here's an interesting story foryou and might hopefully get
picked up by the New Zealandmedia, they can talk to you or
me a bit further.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Can I say the word exclusive here?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Exclusive. Yeah. Exclusive.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
EV Quest exclusive.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
EV Quest exclusive. So the DJI motor, the way that
so every country around theworld has a restriction on how
fast a motor can go. So forexample, if our bike, the
Valduro Phantom, that's the thegravel bike, if we took that
over to Australia and startedriding it, that bike would be
limited to 25 kilometers an hourbecause that's a speed
(20:09):
restriction for Australia. If wethen took that bike to UK, it
would sit at 32 kilometers anhour, for example. Now most
motor manufacturers, you have tomanufacture the motor
specifically for each country.
So if you bought an Australianmodel here, it would be crap
because it's only 25 an hour.DJI is so advanced that uses
satellite and GPS. So thosemotors are geofenced. So
(20:33):
wherever the bike goes aroundthe world, it automatically
changes. So you don't nothinghappens from a manufacturing
level.
We're like, okay. That's cool.So then we, you know, we created
this Phantom gravel. We had itwe're get about to get it out
for testing. We're like, contactDJI.
Hey, DJI. What's the speedrestriction gonna be for New
Zealand? It's all geo fenced anddon't worry. It's it's it's it
(20:54):
will move or sell it. Okay.
That's cool. And I'm like I'vebeen in the industry eight
years. Anthony's been in it for,like, eighteen years. New
Zealand's, E bike rules are verygray. In 02/2002 they were
created so very outdated.
Anyhow, we get this bike and westart testing it. It is
unlimited.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Oh, okay. I thought there was a limit. Thought there
Speaker 2 (21:13):
nothing. And if in New Zealand's government doesn't
we don't have a limit. So we'vegot motor power restrictions
that apply to hub driven motors.That was 02/2002. We don't have
a motor.
So the actual the the actualpolicy is as long as you're
adhering to the road rules in a50 k zone, you're going under
50, you're fine. Now that's notnecessarily great either
(21:34):
because, we don't want a motorthat is unlimited. So now we can
DJI to actually cap it, but itdoes have a bigger EV quest
exclusive discussion point thatmaybe we could get like I talked
to Michael Woods who was the oldtransport minister about this
eight years ago but maybe wecould have this stuff updated so
everybody has some clarity
Speaker 1 (21:53):
give me a call What's the plan for the next say oh can
you plan six months ahead ofsome
Speaker 2 (21:57):
sort Yeah so plan so obviously the gravel's in
production all sizes cool sohigh commuter and then frame
only Second one is the AllMountain. That's being tested
and it arrives about the June15. That gets tested in Rotorua,
some really big riders, topriders, and experts in the
field. That all goes tickityboo, then we start production of
(22:17):
that. And then so that will beavailable for a sale in New
Zealand in kind of October,November.
You'd have to put your preordersin. And then we actually have
another model that's in thedesign process, so it's already
on paper and on on the computer.Thing is with our bikes because
our DJI and carbon are extremelylight. Like, so our Phantom top
(22:38):
model is like 14 and a half KGsand our alloy is like 15 KGs and
our mountain bike, you know witha 60 mil of travel will only
weigh at about twenty one andeight hundred watt battery which
is crazy.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Thank you very much for your time and look forward
to what happens next.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Thank you, Adrian. Thank you.
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