Electra Townies

Home • Men's Electra Townies • Women's Electra Townies
Townie Types • Flat Foot Technology • Contact • Inquiry

By mixing the comfortable laid-back seating position of the odd, but fast recumbent with Electra's smart and swoopy curved cruisers, we created the next generation of bikes, the Electra Townies. Because of it's unique design and adjustability - the Townie can fit a wide range of different sized riders with only one frame size.

Why an Electra?

In the old days cruisers were very cool looking, very heavy, and very hard to pedal. Built only for a short cruise around the neighborhood. Our "Original Modern Cruisers" are an evolution of the classic designs that defined America in the 1940's and 50's. We kept the cool stuff; the style and the attitude and discarded the bad stuff; the weight and the lack of maneuverability. We began with the look, chose lightweight materials, engineered a better frame and then added state-of-the-art components. So now you can look great, ride comfortably for any distance and enjoy a classic Electra for life.

Electra Bikes in Bicycling Magazine

Electra specializes in cruisers, so it's no surprise that its Townie commuter bikes have the same swoopy styles as many custom beach bikes. But the Townie design is more that just fashion. It mixes a comfortable, back-friendly riding position reminiscent of a recumbent with it's own curved cruiser style. The result is a sexy bike with a function and fashion all its own. It offers an upright seating position from Electra's one-size-fits-all frame with plenty of stand over clearance. The laid-back seat tube lets riders plant both feet firmly on the ground at intersections yet still allows full leg extension while pedaling.

Modern Cruisers (Courtesy of Wikipedia)
At the time, there were very few cruisers, the classic “fun” bike, on the market. “Back in 1993, there were no cruisers available,” Erforth told the Carlsbad Local News, “You could buy a $99 Huffy at Wal-Mart, or you could try to find an old one and restore it, which is very expensive,” Baenziger decided there was a market niche for a stylish, affordable cruiser bicycle for twenty somethings and began working on designs that combined old school looks with contemporary technology. About this time, Baenziger met Erforth, a fellow German transplant who was selling pieces of the Berlin Wall. Erforth said he could sell the kind of bikes Baenziger was designing, so the two pooled $30,000 in personal savings and founded Electra Bicycle Company. The two remain the firm’s sole shareholders.