Lotus Type 136

Is the Lotus Type 136 the most exclusive e-bike in the world?

E-bikes are everywhere, whatever the type of riding you can think of; there’s an e-bike for it. For riders that need the extra power to help them get their shopping home, to commuters that want to beat the traffic. However, what if you wanted a performance road bike? Something that would make your ride buddies jaws drop? Something that would make them forget you have electric assist? A bike that has racing running through its DNA? A bike like the Lotus Type 136?

The Type 136 harnesses thirty years of of road and track success, combines it with design and engineering excellence to produce an e-bike that is out of this world. Lotus have taken the lightest e-bike motor from HPS and combined it with a hand-made Italian carbon-fibre frame. The result is an e-bike that tips the scales at 9.8 kilograms!

A motor from Mars!

A lot of that feathery weight is down to the motor. Lotus went to HPS to use their Watt Assist Pro Motor system. This was developed by HPS from the Mars Lander Project’s motor and refined by F1 engineers. The result was a low-maintenance motor that weighs 300 grammes! Combine it with the battery – disguised as a water- bottle – and you have an all-up weight of 1.2Kg.

That motor is then set into a frame that takes all that gold-medal winning success to produce a stunning aero frame. Starting at the front you have a one-piece V-shaped handlebar. Those bars are then connected to a pair of chunky wing-shaped forks. At the rear, the seat-stays are straight off the current Lotus/Hope track bike. It looks to be a nightmare for mechanics to set-up, but that’s not something that will worry any potential owners. With a price tag of £20,000 for the first limited-edition bikes, this is a very special bike.

Type 136 limited run

That first run of bikes will be limited to 136 individually numbered bikes, painted in a unique Lotus motorsport-inspired livery. Groupset will be Campagnolo Super Record, with Campagnolo Bora Ultra WTO 60 wheels. The ‘standard’ model, will then be available in two versions from Spring 2024, either SRAM Red or SRAM Force, with DT Swiss wheels. The SRAM Red model will be available for £16,999 while the Force version will be ‘only’ £15,199.

Lotus Cars are a well known car brand with a long history of producing exciting two-seaters. Founded in 1948 and 75 years old this year, Lotus is best known for the design, engineering and manufacture of two-seater sports cars such as Esprit, Elise and Elite. They also have a history of producing some of the most iconic bikes for British athletes at the Olympics and the Tour de France.

This is without a doubt an amazing head turner of a bike. With its combination of British sports car design, Italian carbon manufacture and a motor from Mars, you’re not likely to see many on your local club-run. You can however, see it at Rouleur Live in London from 2-4 November. This will be probably be as close as I will ever get to one!