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Tuesday, September 27th, 2022 5:55 pm EDT
Trek builds a seemingly endless variety of bicycles, including mountain bikes, road bikes, tri bikes, kids’ bikes, and everything in between – but where I think they really shine is cruisers, and their Electra brand is the Rolls Royce of the category. Today, we’re going to talk about the newest Trek-built bike to wear the Electra badge: the all-new Kākau Go!, inspired by Polynesian culture and its rich surfing history.
Image courtesy Trek.
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Image courtesy Trek.
The Electra Kākau is a stylish, eye-catching e-cruiser with some fun design touches meant to act as an homage to “the birthplace of surfing.” Touches like the matte ember frame that resembles volcanic rock, wood grain that represents the wood of the Kao tree, used for early surfboards, and traditionally Polynesian tribal patterns ghosted onto the frame tubing, fenders, seat, and chain guards.
Those tattoo-like patterns also give this e-bike its name: Kākau. That’s the nearly lost art of hand-hammered (or, “tapped”) tattoos. “In this ancient tradition, the receiver does not get to choose their design,” writes Star Bolton, for Keola Magazine. “Even though the conceptual consultations may be discussed for many months, the actual artwork is ultimately an improvisation that happens in the moment.”
The Kākau e-bike is one of Electra’s new “Artist Series” bikes, each designed to represent a specific region of this beautiful planet. As such, you might expect the limited-edition, surf-inspire bike to be pricey – but you’d be wrong. At just $1800 (US), the Electra Kākau would have been the least expensive bike on our “Best E-bikes & Motorcycles You Can Buy in 2022” list if it had shown up in– I dunno, let’s say the “Cruiser” category.
Quite frankly, it deserves a mention on looks alone – but that’s just my $0.02, what’s yours? Are these Electra Artist Series bikes something you’re excited about, or would you prefer to keep your customizing to yourself, “built not bought” style? Scroll on down to the comments and let us know!
Image courtesy Trek.
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Image courtesy Trek.
Source | Images: Trek Bikes.
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