During one of many commercial breaks during the 2020 edition of the Superbowl, we were drawn to a few seconds of footage in Jeep's ad featuring the legendary actor Bill Murray... and it was nothing to do with the new gas-guzzling Jeep Gladiator, but rather the part 40 seconds in where Murray mounts a brand new mystery Jeep e-bike!
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Since the ad aired, Jeep sort of let the cat out of the bag with a landing page to their new bike, simply called the Jeep e-Bike at this stage... and since we first published this article the bike is now available to order for the princely sum of $5,899.
This is directly through the Quietkat website, the brand we suspected made the e-bike... and it does appear it's pretty much wholly their effort, simply with the Jeep branding on the frame. It's essentially Quietkat's existing Ridgerunner model, with a few modifications to supersize the performance.
It's built for some serious weather and harsh conditions, with 4.8” fat tires, 150mm of suspension travel up front and 120mm of travel at the rear. It also has super powerful 4 piston hydraulic disc brakes with 203mm rotors for the ultimate in stopping power. You can even add a remote dropper seatpost for an additional $278, bringing the price up to $6,177.
The drivetrain is 10 speed with enough at the bottom to climb the steepest mountains according to Quietkat, and assisting you is a 750 watt motor (that we suspect is courtesy of Bafang) with a huge 160nm of torque... that makes it Class 2 and very much not street-legal for the UK unfortunately, but perhaps they will consider making a modified version for this side of the pond!
Jeep claimed the new e-bike will be "the most capable off-road electric mountain bike there is"; and while it's not the rangiest we've ever seen, you can get between 30-60 miles from the sizeable motor on a single charge. You can check out Bill Murray getting to grips with it some more between around 1:46-2:10 in Jeep's behind-the-scenes video above.
For those based in the States, pre-orders are now open on Quietkat's website for a June/July 2020 delivery - head over to their website for more info and buying options.
