01 / THE OBJECT
A city bicycle built for the hours after dark.
SPECIFICATION
RANGE
92 km
MASS
17.4 kg
CHARGE
0–80% in 95 min
DRIVE
Carbon belt
NOKKEN
02 / THESIS
AFTER DARK.
A bicycle is not transport. It is the shortest way home.
Nokken is six people in a yard on Refshaleøen who make one object at a time. The first is a city electric bicycle drawn for the hours after dark: a welded aluminium frame, a carbon belt instead of a chain, a light that comes on with the crank rather than with a switch, and ninety-two kilometres between charges.
We do not make a range and we are not going to. We build one machine, we finish it properly, and when it is right we start the next one. Everything on this site describes that machine; nothing on it is for sale here, because a bicycle is a thing you have to ride in the dark before you decide.
We do not make a range and we are not going to. We build one machine, we finish it properly, and when it is right we start the next one. Everything on this site describes that machine; nothing on it is for sale here, because a bicycle is a thing you have to ride in the dark before you decide.
03 / THE RUN HOME
It starts at dusk.
The light comes on with the crank rather than with a switch, and it stays on for as long as the wheel is turning. There is nothing to remember and nothing to charge separately.
You will not hear it.
A carbon belt instead of a chain: no oil, no slap over the potholes, nothing to clean off your trouser leg, and nothing that tells the street you are coming.
Ninety-two kilometres.
Measured on a flat city loop at 25 km/h in the middle assist setting with a rider and eight kilos on the rack. Hills and a headwind take it down and we say so.
And it comes apart.
Sixty-one serviceable parts, every one held in with a fastener we still stock. Nothing is glued, nothing is potted, and the battery is four screws.
04 / MEASURED
NUMBERS WE STAND ON.
Every figure here was measured on the production machine rather than modelled, and the conditions are written beside it. Nothing on this page is a rating, an award or an average of anybody else.
92 km
RANGE, MIDDLE ASSIST
Measured on a flat city loop at 25 km/h with a rider and eight kilos on the rack. At full assist on a hilly route it is 61 km.
95 min
NOUGHT TO EIGHTY PER CENT
From any 100-watt charger. A full charge takes two hours forty, and the machine ships at thirty per cent.
17.4 kg
KERB MASS
With the rack, the mudguards and both lights fitted, which is how you will actually carry it up a flight of stairs.
05 / MADE HERE
MADE THE SLOW WAY.
6061-T6
WELDED AND FINISHED HERE
Frames are cut, welded and aligned in the yard, then bead-blasted and anodised twice. The weld beads are left visible on purpose.
IP67
SEALED DRIVE
Motor and controller are sealed to the same standard, because a Copenhagen winter is six months of salt water thrown up off the road.
30 000 km
BELT SERVICE INTERVAL
A carbon belt outlasts nine chains and needs no oil. There is nothing on this machine you have to degrease.
61 parts
ALL REPLACEABLE
Every fastener, bearing and cable is in a drawer in the yard, and will be for as long as we are building. Nothing is glued.
06 / THE WORKSHOP
We build one bicycle and we finish it properly.
Nokken · Copenhagen
07 / COME AND RIDE IT
RIDE IT AT NIGHT.
The workshop is open by appointment on weekday evenings, which is the only honest time to ride a machine built for them. Thirty minutes, no obligation, and the lights are on.