Practical test
E bike
Cowboy ST4 designer bike – nicer, better but also more expensive
Nice among the e-bikes
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The Belgian start-up Cowboy has presented the fourth generation of its bike. The piece of jewelry became even more beautiful and there is now a deep entry. However, the price has also moved.
The cowboy e-bikes are among the big newcomers in the bicycle sector. The bikes can only be ordered on the Internet, they are comparatively cheap and look like a designer piece, yet they are absolutely suitable for everyday use. They are intended for users for whom the smartphone is a matter of course, who cover medium distances in the city and who value a cool appearance. The former start-up has now brought the fourth generation onto the market. And this time the bike is available in two designs: one with a classic diamond frame and high bar and one in a V-shape with a low entry. We had the V model sent to us for our test. Why: It’s easier to build a nice and stiff diamond frame than a cool bike with a flat entrance.
In the city, the flat entry is always recommended because of the frequent stopping situations, this frame is usually spurned because of its unsporting appearance. The Cowboy ST4 now combines safe entry with a successful look.
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Lower is safer
And it looks great, the new cowboy. The design language is not new, it just carries on the concept of its predecessor. That means the bike looks “clean”. You can always tell from a normal bike that it is screwed together from an infinite number of accessories. The Cowboy, on the other hand, looks like it is made of one piece. There are no protruding nuts, even the countersunk screw heads have been reduced to almost zero. The handlebars are straight with minimal backward lean. Grips, handlebars and the attachment of the two brakes are in line, nothing stands out, the brake hoses disappear a few centimeters below the handlebars and are continued in the frame. Nothing hooks and nothing flutters. And the splash protection is just as careful.
Silent driving pleasure
The new Cowboy is now decelerated by two hydraulic disc brakes, which look better than mechanical ones and have a softer braking point. The battery sits behind the seat tube. It can be removed, the capacity is enough for a real 60 kilometers. Important for those who can safely park their bike and do not want to take it into their home to charge. Instead of a chain, there is a maintenance-free, oil-free Gates belt. Together with the motor, the belt ensures a smooth, soft start. A hub motor in the rear wheel drives the cowboy. It is absolutely inconspicuous and no bigger than a hub gear, and it is also very quiet.
Not a powerhouse
How does the bike ride now? The drive supports the driver discreetly, never pushing itself into the foreground. That is astonishing, because in the standard configuration these engines from China go to work rather coarse. The strength of the support roughly corresponds to the tour mode of a Bosch engine. That’s enough to comfortably and effortlessly reach a speed of over 20 km / h. But there is no such thing as the “performance explosion” that the strong mountain bike engines provide in the strongest stage. The Cowboy is perfect for getting around town comfortably yet briskly. There is not enough power for mountains or steep inclines.
The Cowboy is only available in one size, it fits most cyclists. But since only the saddle height can be adjusted on the bike, the bike will feel completely different for someone who is 170 centimeters tall than for someone who is 187 cm. Even if it suits both, posture and characteristics are different.
City tires
Despite their elegance, the tires have a relatively high wall thickness, they cushion slight bumps. The smooth rubbers hardly generate any running noise and do not absorb any dirt other than profile tires that can then get into the apartment. They are of course not ideal for terrain, uneven ground or slippery matches and lawns. The lighting is completely integrated in the frame and provides astonishingly good illumination, even directly in front of the bike. However, it is urban lighting and not a floodlight system for the terrain. In the completely dark you drive a little more cautiously. In the city, the lighting competition between very bright light sources and the mostly poorly lit bike paths make driving in the dark difficult and all lighting systems suffer as a result.
The app is central to the bike – almost nothing works without a smartphone. Fortunately, you don’t have to actively use them. Once the bike is set up, you can simply leave your smartphone in your pocket to unlock the bike and set off. So you don’t have to do a click marathon to use the bike. There is a quad lock adapter on the handlebar so that the cell phone can be securely attached. Then you have all bike data at a glance and can also be guided by the app’s own navigation. In addition to the standards such as distance and range, the air pollution is also displayed.
The cowboy is locked with the app, so stealing doesn’t actually make sense. But can you leave the bike at the train station during the day without another lock? Hardly likely.
The bike for the city
The Cowboy is the right choice for an urban audience that never leaves the apartment without a smartphone. In the city it is a pleasant companion that can easily bring you to 25 km / h with the physical strength that is otherwise sufficient for only about 17 km / h. Coordination, smoothness and engine support are skillfully and very unobtrusively solved. That was already the case with the predecessors, the design has been significantly further developed. It is a piece of jewelry that makes its owner proud. The overall package of the drive – acceleration, discreet support and silent movement – is perfectly solved in its kind and even better than its predecessor. The current price increases have also reached the Cowboy, the ST4 costs 2590 euros. That’s fair, but not a bargain either.