X1 Bike
A Florida folding e-bike startup I co-founded. I built its website, edited its videos, and ran its WooCommerce store and online marketing, through a 2017 Kickstarter launch.
- WordPress
- WooCommerce
- PHP
- MySQL
- NGINX
- Apache
- Let's Encrypt
- Kickstarter
X1 Bike was a folding electric bike from X1 Technology, a startup with a service center in Apopka, Florida. The X1 Explorer folded its X-shaped aluminum frame down to golf-bag size and promised a 37-mile range, 19 mph, GPS tracking, key fob start, and an anti-theft alarm, from $995. I was one of the founders and one of the developers. I built the website, did the video editing and graphics, and ran the online store and marketing. We made a lot of content.
- Role
- Co-founder and developer
- Timeline
- From September 2016
01
The site
I built x1bike.com by myself in September 2016, a decade ago now, homepage included. It opened on a background reel of riding and detail shots under the tagline, then walked through the lineup, the features, and a photo gallery. It grew into a WooCommerce shop for the Explorer, the smaller $695 X1 Electron, spare parts, and gear, with warranty registration, a dealer locator, and a wholesale program. I also ran the social ad and creator campaigns. The site ran for a few years, and we sold a few hundred bikes.
In April 2018 I reworked the checkout and mobile layout, added product fields and shipping classes, and proposed post-sale emails.
I ran the hosting too, on a stack I’d still pick today, with security and speed first. A custom-built Nginx was the only thing facing the internet. It terminated TLS with auto-renewing Let’s Encrypt certificates and proxied to Apache, so WordPress and WooCommerce kept their .htaccess rules, with PHP-FPM and MySQL behind it. The site ran as its own unprivileged Linux user, the firewall opened only SSH and web traffic, and security patches installed daily.
02
The brand
The wordmark sets “X1” in cut, angular letters and puts “BIKE” inside a battery outline, with the final E drawn as three orange charge bars. The same mark runs down the bike’s frame and across the packaging.
The bike was unveiled on October 1, 2016 in Clearwater, where X1 sponsored a race team at the National Super Boat Championships. The team then rode it around Key West to test the market.
03
The promo video
I shot much of X1’s footage, edited its videos, and made its graphics in Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, and Illustrator. The first promo (opens in new tab), out in September 2016, cut riding footage with animated callouts for the range, top speed, and fold.
04
Kickstarter
The campaign was accepted and went live on November 15, 2017, asking $60,000 over 30 days. Pledges started at $995, with shipping planned for March 2018. Geeky Gadgets, designboom, and New Atlas covered the launch.
05
On the convention floor
The bike also showed up in person, at a Star Wars convention booth with the 501st Legion, where a stormtrooper took it for a ride.
06
Outcome
The store stayed online after the campaign, and the site was still up in 2021. Tariffs eventually sank the company.