Making Adventure Accessible Powered by Eco-Friendly Super73 e-bikes!
Electric Trails is an authorized Super73 eBike rental outfitter located in Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. We make adventure accessible by providing you with electric bikes to get you a greater distance no matter your biking stamina, along with our pre-planned, eBike-compliant routes through the North Shore.
We’re a group of four friends who like building businesses andloveadventure. Electric Trails was founded by Jake Seltz and Ryan Lloyd, who met while working together out of a co-working space in Minneapolis. Like many during the pandemic, we experienced anxiety, isolation, and burn-out. We longed for something different, some type of adventure to get out of the house, away from our screens, and back into nature.
We did this by taking our Super73 eBikes up to the North Shore in the summer of 2021. We got to see the North Shore in a way like never before – on quiet bikes that powered us through miles and miles of Superior National Forest and along the shore of Lake Superior. We were immediately hooked. Over the next year, eBike trips to the North Shore became our go-to digital detox and escape to the outdoors. We found that Super73 eBikes unlocked a sort of cheat code, allowing us to ride further and discover more as we covered hundreds of miles of forest roads and old logging trails on zero-emission eBikes that don’t make noise; a means of exploration more in harmony with nature than motorized vehicles, and more physically doable for us than mountain biking.
In 2022 we launched Electric Trails with the mission of making adventure accessible on Super73 eBikes. We approached our friends Tim Saetre and Emma Sievers, who we knew would be up for an adventure. With Tim and Emma on board and committed to moving up to Grand Marais to manage and operate our pilot location, we were able to open our doors the summer after our first foray into the North Shore on our eBikes.
Today, we have a fleet of Super 73s and all the gear in our container kiosk, and we’ve mapped out our favorite eBike routes of the North Shore so all you have to do is show up and get your fix of adventure. We are a partner and sponsor of the Gitchi Gami, and proud to report that people are loving this new way of exploring the North Shore.
When we first started hauling our eBikes up to the North Shore in the summer of 2021, we were blown away by the way it enabled us to explore. We could cover so much ground, see so much wildlife, and experience the astonishing beauty of the North Shore without disrupting its harmonious wildlife.
We believe everyone needs adventures like these, and electric bikes make this type of adventure possible. So we set out to provide a way for adventure-seekers to rent eBikes easily, travel along pre-planned routes confidently, and explore Superior National Forest in a way they’ve never done before. Electric pedal-assist allows a wider range to cover ground, make it up steep hills, and experience the natural beauty of the North Shore. We service everyone from individuals to large groups and families with both paved and off-road eBikes.
Big fans of the outdoors, we’re also proponents of exploring with the environment in mind, and these zero-emissions eBikes are an eco-friendly way to experience wilderness without disturbing nature with noise and emissions. These quiet bikes have afforded us the opportunity to spot wolves, bears, moose, bobcats, and more!
We see this as a paradigm shift; an answer for those wanting to explore the outdoors in a responsible, adventurous way, no matter their physical or budgetary constraints.
We opened our pilot location in Grand Marais, Minnesota because we love spending time here in one of the most beautiful spots in the country. Nestled on the rocky shores of Lake Superior, Grand Marais has the perfect combination of tourism and access to amazing on- and off-road trails.
Built around the concept of “business in a box,” we use shipping container kiosks to house our fleet of Super73s, which enables us to move around to different outdoor tourism locations with the seasons. Along with our mission of making adventure accessible, we aim to be good community members and bring value to the local community both in being a good neighbor and running a quality business that evokes the one-of-a-kind spirit of the North Shore. We coordinated with the Forest Service and DNR to map out eBike-compliant routes to provide our riders, and we partnered with and sponsor the Gitchi Gami, the North Shore’s brand new paved trail that, when completed, will run from Two Harbors up to Grand Marais.
We opened our pilot location in July of 2022. Since then we purchased our new shop in Schroeder. We hope to operate multiple locations on the North Shore in 2023.
Riders choose between paved and offroad Super73 electric bikes, which they rent by the hour or the day.
Our paved routes take you along the Gitchi Gami trail, which wanders along Lake Superior, through Superior National Forest, and even over waterfalls. This experience is approachable for a wide range of ages and rider skill level.
Our off-road adventures are powered by Super73 RXs. Riders bike through a mix of forest roads, snowmobile trails, and logging roads on half-day, full-day, or custom multi-day adventures. For those wanting to explore a further distance from our kiosk, we offer a unique offroad option:
Using our Gaia eBike map, riders will confidently explore deep into the Superior National Forest along our pre-planned routes, which we label on a difficulty level so there are no surprises. If you’re riding the paved Gitchi Gami or deep into the Forest, our mobile app maps work offline and our pre-planned routes provide turn-by-turn directions as you ride.
Whether you’re an avid cyclist or an aging retiree, the Super73 eBikes make traveling along these trails accessible. All you need to do is show up (and put on a helmet, which we provide).
