Cars and Public Transport Might Not Be the Best Way To Commute in Aussie Cities Anymore

How many hours can you sit stranded in city traffic before your spirit finally breaks? Luke Sinclair and Kendall Bristow lost count along the way, but both still harbour visceral memories of their numbing work commutes in the congested streets of Auckland.

“I remember sitting in a line of idling cars, breathing in exhaust fumes and watching my life tick away in the rearview mirror,” says Sinclair. “It felt like we’d all just collectively agreed to spend 10 hours a week in a metal cage. I couldn’t accept that this was the peak of urban engineering.”

“The daily commute wasn't just slow – it was draining,” adds Bristow. “You start your day stressed about parking and end it frustrated by gridlock. We weren’t just looking for a faster way to get to work; we were looking for a way to stop the city from feeling like a giant waiting room.”

Fed up and desperate for a solution, the pair decamped to a garage, where they leaned on their engineering backgrounds and began converting a humble BMX into a moped. Things moved quickly from there, and they soon developed two models of lightweight electric motorbikes to liberate fellow sufferers of urban gridlock. To really put a button on their mission to disrupt the daily commute, they even named their company FTN Motion – a tidy acronym for Fuck the Norm.

Now hitting Australia after becoming a colourful, eye-catching staple in New Zealand, FTN’s two signature Streetdog models are all about embracing liberation over stasis. That’s thanks not only to the removable electric battery – which you can simply charge overnight along with your phone – but the storage space built into the bike’s solid steel frame.

“The biggest shift for me was losing the backpack,” says Bristow. “There’s a literal weight off your shoulders when you can just drop your laptop and a bag of groceries into the bike’s frame.”

“It changed my relationship with the city,” Sinclair adds. “I stopped checking Google Maps for traffic before I left the house because traffic simply didn’t apply to me anymore. You regain this sense of spontaneity, being able to stop for a coffee or hit the beach on a whim without worrying about the logistical nightmare of parking a car."

The Streetdog 50 is classified as a moped, while the Streetdog 80 is considered a full motorbike. Named after their respective top speeds, the two models are specifically targeted towards urban riding and commuting, though riders can just as easily cruise down to the beach or the shops on weekends. You don’t get stuck in traffic, you don’t have to pay for petrol and you don’t have to stress about emissions. Plus, you can park them on the footpath in Australia.

FTN is now offering free test rides in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, and the feedback has been glowing. “The big things people always bring up are the build quality and the ride feel,” says Sinclair. “Just how smooth it is. That’s definitely where we set ourselves apart. It’s the closest thing I’ve experienced to flying while on the ground. It’s that direct connection with the throttle: there’s no lag and no noise.”

Bristow chimes in: “You’re not insulated from the world by a windshield and a radio. You feel the temperature change as you ride through a park. You’re connected to the rhythm of the streets. It’s that rare ‘flow state’ where the bike disappears and it’s just pure movement."

FTN launched its Australian presence with a Melbourne office at the end of 2025. And after years of taking the bikes out in their former base of Wellington – across steep hills, exposed roads and demanding urban terrain – Sinclair and Bristow are confident that the bikes can handle the varied riding conditions of Australia’s cities and coastal towns.

In fact, the bigger the city, the more useful the Streetdog will be in cutting through the congestion and parking problems that plague so many cars, trucks and vans. “Being on the bike in a big city, that’s when you see the product really come to life,” says Sinclair. “That’s how we envisioned it working.”

Assembled on-site in Hamilton, New Zealand, the bikes are also fully customisable in terms of colour, and extra batteries can be purchased and stored inside them. A full battery charge takes around five-and-a-half hours, which translates to 60 to 80 kilometres of travel for the Streetdog 80, and 80 to 100 kilometres for the Streetdog 50. They also look stylish in a knowingly retro way, and they’re absolutely silent. Also crucial to that sense of liberation: riders can say goodbye to petrol stations and oil changes forever.

More than five years on from their first tinkering in that garage, Sinclair and Bristow are as excited as ever about upending the way we think about moving through a city.

“The name FTN Motion was never just a brand; it was a manifesto,” adds Sinclair. “We wanted to poke a hole in the idea that cities have to be loud, congested, and grey. Choosing this bike is a quiet act of rebellion against a transport system that’s been broken for decades. We’re reclaiming the streets for people, not just for traffic.” 

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with FTN Motion. Riders need an R-class motorcycle licence to ride (and test ride) a Streetdog 80 in Australia. Residents of SA, QLD, WA and the NT can operate the Streetdog 50 with only a car licence, but a motorcycle licence is required in VIC, NSW, TAS and the ACT.