Within reason, it's a good time to be an electric bike maker - people are flocking to the sector as they think of new ways to commute and travel that avoid public transport but don't necessarily leave them as sweaty messes. 

Cowboy's last bike was one of the absolute best we've tried. In fact, it's sitting pretty atop the above list of the best e-bikes on the market, for our money. Now, it's unveiled the Cowboy 3, the newest version of its flagship bike. 

The new bike brings a choice of colours for the first time, although nothing outlandish - two shades of grey and the pre-existing black, all of them minimalistic and classy. It also brings apparently significant upgrades to the bike's transmission mechanisms, making for smoother operation and faster starts.

Cowboy also says that the bike should make it through 30,000 ridden kilometres before it needs any maintenance, an impressive measure. The Cowboy 3 can manage 70km on each charge, meaning it'll take plenty of trips to reach that point.

Cowboy unveils its third-gen e-bike with new transmission and colours image 2
Cowboy

Its tires have also had an upgrade, increasing their resistance to punctures and making tweaks to how they connect to the wheel rims to get an even smoother ride. Meanwhile, the Cowboy app is also getting some telling upgrades including the ability to auto-unlock the bike when you're near, which many users were hopeful would come. It can also offer up theft and crash detection to make sure that you're in control of how your bike reacts to your actions and those of others. 

In fact, really the bike looks almost identical to the previous version that we tried out, those colours aside. That means you still get some great features like the all-important removable battery, which makes Cowboy so much easier to live with than some other e-bikes, letting you charge it separately from the frame. 

Cowboy Unveils Its Third-gen E-bike With New Transmission And Colours image 4
Cowboy

That means you still have the same integrated front and back lights, including brake lights that can be set to get brighter when you're actually braking, a great touch. Plus, you can add on custom mudguards when you buy the bike for a beautifully-designed bit of protection from splashes. 

The bike is available to pre-order from Cowboy now, ahead of shipping at the end of July, costing £1,990 or €2,290, making it just a shade more expensive than the Cowboy 2 was at launch, but still very much in the middle of the expensive e-bike market.