Friction drive e-bike conversions were popular years ago.

They generally:

* Wear tires surprisingly quickly

* Absolutely suck in any form of weather or terrain condition (dirt, rain, etc.)

* Have ~20% less efficiency than any other drive form.

But, they are easy, and they do work.

• molsongolden

  today at 4:11 AM

  This bike booster will probably come in at less than half the cost but the Bimotal kit is another option that doesn't have the tire wear issue, offers better performance, and the form factor is much nicer.

  https://bimotal.com/products/elevate

  • fwipsy

    today at 5:12 AM

    Wow, $2k? You could get a decent ebike for that money. And the installation doesn't look any easier than a hub motor... Only seems worth it if you already have an extremely nice bike. I think of friction drives as being aimed at budget-conscious commuters, not serious mountain bikers.

    • veunes

      today at 8:25 AM

      $2k makes sense only if the bike underneath it is valuable enough that you specifically want to keep riding that bike

    • selfhoster1312

      today at 7:09 AM

      I was shocked by the price, too. I mean a motor and a battery can't be so expensive, especially such a "small" battery (300Wh).

      That being said, having driven electric bikes for a while, here in France they're ridiculously limited in speed and power. 25km/h limit on flat land usually makes sense (except on long straight lines), but when you get climbing even slightly you get down to ~10km/h and have to provide more effort. I guess that's where the 750/1250W 70Nm unrestrained motor comes in handy, and if you live in a place with lots of small hills the choice is either that kind of motor or a car, not the 1000€-total Decathlon/Carrefour electric bike.

      • bendews

        today at 8:41 AM

        I have a heap of ebikes, all 250w and 25km/h limited. A Bosch performance line motor on a MTB going up a steep hill is effortless compared to a budget shimano motor where it can barely make it up no matter how much effort you put in to pedalling. Torque makes a big difference.

      • bramblerose

        today at 7:25 AM

        In my experience the issue is one of torque, not of power. Most cheaper electric bicycles (including most Decathlon models) have a hub-mounted motor which cannot deliver power effectively at low speeds -> it stops assisting when you most need it. For hilly terrain you need a motor that's mounted on the crankshaft so that it can take advantage of the gears.

        To compare: a tour de france runner outputs 400-500W on mountain climbs while keeping up to 20-25km/h. So a 500W motor (plus 100W power output from yourself) should be enough for smaller climbs!

        • DonHopkins

          today at 7:33 AM

          My Koga has an Enviolo stepless bicycle automatic transmission, which frees me from thinking about shifting, so I can pay more attention to riding safely and effortlessly.

          https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48761621

          DonHopkins 44 days ago | root | parent | prev | next [–]

          Enviolo stepless bicycle automatic transmission (never manually shift again, accelerate while continuously shifting under load), with a carbon fiber belt drive (maintainance free, silent, never get grease on your pants or hands again), and Bosch Performance Line mid-motor (strong zippy performance from the geniuses who paid a €90 million fine for Dieselgate), plus GPS tracker with "recovery service" (required for insurance).

          https://enviolo.com/

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQrgKBQrkag

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xY2S-9gjHI

          https://www.koga.com/en/enviolo-gear-hub

          https://www.koga.com/en/bikes/e-bikes/evia-pro-automatic?fra...

          It's a dream bike, optimized for comfort and city riding, but Koga is not available in the US, though.

          Here's an American bike that has similar features (not as nice as the high-end Koga Evia Pro Automatic though), the Harley Davidson Rush/CTY (step through model is easiest to mount/unmount/ride):

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SjN8RN9g7Y

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoX9S5UhETE

          https://serial1.nl/

          The Enviolo Automatic also come in a heavy duty version paired with high performance motors for bakfiets (cargo bikes), for 3-4 children, big dogs, and groceries:

          https://batavus.com/en-nl/products/fier-3-bbfn3

          https://www.dw.com/en/bosch-pays-90-million-euro-fine-over-d...

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal

          Edit:

          Fair, they're ideal for city bikes, stop-and-go traffic, and the flat Dutch landscape where they're produced, where the biggest "mountains" you encounter are the bridges over canals. Their city model has 310%, trekking 380%, and the new utility hub has 400% gear range, which you can use on a normal bike, bakfiets, or speed pedelec.

          https://enviolo.com/news/enviolo-launches-the-utility-hub/

    • flexagoon

      today at 6:50 AM

      > Only seems worth it if you already have an extremely nice bike

      How nice should one's bike be that you'd rather turn it into a mediocre ebike for the price of buying a good ebike?

      • DonHopkins

        today at 7:38 AM

        Extrordinarily nice! AAH! HA HA! HA HA! AAH! GERONIMO! HA HA!

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg_1LOYLPsM

    • KennyBlanken

      today at 6:03 AM

      You can get a nice ebike for that money if you're even slightly patient in waiting for a sale to hit.

    • CitrusFruits

      today at 6:09 AM

      Bimotal is removable after the installation: the motor and battery can both be taken off in under 30 seconds and you're left with just the cables and a specialized brake disc. I'd say that's its main differentiator. It is definitely more for premium bikes though and even then isn't for everyone.

  • Toutouxc

    today at 7:53 AM

    As a mountain biker I don’t see the appeal of this. Yes, this rather expensive solution could transform my nice bike into a shitty e-bike, but the point of having a nice bike is to avoid a shitty experience.

    A proper e-bike needs to be designed as an e-bike from the beginning.

• thih9

  today at 5:55 AM

  Also:

  * you cannot install them on bikes with a rear rack. Here most city bikes have them.

  • portly

    today at 6:09 AM

    That made me question who this is for. Looks like it's only for racing bikes that have taken off the rear mudguard. And those bikes are typically used to exercise..

    Which makes me wonder about the cleaning after it rained..

    • KeplerBoy

      today at 6:16 AM

      Nobody who rides a road bike would be seen dead with something like this. There are proper road ebikes for that.

    • Toutouxc

      today at 7:49 AM

      Only commuter and bikepacking bikes have mudguards, almost nobody puts one on a mountain bike or a proper road bike, regardless of whether they’re electrified. This looks like it’s more for these “sporty” categories of bikes.

• ryukoposting

  today at 3:52 AM

  And, don't forget: easy to steal off even a well-secured bicycle.

  • Jerry2

    today at 5:10 AM

    That's not a problem in Asia.

    • seanmcdirmid

      today at 5:15 AM

      Only because there are so many targets to steal from. And by Asia you mean China, where E bikes are rarely very fancy and often the size of a moped (except for the ride shares, which are still bricks and GPS tracked). And judging by the noise level at the hotel I stayed at in Chengdu a couple of weeks ago, they definitely come with theft alarms.

    • wahnfrieden

      today at 5:50 AM

      Bike theft common in Japan

    • szundi

      today at 7:33 AM

      [dead]

• BloondAndDoom

  today at 7:56 AM

  Do they work with mountain bikes? As stupid as this sounds I like mountain biking but I don’t have stamina to climb up hills and then keep doing for a long time. I have an electric bike but designed for road

  • reorder9695

    today at 8:28 AM

    I'd be quite worried about breaking it in the not unlikely event of a crash, additionally it looks like it could quite significantly limit how low you could put your seat down on a mountain bike, so that would get in the way. Even if you got your seat down, it would add a significant amount of height above the tyre so you mighn't be able to move your arse far enough back to shift your weight property. It's also adding nearly 4kg weight relatively high up which probably isn't the end of the world but would be better if it wasn't so high up.

    It says on the website it will fit hardtails but not full sus, and that it isn't recommended on knobby tyres due to performance which isn't ideal either.

    I could be wrong on all of this but those are just the concerns coming to mind as another mountain biker.

• veunes

  today at 8:23 AM

  Wet-weather performance in particular seems like the thing I'd want to see independently tested

• calmbonsai

  today at 2:22 AM

  Yeah. I don’t see weather or theft addressed in this design.

  I recall a wheel-mounted rotor system from a few years back that did address theft, tire-wear, and weather, but it suffered from far too little torque and very limited battery life.

  • rtkwe

    today at 3:20 AM

    It looks like their solution is to make it easy enough to install and remove you take it with you. My thought would be security bolts so the pool of thieves is at least limited to people with the right bolt head. Also it has a big battery built in so

    • SoftTalker

      today at 4:12 AM

      Thieves will just take the whole bike.

      • Gigachad

        today at 4:23 AM

        Tbh solving this is one of the actual use cases for things like flock cameras.

        Simply bolting things down harder is still defeated by a battery powered grinder.

        • AngryData

          today at 5:18 AM

          Theft is solved by making society better, not worse. Make people not want or reliant upon crime to survive.

          • mik1998

            today at 7:09 AM

            No one relies on bike theft to "survive".

            • AngryData

              today at 7:37 AM

              No one goes around stealing bikes just because they want to do bad things.

              • mik1998

                today at 8:52 AM

                There is a large amount of people who go around stealing bikes for fun and some cash; and often "street cred" or something akin to that.

              • barrenko

                today at 9:01 AM

                My brother in Christ.

            • Toutouxc

              today at 7:56 AM

              What are you basing that on?

            • a2800276

              today at 7:32 AM

              That's right, people steal bikes because they are inherently evil and want to make baby Jesus cry.

              I think it's ok to define "survive" as an addict who needs (<-also loosely defined) a fix.

              You don't generally commit serious white collar crime, tax fraud or do crypto grifts to survive. For petty street crime, I don't really see any other motivation.

          • adwn

            today at 7:25 AM

            > Theft is solved by making society better, not worse.

            Phew, good to hear. Here I thought it would be a hard and complex problem, with lots of unknown unknowns, difficult political compromises, a generation-spanning efforts and many potential solutions with uncertain outcomes, partially contradicting each other.

            Instead, we just have to make society better. So, what's step 1?

            • AngryData

              today at 7:43 AM

              Step 1 could be not turning the world into a an Orwellian nightmare and outlawing mass surveillance, from both government and private corporations.

              And if you are still worried about theft in the mean time, you could try looking at wage thefts which has a value greater than all other forms of theft combined.

        • dreamcompiler

          today at 4:36 AM

          Cameras don't solve crimes, Flock or otherwise, unless the cops consider the crime serious. It is almost universal that cops don't consider bike theft serious. This is beginning to change in a few cities but not most.

          • Gigachad

            today at 6:01 AM

            From what I can tell, they are mostly fully occupied with dealing with emergency situations and domestic violence calls. There isn’t the resources allocated to searching for bikes. Especially when there often isn’t much to go off.

            Making the search process easier makes locating stolen stuff becomes more of an office job that’s cheaper to do so the math works out better.

        • DonHopkins

          today at 7:50 AM

          But Google's AI told me that Flock cameras are full of gold, so I steal those instead of bikes!

          https://www.techspot.com/news/113381-google-ai-told-people-f...

          AngryData> No one goes around stealing bikes just because they want to do bad things.

          But people go around stealing Flock cameras because they want to do good things.

        • jvuygbbkuurx

          today at 4:39 AM

          It's actually solved by putting thieves in prison (by the help of flock cameras).

          • defrost

            today at 4:43 AM

            Is it though? Does prison work as a deterrence to others?

            • blfr

              today at 4:56 AM

              There's usually a fairly small number of criminals in the population and they have short careers. Otherwise, the whole enterprise of society wouldn't be viable.

              So once you take them off the streets for a couple of years, or decades for the more hardened ones, it's fine. It has an added benefit of breaking criminal networks so the future adepts have no place to fence the stolen goods.

              • Toutouxc

                today at 7:59 AM

                Do you have any kind of education in this area? Because that doesn’t sound like the little that I’ve read about sociology and psychology.

              • simondotau

                today at 5:08 AM

                On one hand, you’re breaking existing networks; on the other hand you are establishing a social club for new ones.

                • KennyBlanken

                  today at 6:20 AM

                  That person is insanely naive - either very young, or very lacking in life experience and worldly knowledge.

              • KennyBlanken

                today at 6:19 AM

                "It has an added benefit of breaking criminal networks so the future adepts have no place to fence the stolen goods" is probably the most naive thing I've ever heard.

                I also think you have no idea how much it costs per prisoner per year.

                I also think you have no idea how much harder it is for someone to get a job, housing, a partner, etc after they have a conviction. Or how much whatever life they had falls apart, which includes partners, friends, family. And guess what happens when you strip away all of someone's social connections? They lose that safety net, and are now dependent upon whatever society as whole provides. And in the US we have people saying "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" non-ironically, not realizing the whole fucking point of that phrase is that recovering from poverty in the US is extremely difficult.

                That money is better spent on helping people who are not able to afford basic necessities, because that is why a lot of people commit property crime.

                I suggest you actually open up some studies on this subject because you clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Or just open up a chart reflecting the economy over the decades and compare it with property crime rates.

                The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world by both headcount and percentage of the population. How's that working for us? We have one of the higher property and violent crime rates among developed nations. Far higher than nations where criminals are imprisoned for rehabilitation, not to punish. Things like giving them a cell that looks like a bedroom, not pen in an animal shelter.

            • ajkjk

              today at 4:57 AM

              The idea is that it lowers the number of thieves.

            • notourproblem

              today at 4:58 AM

              [dead]

          • wahnfrieden

            today at 5:57 AM

            Police here don’t even care to help if your car is stolen and you have GPS on it. Cameras and jail do nothing to help protect your property if the police refuse to work.

          • retired

            today at 5:41 AM

            Where I live that’s a win win for thieves. Earn money stealing a bike, have a roof over your head and free food.

          • KennyBlanken

            today at 6:10 AM

            Aside from the fact that there's little to no actual evidence (not funded by flock cherry-picking, and doing a lot of extremely thin correlation/causation nonsense...

            No, it's actually solved by providing social safety net programs and managing the economy to have entry level accessible jobs that pay a living wage. People steal because they run out of other options. The cost of flock contracts would be far better spent on food pantries, job counseling, emergency housing...

            There is nearly zero correlation between the number of police and the amount of crime.

        • taneq

          today at 5:02 AM

          You don’t gotta be impossible to steal from, you just gotta be more annoying to steal from than the next guy.

          • a2800276

            today at 7:35 AM

            Well said by somebody who's very obviously never used a bicycle as their primary mode of transportation ;)

          • Gigachad

            today at 5:58 AM

            They will still steal your seat, lights, wheel, and any other bit they can get.

            Sure you can use all number of locks, security bolts, and stripping the bike down yourself every time you leave it, but it’s sucks. You’d rather public spaces just be safe.

            • wafflemaker

              today at 7:10 AM

              Just follow the old Eve online adage - don't fly what you can't afford to lose.

              If there's lot of theft and you can't store bike at a secure place - have a cheap bike.

  • neves

    today at 3:44 AM

    Can't use with mud guards

    • runamok

      today at 5:52 AM

      These sorts of seat mounted mud guards would work: https://ass-savers.com/ (yes, the URL is funny and seems a risky click)

    • giardini

      today at 5:13 AM

      And WTF is it about mud guards now?

      When i was young all bicycles came with mud guard (then called "fenders") front and rear. Now they seem to be anathema.

      Every bike I rode w/o fenders put a stripe of mud up my back!

      • mcv

        today at 8:14 AM

        I just got a new bike for my son (he's going to secondary school and needs a better bike), and was surprised to see how many kids' bikes came without fenders. What's up with that? Who wants a serious bike without fenders?

        Of course most bikes still come with fenders, but that's also a major limitation for this device: you've got to remove your rear fender. Maybe this device acts somewhat as a fender, but the site says you can't use it in heavy rain, exactly when you need that fender the most.

      • pjmlp

        today at 5:36 AM

        Being cynical I would say it is yet another way to upsell.

        Here in Germany if you want to get a cheaper bicycle, other than flea markets, usually they make you mount the pedals yourself, doesn't have fenders, lights might also be missing, depending on the offer.

        • silversmith

          today at 7:24 AM

          Are you looking at performance road bikes? Fenders and lights are removed for weight savings, and for pedals there are multiple clip-in systems, you are supposed to install the pedals that match your chosen system.

          If, however, they are doing that for commuter bikes...

          • pjmlp

            today at 7:33 AM

            Regular city bikes.

            This is the approach if you go offers on regular supermarkets that also sell bicycles.

            Personally I am never going to give more than 400 euros tops, for a new bicycle, it is either that or not much beyond 100 euros at a flea market.

            Getting the bicycle stolen or worse, revenge damage when they fail to steal it, is not worth more than that.

            • Toutouxc

              today at 8:14 AM

              I guess that’s the reason you don’t understand why bikes are sold without these things. €400 gets you a very, very, very low-end new bike, like just one step above “unsafe to ride”.

              You often don’t get pedals on new bikes because you have your favorite pedals that work for you and anything that’s included with the bike goes straight to the bin, because it’s useless trash. You don’t get fenders, because you don’t usually use those on any kind of sporty bike. They’re heavy, they don’t usually work that well, they are often hard to use in bikes with suspension with longer travel or and they can rattle or simply break and fall off if you ride hard. You don’t get lights and reflective elements, because they’re heavy plastic crap that breaks and falls off. If you often ride at night, you probably own some kind of night gear, high powered LEDs, reflective stickers or spokes…

              And obviously once that is the norm for “bikes” in general, then why not save a few cents on supermarket bikes.

• today at 2:46 AM

• leptons

  today at 8:46 AM

  I made one in 1985 for my 10 speed bike, it was pretty fun for a while. I was in my early teens at the time.

• culi

  today at 3:07 AM

  Personally I also don't see the niche they serve. If I'm going far away I take a train or a car. I pretty much exclusively use my bike to ride to a nearby grocery store or do other close-by errands. If I'm doing short errands like this, I really prize being able to get on and off quickly and lock my bike up quickly. A device like this needs to be taken with you when you leave your bike to prevent theft. It's a whole nother step and a lot of extra weight

  • edmundsauto

    today at 3:20 AM

    Are you elderly, differently able, live in extremely hilly or hot terrain, or only willing to bike if it’s half the current effort?

    That plus “already has a bike” is a massive market.

  • garciasn

    today at 3:20 AM

    People who already invested in an expensive traditional bike and want to have the option to add electric support to make trips easier and faster without having to deal with selling their current bike and buying an even more expensive e-bike.

    There’s also the fact that many people have bike racks that are fine for traditional bikes but not the additional requirements necessary for some (most?) e-bikes such as weight and strength.

    —-

    Just because it doesn’t work for you and your specific worldview doesn’t mean others wouldn’t see value in it.

  • whycome

    today at 3:25 AM

    When I read your comment before the article I thought it was some sort of complicated contraption in multiple parts. Instead it seems pretty compact and easy to disengage. I’m not sure what you’re missing in terms of a niche either. Anyone who just wants to ride with less effort but use their existing bike?

• Fnoord

  today at 3:27 AM

  Looks like you can't have a passenger anymore either. I like to have my kid on the backseat of my e-bike.

  I'm not in the market for this, but I am in the market for making my cargo bike electric. Having to slow down at a traffic light and then start from zero absolutely sucks. It goes very slow, it is rough, and you won't have time. I'd use it just for that specific use-case.

  • Toutouxc

    today at 8:39 AM

    If it’s for a chill cargo bike, just get a hub motor kit. It’s the proper solution, there are tons of them and they are cheap and durable.

  • Reason077

    today at 5:51 AM

    Conversion kits that add a front hub motor are relatively affordable and easy to install. Should work with most cargo bikes if you can find one that's compatible with your wheel size. Something like: https://swytchbike.com/

  • caminante

    today at 4:48 AM

    Front mount or trailer for kid could work, but this seems inferior to your ebike.

• MisterTea

  today at 4:14 AM

  Are there any mechanically coupled solutions that can be field installed by the owner?

  • flir

    today at 4:19 AM

    Swytch Bike is one. Hub motor.

• Lord_Zero

  today at 2:22 AM

  I had a gas powered goped that worked that way years ago. Had all those problems but it was fun. The second you hit any water the drive shaft would just spin against the tire.

• taneq

  today at 5:00 AM

  I remember back in the 90s some guys at my school fitted a whipper snipper motor to a 12” kiddy bike with a friction drive (I think it was a skateboard wheel fitted to the output shaft).

• tadfisher

  today at 2:57 AM

  They could have made basically the same thing except with a sprocket to help drive the chain.

  • Toutouxc

    today at 8:44 AM

    Go ahead, sit down with a piece of paper and try to design it in a way that doesn’t prevent shifting, doesn’t skip under load, doesn’t require you to use a longer chain, works with rear suspension and doesn’t interfere with your legs.

  • ryukoposting

    today at 3:59 AM

    Chain moves side to side with gear changes, and adding extra chain tension with an extra drive sprocket could make the deraileur angry. Also, chain-tube geometry varies a lot. Not impossible, just more complicated than it might seem.

    I ride an all-original 1970s steel-frame road bike, which seems like a prime candidate for this sort of product. I'm certain no sprocket-based design would fit it. I'd buy one of these if there was any way to lock it up.

• StopTencent

  today at 1:42 AM

  Tires wear out super fast. It's hard to say there is a market for this other than the uninformed.

A smartphone app to change motor speed, really? Not even talking about your motor getting hacked (with the S in IOT standing for security and all), getting out a fragile device that captures all your attention while biking is really dangerous for you and the device.

So they say there's a button on the thing itself which is not so much more practical. If they insist on wireless controls, the cost of a waterproof battery-powered button to stick on the handlebars sounds worth it.

• fulafel

  today at 8:50 AM

  What do you mean by changing motor speed? It has a cadence sensor so should work like normal ebikes. Pedal faster for more speed, stop pedaling for less speed.

• veunes

  today at 8:28 AM

  The strange part is that they already have wireless communication in the system, so adding a simple handlebar remote doesn't seem like a huge engineering leap

• DonHopkins

  today at 7:22 AM

  Throttled motors on ebikes are terribly unsafe, compared to pedal assist central motors. I just got rear-ended by an illegally hot-rodded fat bike with a throttle, when the asshole lost control of his bike after hitting my rear wheel trying to pass at illegally high speed without bothering to ring his bell, and he flipped over and spilled onto the bike path.

  I was fine, but surprised he so carelessly and thoughtlessly sneaked up on me and tried to pass when I was already going fast downhill off of a bridge over a canal, on my legal eBike with 25 kph maximum assist.

  Pedaling makes you pay attention and gives you direct control over the speed, and the assist drops out once you're going >25 kph. The asshole who hit me from behind probably didn't have time to find the throttle with his hand, and was never really in control of his bike or paying much attention up to when he freaked out and hit me.

  What to do about fatbikes endangering our safety?

  https://www.reddit.com/r/Netherlands/comments/1knza1c/what_t...

  Fatbikes in the Netherlands 2026: What You Actually Need to Know

  https://bikefair.org/blog/fatbikes-netherlands-guide-2026

  • selfhoster1312

    today at 7:59 AM

    To be clear, when i said we need controls on the handlebars, i was talking about an "assist level setting" like you have on the app, not a throttle. I had this on all my electric bikes: a button and a small LCD to indicate assist level 0-3.

    Although in my experience when your bike/cargo is heavily loaded, a throttle is nice to get running, especially when stopped at a red light going uphill. Borrowed one like this and it was really useful. But i agree with your sentiment i see many people with throttled bikes going really fast and careless.

  • Galanwe

    today at 7:30 AM

    This drives me mad as well. Electric bikes should be limited to 25kph and non throttled in Europe, yet half the bikes I see are both, and drive recklessly.

    • tgv

      today at 7:45 AM

      The other day I was passed by one which kept up with the cars on the main road, which has a speed limit of 80km/h. Most cars don't go full speed there, but will reach at least 60km/h . On it were two young boys without helmets. It's insane.

So, this won't work on any regular bike that has a fender, which is most 'regular' bikes people would use for city-driving/daily commutes. (At least in area's that get rain occasionally.

Seems like a “ohh ebike is becoming big” management decision to somehow do a quick and dirty thinking it would be useful.

Unfortunately ASUS brand is not getting better with these actions.

Clive Sinclair designed one of these in the 90s. It actually sold reasonably well, but was limited by the available battery technology of the period.

https://rk.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/vehicles/zeta.htm

• willtemperley

  today at 5:00 AM

  Yes my grandfather had one. It worked well on flat terrain. I think it used a motorcycle battery so batteries were easy to find and charge.

It seems to me this is a product for almost no one. Inefficient delivery of power, bulky, "smart" detection in stead of reliable operation and most importantly, the only target market I could imagine cannot use it. Not sure about other places and climates, but over here, most bicycles have fenders.

Bicycles without fenders are typically used for specific recreational activities and those sure as heck do not want this clumsy thing attached.. If they want any form of electrical assistance they would want it a lot more sleek and efficient.

Other than that, it reminds me of the Spartamet, a Dutch piece of tech from 1985 which added a small combustion engine to an otherwise regular city bike.

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartamet

• veunes

  today at 8:30 AM

  I can see one audience: someone with a bike they already like who only occasionally needs assistance and wants the whole thing removable

  • jwr

    today at 8:51 AM

    Once you try a (good!) electric bike, you don't really want to go back. Life is just so much better. For urban commuting, you no longer think about heat (getting sweaty), distance, inclines, wind, etc.

    Obviously I'm talking about good electric bikes, with mid-mounted engines that detect pedaling strength. These feel great, unlike electric motors strapped to bikes, which feel like, well, electric motors strapped to bikes.

• u1hcw9nx

  today at 7:33 AM

  If the road is even little bit wet like after rain or morning mist, the dirt from the road ends up in your backside without fenders unless you drive very slowly.

  Find a bicycle without mudguards and ride very slowly, or just ride on clean roads on a sunny days.

  • tgv

    today at 7:47 AM

    When it's wet, the engine will have less traction too.

• anthropic-dario

  today at 7:25 AM

  [dead]

Ouch, love to see a great product like this. However, hate to see that bike theft wasn’t discussed at all.

“Easy installation” with two screws seems like a benefit to customers except when they come back to their parked bike only to find their expensive mod also had a hidden feature: “easy uninstallation”.

• prmoustache

  today at 5:42 AM

  That is the same for most bicycle parts that you can remove with a small multitool and optionally a cable cutter yet most thieves just grub the whole bike as it is more convenient and it provides the getaway vehicle.

  • left-struck

    today at 6:14 AM

    Most bicycle parts don’t cost thousands of dollars though

• NAR8789

  today at 2:58 AM

  pitlock pit stoppers?

  https://www.pitlock.de/en/set-sichert-2-innensechskantschrau...

• today at 6:20 AM

• wazoox

  today at 8:39 AM

  You don't even need to unscrew the motor : simply pull one-handed the seat release lever, and leave with both the seat and the motor attached.

• loeg

  today at 2:10 AM

  In addition to the theft concerns, it's also not a great product.

  • user-

    today at 2:29 AM

    for the non bikers, to help us understand, whats wrong with it?

    • ctidd

      today at 4:25 AM

      This is an inherently inefficient design, where that inefficiency means increased 1) battery use and 2) tire wear.

      From a cyclist’s perspective, this is fundamentally a stopgap product for “curious” customers dipping their toes into e-bikes. I don’t say that necessarily to criticize it. There’s a place for a product that someone can put on any old bike and see if they want to buy a more expensive long-term solution. But that doesn’t make it a product I’d recommend.

      The tire wear problem is significant enough that there are heat resistant tires specifically for this type of drum application (designed for old-style indoor trainers, not for use on the road), because use on a drum will cause premature wear for normal road tires.

      • mswphd

        today at 4:45 AM

        it's also likely mildly more dangerous than a standard ebike, as ebikes typically overprovision their brakes. A customer putting this on a standard bike (especially a disc brake bike) might have less stopping power than they want on an ebike.

        • Toutouxc

          today at 8:28 AM

          Why “especially a disc brake bike”? They’re the most reliable and resilient system so far, especially compared to rim brakes (V-brakes or cantilevers).

        • prmoustache

          today at 5:48 AM

          The requirement for better brakes is more a myth. Yes an e-bike is heavier but the rider + bike pair is not significantly heavier so e-bikes don't really need better brakes as most of them aren't going significantly faster than regular "muscular bikes", especially the legal ones that have an assistance speed limit. Rider weight makes a much bigger difference yet bike brands don't insist on speccing more powerful brakes on bigger riders.

          • Toutouxc

            today at 8:35 AM

            As an experienced mountain biker I’d love if the downvoters could engage with the comment. I agree with it. A proper legal e-bike, especially when clamped to 25 km/h or a similar limit, doesn’t really need that much stopping power than a comparable regular bike. Maybe the sum of all the factors (often less experienced riders, slightly more speed in some situations, slightly higher weight) warrants going to a bigger rotor diameter or a different brake pads compound, which is how it’s usually done. But it’s still nothing compared to speccing cargo bike brakes or tandem brakes, there you really have to account for the weight and go all the way to like 200mm rotors and four-pot calipers.

        • loeg

          today at 5:18 AM

          I wouldn't worry about it in this application, because the added weight and power is so minimal. Also: many of the cheap ebikes ($1000-1500 range) have absolutely terrible, underprovisioned brakes.

          • mswphd

            today at 5:46 AM

            only real worry I'd have is a scenario like

            1. someone has a cheap disc brake bike for pleasure rides (mostly in the sun)

            2. they get something like this for commuting or whatever

            3. now they're on their disc brake bike most days (including when it rains), going faster than they're used to

            it's not the end of the world, but it also doesn't seem great

    • loeg

      today at 3:32 AM

      Destroys tires, very limited range/power due to poor power delivery from motor to tire. Parasitic drag when coasting or battery is dead.

    • NegativeLatency

      today at 2:35 AM

      Limited power delivery, horrible in the rain, prevents using fenders

      • tokioyoyo

        today at 2:50 AM

        Rain is an interesting thing, because the number of bikers in Tokyo goes down maybe by 60% or more the second it rains. I kinda avoid as well.

        • decimalenough

          today at 3:13 AM

          Nothing Tokyo specific about that, biking in the rain is dangerous and generally sucky. I have good all weather gear, but I still end up with wet shoes/socks and muddy spray up my back and legs (yes, I have a mudguard, but it's not 100% effective).

      • lostlogin

        today at 2:41 AM

        Would you need a fender with it there?

        • NAR8789

          today at 2:57 AM

          Yes, without a fender my rear wheel throws mud all over my back. This is not the right shape to serve as a mud shield

          • lostlogin

            today at 3:14 AM

            It’s directly above the wheel. I just use an ass saver and while that’s way inferior to your setup, it reduces the volume thrown up a lot.

    • UqWBcuFx6NV4r

      today at 2:32 AM

      They aren’t reliable or efficient.

  • _kidlike

    today at 5:17 AM

    in addition, it also has not a great name... the word Oxis in Greek means "sharp", not agile. you can look for "οξύς"

  • ls-a

    today at 2:23 AM

    [dead]

• emdash

  today at 4:53 AM

  They could ship it with a pair of those bolts where the heads break off during installation

• schainks

  today at 2:37 AM

  This product is for people who live in safe neighborhoods and bike a lot, aka not the average American.

  • flexagoon

    today at 6:52 AM

    Where do you live where people bike a lot and yet bike theft isn't common?

Funny, a modern version of WWII era technology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9loSoleX

• Galanwe

  today at 7:33 AM

  Solex got used much longer than post WWII, the engine is very easy to service. I had one when I was 15, and most of my friends did as well. Everyone in the village had either a "solex" or an old "mobilette".

I kind of like this. Not because it's necessarily the best way to electrify a bike, but because it's removable enough that your bike can still just be... a bike

• dorte

  today at 8:37 AM

  It looks like you have to remove your rear fender thought. I would rather just use the rye bread engine a little more, than not being able to bike on wet roads (or being sprayed with mud).

If I ever convert my bike to electric, I'll probably go with this https://www.swytchbike.com/

• Bjorkbat

  today at 5:03 AM

  I actually bought one of these and love it. My road bike is indistinguishable from any other normal road bike with the exception of it being much easier to get around now.

  From experience I can say that it seems like a lot more common sense to simply replace the front wheel of your bike with a wheel containing an electric motor, rather than attaching whatever Asus is selling to your bike.

  • shrx

    today at 8:51 AM

    Do you feel the power is sufficient? It says it's only a 250 W motor. What is the battery range?

This might be the dumbest thing I've seen this.. well.. week tbh. Don't you guys have mud guards?

It is decoupled from drivetrain. So, without torque sensor, how does it know when the rider wants to speed up vs. slow down?

• analog31

  today at 3:37 AM

  It says it has a wireless cadence sensor. With that said, torque sensors were an improvement over cadence sensors.

  To elaborate a bit, friends of mine have had bikes with both cadence and torque sensors. And I've tried their bikes out. Agreeing with one friend, the bike with the cadence sensor seems to decide how fast it wants to go.

  The bike with the torque sensor behaves a lot more like what you're used to from riding a conventional bike. After all, the control input to a conventional bike is torque.

  • Toutouxc

    today at 8:22 AM

    > the bike with the cadence sensor seems to decide how fast it wants to go

    Well yes, because there’s no other input. It’s an on/off switch, the bike just knows that you’re pedaling. Usually there are multiple power levels you can switch between with a button, and those decide roughly how much of a push you get from the motor, but the power curves are all “hardcoded”. It doesn’t feel great for active riding, but it’s adequate for commuter bikes. Torque sensors are actually kind of expensive on their own.

  • Perseids

    today at 7:42 AM

    > The bike with the torque sensor behaves a lot more like what you're used to from riding a conventional bike

    I agree, but would like to point out that sometimes this might not be what you want. I had a bike with a front motor and a cadence sensor that I used for my commute for a few years, and was very happy with the motor just pulling me along while I lazily pushed the pedals with ~zero torque, barely enough to let the bike know I'm there. Basically like pressing a throttle. If all you want is to get from A to B comfortably, I've found this to be superior to a torque sensor, and it was also dirt cheap.

I remember those from 50 years ago. Back then it was a small petrol engine typically mounted on the front tyre. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9loSoleX

Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9loSoleX:

*“VéloSoleX is a moped, or motorised bicycle, usually just referred to as 'Solex', […] originally created during World War II and mass-produced between 1946 and 1988, came in various iterations, while keeping the same concept of a motor with a roller resting on the front wheel of a bicycle”*

This powers the back wheel, though. I think that’s better for propulsion but it seems you’re giving up carrying stuff or a child on the back of the bicycle. Can’t even have a rack there with this contraption.

I have to say, this looks really well designed and easy to use, I want one! But why Asus? I really want to know how they landed on this.

• mswphd

  today at 4:41 AM

  ASUS does make power banks, and the vast majority of the cost of any ebike is in the battery.

• JsonDemWitOster

  today at 6:55 AM

  > I really want to know how they landed on this.

  RAM prices.

That might be the easiest ebike retrofit/conversion I've ever seen. I have concerns about the grip in wet conditions but this looks like a great way to get that ebike I've wanted and not put my perfectly good frame to waste.

• fwipsy

  today at 1:12 AM

  Similar friction drives have existed for a while. The battery is very small compared to a regular ebike (typically they start at about 300wh.) Also, IIRC the friction drive is not very efficient.

  • itomato

    today at 1:15 AM

    Like when wet. Or icy or both.

    • davidw

      today at 1:27 AM

      I think the number of people who want to use something like this when it's icy out is pretty small. You'd want studded tires, for instance... and it's generally those who are really committed who ride in those conditions. This looks more like 'dipping a toe in the eBike water'.

      • SoftTalker

        today at 1:58 AM

        Looks more like a "hill assist device" to me.

  • cowsandmilk

    today at 1:44 AM

    This one is 158 Wh

    • fwipsy

      today at 2:31 AM

      I saw. Most entry-level ebikes have at least 10ah * 36v batteries; a few lightweight models have 7ah. So this has about half the battery capacity of the cheapest ebikes.

      • kelnos

        today at 2:57 AM

        Given the size of it and the significantly less weight it adds to the bicycle, I'd say half capacity is pretty fantastic.

        (Of course, "capacity" is misleading, as this will be less efficient than a real e-bike.)

• loeg

  today at 2:11 AM

  Get a Bafang kit or a hub motor replacement rear wheel instead. At least those systems work well.

  • Pxtl

    today at 2:19 AM

    I mean I agree but those aren't zero-skill install like this.

    • loeg

      today at 3:56 AM

      Bafang isn't, sure, but a hub motor is relatively easy. I guess hub front motor is even easier than hub rear.

• mongol

  today at 2:09 AM

  Have a look at Bafang or Tongsheng kits

• today at 1:10 AM

A couple other people here mentioned that theft is an issue. That's yet another reason why folding bikes seemed like the best use case for this. Not as good as a folding bike that's made for being an E bike, but if you've already got a good folding bike and a bit more zip on your commute is what you need, this seems like a interesting product.

If I'm carrying around a giant battery I ought to be able to charge my devices from it, but it is silent on that front.

The design doesn't work if you have a mud guard or pannier rack. Also unclear how easily it is detached. Do I have to take it off everytime to prevent casual thievery? How do I take it off to charge inside? Does it have anti-theft bricking?

I'm struggling to understand who the target market is.

• rahimnathwani

  today at 1:58 AM

  "How do I take it off to charge inside?"

  It has a removable battery so it seems the mechanism is designed to be left on the bike.

  • angry_octet

    today at 5:34 AM

    And if I go into a shop am I compelled to remove the battery, or is it locked? Is there a key or an app to release the battery?

Hah, my dad made something like this for me when I was a kid using a weed eater engine, with a makeshift lever as a clutch to engage/disengage it. This looks about as makeshift, I wouldn't trust it for serious use.

Everyone is hating but this is a hack and you love to see it.

No price. This is just sensing the market, i doubt the have anything other than a dirty PoC

All these sites have hype about AI features like AI Chat. however I use the chat, and it wastes about 3-10 seconds just to load, then I ask for the price, and it fails to understand even the page we were on (edit: "I don't understand what product you're referring to, please tell me the product"). Then I literally paste the page's product from the page into the chat, and it finally wastes my time more and sends a whole essay blob about why it can't tell me the price.

Is this what investors sell to the board about how they are using AI for greater efficiency? Just to waste consumers time even more?

• mohamedkoubaa

  today at 1:45 AM

  It's fashionable and it takes strong leadership to avoid fashionable things even when they make absolutely no sense

I just bought a Boost conversion kit from the UK and am excited to install it in a couple weeks. If anyone has installed this kit would appreciate a comment on the experience.

(I'm in the US and have been unimpressed with the kits available here. The Boost one looks compact and well designed).

This would be great to add to my 9 year old's bike. We couldn't do long bike tours anymore because he would stop biking after 100m, telling is he is completely exhausted and must go home. I was looking for something like this!

• squidgyhead

  today at 4:20 AM

  A follow-me tandem (which couples a kids bike to your bike) is a much better solution than giving a 9yo a poorly controlled motor.

  • fragmede

    today at 4:29 AM

    No it's not, it teaches the child dependence on the adult instead of giving the child agency.

    • skipnup

      today at 4:50 AM

      But a 9 year old is dependant on their parents ...?

      • fragmede

        today at 5:03 AM

        ...yes? The child bicycling their own bike, vs being attached to the parents bike is a tiny bit of independence to grant a child at that age.

It feels like a great product but targeted at a surprisingly transient customer base.

The cycling guys won't buy it, they want the watts from their legs.

The commuters will just get an ebike eventually.

The getting started crowd will eventually become one of these 2 or stop riding a bike altogether. Since I didn't see how much this cost, if it cost as much as a commuter bike, I really don't know who would buy something like this.

would be better if there is an option for manual wired buttons to engage/disengage the booster positioned on the handlebars

The web page doesn't seem to load correctly in the Safari browser for macOS 26. Seems like something they might want to fix.

10 km Sports and 50 km Eco range is a no go. Plus they explicitly deny carbon fiber bikes, bikes with suspension, and tire choice is rather limited. You could've invested in a decent trekking bike with a standard motor instead, at least you get that hind wheel storage space free.

They should turn it into a phone lan gaming platform with dedicated games. That would make it instantly awesome.

Similar things are on amazon today 300-500. Not worth it imho. If you are going to keep it on, convert your bike with middrive or hub motor once.

> Motor Power 250W (Rated) / 500W (Peak)

A 4090's TDP!

Fenders, anyone

Haha, I like all these adapter designs though my favourite was the Copenhagen Wheel[0]. I saw someone ride one near Mission and S Van Ness and loved it. Sleek device. This particular one in the OP is definitely built for safe societies, right? Definitely not for the North American market, haha!

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Wheel

• antonvs

  today at 3:38 AM

  Basically, the Copenhagen Wheel moved all the complexity of setting up a hub motor drive system - motor, battery, controller, sensors, computer - into the hub shell itself.

  Which made it seem neat and clean, but meant it had serious reliability issues, couldn't handle wet conditions[], wasn't really repairable, and was expensive compared to more reliable alternatives with better battery life, etc.

  [] The manufacturer apparently stated that "[...bad bearings] can occur when the Wheel is repeatedly exposed to wet conditions. Due to the nature of the problem, this cannot be repaired": https://forums.electricbikereview.com/threads/known-issues-p...

  • card_zero

    today at 4:05 AM

    Psst, you can escape an asterisk [*] with a backslash.

    Hub gears work quite well though don't they? In particular respect of being sealed and protected from the weather. Unclear why there's an opposite effect for this wheel.

• TylerE

  today at 2:37 AM

  It went on sale in the US before the EU. Did you even skim the wiki page you linked?

  • arjie

    today at 3:33 AM

    I see. The way I spoke made it seem like I was talking about the Copenhagen wheel with the phrase “this particular one”. I was talking about the OP device. Obviously since Mission and SVN is in the US I would have assumed it was not the CW but I can see that I was unclear so I have clarified. The Copenhagen wheel is pretty integrated. This one is a thumb screw and off you run with a valuable battery. I wouldn’t buy it here and I bike every day in the city.

    People who don’t bicycle in North America won’t quite get it. It’s not exactly Taiwan. Theft is rampant and it’s societally sanctioned in most major cities.

disappointed to see no tire brand listed as a partner or sponsor

I see winter version of this. You need custom roller with holes for a particular stud pattern. So there is no slipping and no tire wear. And maybe the roller is made of metal so the snow does not stick to it.

I absolutely would not give up my double panniers and rack. I put a small Tom Bihn Bag "Daylight Backpack" with my laptop in one, and the bike charger and food and other junk in the other, empty my pockets into the zipper bag, and then I'm totally unencumbered for riding and have unlimited distance since I can plug in and charge the battery if it gets low. Riding with a backpack on my back or even stuff in my pockets is a drag. The panniers are also great for grocery and other shopping.

https://www.tombihn.com/products/daylight-backpack

Am I missing something or that thing can be trivially stolen?

• theChaparral

  today at 3:23 AM

  Bicycles in general can be trivially stolen.

  • Zambyte

    today at 7:42 AM

    FUD. Cars in general can be trivially stolen if you don't lock them. Lock your bike and it can't be trivially stolen.

    The problem here is this device can be easily removed even from a locked bike, and it itself cannot be easily locked to the bike.

So ah, can we buy it? What's the price? Not seeing unless ad blockers are hiding something.

• VoidWhisperer

  today at 1:38 AM

  According to articles like this one[0], they haven't shared pricing yet - so I guess it can't be bought quite yet.

  [0]: https://www.digitaltrends.com/outdoors/asus-made-an-e-bike-c...

No price. No order form. No delivery date. Vaporware.

Come on, ASUS. You're a real company, not some kickstarter scam.

• cube00

  today at 7:11 AM

  Their AI bot is just as grim

  Me: when's the bike booster available to purchase?

  ASUS AI: For the most accurate and up-to-date product release information, we recommend following our Facebook and Instagram channels. We share all our launch announcements there first, along with exciting product previews.

  Hilarious advice given both Meta products are notorious for not showing everything from the accounts you follow.

some bike vendor told me that the biggest problem with regular to ebike conversion was that regular bike frames were not strong enough to support the additional forces that the electric bike imposed. And it was why the ebikes were much heavier than regular bikes.

Does anyone know if that’s true and if that applies to conversions like this one?

• analog31

  today at 3:59 AM

  It's less of an issue for this device. The reason is that the motor is further from the axle than a hub motor would be. Thus, there's less force on the frame for a given amount of torque.

  • mkl

    today at 5:09 AM

    A lot of extra force when slowing down from faster speeds though, no matter where the motor is added.

    • happosai

      today at 5:57 AM

      Not a lot of extra force.

      About 5% more weight you need to slow down (80kg rider + 10kg bike + 4kg motor + battery)

• NegativeLatency

  today at 2:45 AM

  Depends on the bike and motor combo. Something like a mountain bike from the last 20 years would be fine, but I wouldn’t try and put one on like a road bike from the 70s or something. Basically anything that’s well built sturdy steel is going to be ok with the common sub kilowatt motors, but there are like crazy ones that will output considerably more power than that.

  Also that’s going to be more applicable with a mid drive or a hub motor than something like this.

• theendisney

  today at 3:57 AM

  Interesting point. That might be the only thing this thing has going for it self. The angle of force is perfect even for the most fragile frame.

• justsomehnguy

  today at 2:18 AM

  Weight

  3.7 kg (including battery)

How do these things work legally? Wouldn't the bolt on process count as manufacturing or modifying a motorcycle, depending on where you are?

• dsr_

  today at 1:53 AM

  In the USA, there are more than 52 jurisdictions not including towns and cities and counties, but most (not all) states think of ebikes as being slightly restricted bicycles rather than motorcycles, as long as:

  - they have functional pedals (otherwise it's a motorcycle of some kind)

  - they require pedal assist at all times and have some kind of power or speed limitation (anyone can use this, or at least it is least restricted)

  - they have pedal assist available and have a different, higher power or speed limitation (usually reserved for 16+ or something similar)

  - they have a power or speed limitation that makes them suitable for adults only but doesn't require a driver's license or inspection

  There are efforts to regularize these, and also efforts to make things more chaotic. For example, New Jersey decided that all ebikes require a new ebike license and vehicle registration. Across the river in New York, no ebikes require a license or registration, and may be operated on any street which has a 30mph speed limit or less... but cities are allowed to make their own rules.

  California's laws are mostly regarded by bicyclists as being sensible, at least in every discussion I've seen that didn't feature a twelve year old trying to convince his parents to buy him a 70mph electric motorcycle. See https://thecyclistchoice.com/resources/california-ebike-laws...

  • SoftTalker

    today at 1:57 AM

    They should require insurance at least. An ebike can cause serious injury to a pedestrian.

    • olyjohn

      today at 2:43 AM

      So can a regular bike. Human powered bikes regularly blow past me when I'm doing the 15mph speed limits on the bike paths.

    • crummy

      today at 2:24 AM

      That’s the same as a pushbike right?

    • TylerE

      today at 2:40 AM

      So can a non-ebike. A couple of hundred pounds hitting you at 15-20mph is gonna suck no matter how it's powered.

    • Zigurd

      today at 2:33 AM

      Poor people commute on e-bikes. Think twice before making laws that raise the cost and give cops a reason to hassle people.

• walrus01

  today at 1:44 AM

  In most jurisdictions it's only a motorcycle if it can exceed a certain speed or has a motor over a certain power in kilowatts. Or some combination of both.

  recent news: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c89nyk4pz74o

• today at 1:33 AM

• IshKebab

  today at 1:41 AM

  There's no restriction on manufacturing e-bikes anywhere that I know of, as long as they obey the speed/power limits. (That's why it says 500W "peak" power - the continuous power limit in the UK at least is 250W but manufacturers just make the "peak" last for a very long time.)

If I bought this I might want a brake upgrade. Even though it probably provides only about 150W (I always assume ebike power ratings are inflated), the extra weight alone warrants disc brakes IMHO.

• speedgoose

  today at 5:45 AM

  When I see obvious out of shape ebikers passing me uphill while barely moving their legs, I’m assuming that the power rating of their ebike is about right and the torque curve might be weird to stay legal.

  I agree that rim brakes on an e-bike is extra bad.

They aint new. I had one that was driven by a honda gx35 4 stroke

there was another company named "bee" something that did these (gas as well 2 stroke)

and many early scooters, conversions, that all followed the friction style

I love bicycle tech. Almost everything was invented in the 1890s, and every couple of decades someone tries another old idea.

https://onlinebicyclemuseum.co.uk/tour/cyclemotors-motorcycl...

• kaladin-jasnah

  today at 2:13 AM

  > Almost everything was invented in the 1890s, and every couple of decades someone tries another old idea.

  What about wireless shifting systems like Di2?

  • lostlogin

    today at 2:43 AM

    > wireless shifting systems like Di2

    Is it really wireless?

    The SRAM one is.

    • analog31

      today at 3:45 AM

      SRAM Automatix. ;-)

i have a folding cycle and a fat bike. my only two devices still analog and keep me reasonably fit. i dont wanna e-bike them. but if i wanna long distance, this could be nice.

• lostlogin

  today at 2:42 AM

  It only gives a boost for 50km.

lol. A friction drive in current year?

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These suck, just buy an e-bike they are awesome.

• rumblefrog

  today at 1:58 AM

  These would be great for many places that have storage restrictions on e-bikes, but not normal bikes. So you can easily detach and bring with you before storing it.

  • saghm

    today at 2:01 AM

    The idea of being able to quickly switch a bike back and forth between a regular one and an e-bike seems cool. They lost me at the "smart" though...

• dominotw

  today at 2:17 AM

  any particular one you recommend in usa

  my costco has magnum melody

  • UltraSane

    today at 3:09 AM

    Pretty nice bike. I bought a Evelo with a belt drive and a automatic CVT transmission that is really nice to ride.

Anything for the world to actually avoid the health benefits of riding a bike. What is wrong with a standard human powered bike? I expect a global obesity epidemic in 10 years as people begin buying/building WALL-E-style beds.

• askvictor

  today at 3:15 AM

  People with knee problems, areas with hills. An ebike is still active movement; sure you're not getting any cardio, but it's immeasurably better than driving. If this (or any ebike) is a thing that gets someone on a bike that otherwise wouldn't be on a bike, it is a good thing. For some it might be a stepping stone, for others it allows them to ride where they can't/won't ride at all.

  • speedgoose

    today at 5:52 AM

    I also noticed that some people who used to pedal switched to e-bikes due to laziness.

• happosai

  today at 6:32 AM

  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259019821...

  "Physical activity gains from active travel are similar in e-bikers and cyclists."

  E-bikes make people who aren't fit enough to ride muscle powered bikes to start doing moderate exercise on local trips they would used cars for before.

• mikestew

  today at 4:07 AM

  Found the person who lives in Kansas. Sometimes I just want to ride to work without having to deal with that 2km hill on the way. And my bike is still human-powered, with electric assist. Do you not know how e-bikes work, perhaps?

  Signed, former Cat 2 road racer

  • dreamcompiler

    today at 4:55 AM

    > Do you not know how e-bikes work, perhaps?

    I suspect not. Even though ebikes are common now, I often hear this comment. Ebikes assist your pedaling; they don't pedal for you. (Well some can pedal for you but you learn quickly that if you let the motor do all the work you'll run the battery down and then you will have to do all the work pedaling a 65-lb bicycle home.)

    Lots of people seem to think if a motor is present, then the motor is doing all the work. Ebikes are not motorcycles. What the motor actually does is make the hills less steep and less long. It's a lowpass filter for terrain.

    • speedgoose

      today at 5:51 AM

      Indeed not all of the work, only most of it.