• litchralee@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    $4,999.99 USD

    single-armed front fork

    not a foldable e-bike

    airless tires

    a SIM card

    the ebiiGo app

    Every single one of these design decisions – except the single front fork – seems entirely unjustified when taken together as a whole. This is not an ebike for actual use, but a technical demo, not unlike proof-of-concept automobiles that never make it to series production. But the reason those cars never see production is because they’re often exceedingly impractical, like when mechanical engineers go racing in concrete boats. They do it for the challenge and the lolz.

    But unlike cars, the triumph of lithium ion batteries and cheap production costs means that ebikes like this can actually enter production. But should it have? I don’t think so. We are basically using time, energy, and resources to build instant ewaste. It’s the fast fashion problem, but with ebikes.