Oh nice! Thanks for featuring!

There are programs in some places for rebates for e-bikes. For example my electricity provider does that. Maybe check if there’s something where you live?

But for the front, there’s nothing which appears to sink energy, apart from what appears to be a conventional disc brake.

Maybe it’s like an electric car, which uses a combination of regen, and disc brakes. Depending on the car I think letting off the accelerator (in one-pedal mode) engages regen, while the brake pedal uses the disc brakes, and does not capture energy. Or in some cars the brake pedal uses regen braking for a portion of its travel, and disc braking if you press harder.

Maybe this bike uses regen when you stop pedaling, and has regular disc brake levers for faster stopping? Or maybe regen back-pedaling?

This reminds me of another e-bike made by a car company, the Ford Bronco (youtube link). But that one is an entirely different idea - it’s an expensive and not very practical mountain bike.

This Rivian one makes me wonder where muscle power from pedaling goes? Is it wasted? Is it all captured as regen? To me biking is a lot about efficient travel, and electric range is important. On a typical e-bike muscle power translates into forward thrust with efficiency somewhere over 95% (based on my vague understanding of bike efficiency). Using pedaling to generate electricity to run a motor will drop that efficiency to something like 30%, I think? That’s a number I heard somewhere for regen brake efficiency on cars. And even on a motorized bike muscle power is significant. My 500 W bike advertises motor output “up to four times the power of a human cyclist”. That implies that muscle input is over 20% of the total power most of the time, even on a high motor setting.

I guess I’m not the target for this bike. It’s probably aimed at people who want to go very fast with no effort. Maybe I should look at it as more of a foot-operated throttle than pedals.

I’m sorry to hear that! I imagine the stiff upper lip tires after a while

Pidzoom looks very nice! I might give it a try!

Oh, good tip!

Sure, it sounds like you know more than me. So you get the benefit of a collector that isn’t blocked by your body, but you don’t need to turn your head to see the image?

It sounds sort of like the idea is approaching rear radar, but without any batteries

Oh, that sounds handy!

Thanks! It’s an Orbea Diem 30 - the one with a chain instead of a belt. It’s a Class 1 version. I saw it, and was seduced by the shiny. Plus it was on sale.

Yep, I should do this

But it’s not entirely about protecting the bike. When it rolls it can knock into the back of the seat in front of it, and generally make passengers anxious

The weight is quite far down in the article: 50 lbs, 680 WHr battery, 750 W motor. Which is the same weight as my bike, but with a bigger battery, and a more powerful motor. But for a similar price, the Velotric T1 ST Plus, and the Trek FX+ 2 are each 40 lbs.

As a guy with a family who make a lot of use of class 1 e-bikes, this sounds good to me!

Frankly I don’t see how the carriage-less horse will ever catch on.

I’m not going to get one, but I do want to see this concept in anime

I’m planning to try out Clik valves. The cores are compatible with Presta stems, so it looks like they’re easy to swap in. And they have adapters that thread onto Schrader valves.

Anyone tried Clik, and like or dislike them?

Edit 2026-04-08: Now I’ve tried them, and I like them! https://leminal.space/post/34057102

The shifting mechanism looks similar to the Buffalo Utility S2 from World Bicycle Relief. But the Buffalo uses two chains for the two speeds. Contavelo say they use a gearbox inside the crankset. I’d enjoy a more detailed explanation - the best I found were these graphics:

Exploded view:

Low gear:

High gear?:

I noticed that the discussion of downsides of clutches in this article seems to be all about interference with rear suspension. So are these points specific to mountain biking? Might there also be interference with frame flex on hardtails? (I recently got a bike with double diamond / gliding diamond geometry, so I’ve had frame flex in mind.)

Do you think the double spring thing will make clutches irrelevant? Or are you inclined to stick with a clutch for bikes without rear suspension?

Some serious problems with that bill! But looking specifically at the restrictions on Class 3 - where I live, California, Class 3 e-bikes are already banned from multi-use trails. I don’t think that’s a bad idea. 28 mph is awfully fast for places where one could easily hit a pedestrian. Pedestrians have been killed in collisions. Some of those were confirmed to be illegal e-motos, and I’d guess that most of the unconfirmed cases are too. But at least one case looks like it may have involved a Velotric Go 1 with an unlocked speed of 25 mph.

Impact energy increases with the square of speed (KE = ½mv²), so Class 3 is 40% faster than Class 1, but carries nearly double the kinetic energy (1.96x) for the same mass.

I’m inclined to agree with the take from Berm Peak: no restrictions on riding Class 1 e-bikes, but treat bikes with throttles, higher speeds, and more powerful motors with more scrutiny. That way there is one thing called an e-bike, and it’s much easier for everyone to understand. Fewer deadly accidents means reduced threat of sledgehammer legislation. We could still have start assist - some states, including California, explicitly allow start assist on Class 1.

Edit: Linkified the Berm Peak reference

Rearview radar? That is some fun fanciness! If it’s very reliable I could see myself getting hooked on that feature.

Is there a way to make this thing work with a dynamo hub? Like a shared battery for onboard electronics that the dynamo charges? Or to connect it to an e-bike battery?