[jseliger]

I remember a Kickstarter that was popular that had a bicycle wheel with a motor in it that you could fit most bikes

Yeah. Kickstarter has had a lot of interesting bikes in the last year. One YC company, Vanhawks (http://vanhawks.com/), came up through Kickstarter, and they've been shipping smart bikes in the last couple months.

Still, prices among electrically assisted bikes remain high. For example, the Faraday electric bike: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/faradaybikes/faraday-co... starts at $2,700. It seems like they should be less expensive, but for whatever reason few electric bikes have appeared in the U.S. for under $2K.

It seems like price is holding back electric bikes more than anything else. The system discussed in the original article appears to be much more expensive than an entire electric bike.

[shpx]

You can buy $200-400 conversion kits (and a battery) and convert a bike you already own into electric.

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/electric-bike-kit