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This is great for the e-bike sector - more competition, more innovation, more options. There is of course a bunch of poo-pooing in an HN thread. The problem with the e-bike sector is a misalignment: what people say they want: a cargo bike, a fixie, a mountain bike, a folding bike, a... etc.
what people actually want: a moped that is emotionally and aesthetically a bicycle
The audience for a moped that is emotionally and aesthetically a bicycle is like 1,000,000x larger than the audience of a mountain bike; and the number of miles ridden per "moped that is emotionally a bicycle" will be like 10-100x greater than a mountain bike.Nobody cares about mountain bikes, or grams saved, or whatever. That's like, some hobby. We might as well be comparing fine German violins. I know this is what is advertised, but who knows what they are thinking when they depict so and so bicycle in their press release. I'm excited about this bike because it is basically a Stromer ST2: a semi truck of a bike that can sort of do everything. It's a moped with the emotional energy of a bicycle. What is the ideal e-bike? It is basically a step through Pinion MGU, which Kettler makes. Unless there is more competition, such as with bespoke drive trains, that incredible bike will continue to cost $9,000. There is a lot of confusion in the sector. VanMoof continues to experience significant financial difficulties, but in all other senses they are a colossal success: they were the first to deliver a moped that emotionally and aesthetically feels like a bike, and a ton of people bought it, and then those people put 10x-100x more miles on those bikes than any owner of any Sturmey Archer bicycle ever has, and VanMoof doesn't bite the bullet and recall for recurring issues like breaking boost buttons, and they run out of money ad-hoc fixing issues over and over again. Stromer also uses proprietary parts and they are reliable, it isn't so black and white. People here are talking about Bosch. Bosch motors break. People are abandoning them. They were put into bikes that were more and more frequently replacing cars, which meant people ride them 10x more than a mountain bike or whatever artisanal or hobby use they would otherwise put on their bikes, and suddenly, the things are breaking all the time. Every time someone sells something that actually meets the real need for a moped that is emotionally and aesthetically a bicycle, they either price it too high to reach a large enough audience used to prices 1/10th as high on Amazon for the same keywords, or they price it too low for the huge increase in failure due to the huge increase in miles. DJI gives me some confidence they will not misplay this. |