[snogglethorpe]

> It's rare to see someone in Japan commute with a bike that's over $150.

Lots of people have cheap bikes, but there's also a big "mid-market" (~$500) for Japanese casual bikes.

I think a robust and trouble-free multi-gear front could be a great alternative for recently popular electric bikes (e.g. on those small-wheel bikes with kid seats)... even if it adds weight and cost, it's surely much less weight and cost (and hassle) than an electric motor and battery...

[chmike]

In france there are pools of bikes to rent in big cities. There are many pools in many places so that you cant pick a bike in one place and leave it at another. These bikes could benefit from such gear system. It has to be extreamly robust to common usage with user not carring about the bike or hardly now how to bike. The bikes are cheap and I think the first half hour is free. Howerver it is a profitable business. So there might be use cases where this product could be a good fit. Its weight seems however to be a bit excessive. Its called vélib.