I remember a Kickstarter that was popular that had a bicycle wheel with a motor in it that you could fit most bikes. I'd be far more interested in a solution like this for a daily commute, seems very elegant.
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.
I have previously used an e-bike for commuting to work. The goals were to get to work less sweaty and more quickly.
It had its ups and downs. I certainly wasn't fresh as a daisy upon arriving at work, even with the e-bike's help.
The model I chose was rather longer and heavier than a regular bike, and that was a definite inconvenience. Going up stairs, storage, etc. And that's not getting into the mechanical reliability issues I had (Chinese off-brand import).
It was an interesting experiment, but I wouldn't do it again. You'll need to carefully consider all the factors before choosing something like this.
You don't need a Kickstarter for that. Multiple companies have made those for years. I've used these systems before, with success, and used it on a 20 mile commute that I did via bike for a year: http://ridebionx.com/
