Wheel-E Podcast: Rad drops all prices, Propella’s new e-bike & more
And we’re live welcome back everybody to a new episode of the wheelie podcast I’m your host M tol and I’m joined Again by Electric Seth win trb how’s it going Seth I’m good awesome and this is a special episode of the wheie podcast because this time it is sponsored by
Upway uh upway is a leading online ebike provider carrying the broadest selection of brand new and certified pre-owned models we’re going to hear more about them later in the show but first we’ve got a number of interesting stories from the past week to cover a real wide variety this week it’s everything from
New ebikes from propella we’ve got uh drastic price drops by Rad power bikes uh we’ve got a real snakes on a bike story um a cool DIY conversion kit for uh converting any bicycle basically into an ebike um news from rivid an electric motorcycle maker based in California a a
Uh sort of non-bike bike gear review on a bike drone and uh some interesting testing of some uh household uh heat pump based appliances so uh let’s see where are we going to start off with this week all right this clever kit turns bicycles into electric bikes using their disc
Brakes yeah this one kind of like blew my mind at first because like here at electric I mean we’ve seen basically every type of ebike conversion kit right and like there’s not that many different styles you’ve got your mid Drive Motors you’ve got your Hub Motors and you’ve
Got friction kits and that’s largely everything that’s out there and suddenly this electric bike conversion kit comes out of left field with something completely different and that excites me it’s called the scarper and the way it works is there’s this sort of bolt-on package that Clips on to the left side
Of the bike’s uh chain stay that’s the lowest frame m back by the rear wheel and there’s a motor that drives the disc brake rotor the part of your disc brakes that spin around and that’s what’s actually turning the wheel there’s uh there’s no wires there’s no throttle so
There’s nothing to run up to the handlebars it is pedal assist and basically to install it you first swap out your disc brake rotor and you use theirs which it has an extra little sort of indexing wheel on it so the the motor is not actually driving the braking
Surface of the disc rotor which was what I thought probably happened at first but they’ve got a you know more clever way to do it instead it’s it’s almost like a gear system built into the inner part of the disc rotor that interfaces with that motor that’s in the sort of clipon part
Of the kit and that’s how it drives the bike and the cool thing is that not only can this convert any bike that has disc brakes into an ebike but very easily you can go backwards and you can take it off and suddenly your ebike turns back back
Into a normal bike so if you don’t want that extra weight or maybe it’s like a training bike where you know some days you want the uh the extra power of an ebike but other days you want to go you know all by yourself with just your
Power and you don’t want that extra weight of the ebike kit hanging out there if you’re not using it especially if you’re in like a hilly area or something and that’s a lot of extra weight to Lug around you just take this off and I think what they said is you’re
Left with just a few grams of extra weight because that new disc rotor weighs a little bit more so in theory it’s really cool idea now because this is a uk-based company that developed it that means that we’re talking about uh European ebike laws here so you know
It’s lower power it’s 250 Watts um it doesn’t go very fast it’s 25 kilometers per hour that’s about 15 and a half miles per hour so you know a very low performance system or I guess that’s as high performance as you get in Europe so maybe they don’t consider that low but
To a North American Standard we would consider that fairly low power uh it’s also a little bit pricey I think the price was something like 1,300 pounds which is about $1,600 or so and you know there are a lot of electric bikes that cost significantly less than that uh so
If you’re looking at just sort of like dollars per watt which a lot of us tend to do and admittedly it’s not the best way to judge an ebike but it is a a quick and easy metric it doesn’t stack up that well price-wise but of course
From the other side you’ve got all those advantages of an easily removable ebike conversion kit so I’m kind of split on where I fall on this what do you think Seth well first of all like very intrigued by this I mean it’s a great idea I had to like Double Take when I
First saw it and it’s you know like you don’t think of the break uh rotor as being a point of strength but obviously if you’re able to stop the bike with the brake rotor it’s got to be pretty strong um so that’s very interesting also like
Does it have to does it have to be a specific type of brake rotor because I saw on on the uh the one it’s got like it looks almost like those analog brake um bike rotors or is it can it be any kind of bike rotor so they actually
Supply their own uh and it does have what looks like that um sort of index on a on an antiock break but I think it’s it’s more physical than that so it you know matches in with whatever system they have but they give you the dis
Rotor with the kit so you just swap it on and I think actually you can kind of see there that the the pattern on the braking surface doesn’t match the front brake so you can see like you’ll end up as sort of a mismatched rotor yeah that’s interesting um I mean
It’s cool because you can take it on and off pretty easily you know I’m assuming here but um it’s not something that you could take around like a Copenhagen Wheel for instance and put on any any bike you have to actually take the rotor off which is not a huge deal but it’s
It’s it’s not something everybody wants to do um so that’s something also I you know like I I still like when I think about 250 Watts that’s not a lot of power but it does seem like a lot of power going into that tiny metal thing that’s you know spinning
Around and like I said it stops the bike so it’s got to be pretty hefty but I you know it’s like one of those things I got to try out yeah right I mean I I guess they’ve you know tested and tested these things but uh yeah it is sort of a a
Strange application to a piece that’s not normally driven in that way I’m like trying to check the physics in my head if it’s driving it in the same stress direction that you do when you’re breaking oh yeah uh the torque there I guess it wouldn’t matter like I guess
It’s supposed to be it would be the same well they do they I mean they have like a direction you know like the arms come out in a in an arc from the center so there is like a a directionality there and I mean I’ve even seen people bend
Dis brakes when they usually when they’re already getting really hot from like going down super long Mountain Roads right and then you apply like Serious Force like you know you can you can actually push a a disc rotor past its limit but I assume that because they’re using their own rotor they’ve
Designed it to withstand that I’ve actually seen on downhill bikes uh my own downhill bike uh smoke coming from the uh disc brakes so uh I I guess a lot of stuff can happen there um I do like the low center of gravity though like that’s going to be you know pretty
Unnoticeable in terms of like bike balance and stuff which is great um I you know I think it’s a great idea um obviously it probably would be a little bit more sketchy on smaller wheel bikes because uh you know that thing’s going to be a lot closer to the ground and
Maybe outside of the uh the wheel uh radius but um definitely an interesting application I want to keep an eye on that one yeah absolutely all right let’s move on here propella has their minia Max launched as a 899 electric utility bike finally with a throttle yeah this is propel’s first
Ever throttle ebike which as a us-based company is kind of a rarity to see to see a maker that still hasn’t endorsed throttles so um this is their Mini Max I think it’s the second version of their mini bike uh and the first time they they’ve put a throttle on which is
Exciting for probably 90% of ebike riders in the US that prefer throttle to pedal assist or at least prefer having the option to use a throttle when they’re tired the bike itself though I’ve always liked the mini platform from propella um they’re this company that they’ve always sort of focused on
Minimalism you know very simple usually single speed bikes they have one colorway it’s uh black on Blue so like the whole bike is blacked out except for these really pretty blue anodized rims and basically it’s sort of a what you see is what you get type of bike in this
Case you’re talking a small 20inch wheels so I think they’re something like two or two and a quarter inch tires so you know still pretty meaty as a utility bike uh in this case they’ve updated it with a rear rack which is great for anyone who wants to to carry things
Especially you know middle minimalist bikes are not known for being great for utility but it’s also super lightweight because it’s so simple it’s something like I want to say 38 pounds maybe 40 pounds um so it’s just you know super light super easy to carry around and
When you think about utility bikes you know we’re often looking at rad Runner style bikes you know that class these can be easily 55 60 70 lb bike so to see something that’s closer to a 38 or 40 PBS is just you know great for this category because we almost never get
That lightweight it sounds probably heavy to someone who doesn’t ride an ebike but if you say 38 pounds to an eiker they’re like where like where’s the the wheel that’s missing or something so uh that that’s great to see and in general I just like what they do
Here I mean you know you can keep at low price they’re price of $899 when you’re not overloading these things with fancy features you know there’s no app that they had to develop um I don’t even think it has a color screen the bike is very simple now it does have a small
Battery that’s probably the one area that is going to be the drawback here it’s uh 350 or 355 wat hours I believe so it’s fairly small if they had stuck with just the pedal assist it probably would have been fine comparable to like a throttle bike with a five or 600 W
Hour battery but in this case because they did add the throttle I think there are a lot of people that are going to go throttle heavy and I wonder why their batter is dying so quickly so that is a bit of a shame especially since uh a lot
Of these you know minimalist bikes do not have uh easily removable batteries the battery does come out for servicing you can pop it out under the uh pedals there but I think you have to you know get in there with a screwdriver and remove a cover and uh unplug the the
Wire going into the batteries so it’s not removable for everyday use in that sense so I think it is you know important to consider that if you’re someone who needs longer range this is probably not going to do it for you you know on pedal assist maybe you’ll get 25
30 miles but on throttle you might drop down to you know 15 miles so that’s that’s the one thing I would keep in mind here you know great price lightweight that’s awesome but limited in terms of range um what do you think of this one Sith absolutely love it love
It and I actually like I I shout out to propella because I like a lot of what they do um I think they you know they they make really good designs and they you know have really low prices for the for the quality of their their stuff um
What what is the uh weight uh rating on the rear rack cuz I’m wondering if this could be a two-person situation it’s a good question I I I think it was 50 pounds I’m not 100% sure I guess I should look that up real quick but I
Don’t think that it’s uh G to be a twers bike I mean a lot of these racks you know you can you can do it but they wouldn’t recommend it kind of thing right and I imagine people will still do it even though they won’t go and
Recommend it um but like you said I think this is a really good like there’s really not much like this out on the market I I would I would say like the Luna Eclipse maybe um although that’s a foldable um you know this this thing is
Like all right well you don’t need to put it in your trunk but you still want kind of a compact bike that um can get you around pretty quickly for a really low price um the other big question I had is um Cadence Sensor or Torque
Sensor sensor on this one it’s a Cadence Sensor yeah unfortunately at this price that’d be tough yeah yeah at that price that’s what I would expect but propella often has like a little bit of a extra stuff there um with the throttle I guess that’s okay you can kind of you know if
You’re not getting that quick pickup you can you know use your thumb to to help out um but I really love uh the the trade-offs that they made here um you know it looks like it has solid brakes it’s got lighting built in and you’re talking about 8.99 from like a you know
A real company not not a drop shipper um pretty good like this this would be a tempting bike to to to pick up um I just looked it up it’s a 40 pound weight rating and they specifically say rear rack not intended for passengers right because they know us right well they
Know us Spike people that uh so 40 PBS hm my uh my a younger kid could probably be on there um not not endorsed that’s uh not endorsed right um you know that’s a shame I mean it it could have been a uh you know a very inexpensive uh uh two
Person but uh all around like really solid bike love the look of it um and and you know the what I got the uh Luna Eclipse and that that’s a great bike similar to this I think the tires a little bit bigger the batteries a little bit bigger as well um it’s
Foldable but um it’s not it’s more of a BMX looking bike where this one kind of looks more like a cruiser um I was kind of surprised there’s not really much else on the market like this and um it’s it’s it hits a lot of sweet spots like
You know the fact that it’s not foldable like that’s going to you know turn off some people but that also allows them to make a lighter frame and probably saves them at least 5 pounds so I mean this would still fit in a lot of you know
SUVs or obviously on bike racks with the 38 pound rating it’s going to you know not break your bike rack you probably don’t even need an electric bike specific bike rack for this or you can take the bike the battery out uh when you put it on your bike rack so I don’t
Know I I I really like it I think it’s it hits a lot of sweet spots is this on the market now or are we going to have a review yeah I think it’s coming in May is the expected delivery date so definitely a review but it’s it’s going
To be a while until these things start shipping unfortunately um they are taking I think a $100 deposits right now to um secure the uh the 899 price I think the plan is for it to eventually jump up to 999 after the pre-order is over which is still reasonable in my
Opinion um and when you’re talking about other sort of like bmxc is bikes I was trying to think and the only other sort of in spirit similar bikes I can think of is sort of the juice Rip Racer but that one is a is a Fat Tire Bike and
Just for fun I looked up what it weighs and even as like simple as it is it’s still 66 pounds so yeah it’s I mean it’s it’s crazy that you know when you think about 38 pounds still sounds like a lot like in the world of ebikes that is
Nothing yeah and I I like the size of the tire is that a standard a 2.25 in yeah I see those a lot um and I think it’s uh I think it’s a a good Choice here because they’ve usually gone with a smaller Tire because they started more
In like this sort of fixie style um Market you know with those Narrow Street Tires and so I’m glad to see them go a little thicker here yeah I think they’ve hit the the right tone on just about everything on this one yeah I’ll be I’ll
Be fascinated to hear how sales do for them because I just hear from so many people that say like they won’t consider a pedal assist only bike because you know even if they want a pedal most of the time they want the um ability to
Rely on a throttle if they need it you know even in an emergency and so to finally come out with a a Throttle Bike I think you know they’re just going to see sales shoot up from people that had never considered them before and it said
Uh you said it’s a 550 watt uh Peak um is that controller limited or is that something that could be a little higher could be hacked with a bigger controller right that’s what I’m um I mean the guy is always the limit but uh yeah I think you’d have to
Get in there and controller swap I don’t think you could just go in and change a setting or something to get any more power out of it okay well I’m certainly interested uh and I will be you said you’re GNA have a review in May or
Before that or yeah if they get any sort of like pre-production units in then potentially before that um but if not then the the actual bikes will start coming in May so we’ll have it then okay cool let’s move on uh speaking of low prices uh rad power bikes announces
Price reductions across all electric bike models yeah this one is kind of wild so uh rad announced that starting in 2024 they’re basically going to keep or close to match a lot of their holiday sales so you know every year we see Black Friday sales start early and
Earlier this year you know I think it was like late October these sales started going wild in the ebike market yeah coming off of a a very tough year for ebike companies that have a lot of Overstock situations and so rad had really great sales you know a lot of
These bikes were were four 500 $700 off the rad trike actually got cut almost in half I want to say I think they dropped it from like 2500 to maybe like 1499 or something and and so they had amazing Sal sales and they announced that they’re actually going to keep uh a lot
Of these sale prices so I think the rad trike is even still at uh 14.99 if I’m not mistaken which is crazy for you know a bike that used to be $1,000 dollars more uh yeah there it is so uh it’s just it’s wild and I mean this is great for
Consumers because rad has always been a great company when it comes to bikes you know like they’ve had hiccups here or there they’ve had some you know recalls whatever but like you know at the end of the day they’ve always designed and built good quality bikes and so to get
Those at at the prices we’re looking at I mean this takes us back to rad pricing like you know four or five years ago kind of I say prepandemic yeah like I mean it used to be that like rad meant $1,500 in the last couple years rad has meant like ,800 1900
2200 which part of me is wondering like you know obviously you got to think about what caused the this business decision and at the end of the day I think that rad has sort of been trying to position themselves as this higher tier brand now that there’s so much competition at the
Bottom and I I just wonder if it’s not working for them you know like I don’t have insight into RAD sales like I can’t look into their uh books or anything but this is sort of signaling to me at least that consumers aren’t accepting this idea that now you know these plus models
Of RADS are going to be 2200 bikes $2,300 bikes and so perhaps rad is sort of finally accepting that or maybe they just have new models coming in 2024 and they want to you know get all these off the shelves I don’t know what do you
Think Seth yeah I mean I was curious what the rad Runner 3 uh when that came out uh we loved the bike but we were like that price doesn’t make sense it was at 2500 and almost like during our podcast I feel like they lowered the
Price 300 bucks um but it’s still it’s like the one bike that isn’t marked down so maybe they’re seeing some success there or maybe you know the inventory isn’t isn’t matching with the uh uh expectations there um the trike I I don’t know how that it was ever $2,500
But um that’s that’s great that it’s $1,500 I think that’s going to do well in the trike sphere I also like that they have the small tires um still trying to get my mother-in-law on one of those and then um you know I think the
Rad Runner is like their big um what I see most around town is rad Runners um starting at 13.99 is I think a good starting point for that and of course then there’s going to be sales on top of sales at at different points but um I
You know I think that that’s kind of The Sweet Spot of the the rad line um it’s always been like a $1,500 bike as you said um I I don’t know I think there’s a middle ground I think they can occupy like hey uh you know we’re not going to have top shelf
Components but we are going to have Innovative designs we are going to be around there’s going to be some like physical presence in some bigger cities so we’re we’re not a Dropship from China brand we’re we’re you know a US brand with with that’s going to be around
Hopefully uh and so we demand a little bit of a premium we’re not going to be sub $1,000 but we are going to you know have service there’s going to be a lot of uh accessories um if your bike you know breaks there’s going to be recourse if
There’s a part that you know doesn’t work um we’ll ship something out to you there’s human beings on the other end of the phone you know those kind of things those are the things you pay the extra you know four or 500 bucks for and I think that’s I think that’s where rad
Needs to be um and they and they did try to go premium I think and I don’t think that was successful because you know to go premium you kind of have to have like really good components and you got to have like bike shops nearby and you got
To have you know all those things and you know that that that didn’t exist you know rad seemed like it was going in that direction like they they had that mobile service they had a bunch of other stuff but you can’t cut that piece out but then still demand the higher prices
So I think this is where they belong I think they’d make great bikes um and I I hope to see like you know if this is uh foretelling a new you know new new line of bikes I’m excited for that so uh All Good Things absolutely yeah and I’m kind of
Wondering you remember when um uh the rad mission was discontinued maybe a year or a little bit more ago um and that was their usually priced at like $9.99 sometimes even $8.99 that was their like you know super budget level bike and I wonder if part of the reason
To NX that was in this push to go more premium and they didn’t want to have a bike price that low and if that’s the case I wonder if now they’re kind of kicking themselves over that yeah I I uh I mean if if it’s profitable like I
Don’t I don’t see why they can’t have something like that in their lineup um I would love to see like a you know a base rad Runner that you know like they used to have the rad Runner at you know $1,000 on discount or whatever and
That’s that to me is kind of like the quintessential rad bike these days so if they could get another rad I mean it’s $1299 now I’m sure they could mark it down a little bit more um if they could get that out again at at 999 I think
That would be a really popular item so here’s hoping for that yep all right uh moving on a state near and dear to our hearts Florida woman uses electric bite to hunt 15ft snakes in the Everglades it’s rare that I get to write a uh Florida man or Florida woman story
But this one was just too good to pass up um it is a little specific uh but I think we’re all going to enjoy this so um for a little bit of background the Florida Everglades is just positively taken over by uh species of steak called
A Burmese python they grow uh often over 15 feet long uh they’ve been found over 20 feet and they’ve basically decimated almost the entire mammal and small um reptile population in the Everglades so like there’s almost no deer left there’s almost no rabbits no you know squirrels no possums no
Raccoons anything they eat deer they they eat whole deer yeah I mean these snakes are crazy some of these snakes weigh over 200 pounds okay yeah like I hope no one’s having like a panic attack right now uh they rarely attack you humans don’t worry I think I think like
Small children it can be dangerous but like you know they don’t purposely attack humans they’re you know they’re also constrictors and they’re not gonna like bite you uh that’s that’s like a different scary way to go but anyways we’re getting too far off uh point is these snakes have taken over they’re an
Invasive species they came in I mean they’re native to like southeast Asia you know like the jungles and uh they were introduced um probably through you know like uh the Exotic Animal trade or people that got these and like couldn’t handle them and just let them go in
Their backyard and so now it’s a huge problem it’s destroying the ecology the ulates the uh the State of Florida encourages people to hunt these there’s like no bag limit they’re like as many as you can take like get them out of there and so ebikes have turned into
This new snake hunting tool which sounds kind of odd but in fact they’re kind of perfect for it because these snakes can be very skittish so you can’t really get in there with like an ATV or another uh off-road gas power vehicle because you scare all the snake takes off um then in
The Everglades it is not very forgiving to rain I mean it’s wet it’s marshy it’s like thick almost jungly I mean it looks like southeast Asia where these snakes Thrive and so you know getting in with any type of wide or um dual track vehicle is tough so an ebike is like the
Best way to get around it’s like that or fan booat if there’s enough water and so uh that’s what this woman um shared on on her Instagram where she had this like 15 foot uh Burmese python crawling over the ebike that she uses to hunt these
Snakes and so to me it’s just another fascinating use for ebikes you know we’re finding them everywhere in this case you know as a hunting tool and I think as time goes on I’m seeing this more and more there’s like a whole cottage industry of Hunter specific
Accessories for ebikes even like here we see a like a deer trailer um but all over the place there are Hunters that are switching to ebikes as opposed to ATVs or you know SUVs or or dirt bikes and that sort of thing um and and to me that’s just wild how mainstream these
Things have become that like they’ve reached every Niche every use case that that someone could imagine I’m not much of a hunter myself but uh even just you know for outdoors people that are going the same places like I totally get it it’s a very uh accessible way to get
Somewhere it’s more convenient it’s it’s nicer even for the rider so it makes uh it makes total sense for me I just don’t think I’m gonna go hunting 15 foot snakes anytime soon yeah I guess uh they are not great pets uh being constrictors
But um can you eat them is it like hunt and eat that’s a good question um I don’t think I’ve ever considered eating it I I’m not sure if they’re like if it’s dangerous I mean there’s some animals that like they’re issuing like bare meat can be very problematic stuff like that
Um I don’t know if there’s like a danger to eating Burmese python um what some people brought up I think in the comments that was interesting was this is kind of a sustainable source for snake skin so you know like boots and purses and whatever um this would be
Like an interesting way to to Source snake skin um you know like hunting for for sport I’m not a huge fan of myself I mean everyone has different views like I get it you know everyone can do what they want it’s a free country but in
This case I mean like the the entire Ecology of the Everglades has basically been destroyed and so killing one animal can actually save so many more and so in this case you know if if you can have some good come of it and then it avoids like farming snakes for skin then that’s
Just another sort of positive outcome here someone get the boots yeah and uh yeah boots all kinds of stuff like that um it you you talked about bikes being better than other other vehicles it makes perfect sense to me like uh bikes can go in a lot of you know more narrow
Trails than ATVs can go bikes are obviously e bikes are obviously way quieter uh so you know you’re not going to scare off your prey as as badly um the long range on the ebikes uh getting better so makes makes sense on a lot levels yeah I mean I think we’re going
To see a lot of this more and more often totally all right let’s do our ad read real quick uh today’s episode is sponsored by upway a leading online ebike provider carrying the broadest selection of brand new and certified pre-owned models the team at upway has compiled a growing selection of top
Brands like specialized Tre aventon and gazelle each priced up to 60% off retail to make Electric Mobility affordable to to everyone want to sell your current ebike upway manages that as well each pre-owned ebike goes through a rigorous inspection tuneup and certification by Up’s team of Master mechanics and comes
With a one-year warranty following your purchase upway will get your ebike delivered to you 99% assembled within one week and accepts returns within 14 days in case the bike isn’t the right fit for you the process is easy now through January 31st save up to $11,000 off a wide selection of ebikes during
Upway winter sale event be sure to use promo code electrc for an additional $10 off learn more at up.co huge thanks for to upway for sponsoring um I don’t know if you remember but we we did a tour of upway uh Brooklyn uh warehouse and and processing center um it was unbelievable
How many like top tier bikes they have there they they they get it’s not just used bikes but they also get um you know when when like Overstock Overstock yes when specialized makes too many of their you know frames or whatever um they sell them to upway and
Upway is basically you know doing a you know end of year kind of sale uh for specialized because specialized doesn’t want to have like a 50% off sale on their own bikes so um a lot of the stuff you you see there is never used and uh
In phenomenal shape and in addition have somebody look at the bike make sure it’s you know tight and everything they put it in this taller box which means that um you don’t have to screw on the the handlebars it’s basically you you tighten the handlebars and you start
Pedaling so uh great product over there at up.co if you’re looking for an ebike you know if you’re looking for a specialized at you know like half price um that is kind of the place to go so yeah I was gonna ask uh so you said that
They assemble it at least 99% like what is is left to assemble you got to put the Bell on like how much left yeah I it it’s basically more assembled than uh what we’re typically used to we were used to having to like screw on The Handlebar they they kind of loosen the
Handlebar and turn it sideways but it fits in a taller box so um the pedals actually are on um everything is kind of there except for like that last uh screwing the handlebars like your hand bars don’t fit in a in a bike box so that’s it yeah that sounds awesome because
Those are the the hardest parts for a lot of people things like putting those handlebars on yeah uh just tightening is is kind of a dream in that that sense all right let’s move on America’s latest electric motorcycle maker ramping production and teases new model yeah this is rivid um they’re based in
Southern California and they’re nearing completion of their new Factory that’s going to be in San Bernardino uh their electric motorcycles if you’ll remember we did an early uh first ride on these back before they were even available to the public and these are really Innovative electric motorcycles uh they
Are Highway capable so they go about 75 miles an hour um but the design is really what makes them different so they don’t use a typical welded uh trellis frame the structure of it is basically created out of folded sheet metal um and in that way it’s a lot lighter
It’s a lot easier to produce and it’s because they manufacture these things in the US it means there are many fewer steps to this so it’s a really cool design and it even adds a bit of modularity Because by creating multiple bolt holes in some places you can
Actually change things like the angle of your head tube which normally you’d have to buy an entire new motorcycle to do something like that uh and then they they added in several Innovations like the s height can be adjusted uh up and down by about 4 in and you can even do
It while you’re riding there’s just a button with an actuator so you know you can have it up higher and then as you roll up to a stop light you can lower it down so when you get there you can comfortably put your feet flat on the
Ground and then as you take off you can just lift it right back up four inches it’s kind of crazy and they’ve got that battery that um disconnects it’s about four kilowatt hours and it’s got its own wheels you can roll it around so just really cool electric motorcycle company
But the big news is that even though they only started delivering their first model back in September so about the was it like four or five months ago they’re already gearing up for their next model release they didn’t say exactly when it is but they kind of hinted around the
Middle of the year so I’m guessing you know approximately summer um reveal of the next model they’re working on it’s it’s not quite clear if it’s going to be on the same platform or not I wouldn’t be surprised if it is because that’s sort of a shortcut that a lot of
Companies are taking these days to roll out multiple models on the same platform so they don’t have to you know reinvent the frame and do as much design and and tooling work so um you know it’s unclear how different it’s going to be but it
Does seem like it’s going to be you know a separate model not just like sort of a a rivet Anthem Pro or something like that so it will be exciting to see it I wish that we had you know real details but as american-based manufacturer it’s already exciting to see that they not
Only have one model that they’re ramping up production on and building a new California based Factory but that they’re going to have a second model this year as well so I’ll be excited to see that and you better believe that we’ll be here to report it the second
They tell us what the heck they’re making there yeah and and how are deliveries of the uh the original model going like if if I ordered one today how long would I have to wait to get one it’s a good question I’m not sure what the lead time is uh I’ve seen several
Pictures of like dozens of bikes in trailers so you know they’re shipping these things out it seems like as fast as they can make them um they’ve also even like had to increase the price since then so um you know I think the the demand is good I’m not sure what
Weit time that translates into though it says uh train oh there’s training sorry I saw a month on there but but that is kind of a cool thing though by the way that yeah they um they’ll pay up to $250 for your basic Rider training which is usually the
Class that you take to get your motorcycle license and the reason for that is that uh companies like these are bringing a lot of New Riders into uh the electric motorcycle industry you know there are a lot of people that never considered themselves to be like you
Know a biker uh quote unquote before but suddenly when it’s so much more accessible there a lot of people saying yeah you know like maybe I can upgrade from electric bike so it’s kind of neat to see that they’re sponsoring people’s uh motorcycle training classes yeah that is cool um and
Obviously you make a great point about e electric motorcycles being something that kind of different Riders uh want to get into rather than uh you know your your Harley or your Kawasaki Riders um so how many I mean you said you didn’t um know what the lead time is like are these like
Like out on the streets like these are because I haven’t seen one personally but I you know I live in a cold climate so I I wouldn’t expect to but um yeah there’s um very active sorry go on no I was just like what is the scene like is there a big rivid
Population in yeah it seems like it um there there’s a very active Reddit Community where um you know all all the Riders go and they discuss you like modifications the and that um the American Motorcycle Market is very big on modifications unlike European riders that sort of
Believe that like the way the company made it is like the right way um so it is great to see like a very big uh mod community and ridership there most of these companies don’t share sales figures um they want to sort of keep it kind of um unclear how many bikes
They’ve actually sold even though it’s a small community of of Manufacturers there’s still some competition there especially when you’ve got the the bigger companies like Harley and zero and those in the room so it’s it’s anybody’s guess how many are really out there um but it definitely seems like
There’s a very active ridership Community around them yeah and and with uh Saunders metacycle being kind of not non-existent anymore I wonder if that’s going to pull a lot of people over here um yeah definitely not quite as cheap but it’s kind of in the same ballpark as a
Metacycle yeah though and I met with the uh founder and the designer of the bike and uh that was one of the things that we actually talked about and he sort of explained to me how for them it was very important to not go down that sort of
Like business path of basing your company’s financial success on pre-orders or payments of the previous batch of bikes and so they ensured that they got you know funding ahead of time and that um you know any reservations they were taking we’re not funding the production kind of thing they also
Received a good amount of grant money from the state of California as well so that’s certainly helped but it sounds like they’ve started with the right business principles which is very comforting when the bad taste of the metacycle debacle is still in many people’s mouths yeah you don’t want to
Uh what do you call that pyramid scheme you don’t want to base your oh the Ponzi scheme yeah yeah you don’t want to base your business model on a Ponzi scheme that’s not the way to go all right uh let’s move on uh non bike bike gear tested hover
Air X1 is a cyclist drone I’ve been looking for yes so I started doing uh on the weekends a bit of like a different uh review thing where um you know a lot of the gear that I use for for biking because I try to be as carfree as
Possible uh a lot of this gear is really important to sort of like making the experience for me but um we don’t see a lot of the stuff behind the scenes so in this case for years I’ve been looking for a drone that I could take on bike
Trips both on bike rides and when I’m traveling to do you know like bike trips internationally and even like my DJI mini3 which is my like normal travel drone is kind of big and because I usually try to travel just in a with a backpack it takes up so much space so
This is the first one I found that is like the perfect drone to take on a bike and film all of my bike stuff it’s called the hover airx one it’s not like cheap cheap it’s still I want to say like 370 bucks so it’s a bit of an
Investment but as you can see from the the video here the quality is actually quite good like I can use this stuff professionally like the tracking is great uh it films at I think um uh 1,400 pixels or something I think it’s like 2.7k so you know it’s not 4K footage but
It’s not 1080 and it’s just tiny like it literally folds up to fit in the palm of your hand and there’s no controller which is like the real Beauty here because that’s what really gets you with when you um want to bring a a drone Along on your bike it’s not like you
Just bring the Drone like the controller is often like the size of the Drone as well so it’s all this more packing but this one I can literally put in my pocket and I forget it’s there like I don’t even need a backpack to bring it
It takes off out of the palm of your hand you tell it in advance what type of shot you want so there’s like multiple mode buttons on the top of it and you can tell it you know like do an orbit shot or do a follow me shot or you know
Like shoot up in the sky and get like a downward perspective and it’ll just do it and then when it’s done it comes back to you and you hold out your hand and it lands in your hand like it’s the future I mean it’s it’s just crazy they’re not
Paying me to say any of that like this is the thing I’ve been looking for and I finally found it you know if it could film 4K that would be you know like the cherry on top but I only output in 10 0p anyway so uh I usually film at 4K just
So that I have room to crop in and this one still lets me Crop about like 50% or so so um to me this is just like that perfect cyclist drone I’ve been looking for something I can take on all my bike rides and not even think about it you
Know not even have to like stop and take it out of my backpack like it’s it’s literally already in my pocket so this was just so cool for me and it allows me to get all those shots that I miss because I don’t bring uh you you know a
Drone to able to get those cool like highle perspective shots on rides so I I’m super excited about this and I just had to share it with everyone so that that that uh handheld thing you have there that’s that’s kind of the controller um the the thing in my hands
Right there no like if we’re looking at the screen is that the top of the Drone or is that like a remote control yeah yeah that’s the top of the Drone um okay it does look like a yeah like a Amazon Fire TV remote or whatever yeah so so
How do you tell it to like how do you get it to lock on you so it just locks on you from takeoff because the only way it’ll take off is out of your hand so you have to hold it out um like that and so it’s already looking at you when it
Takes off you push the button on the top and it like recognizes you on takeoff and you are the subject now so it’ll um base everything off of you uh unless you choose one of the flight modes that’s you know not tracking but most of the
Time I’m doing tracking stuff if you do want to fly it like you know a normal drone quote unquote uh you can use your phone through the um through the app and then you can go into manual control and you can like you know just take off and
Get a a landscape view or you know sometimes I like to get like a highle shot to establish you know if you’re like in the mountains or something you get like three seconds of mountain footage so you can do that and control it like a normal drone but most of the
Time what I really want is to get pictures or videos of me riding a bike and so for that is just incredible and I’m Often by myself which is the kicker like you know when you’re doing a Onan band like you don’t have a cameraman so
A drone that can follow you is your only option if you want moving video of yourself yeah totally um what is the um like top speed like if you’re going fast on your ebike how where where does it you know where can it keep up with you
It’s a good question um I haven’t maxed it out because usually I’m riding like trails and stuff so I don’t think I got up more than like I don’t know 10 12 miles an hour kind of thing while I’m Offroad I haven’t tried it on like a a
Busy road where I get going fast um so I’ll have to look that one up but um you know for in terms of the tracking I’ve never had it lose me yet which is wild because I tried to lose like I would like ride between trees and stuff and
Like I couldn’t believe that it kept following like oh no you know what it it did once get uh I guess lost me and like it just kind of hovered there um but it didn’t crash into anything which was good so yeah I did I did sort of lose it
Once in terms of it not being able to track me but I think I’ve used it on um three different review videos already in terms of like getting usable footage that I that I use and I think only once it’s it’s actually like not been able to
Keep up or track me that’s interesting um I’ve been using uh the DJI mini4 and uh we talked about the S rusher before I’m I’m throwing a little uh footage on the screen right now this is my son um because apparently I weigh too much for the uh the the motor to
Catch snow but um this is the DJI uh mini4 on the uh uh just uh with with active track and it does kind of the same thing it does a pretty good job of it um but I would say like there’s some serious issues with the uh active track
Like you have to be in Wide Open Spaces like I don’t think it would have done the same stuff that you did um I I get beeping like when we go through like trees and stuff and the top speed on that is not great either it’s you know a
Little over 20 m per hour especially with wind conditions and the cold battery and all the other stuff for snowboarding um it does present some issues so um I am definitely interested in checking out other things how much how much did this thing cost I think
It’s 370 though you bring up a good point that I forgot to mention which is battery life that is a downside here so so the batteries are very small it’s like 9 to 10 minutes flight time okay but on the other hand because of the flight style where it sort of like films
And clips it takes off does the clip you told it and comes back you’re not like just hovering around loitering burning battery so you know I can go out and and get you know like a dozen different like cool shots you know each one’s a clip on
A single battery um which surprised me knowing you know how small the batteries going in I did buy a second battery just in case but I find that like on an hourlong ride like just stopping you know 10 times to get cool Clips I would still have battery left like it’s just
It’s rarely in the air for more than a minute at a time that’s cool um and what is the retail price on these uh I think it’s 370 um I think so I think on Amazon it was actually something like $470 with a $100 coupon you know you got to like click
The box right which I never understood like if it’s just a clicking a box just yeah apply the yeah but I mean it’s just here you can see it folded up um the other thing is like if you saw in the the video that I did there like the
Minute of Clips it actually um I like reached out and like brushed a palm trees who went by and then the yeah I saw that the leaves came back and hit the Drone oh did but because it’s in uh like protected um prop cards it was fine
Like it just like bumped it and it kept going it was um uh that’s actually the bike review that I used it in so um um but in terms of like you know protection like it comes with its own prop guards so you don’t have to worry about it hitting stuff
Which is my biggest fear with my DJI mini drone I mean I’ve crashed it like four or five times into trees and it’s still working but like one of these days it’s not going to like fly again after the next crash yeah so it actually looked like you knew it was coming like
You try to keep the Palm prawns out of the way yeah but I think I just like slingshotted them into it right right no that’s it’s it’s great footage I just uh like I wonder for snowboarding if this would be a good good tool um because uh you know we’re always trying
To get uh some snowboarding video and the D mini isn’t up to the task for a couple of different reasons yeah that one the only thing I worry about is if it does lose you like you got to go back up the mountain to get it yeah yeah
That’s that is a problem it’s problematic for a couple reasons because like you have to keep looking backwards to make sure it’s still back there and then you know you hit a tree or something it’s just kind of annoying uh so yeah so this one I mean it does have
Its limitations but like for this specific use which is why I think it’s a really cool biking drone it’s just like it’s the perfect thing to take on a bike ride to me yeah maybe we we’ll do a drone DJ uh Deep dive into this thing that’ll be
Cool all right and the last story of this week is uh So speaking of deep Dives um we had a washer washer incident at our home where uh we had a huge leak coming out of our washing machine so um I I immediately went into all right I’m
Going to figure out what’s the next big thing in washer washers and uh a few days later we ended up buying a GE profile and that was uh I think in December and then a few days later at CEO s before our our washer even arrived
Um LG came out with a similar product uh in a lot ways better product um so I decided I was going to Deep dive into these two things so um this is the GE Profile um called Ultra fast and it’s got a you know product name and then the
LG model is called the LG wash combo and they’re both heat pump washer dryer combos so um as you probably know uh overseas like outside of the US um dryers aren’t nearly the same thing as they are in the US in the US the big hulking you know energy sucking heat
Monsters basically and you know outside the US there’s a lot of heat pumps there’s a lot of just line drying um I know a lot of times when we were in France uh we were just hanging up our stuff and that’s just how things were um
But in the US people kind of expect a big uh drop and that works in like an hour um whereas you know the line drying takes overnight at best and then uh they do have uh washer dryer combos overseas that you know often times uh they they’re in the kitchen or they’re
They’re in you know tight spaces uh with no ducting so um you have uh these washer dryer combos that kind of boil uh the Water that’s in your clothes and that kind of ruins your clothes or you know the elastic no longer works in your socks and you walk around with like you
Know the socks around your ankles and it’s just kind of a mess in that scene so recently um you know all over heat pumps are obviously the the big new thing but with the G profile that was uh released in the middle of last year um
Ultra fast um you have a heat pump that uh is built into the washer so that’s kind of a new thing for the US you know full-size washing machine Market um but it it’s also um it it dries the um clothes in a different way rather than
Producing just heat and you know kind of Hope hoping for the best um this is kind of a dehumidifier it’s a heater and a dehumidifier in one so a heat pump kind of separates hot and cold hot and cold air hot and cold water whatever so um
The the dry you know the washer thing happens kind of like normal the heat pump you know may heat the water a little bit better or whatever but the the real magic is in the drying and that’s so so the heat pump um heats up
Uh the the wet clothes and then um the cool side of the heat pump so it it separates the hot and cold the cool side acts as like a condenser so basically it it turns into a dehumidifier inside your washing machine it separates the hot and
The cold so it applies the hot to the to the clothes and then the cold side is basically suck you know condensing uh the water from your clothes onto the the coils in in the uh in the in the washer dryer and this is all happening inside a
Closed circuit so there’s not hot air coming out there’s not cold air coming out it’s all happening inside so what happens is over the period of an hour um you know your clothes are tumbling they’re being heated up but the the water inside the clothes is being condensed against these cold coils and
You know being absorbed and then you know uh just it ends up outside uh you know drain like the water drain that just like you know your soapy water goes so you don’t need ducting which turns out to be a big deal um most people don’t understand like the hot air just
Gets shot outside and that’s all there is but um you know as far as Energy Efficiency is concerned I mean if you live in a a climate where you know you have your screen door open and there’s no HB happening probably not a big deal
That it’s sucking a bunch of air out out your back but um in places like where I live it’s you know it’s 30 degrees outside right now um all that air going out um is going to be replaced by something in the house and that basically is the air outside which is
30° and that’s coming in through cracks in the you know under the door and the windows and through the insulation so basically you’re replacing all the air in your home with cold air from outside and your HVAC system whether it’s you know anything has to
Heat up that air again so not only are you saving a lot of energy uh with the actual heat pump but you’re probably doubling the savings if you live in a cold or Ultra hot place you know the opposite effect with the heating and cooling um you’re you’re saving double
The money there so I kind of figured so let me just go down the 10 10 best list you have Energy Efficiency that’s you know kind of the big overwhelming thing um because of the uh lower energy use you also don’t need a 240 volt outlet and that’s particularly important right
Now because people are replacing their heating and cooling systems with heat pumps people are adding uh electric cars which require 240 volt or you know usually require two Vol volt things in their their garage um those kind of things and and adding space to your um
You know getting a new breaker box or getting a a new wire out to your house often costs $2,000 well that’s just the price of this thing so if you if you’re getting a new car and you have a washer dryer in your um if you’re getting an EV
And you need a plug and your breaker box is full and you have a washer dryer in your garage already you know replace the dryer or you know both of them with this and then you have a a basically a 240 volt plug right in your garage already so it’s it
Makes things a lot easier um so that’s one thing um the duct work thing uh you have to send air out so you have pump there it’s noisy it’s loud um save space Builders can put washer dryers in the middle of a home you can put it in a closet as long
As you have water coming in and out you could if you have a walk-in closet you could have your washing machine dryer in your closet clothes never need to leave the closet unless they’re on you it’s it’s kind of a a magic thing you can use
The thing as a hamper like we do um no longer have to move clothes from washer to dryer that’s kind of a a no-brainer like that’s kind of a pain you know middle of the night you have to switch it over uh ventless means lower home heating cooling cost talked about
That um it’s also General on clothes like you’re not super heating clothes with super dry air um so clothes last longer um they’re also quieter running so you don’t have the air going out of your house that that’s uh noise keep you up at night all that kind of stuff um
The long-term cost savings is is kind of the big deal like obviously these things are pretty pricey at $2,000 to $2500 right now um but that that’s both replaces both units so you’re talking about like replacing $1,000 washer and $1,000 dryer with a $2,000 um dual purpose I think that’s
Not bad but there’s also um you know time of use savings to think about um there’s uh federal state and local rebates in the US uh in Vermont there’s currently a $400 rebate that brings it down $400 and then there’s a $840 federal Ira thing that they haven’t
Figured out yet but it’s going to be there and hopefully it’s retroactive um so tons of tons of benefits and you know these things are even so cool that they have um dispensers so you basically just dump like your fabric softener and your detergent into these reservoirs and then
Based on the size of your load it you know squirts out the proper amount of detergent and fabric softener so I’m just over over the moon with these things I think they’re phenomenal I might even start doing my own no just kidding I I do my own
Watchings so uh downsides uh the uh biggest difference is that uh you basically get cold uh and it feels like it’s wet but it’s not really wet you get cold uh stuff at the end even though you know it used to be fun when you were a
Kid but your mom would just get the hot laundry and like throw it on top of you and you’re like ah this feels great except for the snaps that hot energy wasting uh laundry yeah exactly you get this snaps and the zippers burning a
Hole in your arm but no big deal part of it yeah it’s part of the fun um so yeah the the other thing is like when you when you get the thing out of the it feels a little bit like it’s wet but it’s actually just colder and more humid
And then you you take it out and it’s it’s dry it’s a very weird sensation um the other thing is like if you’re rapid fire doing laundry like you move from the wash to the dryer and you’re basically doing 1 hour cycles of each can’t do that with this if you’re
Going to do that get two of them I guess um it’s quite heavy so I think it’s over 350 or 300 lbs 300 to 350 lbs whereas a normal washer dryer is closer to 200 that’s because it’s got you know a heat bump on top and a washer
Below um so not not a not a lot of uh uh issues there what are your thoughts here I’ve never wanted to nerd out so much about a washer or dryer um but it is fascinating to me and to be honest I it sounds silly but I never realized
Before that yeah when you have a vent pushing all that air out of your house you’re just sucking cold air back into your house yeah or hot air in the summer got to go somewhere right yeah yeah I never really thought about that yeah I hav had a sorry yeah the negative
Pressure thing is is fascinating to me because I mean you if you really want to nerd out like actually it can be problematic if you have uh fiberglass insulation for instance or rock wool um and air is coming through that it’s basically picking up microscopic like uh fiberglass and putting it into your
House you know and you’re breathing so there’s things like that I mean it’s not a huge problem but it’s like it it it kind of spirals into other stuff whereas this is kind of self-contained unit um it doesn’t get hot doesn’t get cold um it uses less
Than a kilowatt hour per wash which is kind of crazy when you think about you know a typical wash is uh anywhere from 3 to 6 kilowatt hours so you’re talking about 1/3 to 1 six of the energy um yeah that was crazy when I read that like I
Couldn’t believe that it was that little amount of power like to put that in perspective you could run that off of like a Juiced ebike battery like you could run a whole wash cycle Drive I know it is crazy and that and that’s kind of like on the high end like a
Typical wash would be like 600 uh Watt hours A rad battery yeah yeah smaller smaller eike battery terms I understand maybe that’s something I should do on the uh the review is run run one off the uh what what was that um the solar one I
Can’t remember oh the um mock wheel yeah the mo wheel uh that’ll be a good uh oh that would be fascinating yeah and the big you know I I talked about it a little but for me it’s actually like real um eliminating a 240 volt Outlet is a big deal in when
Your uh breaker box is full of um Breakers and you know if you want to go to the next level you got to buy a new breaker box and you got to get an electrician out and they got to do all the the work and that’s that’s $22,000
Right there like you could save that money and get a you know wash or dryer uh it’s kind of a Nutty proposition yeah yeah that is wild um it’s it’s funny because it’s something I’ve never thought about because I don’t think I’ve ever had a dryer like since I
Left home like my mom’s dryer was my last dryer but um then again my wife and I are just two people so you know we get by with with the sun if you’re you know know four people with a lot of laundry that that might not work as well we have
A lot less Sun than Israel Florida too so yeah sure thing yeah but you know when I travel I’m pretty used to like hanging stuff and it’s not not weird or anything but you know this this kind of makes it like super easy cuz you put the
Stuff in at night and in the morning there’s clean clothes you know it’s it it’s pretty simple like it’s not folding it yet for us but you know maybe that’s the next uh the next level the next yeah theoretically when I replace this in 12 years it it should be folding
Should be folding and have a little TV built into it yeah exactly anyway uh if you guys are interested in nerding out on that that’s a really long and tedious uh post I did on on the whole heat bump washer dryer scene I think it’s going to
Be a big deal like I think all washer dryers will be like this in a few years um so yeah check it out all right should we move to comments here me get that off the screen all right um Ismail yusf uh nice concept but I would like to see a few
Longer tum reviews I think that’s talking about the propella the no actually I think it was the Disc break thing that was pretty early oh right yeah um oh maybe it was the propeller because it’s 9006 anyway uh yes either of them I want to see uh long-term
Reviews uh a more open concept for holding cargo uh that’s yeah go ahead I was goingon to say I might be propella but that’s not too late which one was that I gotta think it’s the propella perhaps all right maybe we should do these more real time in the future the
Problem is sometimes people are watching the video you know with a lag so that’s right so all right we have a lot of talk about the hover uh drone uh hover err is great only issue for bikes is you can’t ride fast yeah I kind of I brought that
Up that question up um we’ll have to get a I’m sure there’s a spec on the the speed there um keep up the great work the 2K is very crisp videos all right we got another uh thumbs up for the video quality I just looked it up because I
Was curious it’s 15 a half miles hour oh 15 and a half that’s not bad that’s a European ebike spec yeah it explains why I wasn’t losing it because I was really going that fast off road yeah so uh not at all good for snowboarding unless you
You know you’re doing jumps and wiping out a lot and stuff all right uh 3.99 I’m not sure what that was for that’s probably the price of the the Drone okay and then uh well worth it all right that’s pretty much it I think oh we have one one thing Mah take
A look at the wired ebikes and eells festar a lot of Buzz going on I have to add that to the list to look at how close they are all right awesome well thank you everybody for taking part as well as tuning in uh we’ll be excited to see you guys next
Time in another two weeks on the wheelie podcast
This week on Electrek’s Wheel-E podcast, we discuss the most popular news stories from the world of electric bikes and other nontraditional electric vehicles. This time, that includes new e-bike launches from Segway, a new e-motorcycle launch from Horwin, swappable batteries from Yamaha, snow-bike tips, and more. https://electrek.co/?p=346745
Today’s episode is sponsored by Upway, a leading online e-bike provider carrying the broadest selection of brand-new and certified pre-owned models. https://upway.co/pages/electrek1
Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the Wheel-E podcast today:
00:30 This clever kit turns bicycles into electric bikes using their disc brakes
08:05 Propella MINI MAX launched as $899 electric utility bike, finally with a throttle
18:10 Rad Power Bikes announces price reductions across all electric bike models
25:00 Florida woman uses electric bike to hunt 15-foot snakes in the Everglades
33:37 America’s latest electric motorcycle maker ramping production, teases new model
39:30 Non-bike bike gear tested: HoverAir X1 is the cyclists’ drone I’ve been looking for
48:00 LG WashCombo vs. GE Profile heat pump washer-dryers compared, 10 reasons to get either
