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Bike Manufacturers Are Making Bikes Less Repairable

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207 points LorenDB | 7 comments | 14 Oct 24 19:27 UTC | HN request time: 0.407s | source | bottom
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oulipo ◴[14 Oct 24 20:15 UTC] No.41841449[source]▶
Founder of Gouach, the repairable (and fireproof!) e-bike battery mentioned in the article, happy to answer any question!

- we salvaged 100s of discarded e-bike batteries

- we found that 90% of components were like new

- batteries were thrown away because of the spot-welding and the glue which prevents repairability

- we spent 2 years (and 5 patents) to design a robust, safe, and easy to assemble system that requires nothing but a screwdriver

Our batteries have been in use since 2 years in the streets of France, on micro-mobility e-bikes, in the harshest possible conditions (rain, snow, cold, heat, shocks), and we're very happy with their performances!

We're now opening it to the general public (for conversion kits, and to replace old batteries that are no longer manufactured)

We plan to open-source at least part of the embedded software, so people can write extensions (to let their battery "talk" with any e-bike system, and share it — using WASM embeddable code — to other people on the web!)

Let's fight planned obsolescence!

(and if you're looking for a new battery, there's 25% off on https://get.gouach.com)

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bsimpson ◴[14 Oct 24 20:30 UTC] No.41841624[source]▶
That's awesome!

Minor grammar tip - saying "since 2 years" is a tell that you're a non-native speaker. It's a common mistake that most people will understand, but the correct phrasing is "for 2 years."

I'm sure this is a pitch you practice a lot, so I wanted to help for next time.

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1. oulipo ◴[14 Oct 24 20:31 UTC] No.41841637[source]▶
Thank you!! Appreciated :)
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2. rodgerd ◴[14 Oct 24 20:59 UTC] No.41841928[source]▶
Meanwhile, English speakers are trying to get the hang of depuis/pendant...
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3. wlesieutre ◴[14 Oct 24 21:17 UTC] No.41842123[source]▶
Alternately, “since two years ago” works too.

“Since” goes with a particular moment in time (rather than an amount of time) to refer to the period between that time and now, like an old restaurant saying “making pizza since 1922” or for recent events like “since yesterday.”

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4. ◴[14 Oct 24 23:03 UTC] No.41843123[source]▶
5. mrkstu ◴[15 Oct 24 00:06 UTC] No.41843577[source]▶
'Since two years ago' is still awkward. Generally a native speaker would choose the phrasing 'for the last two years.'

The other two examples work, though 'since yesterday' is still slightly forced unless its an answer to a direct question.

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6. tharkun__ ◴[15 Oct 24 01:11 UTC] No.41843947[source]▶
And French teachers scream at students: "h muet!!!!1onze" and then turn around and say things like "I ate you!" and I want to scream: "h non muet in English you little..."

So what's your point exactly?

7. ◴[15 Oct 24 02:24 UTC] No.41844328{3}[source]▶