Rivian's TM-B electric bike

Reeks of Juicero.

NFS lock and unlock. GPS locator. Capacitance touchscreen controls. Hydraulic disc brakes.

Companion helmet with wirelessly connected brake lights, and noise cancelling(?!) speakers.

Why do we need to learn the same lessons over and over again?

What? lol

The issue with juicero is that their hardware design was needlessly and insanely over complicated, like magnitudes past anything I’m seeing here - and they DRMd something that didn’t need to be DRMd (juice)

For this bike, those are features people regularly want in e-bikes and cost very little to add - the bike already needs a capable cpu for battery management and acceleration curve controlling.

These are features that people differentiate these pseudo motorcycles on. “We” have learned the lesson.

The helmet is very juicero tho

I wouldn’t lump disk brakes in with the rest of those, maybe the hydraulic part is overkill though.

Having hydraulic disc brakes on a bicycle like this isn't something odd. Tons of regular bicycles have them these days.

The only kind of weird thing I see here is the idea the pedals aren't actually directly connected to the drive train, they just turn a generator.

Hydraulic brakes are great. I have them on two bikes and would certainly buy them again.

The bike cost nowhere near $4500 and certainly doesn't have any "smart" integration other than a holder for my phone, which I added myself for $13.

The $999 Lectric XP4 has hydraulic disc brakes. While uncommon at that price point, it's not unusual to see them on $1500-2k e-bikes.

Hydraulic disc brakes aren't really overkill on an e-bike, it's a safety thing. You really don't want to skimp out on stopping power when your heavy bike has a powerful motor.

> maybe the hydraulic part is overkill though

Not for an e-bike it isn't. In fact, I'd say if you're not rocking hydraulic brakes on an e-bike, you're asking for a bad time. I know that most lower end e-bikes don't come with them standard, but to me, it's a necessary and immediate upgrade for safety.

My ebike has hydraulic disk brakes and a CVT, e bikes have moved forward from the bike-shaped-object era

Non-hydraulic discs suck. You get better braking power out of decent rim brakes.

There's literally thousands of e-bikes with touch screens and it would be unsafe for a bike of this weight to have anything other than hydraulic disc brakes, which are the standard for just about anything that isn't a road bike these days. Locator also pretty common even on $1,000 ebikes.

But yes, other stuff seems to be features for the sake of features.

There's nothing wrong with hydraulic disc brakes on an e-bike, except that hydraulic brakes are hard to maintain yourself without special tools. All e-bikes need disc brakes, period. Any e-bike (or any merely heavy bike) is unsafe without disc brakes. Whether those brakes are mechanical or hydraulic doesn't matter nearly as much as the fact that they use discs.

What does "NFS" stand for in this context?

https://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/NFS

I'm with you on the automatic lock/unlock and full-touch controls, I don't like either of those design choices in cars and I don't want them in a bike either.

That said a GPS locator is great on an e-bike. They're high value theft targets, anything that makes them harder to steal, easier to track, or otherwise reduces the appeal of stealing one is a good thing.

Hydraulic disc brakes are a great thing even on non-electronic bikes. I won't buy another bike without them. My hardtail mountain bike, gravel bike, and e-cruiser are all hydraulic discs.

E-bikes with properly adjusted mechanical disc brakes are perfectly safe, and mechanical brakes are easy to adjust yourself without the need to take them to a bike shop. It's the discs that are important -- not whether they are mechanical or hydraulic.

They've moved on from the 'can maintain/repair it with basic tools' era. Soon they'll be dependent on the cloud and subscription services...

(Kind of amazed that wireless derailleurs became a thing. Replacing a simple mechanical device with complex tech requiring two batteries)

Enviolo CVT? I'm curious about how you like it. I rented a Blue Bike in Boston with a CVT and loved it.

I respectfully disagree. I've owned and ridden several ebikes with mechanical disc brakes. When they're properly adjusted they have just as much stopping power as hydraulics.

ah yes hydraulic disk brakes on like 80lbs bike is exactly like juicero

Hydraulic disc brakes are table stakes for a mountain or gravel bike nowadays. Dual or preferably quad piston calipers on a big rotor make a significant difference when it comes to stopping power.

A touchscreen on a primarily-outdoor device makes no sense to me. It's just a single point of failure for fanciness. Transit safety should be taken more seriously, with controls you can operate by feel, rather than vision. It's not important if lots and lots of companies include this single point of failure.

Edit: also, don't capacitive screens kinda suck if they get a little wet? like what, you just can't use the screen controls while it's raining without risking unlocking your seat 40,000 times in a half second due to a stray raindrop sitting on the screen? Feels like resistive would explicitly be superior here. You probably don't need huge accuracy for what should ideally be a spacious display anyways.

I think they meant NFC (as in Near Field Communication).

conversely hydraulics don't need adjustment

A typo for NFC seems likely.

They mean NFC, I think.

...except when they do. If you get a leak or an air bubble for example and have to flush the system, you'll need a trip to the bike shop.

That’s going to separate force-applied from force-required while riding - a much more comfortable pedal action.

If you put miles on your bike and ride hills, you'll spend way more time fiddling with an allen/torx on the inboard pad or the adjustment barrel on the cable as your pads wear. The bleeding procedure for hydraulics is for sure messier, but still very doable in 5 minutes. When you do have air in the system, pumping the lever a bit gives you back some braking function.

Hydraulic disc brakes are not overkill with a bike of that mass [0] and power. Disc brakes are very common mountain bikes or any type where there is a lot of braking as caliper/rim brakes can overheat and pop the tires, so this unit should definitely have disc brakes. Hydraulic is better than cable/mechanical as hydraulic can generate more braking power, have better feel, and stay in better adjustment. The only downside vs cable+disc is cable is more repairable in the field.

[0] (overall specs indicate a lot of weight, Rivian are not proud enough of any lightweighting to even print the weight, and their autos are also very heavy, indicating a lack of lightweight engineering discipline in that shop which may carry over to their other mobility solutions)

I bought complete hydraulic disc brake set for $40 on Ali Express. Mechanical brakes cannot be much cheaper.

That is what gears are for. The only time gears fail is when you want to pedal harder without going faster - charge the battery. Downhill with a tailwind the cautious can reach this situation, but most just go faster.

gears with a chain is more energy efficient.

Yup, typo and unable to edit the comment now.

NFC, Near Field Communication.

To me this looks like how people who never use a bike imagine a good bike. I am ok with the brakes but the rest just makes the bike more complex and expensive with possible planned obsolescence. I don't want to deal with firmware updates for my bike.