A few months ago a friend fell off the wagon and was drunkenly riding his electric bike around town, and called in distress. I picked him up, and put his electric bike on my bike rack. I could barely lift it onto the bike rack, and on the ride home, I took a speed bump and it broke my bike rack. I live on a second floor, and ended up having to leave his bike in the stairwell. I would never use his bike because it was so unwieldy.

I absolutely see a use case for a motorized bike that weighs 26 lbs, and it’s the use case they lay out in their ad copy: it widens the accessibility of electric bikes. Maybe the tech costs too much, and that will hose the project, but the value prop is crystal clear to me.

> Perhaps there’s a market for people who want an ebike that’s a little easier to get up apartment stairs?

A detachable battery might also help with this.

The battery on my bike is perhaps 2 kg with the bike in total perhaps 26 ish. Removing the battery does not help except for hosing down a dirty bike or preventing theft of the battery.

In Europe a lot of the Bosch/Yamaha bikes have the so-called 'walk mode', where you hold down a button and the bike powers itself up whatever slope at walking pace.

For some reason I understand this mode is illegal in the US, but it makes all the difference over here - especially when going up stairs (or other 45 degree slopes).

My specialized has a walk mode. Not illegal in the states

My RadWagon has a walk mode, I'm pretty big though so never needed to use it.

If anything USA ebike laws are the most lenient in the world

Or an aluminum frame that can deal with being banged around a little.

Your partner might not like what that does to the apartment walls.

If my partner leaves, there's more room for bikes!