Rideables

If you sort Reddit’s r/all page by top posts of all time, the number one spot is held by an old picture of Rick Astley riding a bicycle... posted by Astley himself.

The post got around 439,000 upvotes. As it hit the 250,000 upvote mark, Astley commented, “Wtf 🤣🙏.” Don’t worry, none of these links is a Rick roll. Technically.

Electric bike maker Cowboy is in an intellectual property dispute over the new AdaptivePower feature it released in March via a free software update. Seems the company was originally developing the tech to automatically overcome resistance like wind and hills through a partnership with eBikeLabs before terminating the contract sometime last year. Unsurprisingly, eBikeLabs feels cheated. Coincidence? Decide for yourself after reading TechCrunch’s excellent explainer.

Can somebody teach me how to do this without real-life Ultrahand?

The full-size S4 and smaller X4 (pictured) cost $2,498 / £2,198 / €2,198 and start shipping in August. They arrive after the company said they’d skip the 4-series of e-bikes because the 5-series was such a major advancement.

After reviewing both the S5 and S4, I can tell you that the cheaper and simpler SX4 models built for reliability are the ones most should buy.

It took four years to build, but Amsterdam’s underwater bike shed in front of Central Station is set to open on January 26th with space for 6,300 privately-owned bikes and 700 more spaces for bike-shares. Parking is free for 24 hours, then €1.35 (about $1.46) for each additional day.

The struggling scooter company merged with Bird Canada, an independently owned micromobility business from up north, in a deal that valued it at $64 million. As Oversharing’s Alison Griswold notes, the deal was less of a merger and more of a reverse-takeover.

The big question is whether the proudly Canadian Bird Canada team is right to believe that it can turn Bird Global around and get it to profitability. The merger release says the goal is for Bird to reach adjusted EBITDA profitability on a full year basis in 2023, and presumably for straightforward EBITDA profitability to follow after that. The immediate infusion of $4 million in cash should give Bird Global some breathing room, with more to follow assuming the transaction is completed.

As noted by Oversharing’s Alison Griswold, the scooter sharing company is so strapped for cash that its hounding current and former customers for literal pennies. People are understandably pissed off. Bird, which admitted last month to overstating its revenue for two-plus years, is rapidly running out of cash and may not have enough money to stay in business. Has anyone checked the couch cushions?

47 percent of Europeans surveyed by Shimano now cite cost-of-living as the primary reason to use an e-bike in 2022, compared to 2021 when the primary motivator (39 percent) was avoiding covid on public transport. Government subsidies and increasing environmental concerns are also helping to spur the adoption of e-bikes, which already outsell regular bikes in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Bird issued a “going concern” warning last night, disclosing that it may not have enough money to keep going for another 12 months. The warning came hours after the scooter company admitted to the SEC that it had overstated its revenue for two years and that its financial reports from 2020 and 2021 can “no longer be relied upon,” And its stock price is still trading under $1-per-share, putting Bird at risk of being delisted. What a crummy week for the scooter sharing pioneer.

Cargo bikes can save our cities from the pollution and snarled traffic created by delivery vans, and replace the family car to get the kids to school on time. They can also host a rave.

The Lectric XP 3.0 is a thorough update to the XP 2.0 with improved motor, brakes, and suspension to accommodate a second rider up to 150lbs. Introductory pricing starts at $999, but jumps by $75 for the comfy passenger package, and another $200 if you want the long-range battery. It’ll even accommodate a pet trailer for an extra $170.

52 percent of all new bicycles sold in the Netherlands are now electric, followed by Austria (45%), Germany (43%), Belgium (39%), and Switzerland (38%), with numbers expected to continue to rise, according to Bike Europe. Subsidizing the purchase price has helped spur adoption in some countries like France.