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Comment by tantalor | Hacker News Reader

Fitting all that (battery, motor, controller, voltage converter, charger) into a small package is pretty impressive.

Mid-drives are certainly superior to hub-drives, so that's another plus.

Can it pedal assist? i.e. only kick on when pedaling. That's often a legal requirement.

Doesn't mention cost, weight, or battery capacity.

I'm assuming most of the parts beyond the aluminum chassis are off the shelf. It would be a nice thing to open source, or at least sell the plans so anybody* can build.

* with access to a machine shop

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In the video it appears to be only throttle controlled. I have no idea what kind of e-bike regulations India has, but I wouldn't be surprised if the answer is "effectively none". Hopefully they won't make the same mistake many other countries did with the pointlessly complicated class system for e-bikes.

> Can it pedal assist? i.e. only kick on when pedaling.

Looks like it drives the chain, so unless you have a freewheeling front hub pedaling may not be optional.

I was confused about that. It looks like it drives the chain, but then in the video after installing it or while riding it he's not pedaling.

But then when watching closely, I can see there's a cut in the video between the device being placed on the frame and him testing it and in the cut the entire bottom bracket has been replaced and the chain is now making a different path through the machine, so I assume the bottom bracket needs to also have a freewheel to make it work, plus you'll need a new chain (or to join a couple of chains) to make it fit.

The video is a bit strange: https://youtu.be/SFsnS0Yb1Bs?feature=shared&t=96 It appears to show the front sprocket spinning, but the pedals stationary.

I assume this is a "freewheel crank" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_freewheel

It does say a 40km range, but ebike range estimates are often highly optimistic.

I converted my bike, do 36km per day and still have 40% left after that.

> Mid-drives are certainly superior to hub-drives, so that's another plus.

can you explain the difference for someone who never heard of either?

Mid-drives apply power at the pedal and therefore go through gears, and therefore can go up steeper hills for the power.

Hub drives apply power at the wheel hubs. They are cheaper and smoother (no backlash), so depending on application hub motors may be superior.

Personally I like help up all the hills so mid-drive all the way.

Agree, they each have benefits. I broke a chain with my mid drive in winter and really wished I had the redundancy of a hub motor. Also, many many bikes cannot easily fit a mid drive retrofit though I think the diy community isn't as large these days given the variety of ebikes available

Their website says it's about $162

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