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Rivian's E-Bike Spin-off Is a Pedal‑by‑Wire System That Works Like a Tesla
(www.gadgetreview.com)
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2026
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micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
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This reminds me of another e-bike made by a car company, the Ford Bronco (youtube link). But that one is an entirely different idea - it's an expensive and not very practical mountain bike.
This Rivian one makes me wonder where muscle power from pedaling goes? Is it wasted? Is it all captured as regen? To me biking is a lot about efficient travel, and electric range is important. On a typical e-bike muscle power translates into forward thrust with efficiency somewhere over 95% (based on my vague understanding of bike efficiency). Using pedaling to generate electricity to run a motor will drop that efficiency to something like 30%, I think? That's a number I heard somewhere for regen brake efficiency on cars. And even on a motorized bike muscle power is significant. My 500 W bike advertises motor output "up to four times the power of a human cyclist". That implies that muscle input is over 20% of the total power most of the time, even on a high motor setting.
I guess I'm not the target for this bike. It's probably aimed at people who want to go very fast with no effort. Maybe I should look at it as more of a foot-operated throttle than pedals.