{"id":40411,"date":"2025-12-09T10:51:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T10:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/a-rivian-spin-off-is-betting-305-million-on-e-bikes-i-rode-it-around-new-york-city-and-it-felt-natural-and-powerful\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T10:51:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T10:51:23","slug":"a-rivian-spin-off-is-betting-305-million-on-e-bikes-i-rode-it-around-new-york-city-and-it-felt-natural-and-powerful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/a-rivian-spin-off-is-betting-305-million-on-e-bikes-i-rode-it-around-new-york-city-and-it-felt-natural-and-powerful\/","title":{"rendered":"A Rivian spin-off is betting $305 million on e-bikes. I rode it around New York City, and it felt natural &mdash; and powerful."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69335d8104d0f0a114f18bb7?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Two men in warm clothing are seen from the side and behind riding e-bikes in New York City traffic, alongside a school bus and a car.\"\/><figcaption>The TM-B fit me well, and turning the pedals felt like it did on a normal bike.<\/p>\n<p>Erica Domena \/ Business Insider<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Also, a Rivian spin-off, thinks the time is right for e-bikes.<\/li>\n<li>I rode its new $4,500 TM-B model around Manhattan. It could rip like a motorbike and give you a workout.<\/li>\n<li>The company&#039;s director of product believes in &quot;bikes as transportation,&quot; not just toys. It shows.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Many Americans view cars as a necessity. But for me, and millions of other people, bikes are how we get where we need to go.<\/p>\n<p>My steel Fuji road bike is like another limb. I use it to get to work, grab groceries, and pedal to see my friends. I can haul it onto the subway if I get tired, or if the weather takes a surprise turn for the worse. It&#039;s cheap to maintain, and I can use it in place of a gym membership.<\/p>\n<p>In New York City, where I live, e-bikes \u2014 the road bike&#039;s zoomier cousin \u2014 are everywhere. They&#039;re not just popular with the 135,000 members of Citibike, our city&#039;s bike-share program; businesses have also embraced them. Many delivery workers use e-bikes to avoid our city&#039;s awful traffic snarls, and giants like Amazon use them to drop off packages and reduce emissions.<\/p>\n<p>So when one of my colleagues told me they&#039;d been getting emails from Also, a new e-bike company, I couldn&#039;t resist hopping in the saddle. I&#039;ve been thinking about buying an e-bike, and the emails said Also&#039;s bike, the TM-B, had some unique features. The fact that it had been spun out of Rivian, a $21 billion electric vehicle company, intrigued me.<\/p>\n<p>Rivian has retained a minority stake in Also \u2014 as in, &quot;you can drive a car, and you can also ride a bike.&quot; Also uses the same battery cells as Rivian&#039;s autos, and takes inspiration from the carmaker&#039;s drive for simplicity. While many e-bikes are manufactured by traditional bike makers, Also sticks exclusively with electric-powered products. It has raised $305 million, according to Pitchbook.<\/p>\n<p>Just before Thanksgiving, I met up with Saul Leiken, Also&#039;s director of product, to learn about the new $4,500 TM-B and take it for a spin around Manhattan&#039;s Chelsea neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>I came away surprised at how flexible it was, and thinking it could be a good add-on \u2014 or primary method of transportation \u2014 for many households across the US.<\/p>\n<h2>Like an electric car, it&#039;s highly computerized<\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/6933596171107c9f3457792a?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A bike rider&#039;s view of the Also TM-B handlebars and controls. A hand is on the right grip, and a New York City street and the green paint of a bike lane are visible below.\"\/><figcaption>The TM-B&#039;s handlebars and controls.<\/p>\n<p>Jack Newsham \/ Business Insider<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>All e-bikes are complex pieces of machinery compared to normal bikes. In pedal-assist modes \u2014 when the motor only kicks in when you turn the pedals \u2014 the bike needs some way to process and interpret how hard you&#039;re pedaling to decide how much to help you. Those sensors need to be able to &quot;talk&quot; to the motor.<\/p>\n<p>The TM-B, which stands for &quot;Transcendant Mobility Bike,&quot; operates on an entirely different level from your typical e-bike. The pedals don&#039;t connect to a chain; they power a generator and provide input to a computer system that tells the motor how much juice to give the bike, a system the company calls &quot;DreamRide.&quot; If there are updates, they&#039;ll be delivered over-the-air, like with your smartphone \u2014 or, increasingly, your car.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Everything&#039;s software-defined,&quot; said Leiken, who also joined me on a test ride.<\/p>\n<p>It struck me how digitized everyday transportation is becoming. Even gas-burning cars don&#039;t have direct, mechanical links between the steering wheel and the wheels or even the gas pedal and the engine. It&#039;s all digital, or &quot;drive by wire.&quot; That makes the TM-B &quot;pedal by wire.&quot;<\/p>\n<h2>Riding felt natural<\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/693731e604d0f0a114f19ccd?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Two men seen from behind riding e-bikes in New York City traffic.\"\/><figcaption>I started riding in pedal-assist mode. It felt&#8230; normal.<\/p>\n<p>Erica Domena\/Business Insider<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I started out riding the TM-B in &quot;All Purpose&quot; mode. I relied on pedal assist, and I changed the levels by tapping a small screen at the top of the bike&#039;s head tube. It didn&#039;t feel like I was giving instructions to a computer; it felt like I was pedaling.<\/p>\n<p>The part of Manhattan we were riding in was pretty flat, and it was a somewhat chilly day. Even if I&#039;d been using a normal bike, I probably would not have broken a sweat. But the assist from the DreamRide would be welcome on a warmer day, and I could see it propelling me over the Manhattan Bridge if I wanted to get to Brooklyn without much effort.<\/p>\n<p>Later on, we tried the TM-B&#039;s &quot;Sport&quot; mode, which approximates the experience of a standard, geared bicycle. There&#039;s no chain to clank around to let you know you&#039;ve switched gears, but there is haptic feedback, just like on your smartphone, that courses through the pedals.<\/p>\n<h2>The bike is speedy, but compliant<\/h2>\n<p>State and local e-bike regulations are evolving, but in most states, there are three classes of e-bike, and the TM-B is what&#039;s called a &quot;Class 3&quot; e-bike, capable of hitting speeds up to 28 miles per hour. That&#039;s about as fast as a car will ever go in most places in New York City, except for a highway or a boulevard in one of the outer boroughs \u2014 in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n<p>I inched toward that top speed at a couple of points during our 30-minute ride. Once, early on, I cranked the pedal-assist level to its max. I was only going in the mid-20s, but still beating traffic because bikes are simply more nimble than cars, until we hit a red light.<\/p>\n<p>Later, when we were going west along a large block, I remembered to hit the throttle \u2014 a little orange button near my right thumb designed to take me up to 20 miles per hour.<\/p>\n<p>It gave me a real rush; it felt almost like riding a motorbike, which I hadn&#039;t done in years. At the same time, I knew I had to be attentive, for my own safety and that of others.<\/p>\n<h2>The e-bike business is competitive<\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69372c3371107c9f345789c2?format=jpeg\" alt=\"e-bike rider in nyc\"\/><figcaption>\n<p>Leonardo Munoz\/VIEWpress via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Nationwide, estimated e-bike sales are between 1 million and 2 million a year. It&#039;s hard to be precise, partly because the market has so many players, and partly because customs data is incomplete and lumps e-bikes into a larger category of imports, according to eCycle Electric, a consulting firm. What&#039;s clear is that it&#039;s growing: eCycle predicts that sales will grow 14% to 25% per year until 2030.<\/p>\n<p>Some e-bike companies have run into trouble. Recently, Techcrunch reported that Rad Power Bikes, which says it has 680,000 customers, could run out of money by January 2026. VanMoof, a Dutch e-bike brand whose sleek rides stood apart from competitors with chunky batteries and conspicuous wiring, went bankrupt in 2023, and its new owners are trying to reestablish themselves.<\/p>\n<p>When I asked Leiken about this, he said Also&#039;s timing was better \u2014 some e-bike companies built too much during the pandemic and were desperate to unload inventory afterward \u2014 and its business model is less reliant on partners. The bike&#039;s adaptability struck me as a potential selling point, too: It can ride on roads, rutted streets, and trails, and can be used for a workout or a quick errand.<\/p>\n<h2>Also is iterating and developing new products<\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69335e457ecd1d1da663113a?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A black bike helmet floating on a black background with yellow beams projecting from two lights.\"\/><figcaption>Also&#039;s bike helmet, the Alpha Wave, has lots of cutting-edge features.<\/p>\n<p>Also<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Some things about the bike weren&#039;t final. The bell is digital, emitted by a speaker, and Leiken told me they were considering tweaking the tone and modifying it so that, if you hit it hard, it would sound like a car horn. It reminded me of how electric car manufacturers have created custom sounds to alert pedestrians at low speeds, as required by federal regulations.<\/p>\n<p>Also has also rolled out a helmet, called the Alpha Wave. It has built-in front and rear lights meant to catch drivers&#039; attention, speakers, and a noise-cancelling mic. While simple bike helmets provide some degree of protection in case of a collision, Also&#039;s helmet has a new technology called the Release Layer System that&#039;s meant to reduce the risk of traumatic brain injury.<\/p>\n<h2>The bike&#039;s flexibility means a lot of people could love it<\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/6937310b71107c9f34578a97?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A woman wearing black clothes and a bike helmet secures a child in a seat strapped to the back of an Also e-bike that is parked on a sidewalk in front of a brick wall. The scene is sunny and they are in the shade of a tree.\"\/><figcaption>\n<p>Also<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There&#039;s a learning curve to bike ownership, and Also seems focused on flattening that curve.<\/p>\n<p>While I didn&#039;t have the controls down pat in a roughly 30-minute ride, I felt completely safe the whole time, and I&#039;m sure I would&#039;ve gotten the hang of it in another hour. For a novice rider, it might take longer, and it would be smart to start in a park or a parking lot before mixing with traffic.<\/p>\n<p>One of the more intriguing aspects of the bike was its swappable &quot;top frames.&quot; With a couple of taps, you can replace the seat with one for a much larger or much smaller rider. You can also swap in a roomier bench seat, or a seat with a utility rack to schlep cargo or a kid. It slots in like a ski boot, with a mechanical lock and an electrical connection to power the back lights on the bike. I&#039;m not aware of any e-bikes with a similar feature.<\/p>\n<p>The point of the TM-B wasn&#039;t just to create a fun ride, Leiken said. It was to further the idea of &quot;bikes as transportation&quot; \u2014 as something that can actually replace a car for local trips. While $3,500 is nothing to sneeze at, Leiken said the company wanted to bring a &quot;super-premium feature set and experience&quot; to riders. He said bikes with similar features are usually more like $8,000. Besides, a used car will set you back $25,000 on average, and an average new car is $50,000.<\/p>\n<p>I&#039;ve long thought that e-bikes are generally good to have in society, and that they could replace a great deal of car trips. I&#039;ve occasionally mulled buying one, but I feel like, as a fit person in my 30s, it might be overkill.<\/p>\n<p>The TM-B didn&#039;t radically change my mind. I&#039;m still undecided on buying an e-bike \u2014 I really love my Fuji road bike \u2014 but it could be good for someone who wants an e-bike that can do it all. It&#039;s a flexible workhorse, and given how pricey cars are getting, I think a lot of people could justify the price tag.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The TM-B fit me well, and turning the pedals felt like it did on a normal bike. Erica Domena \/ Business Insider Also, a Rivian spin-off, thinks the time is right for e-bikes. I rode its new $4,500 TM-B model around Manhattan. It could rip like a motorbike and give you a workout. The company&#039;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-40411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}