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Speaker 1: Technology with tech Stuff from dot com. Hey there, everyone,

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Speaker 1: welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland, executive

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Speaker 1: producer here at how Stuff Works dot com, and of

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Speaker 1: course I love everything technological and today I have a

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Speaker 1: special treat for you guys, because we have a guest

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Speaker 1: here inside the studio. It's not someone over the phone,

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Speaker 1: and someone I can actually look at in person. In fact,

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Speaker 1: he's a very good friend of mine because he let

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Speaker 1: me ride on his bicycle. Ryan Hirsch, Welcome to the show.

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Speaker 1: What's up guys? Honored and obliged to be here. It's great. Yes, yes,

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Speaker 1: we uh, we made sure that there was a direct

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Speaker 1: obligation for him to appear on tech Stuff. So Ryan,

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Speaker 1: you you've the founder of Edison Bikes, and Edison Bikes

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Speaker 1: is located right here in Atlanta, and uh, you were

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Speaker 1: very generous with your time and you brought some of

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Speaker 1: the Edison bikes here the office. Uh. Multiple people here

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Speaker 1: at hell Stuff Works have had a chance to write

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Speaker 1: it as in bikes are electric bikes, pedal assist bikes,

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Speaker 1: which I've talked about a couple of times on tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: But it's so great to actually have someone who developed

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Speaker 1: one of these right here, so we can even talk

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Speaker 1: about what that process was like from the point where

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Speaker 1: you thought of it to the point where you started

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Speaker 1: kind of just getting your hands dirty and work shopping

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Speaker 1: this to getting to an actual shippable product, something where

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Speaker 1: you can actually put it together. People can order it

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Speaker 1: by it right it you see them around Atlanta. So

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Speaker 1: we're gonna go all through that journey. But before we

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Speaker 1: jump into your personal story, I thought, in order for

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Speaker 1: people to really kind of understand, uh, some of the

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Speaker 1: things that inspired you to do this, it's good to

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Speaker 1: sort of talk about the city. We live in Atlanta. Now,

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Speaker 1: this podcast goes all over the world, and there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of cities out there that are similar to Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: I would say Atlanta is like cities like Houston, Texas,

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Speaker 1: where tipically, the way people get around is by car.

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Speaker 1: It's slowly changing in Atlanta. We're starting to see more

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Speaker 1: pedestrian walkways. We're starting to see more bike lanes, which

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Speaker 1: is fantastic, But traditionally cars were the way the way

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Speaker 1: of the world. For places like Atlanta. You just public

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Speaker 1: transportation while it exists, it just cannot measure up to

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Speaker 1: cities like New York or Chicago. Right, So that means

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Speaker 1: that we've live in a in a city that has

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Speaker 1: been plagued by traffic problems. We're constantly in that top

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Speaker 1: ten in the United States for worst traffic cities. And

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Speaker 1: so seeing a that as the backdrop, we're in this

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Speaker 1: world where a commute is easily forty minutes or more,

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Speaker 1: even if you're living relatively close to where you need

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Speaker 1: to go. Uh, that gives a very strong impetus to

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Speaker 1: come up with alternative solutions. And as I understand it,

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Speaker 1: that's kind of where your story begins ends. Right, absolutely,

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Speaker 1: absolutely nailed at, Jonathan. And it's it's a little bit embarrassing,

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Speaker 1: right that we're always on the top ten for worst traffic. However,

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Speaker 1: when you look at our population, we don't have that

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Speaker 1: many people, right, it's the five point five million people. Uh,

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Speaker 1: and we're being compared to cities that are, you know,

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Speaker 1: almost ten times our size. It's like, what in the

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Speaker 1: world are we doing wrong? Right? Yeah? And and I

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Speaker 1: mean yeah, the solutions tend to be We've seen it

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Speaker 1: over and over, let's build more roads or let's make

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Speaker 1: the roads more wide, and that just doesn't that's that's

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Speaker 1: just not how the world works like if you make

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Speaker 1: a here's the secret. If you add more lanes to

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Speaker 1: a road, what you have just done is just added

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Speaker 1: more cars to that road. At that one time. It

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Speaker 1: feels like you're increasing capacity, but it just means that

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Speaker 1: there's just more cars there during rush hour. It really

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Speaker 1: doesn't seem to help. The best way to get rid

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Speaker 1: of traffic is to remove the need for using cars

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Speaker 1: in the first place. So the more you can reduce

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Speaker 1: that need by giving alternatives, the smoother everything is. It's

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Speaker 1: not just the people who are actually using the alternative

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Speaker 1: forms of transportation, for the people who are still clinging

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Speaker 1: to dear life to their cars. There are fewer cars

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Speaker 1: on the road. Absolutely. So you were you were tell

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Speaker 1: me the story about why you started thinking about going

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Speaker 1: with this route, this sort of electric bike pedal assist route.

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Speaker 1: So back in I took a job with Emery and

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Speaker 1: uh I was living O t P at the time,

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Speaker 1: which is a dirty, dirty word. Yeah, that means outside

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Speaker 1: the perimeter. For all of you folks who are not

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Speaker 1: in Atlanta, there is a highway called two eight five

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Speaker 1: and it's circles. Uh, not just the city of Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: but some of the little surrounding areas like Decatur, and well,

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Speaker 1: I could go on forever, localizing this podcast and alienating

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Speaker 1: all of my listeners who don't live in the A

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Speaker 1: t L. Yeah, but no, it's no, no, it's important

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Speaker 1: for this story. Uh. There is also not that it's

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Speaker 1: directly related to this somewhat of a stigma for those

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Speaker 1: of us who live inside the perimeter or I t

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Speaker 1: P and those who live outside the perimeter or O

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Speaker 1: t P. There's some snooty nous involved. And I admit,

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Speaker 1: though I was born O t P, now that I'm

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Speaker 1: an I t P person, I have been known to

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Speaker 1: be snooty. So you were living O t P. So

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Speaker 1: I was living an ot P. I took a job

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Speaker 1: at Emery and the commute was like twenty two miles

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Speaker 1: at the time, and it was just impossible by the car.

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Speaker 1: If you're O t P, it's impossible to get an

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Speaker 1: I t P. So um, So I did what anyone

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Speaker 1: would do. I moved closer to work, and I moved

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Speaker 1: to a cool little neighborhood called Kirkwood. It's about four

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Speaker 1: miles south of where I worked, and believe it or not,

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Speaker 1: my commute times were still just about exactly the same.

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Speaker 1: It was taking me an hour to get to my desk.

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Speaker 1: And this is ridiculous because it's like, it's only four miles, right,

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Speaker 1: I could I could pretty much walk that speed, right,

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Speaker 1: But by the time I found a parking space, fought

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Speaker 1: for that space, paid twelve bucks a day for that space,

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Speaker 1: it was still taking me the same amount of time.

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Speaker 1: So that involved in uh, evolved into riding a normal

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Speaker 1: pedal bicycle, which I would call an analog bicycle. Yeah. Um,

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Speaker 1: and my commute time dropped from an hour down to

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Speaker 1: twenty minutes. And that was great. But frequently I have

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Speaker 1: to give presentations and stuff, I have to wear a tie,

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Speaker 1: and uh, I would you know, on a day like today,

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Speaker 1: even in October it's super hot outside, I would show

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Speaker 1: up sweaty, and a sweaty guy wearing a tie is

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Speaker 1: like the worst thing ever, right, You're immediately immediately everyone's like,

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Speaker 1: this guy is not confident, he doesn't know what he's

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Speaker 1: talking about. He's sweating it too much. Very I'm a sweater,

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Speaker 1: he's got something to hide this. We're gonna we're gonna

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Speaker 1: nail this guy to the wall with our questions. So

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Speaker 1: Atlanta is a very I mean we're in the southeast.

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Speaker 1: Our climate, especially like late spring all the way into

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Speaker 1: late fall, you can get really high temperatures, really high humidity.

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Speaker 1: I've I've experienced I walked to and from work, and

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Speaker 1: I've experienced the same issue where by the time I

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Speaker 1: get to the office, I have to have a change

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Speaker 1: of clothes with me because otherwise I'm just roast. Yeah. So, uh,

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Speaker 1: I'm now riding my bike to work getting sweaty. Quick

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Speaker 1: Google search, it turns out that electric bikes is a

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Speaker 1: thing because I I loved, you know, being liberated from traffic,

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Speaker 1: but now there's this new set of challenges showing showing

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Speaker 1: up to work sweaty. Now I gotta find showers, all

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Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. So electric bikes was a thing

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Speaker 1: back in twelve and um, you know, looking back on

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Speaker 1: on bikes back then, Um, they were always like a

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Speaker 1: standard bicycle frame that was outfitted with three components. You've

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Speaker 1: got three components to an electric bike. You have a battery,

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Speaker 1: a motor, and a controller. And we can geek out

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Speaker 1: about those later, but um, you know, so you have

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Speaker 1: a bike and you could clearly see those three components

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Speaker 1: connected to the bike, and the result was not very pretty,

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Speaker 1: um uh. And I actually test road a bike at

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Speaker 1: a shop, and I fell in love with the feeling

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Speaker 1: of riding a bike. It's it's addicting, it's empowering, and um,

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Speaker 1: I didn't care how the bike looked. It fixed my problem, right.

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Speaker 1: So I get back from this test ride only to

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Speaker 1: learn that that bike that I was riding was Bucks.

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Speaker 1: And I've always been like a tinker throughout school. I

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Speaker 1: was that guy that could fix your router or I

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Speaker 1: could fix your boat like I just love taking things

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Speaker 1: apart and making them better. So after that test ride

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Speaker 1: and really being discouraged by the price tag, I was like,

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Speaker 1: I know, one, I can build something that's better looking

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Speaker 1: than this bike, but two, and definitely more importantly, I

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Speaker 1: knew that I could build something that was more affordable.

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Speaker 1: So that's exactly what I did. Fast forward about six months,

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Speaker 1: and I didn't really achieve the better looking part. I

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Speaker 1: had imported a bike from Canada bicycle like um you know,

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Speaker 1: standard fixie frame, and I outfitted it with those three

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Speaker 1: components that I was telling you about. And it wasn't pretty,

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Speaker 1: but boy didn't work great, and um people started to notice,

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Speaker 1: right I'm showing up to where early, Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm in a better mood because I'm not sitting behind

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Speaker 1: the wheel. And uh, I was more than obliged to

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Speaker 1: start building bikes, you know, for my coworkers, colleagues, friends, family,

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Speaker 1: and you know that's when like the little light went off, right.

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Speaker 1: I started getting feedback from these people that I had

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Speaker 1: built bikes for, and uh, it was just it was

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Speaker 1: really encouraging, right, I mean it was something that was

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Speaker 1: born out of pure selfish needs. I was just trying

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Speaker 1: to fix the problem that I have, and now all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden, I'm fixing problems for for all these folks.

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Speaker 1: And um, a few months after that, I'm looking at

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Speaker 1: my iPhone and I get inspired by it because like

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Speaker 1: I've always just been like a clean lines kind of guy,

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Speaker 1: and um, you know, when you look at an iPhone,

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Speaker 1: it's just it's a beautiful product. Apple Apples nothing if

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Speaker 1: not amazing with their aesthetics. There they are and even

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Speaker 1: if you open one up, it's like it's like opening

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Speaker 1: the hood of a catillact. Just everything is so tightly

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Speaker 1: tightly packed. Everything fits precisely, like there's not, uh, not

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Speaker 1: a millimeter of spare space. It's all very neat how

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Speaker 1: it all fits exactly. So I was like totally inspired

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Speaker 1: by that. I was like, all the electrical bits that

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Speaker 1: make this thing work are inside of the product itself.

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Speaker 1: That's what I want to do with a bike because

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Speaker 1: I'm not seeing that. Uh. So that's exactly what we did. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Instead of starting with a bicycle frame, we started with

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Speaker 1: those components. We started with the battery pack, which is

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Speaker 1: forty They're called eighteen six fifty battery cells about the

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Speaker 1: size of your index finger, and our packs have forty

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Speaker 1: of those in them. And then on top of that,

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Speaker 1: we have a controller, and we wanted to design a

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Speaker 1: frame that would accommodate UM those two key components. Those

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Speaker 1: are also some of the most expensive components, right, so

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Speaker 1: by uh integrating them inside of the product, you're protecting

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Speaker 1: it from crashes, from the elements from a pack of wolves.

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Speaker 1: You know. Like however, right, it's all the expensive stuff

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Speaker 1: is inside the frame. Uh. And then that third component,

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Speaker 1: which is the motor, is actually sealed. It has a

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Speaker 1: waterproof ratings, so it will work underwater. Um because it's

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Speaker 1: totally sealed, that means that it's self lubricating. Uh. They

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Speaker 1: rated at fifty miles without needing any kind of service.

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Speaker 1: So we really spent money on the parts that make

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Speaker 1: these bikes electric because we figure if you're buying an

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Speaker 1: electric bike, you're gonna be using them pretty hardcore. Um.

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Speaker 1: So then, uh, speaking of money, UM, we're trying to

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Speaker 1: make these things affordable. Right, that was like the biggest

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Speaker 1: barrier for me. Right, I found a solution, but I

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Speaker 1: can't afford it. And um, you know this isn't this

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Speaker 1: isn't a toy. This isn't uh for someone you know

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Speaker 1: that's just gonna park this next to their tesla and

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Speaker 1: their garage. And you know, like this is for the

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Speaker 1: guy who, um, he has two jobs and he's got

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Speaker 1: a twenty five year old car that he can't afford

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Speaker 1: to keep running. And all of a sudden, this becomes

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Speaker 1: a more viable means of transport. We're spending less than

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Speaker 1: two thousand dollars on a bike, and um, you know

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Speaker 1: that's you don't have. It costs ten cents to charge

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Speaker 1: one of these things, right. You get twenty to thirty

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Speaker 1: miles on a single charge. So you talked about half

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Speaker 1: of any per mile. You don't have to ensure it. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know you don't have to pump it full of gas.

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Speaker 1: You don't really have like maintenance and oil changes and

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Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. Um. So if we could

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Speaker 1: actually get people to like pull the plug on on

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Speaker 1: their cars, right, that frees up a lot of funds, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, for uber and left on those rainy days. Right. So,

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Speaker 1: and like that's we're all about. Like if we were

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Speaker 1: really honest with ourselves on how much money we spend

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Speaker 1: on car ownership, uh, speaking of which Georgia actually leads

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Speaker 1: the nation um in cost of ownership on cars. Uh,

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Speaker 1: then we can really like start to um you know,

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Speaker 1: see transportation in a new light. Absolutely so. And this

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Speaker 1: is a ripple effect. I talk about ripple effects all

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Speaker 1: the time on this show, about how a change in

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Speaker 1: one area ends up having further effects out from that

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Speaker 1: immediate source. So, for example, you talked about how this

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Speaker 1: was originally a personal project for you. You were literally

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Speaker 1: trying to solve your own issue of getting to work

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Speaker 1: not being all sweaty, you know, not having to deal

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Speaker 1: with traffic the way you had been doing, uh with

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Speaker 1: classic engineering issue. Right, You you have a problem, you

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Speaker 1: start asking yourself what does it take to solve this problem?

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Speaker 1: You then go forward the steps to solve that problem.

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Speaker 1: You test it, you throw out anything that doesn't work,

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Speaker 1: you keep everything that does work. And then from there

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Speaker 1: you say, all right, here's here's mark one. If we're

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Speaker 1: gonna use like Iron Man suit technology, so mark one

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Speaker 1: right here. It's like, it's not the finished product, but

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Speaker 1: this is the thing that does what I needed to do.

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Speaker 1: Then you have your classic second step, which is that

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Speaker 1: other people take notice. This, by the way, reminds me

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Speaker 1: your story is remarkably similar to the story of the

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Speaker 1: guys who founded the PC gaming company alien Ware. Now

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Speaker 1: they build like those crazy gaming rigs that cost a

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Speaker 1: couple of thousand dollars, and they when I had them

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Speaker 1: on the show, it was the same thing. It was

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Speaker 1: people who were they were building these rigs in the

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Speaker 1: nine indies when all these crazy graphics cards are coming out,

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Speaker 1: and it just was difficult to build a system that

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Speaker 1: could run the brand new games, the ones that were

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Speaker 1: just coming out with three D graphics. It was hard

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Speaker 1: to do that because there were just so much, so much,

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Speaker 1: so many different products on the market and it was

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Speaker 1: very confusing. So what they did was they built one

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Speaker 1: for themselves and then they had all their friends say, hey,

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Speaker 1: what if I if I paid you, would you be

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Speaker 1: able to build one for me? And it became a

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Speaker 1: little boutique industry which eventually grew into what it is today.

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Speaker 1: So you're and you're you're talking about the hacker ethos,

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Speaker 1: the idea of taking things apart and then seeing how

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Speaker 1: they work and then make it work better than it

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Speaker 1: did before. I mean, that's totally a hacker thing. That

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Speaker 1: is hacking. So, like you're talking the language of tech

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Speaker 1: stuff all throughout this already. The ripple effect I wanted

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Speaker 1: to talk about is how you get to the point

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Speaker 1: where for personal savings point of view, uh, it becomes

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Speaker 1: clear if you're able to say, like, this is actually

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Speaker 1: a replacement uh in and many of the use of

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Speaker 1: where you would rely upon your vehicle, this could be

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Speaker 1: a replacement for that for the majority of those. Uh.

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Speaker 1: You know, obviously some things being outside of that, if

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Speaker 1: you're taking like a long road trip or whatever, those

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Speaker 1: are obviously outside of it. But for daily commutes, it's

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Speaker 1: it's easy to say, all right, this is a transportation solution.

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Speaker 1: This isn't just recreation, right, This isn't just I've got

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Speaker 1: a bike that I want to ride on Saturdays, so

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Speaker 1: I can ride around the park. I mean, you could

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Speaker 1: do that if you wanted to, but this is more seriously,

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Speaker 1: you could you could use this to get to where

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Speaker 1: your work going. You can use this instead of a car.

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Speaker 1: So that's the direct one. But the ripple effect is

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Speaker 1: that again it starts to relieve traffic congestion because you're

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Speaker 1: taking a car off the road during those peak travel times.

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Speaker 1: It begins to relieve other issues that are related to

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Speaker 1: traffic congestion, like pollution. It is taking off more wear

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Speaker 1: and tear on city infrastructure. It's crazy to think about

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Speaker 1: when you start looking at big, big picture, but you

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Speaker 1: begin to realize that this is a much larger uh

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Speaker 1: influence than just I got to work way faster and

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Speaker 1: I'm not sweaty. Uh. So now I don't like to

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Speaker 1: get grandiose necessarily, but I do like to to acknowledge

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Speaker 1: the fact that sometimes UH things that you're looking at

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Speaker 1: like in a narrow focus, while they are true, it's

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Speaker 1: not the whole story. And if you start peeling back,

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Speaker 1: you realize this has potential to make truly transformative changes

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Speaker 1: in various communities. We're starting to see that again in

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Speaker 1: Atlanta and I think it's largely because we have companies

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Speaker 1: like Edison that are leading the way into providing actual

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Speaker 1: alternatives that work within a city. And now we're starting

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Speaker 1: to see communities say we want to have that, So

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Speaker 1: we want to build more bike lanes, we want to

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Speaker 1: build more dedicated pathways. The belt line that Pont City

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Speaker 1: Market is right off of has not existed for very

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Speaker 1: long at least, especially the stretch that goes by Pont

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Speaker 1: City Market. It hasn't been opened for very many years.

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Speaker 1: It used to be disused railroad tracks. So we're starting

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Speaker 1: to see those kind of transformations In Atlanta, that's just

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Speaker 1: one city where we're starting to see that happened. So, uh,

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Speaker 1: let's kind of dive into some of the tech of

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Speaker 1: the Edison bikes and like sort of how they actually work.

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Speaker 1: If you were to ride one, and and I had

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Speaker 1: the opportunity to ride one, I will admit I was

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Speaker 1: doing the equivalent of training wheels. I did not go

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Speaker 1: above the assist level one and it goes up to five.

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Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit about what you can

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Speaker 1: do on one of these bikes and and how that

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Speaker 1: pedal assist actually works on a practical level. So first

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Speaker 1: I want to kind of set an expectation of, like

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Speaker 1: what kind of power, uh could you expect because I've

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Speaker 1: sold bikes to like people who ride Harley Davidson's and um,

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Speaker 1: I got a big guy get on a bike and

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Speaker 1: he goosed the throttle and he's like, why aren't I

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Speaker 1: going Ryan? Come on man, And I'm like, come on, dude,

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Speaker 1: this is a pedal assist, uh, a penal assist thing.

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Speaker 1: Um it produces five watts this motor, and uh it'll

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Speaker 1: run it five dred watts. Uh. So if you ran

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Speaker 1: this thing like full blasts, it would go just over

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Speaker 1: an hour. Top speeds about twenty five miles an hour,

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Speaker 1: so you're looking at a range between twenty and thirty miles. UM. So,

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Speaker 1: like if I started, I wagh a little over two

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Speaker 1: hundred pounds. If I started at the base of a

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Speaker 1: hill and I goosed the throttle, it would give me

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Speaker 1: to the top. I'd probably be only going ten miles

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Speaker 1: an hour or so. But if I pedaled along and

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Speaker 1: just helped out that motor like ten percent of what

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Speaker 1: I would like on a normal bike, you know, I'm

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Speaker 1: just very gently penalting. I can easily carry twenty miles

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Speaker 1: an hour up any hill in Atlanta. Right, So I

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Speaker 1: just want to be clear with the list, or is

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Speaker 1: it like we're not selling like a motorcycle or a scooter.

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Speaker 1: This is a bicycle that weighs forty five pounds, rides

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Speaker 1: very much like a bicycle. You just feel superhuman when

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Speaker 1: you're riding. Right, Yeah, you you hit one of those

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Speaker 1: hills that normally, if you're riding a regular bike, you

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Speaker 1: just feel your heart sink and you think, by halfway up,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna be off of this. I'm just gonna be

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Speaker 1: I'll be pushing. I'll be pushing the bike because I

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Speaker 1: won't be able to make it all the way up.

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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna get to a point where I'm at

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Speaker 1: a standstill. But pedal assist because you have that that

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Speaker 1: electric motor that can kick in and provide additional power

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Speaker 1: so that you can keep on powering through something like

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Speaker 1: that means that you you know, you don't have to

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Speaker 1: you don't have to sweat it literally in this case.

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Speaker 1: So uh yeah, I mean this is one of those

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Speaker 1: technologies that um I love because it allows you to

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Speaker 1: augment your experience, but it doesn't replace it. As you

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Speaker 1: were saying like, it's not like it's an electric motorcycle.

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Speaker 1: It's about augmenting so that things that might have previously

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Speaker 1: been a challenge, maybe it would even be a barrier

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Speaker 1: to you adopting a bicycle are no longer a hurdle. Right,

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Speaker 1: You don't know if you're sitting there and thing like

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Speaker 1: I've got four hills between me and work, it's not

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Speaker 1: so big a deal if you've got something that can

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Speaker 1: kick in so that you're peddling just you know, you

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Speaker 1: don't have to peddle any harder than you did on

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Speaker 1: the level stretches as you do on the inclines a

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Speaker 1: thousand percent. That actually reminds me on the way home,

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Speaker 1: I want to take an Instagram photo where I'm holding

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Speaker 1: up a dime and I'm holding it up to our city, right,

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Speaker 1: because like, with a range of twenty to thirty miles,

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Speaker 1: that's how far we could go on a single dime. Right.

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Speaker 1: These bikes, they really provide like a key, uh to

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Speaker 1: your city. It really unlocks your city. Um, we're investing

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Speaker 1: so much. Um when I say we um talking about Atlanta. Um,

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Speaker 1: but we signed off on a bill of a billion

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Speaker 1: dollars to make our bike and pedestrian infrastructure better. Atlanta

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Speaker 1: is striving to be one of the best bike communities

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Speaker 1: in the world. Um, however, Atlanta is not going to

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Speaker 1: be any flatter, right, but we have some pretty serious

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Speaker 1: topography out there, right, So this kind of removes that

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Speaker 1: final barrier, um for somebody you know that that is

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Speaker 1: thinking about maybe riding a bike or like, you know,

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Speaker 1: alternative transportation. This takes that last barrier around, you know,

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Speaker 1: and really it makes it easy, and it makes it

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Speaker 1: something fun, right like um, and and everybody's you know,

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Speaker 1: kind of grown up riding bikes, right. Uh. I know

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Speaker 1: you said you haven't ridden in fifteen years, but perhaps

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Speaker 1: you wouldn't know if we were a flatter area, right right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: if if we were definitely that and uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's it's again like when I first moved into Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: it was early before anyone had really seriously started looking

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Speaker 1: at putting in bike lanes. But over the years that

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Speaker 1: i've I've been living in the city of Atlanta, that

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Speaker 1: has been it's been. It's yeah, it's changed very quickly.

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Speaker 1: And like I said, there are a lot of communities

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Speaker 1: that they jumped on board that early. Right. There's certain

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Speaker 1: ones that you know, you just saw that immediately, and

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Speaker 1: other ones are following suit all the time. Even places

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Speaker 1: where traditionally, you know, you would never expect to see it,

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Speaker 1: You're starting to see bike lanes pop up. So it's

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Speaker 1: now at a point where maybe back when I first

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Speaker 1: moved into Atlanta, I wouldn't have considered it. But now,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I've talked about it a couple of times

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Speaker 1: and I just haven't jumped on it right. Uh. And

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Speaker 1: part of it was that I had never had the

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Speaker 1: experience of actually writing one of the electric bikes. I've

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Speaker 1: I've seen them, I've Yeah, it was great. It was

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Speaker 1: great to have a chance to do it. So let's

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Speaker 1: let's talk about the different levels and kind of how

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Speaker 1: that translates into experience. So someone gets an Edison bike,

427
00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:50,159
Speaker 1: they get on it, they see that they've got this

428
00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:56,880
Speaker 1: digital controller, a digital readoubt that that gives them information. So, uh,

429
00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:59,560
Speaker 1: you know, let's let's start with the levels first. Yeah,

430
00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:01,880
Speaker 1: So what that looks like. You hop on the bike

431
00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:06,040
Speaker 1: and you have five different levels of assists UM, and

432
00:23:06,160 --> 00:23:09,360
Speaker 1: you have like a controller UM on your left hand.

433
00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:11,560
Speaker 1: It's all very intuitive, like you have a power button

434
00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:12,960
Speaker 1: in the middle and then you have up arrow in

435
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:16,840
Speaker 1: a down area and um, like on level one, Uh,

436
00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:19,359
Speaker 1: you hop on the bike and you start turning the

437
00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:22,119
Speaker 1: pedals and it's gonna feel like you're riding down wind.

438
00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:27,240
Speaker 1: You're still doing most of the work. Um, probably of

439
00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:30,400
Speaker 1: the work. And um, you know level one is really

440
00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:33,760
Speaker 1: something more like if if you're wanting to exercise, or

441
00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:37,679
Speaker 1: let's say, um, you're going on a sixty mile ride.

442
00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:41,320
Speaker 1: So um, my uncle he just turned sixty recently and

443
00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:43,919
Speaker 1: he was like, I want to ride in Edison sixty miles.

444
00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:46,480
Speaker 1: I was like, dude, I don't think you could do it,

445
00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:50,440
Speaker 1: Like that's that's a long way, and uh, I'll be darned.

446
00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:52,920
Speaker 1: You know. He stayed like on assists level one and

447
00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:56,639
Speaker 1: two and his average pace was about ten miles, so

448
00:23:56,680 --> 00:23:59,440
Speaker 1: he wasn't going very fast. But um he got back

449
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:02,760
Speaker 1: and he still had half a battery left. So um.

450
00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:04,560
Speaker 1: You know, when I talk about range, I like to

451
00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:07,800
Speaker 1: set expectations low because I always ride this thing like

452
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:11,040
Speaker 1: a madman, like I want to be going twenty you know,

453
00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:14,080
Speaker 1: like I want to be passing those Spandex riders and

454
00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:16,000
Speaker 1: I want my tie to be flapping in the wind

455
00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:20,320
Speaker 1: at them, you know, saying uh so, um, so you

456
00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:22,160
Speaker 1: have that lower level of assists and then you can

457
00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:24,520
Speaker 1: arrow that puppy all the way up to level five.

458
00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:27,280
Speaker 1: And like I said, level five is like superhuman mode.

459
00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:29,040
Speaker 1: As soon as you start turning the pedals, you're gonna

460
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:32,639
Speaker 1: take off. Um. So then on top of that, um,

461
00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:35,000
Speaker 1: when you feel comfortable with the power and everything, you

462
00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:38,119
Speaker 1: also have a small thumb throttle on your left hand. Uh.

463
00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:41,199
Speaker 1: It's similarly placed to like which you would find like

464
00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:45,119
Speaker 1: on a four wheeler or like some motorcycles have thumb throttles,

465
00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:48,080
Speaker 1: and um, that thing is just totally variable. So you

466
00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:49,679
Speaker 1: push it a little bit, it goes a little. The

467
00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:52,639
Speaker 1: hearty push it, the faster you're gonna go. And like

468
00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:56,199
Speaker 1: I said, five watts is um to give you a

469
00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:59,919
Speaker 1: perspective on power. Um, like those Tour de France right

470
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,280
Speaker 1: tis they're averaging Now you know they're going a long way,

471
00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:07,960
Speaker 1: but they're averaging about two fifty watts of output and

472
00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:10,480
Speaker 1: usually a question I get, Well, you know they're like

473
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:14,200
Speaker 1: going twenty five plus miles an hour, but they those

474
00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:16,760
Speaker 1: guys also weigh like a hundred pounds in their bike's

475
00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:20,920
Speaker 1: way like literally nothing. Um, so you know, just to

476
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:22,960
Speaker 1: kind of give you a perspective on power. These are

477
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:25,760
Speaker 1: putting out twice as much as that, right, And I

478
00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:28,919
Speaker 1: can tell you from experience. When I was taking this

479
00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:32,040
Speaker 1: for a spin, I used that throttle. Uh. It is

480
00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:35,639
Speaker 1: an exhilarating feeling. It's It's interesting because again I had

481
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:39,240
Speaker 1: never experienced that, having only ever written traditional bicycles or

482
00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:42,160
Speaker 1: analog bicycles, as you said, I had only ever ridden those.

483
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:45,679
Speaker 1: And so to have that experience where I knew what

484
00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:48,600
Speaker 1: was going to happen, but knowing it and feeling it

485
00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:50,639
Speaker 1: are two different things. And that first time you feel

486
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:53,720
Speaker 1: it where you can feel the acceleration and you're that's

487
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:56,399
Speaker 1: all coming from your thumb, right, You're not peddling harder

488
00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:01,120
Speaker 1: at all, You're just suddenly going much faster. Um. Yeah,

489
00:26:01,119 --> 00:26:03,560
Speaker 1: that could that I could get used to that too,

490
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:07,119
Speaker 1: because it was a really fun experience. And uh, you know,

491
00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:09,000
Speaker 1: one of the one of my fondest memories as a

492
00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:12,880
Speaker 1: kid is riding bikes. Like I lived on a hill

493
00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:15,480
Speaker 1: and so going down the hill was great. You know,

494
00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:17,720
Speaker 1: you just said that exhilarating feeling. Going up the hill

495
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:20,280
Speaker 1: not as great, but going down the hill was fantastic.

496
00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:22,280
Speaker 1: And so being able to ride a bike where you

497
00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:24,720
Speaker 1: could have that same sort of experience whether you're going

498
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:27,200
Speaker 1: up or down the hill. It's kind of cool. Uh.

499
00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:31,399
Speaker 1: So you got to the point you you developed all

500
00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:34,479
Speaker 1: the technology, You've got the batteries. Um, how long does

501
00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:37,200
Speaker 1: it take typically to to charge one to full? Once

502
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:41,080
Speaker 1: you have four hours? Not bad at all, not too bad.

503
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:44,880
Speaker 1: And the charger is very reminiscent of like a mid

504
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:49,239
Speaker 1: nineties laptop charger, and it's it's all intelligent, right, so

505
00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:51,560
Speaker 1: that the charger, it's got a light on there, the

506
00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:54,440
Speaker 1: illuminates red when it's charging, and guess what, it turns

507
00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:56,520
Speaker 1: green when it's done, so like people don't have to

508
00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:59,320
Speaker 1: worry about overcharging it or anything like that. And then

509
00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:01,360
Speaker 1: on on off of that, we also have what's called

510
00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:05,080
Speaker 1: a BMS or battery management system, and that won't let

511
00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:09,360
Speaker 1: the cells discharge below ten percent or overcharge above ninety uh.

512
00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:11,400
Speaker 1: Tesla does the same thing. I think their numbers are

513
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:14,480
Speaker 1: eight twenty, but kind of keeping the cells in those

514
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:16,880
Speaker 1: in that butter zone, if you will. That's how we're

515
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:19,320
Speaker 1: able to get so many charge cycles out of a

516
00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:23,359
Speaker 1: single pack, which is about a thousand charge cycles right now.

517
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:27,000
Speaker 1: So if you use this bike every day for three years,

518
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:32,480
Speaker 1: you could expect to see about a degradation in performance. Right.

519
00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:34,560
Speaker 1: And then the million dollar question that I always get

520
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:37,200
Speaker 1: after I say that is how much does a replacement

521
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:42,080
Speaker 1: pack costs? Bucks? So it's not terribly expensive. Um, We

522
00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:45,560
Speaker 1: basically just charge what it costs us to produce the pack. Um.

523
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:49,560
Speaker 1: You guys know eighteen six fifty battery cells are very expensive.

524
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:52,600
Speaker 1: We use ones made by Panasonic. They're the same ones,

525
00:27:53,119 --> 00:27:55,760
Speaker 1: uh that Tesla uses. Um. You can find them in

526
00:27:55,800 --> 00:28:01,000
Speaker 1: your MacBooks. Uh, they're ubiquitous. Um, So we don't make

527
00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:02,560
Speaker 1: any money on those. We figured. You know, if you

528
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:05,120
Speaker 1: buy one of our bikes, you're you're coming into our family.

529
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:08,040
Speaker 1: We're not in the battery business, right. We just want

530
00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:11,280
Speaker 1: to get more butts on bikes, right. So Uh, and

531
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought up the degradation too, because that's

532
00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:16,080
Speaker 1: something we've chatted about on tech stuff as well. I mean,

533
00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:19,480
Speaker 1: it's a chemical reaction in batteries, and over time that

534
00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:23,479
Speaker 1: chemical reaction, Uh, it just becomes less and less potent.

535
00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:26,480
Speaker 1: I mean, you you lose your technically, you're running out

536
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:30,000
Speaker 1: of the chemicals that are reacting over time, over the

537
00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:34,560
Speaker 1: course of of hundreds of charge cycles and so having

538
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:38,320
Speaker 1: those limitations built in so that you don't more rapidly exhausted.

539
00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:41,239
Speaker 1: It makes a lot of sense. Then I want to

540
00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:44,280
Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about what the experience has

541
00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:47,040
Speaker 1: been like once you've got to that final form factor,

542
00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:51,000
Speaker 1: you've got your own business. How how was that? What?

543
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:53,240
Speaker 1: What was that experience like? Because it's one thing to

544
00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:55,800
Speaker 1: develop a product, right, It's one thing to go through

545
00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:58,040
Speaker 1: all the engineering and to figure it out, and then

546
00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:00,120
Speaker 1: to even go further and say, all right, well this

547
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:01,600
Speaker 1: was good for me, but how can I make this

548
00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:04,920
Speaker 1: something that that a person would want to buy? You know,

549
00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 1: it doesn't look like it's going to be a conversion

550
00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:11,120
Speaker 1: kit for a normal bike. It's its own thing. Clearly,

551
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:14,160
Speaker 1: there are a lot of parts, like literally a lot

552
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:16,160
Speaker 1: of parts that you have to deal with to go

553
00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:21,400
Speaker 1: from concept to prototype to shippable product to manufacturing. Can

554
00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:23,600
Speaker 1: you talk a little bit about what what that's been

555
00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 1: like and maybe some of the learning experiences. Absolutely so absolutely,

556
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:34,320
Speaker 1: like developing the product um was was an incredible experience, right,

557
00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:37,040
Speaker 1: Like I've I've grown up on two wheels, um so

558
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:39,960
Speaker 1: I feel like I've brought the product a pretty long

559
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:44,000
Speaker 1: way right. Um. And then when I actually came to

560
00:29:44,040 --> 00:29:47,840
Speaker 1: the point where I'm like trying to um like give

561
00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:51,480
Speaker 1: it deliverable right to someone else and fix their problem,

562
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:54,000
Speaker 1: It's like I'm this is my design, and I take

563
00:29:54,040 --> 00:29:56,160
Speaker 1: it like very personally, and I wanted to be perfect,

564
00:29:56,240 --> 00:30:00,440
Speaker 1: like I'm a perfectionist. Um. And I was is building

565
00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:02,719
Speaker 1: these things in my house, Like my house smelled like

566
00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:06,720
Speaker 1: sawder Uh. We had like taken over like a bedroom

567
00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:10,600
Speaker 1: in our formal living room and we're expecting a baby

568
00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:13,480
Speaker 1: on the way. It was pandemonium. Um. But I was

569
00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:16,240
Speaker 1: selling these things off of my front porch, right, and

570
00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:20,320
Speaker 1: like that was kind of like validation um to my design. Um.

571
00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:24,480
Speaker 1: I I have like a spreadsheet, uh, and every single

572
00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:27,040
Speaker 1: person that rides the bike, I just write their name down,

573
00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:32,080
Speaker 1: you know, their contact information, and um, of the people

574
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:34,800
Speaker 1: that ride the bike buy it right away, because when

575
00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:37,520
Speaker 1: you ride it, you get it. And um, I always

576
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:39,440
Speaker 1: tell every single person that buys a bike from me,

577
00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:43,040
Speaker 1: I say, uh, we'll always consider ourselves to be in

578
00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:47,320
Speaker 1: research and development. Like if there's anything anything like that

579
00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:49,880
Speaker 1: bugs you or just doesn't feel right or sound right,

580
00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:52,720
Speaker 1: I want to know about it. About a month ago,

581
00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:54,400
Speaker 1: I had a lady come into the shop and she

582
00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:56,959
Speaker 1: was like, Ryan, I get this weird noise. I think

583
00:30:57,000 --> 00:30:59,480
Speaker 1: it's coming from the motor and it's only when I'm

584
00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:02,000
Speaker 1: going for twenty miles an hour and only when I'm

585
00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:05,760
Speaker 1: going into the head wind. And I was like, oh, man,

586
00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:08,400
Speaker 1: I gotta see this, Like what could that possibly be?

587
00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:12,560
Speaker 1: So like we we uh, you know, I couldn't replicate

588
00:31:12,600 --> 00:31:14,760
Speaker 1: the issue, and We're like going back and forth and

589
00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:16,640
Speaker 1: she's like, no, no, I hear it, I hear it.

590
00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:19,840
Speaker 1: It turned out that it was her helmet strap, so

591
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:22,960
Speaker 1: when her helmet strap felt like a certain amount of wind,

592
00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:26,200
Speaker 1: it would buzz in her ear a little bit. But like, um,

593
00:31:26,240 --> 00:31:28,760
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just always like I'm always curious and

594
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:30,680
Speaker 1: like I said, I'm a tinker, right, and I want

595
00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:33,920
Speaker 1: these things to be perfect. I think the biggest challenge

596
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:37,240
Speaker 1: for me was actually branding this company. There's a ton

597
00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:40,520
Speaker 1: of technology that goes into these bikes, and I wanted

598
00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:46,000
Speaker 1: to kind of convey like a technology feel to our company. Um.

599
00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:49,040
Speaker 1: So I designed our logo and I'm not a designer

600
00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:52,760
Speaker 1: by any means. Uh and uh. I thought it looked

601
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:55,040
Speaker 1: very cool. Um most of my friends did too, But

602
00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:58,000
Speaker 1: I think it's because they like me for some reason.

603
00:31:58,160 --> 00:32:02,040
Speaker 1: But uh so, we actually we partnered with like a

604
00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:04,680
Speaker 1: marketing team and they were like, Ryan, we've been to

605
00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:08,400
Speaker 1: your house, like we've seen your bikes. You like clean lines,

606
00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:10,520
Speaker 1: Like you're a clean lines guy. We got to clean

607
00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:14,080
Speaker 1: this up. Uh So, Um that's actually like if you

608
00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:17,600
Speaker 1: go on the website Edison Bicycles dot com, you can

609
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:19,680
Speaker 1: see they did a really good job cleaning it up though,

610
00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:22,160
Speaker 1: and it's like it's just it's very nice. You know,

611
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:26,000
Speaker 1: there's a little lightning bolt is our signature, um, and

612
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:29,680
Speaker 1: it's it's just, um, it's like a really good feel

613
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:33,120
Speaker 1: to it. It's it's a personal feel and um, like

614
00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:34,760
Speaker 1: when I sell bikes to people, like I said, you're

615
00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:37,760
Speaker 1: buying into a family, right, this is a community, and

616
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:42,880
Speaker 1: it's like we're all figuring this thing out together. Um

617
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:46,400
Speaker 1: So I think personally, the biggest challenge for me wasn't

618
00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:51,240
Speaker 1: developing the bike or figuring out logistics and um technology,

619
00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:53,120
Speaker 1: like I love that. I'll stay up all night playing

620
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:55,840
Speaker 1: with that, but it was getting the company to where

621
00:32:55,960 --> 00:33:00,280
Speaker 1: it felt human and felt good cool. Yeah, It's see

622
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:02,920
Speaker 1: it's interesting because I never really get the opportunity to

623
00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:07,560
Speaker 1: talk to people who have gone from an idea all

624
00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:10,480
Speaker 1: the way to the point it's crazy. It's crazy, right, yeah,

625
00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:14,320
Speaker 1: because because it's interesting to see where challenges present themselves.

626
00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:18,160
Speaker 1: Right Like, for a lot of us as consumers, we're

627
00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 1: thinking about, oh, it must have been hard to come

628
00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:22,040
Speaker 1: up with that idea and some and then you'll chat

629
00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:23,800
Speaker 1: with someone like, oh no, the idea part was easy.

630
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:25,640
Speaker 1: The hard part was this other thing that you hadn't

631
00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:29,240
Speaker 1: even thought about. So as another example, uh, you know,

632
00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:32,880
Speaker 1: we were chatting before we came in here just about

633
00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:36,040
Speaker 1: how unpredictable things that are outside of our control can

634
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:40,040
Speaker 1: sometimes have a big impact. Uh. So we were talking

635
00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:45,120
Speaker 1: about how a hurricane could disrupt a supply chain in

636
00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:47,040
Speaker 1: a way that you just there's no way to plan

637
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:51,440
Speaker 1: for it. And so like when you're sitting I imagine

638
00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:54,280
Speaker 1: when you were sitting there in two thousand twelve and

639
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 1: you were tinkering around, and maybe even at this point

640
00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:00,160
Speaker 1: people are actually saying, hey, I would like one of

641
00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:02,600
Speaker 1: those bikes too, if you ever would think about building one.

642
00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:05,240
Speaker 1: I imagine that there was no point where you were thinking,

643
00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:09,359
Speaker 1: one day, a hurricane will hit and disrupt my entire

644
00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:12,720
Speaker 1: supply chain. Thus making it a challenge to get things

645
00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:16,480
Speaker 1: to put bikes together. Absolutely, that's definitely been a challenge

646
00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:20,880
Speaker 1: to or Like I used to use Samsung um as

647
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:23,319
Speaker 1: d I battery cells, and like I think that they're

648
00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:26,400
Speaker 1: very good, Like I got Samsung TV all that kind

649
00:34:26,400 --> 00:34:28,640
Speaker 1: of stuff, and not to throw any shade, but like

650
00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:32,279
Speaker 1: then they had all those phones that come right and

651
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:34,480
Speaker 1: this was right around this time when all the hoverboards

652
00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:36,640
Speaker 1: were catching on fire, right right, I was like, this

653
00:34:36,640 --> 00:34:38,799
Speaker 1: would not be a good time to advertise that we

654
00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:42,840
Speaker 1: use Samsung cells, right, So, um we had since jumped

655
00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:46,279
Speaker 1: over to Panasa, so you started sourcing other possible But

656
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:49,760
Speaker 1: I mean there's a million unforeseeable like that that we've

657
00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:53,239
Speaker 1: you know, come into and it's just, uh, it's it's

658
00:34:53,239 --> 00:35:02,680
Speaker 1: a wild ride. It's fun though again taking the engineering

659
00:35:02,719 --> 00:35:05,440
Speaker 1: approach where you're like, you know, you look at every

660
00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:09,120
Speaker 1: every problem as an opportunity to find a solution. Um.

661
00:35:09,160 --> 00:35:10,719
Speaker 1: It's one of the reasons why I love talking to

662
00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:14,160
Speaker 1: engineers because when I chat with them, if I present

663
00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:17,800
Speaker 1: them with some something that is in the minds of

664
00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:20,160
Speaker 1: a lot of people, a problem, they're immediately just thinking

665
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:23,319
Speaker 1: how would I go about solving this? How would I

666
00:35:23,320 --> 00:35:26,200
Speaker 1: what would be my approach, and it it to me.

667
00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:29,560
Speaker 1: It's very telling about that individual person, you know, the

668
00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:32,279
Speaker 1: the pathway that they take. And again it gets into

669
00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:35,200
Speaker 1: that sort of hacker ethos, the idea of I need

670
00:35:35,239 --> 00:35:37,319
Speaker 1: to know how this works so that I can make

671
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:39,600
Speaker 1: it work better, because the way it works now is

672
00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:41,400
Speaker 1: not as good as it could be. I am convinced

673
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:43,959
Speaker 1: to that. And every time I talk to hackers, whether

674
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:48,440
Speaker 1: they are software hackers, hardware hackers, bike hackers, I know

675
00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:52,160
Speaker 1: a few bio hackers. Those guys are crazy. Yeah. They

676
00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:57,239
Speaker 1: also call them grinders. Grinders who will oh yeah, yeah,

677
00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:00,720
Speaker 1: people who will implant um magnets under neath their fingers

678
00:36:00,719 --> 00:36:04,600
Speaker 1: so that they can feel electromagnetic fields because it vibrates.

679
00:36:04,719 --> 00:36:06,879
Speaker 1: You know, you have an electromagnetic field and magnet comes

680
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:10,760
Speaker 1: in contact with it. The the attraction starts to tug

681
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:13,120
Speaker 1: on the magnet which is under the surface of your fingertip,

682
00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:15,120
Speaker 1: which means you can actually sense when you pass through

683
00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:18,880
Speaker 1: an electric field. Yeah. There are people who think that's awesome,

684
00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:21,520
Speaker 1: and then there are people who realize, if I ever

685
00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:23,440
Speaker 1: have to have an m R I, this is going

686
00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:26,920
Speaker 1: to be a problem. I'm going to have the skin

687
00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:29,680
Speaker 1: of my finger is going to be ripped off, but

688
00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:33,359
Speaker 1: doesn't stop them from trying. UM. So, to me, it's

689
00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:36,239
Speaker 1: always exciting just to to meet folks who have that

690
00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:39,680
Speaker 1: kind of mindset because it again gives us an insight

691
00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:41,960
Speaker 1: as to how some of these products come to be.

692
00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:47,880
Speaker 1: UM and do you have big plans for Edison? Is Edison?

693
00:36:48,360 --> 00:36:50,840
Speaker 1: Or is this is this something where you're you're really

694
00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:54,600
Speaker 1: let's focus on Atlanta or is this something where eventually

695
00:36:54,640 --> 00:36:58,279
Speaker 1: we're going to see this expand to who knows where?

696
00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:02,880
Speaker 1: That's a great question. It's kind of top secret. No,

697
00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:07,960
Speaker 1: I think right now, I just want to I want

698
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:12,000
Speaker 1: to perfect our model here and like I wanna because

699
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:14,760
Speaker 1: like right now, you know, we have like bike shops

700
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:17,400
Speaker 1: and stuff courting us like wanting to carry Edison bikes

701
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:21,759
Speaker 1: and uh, we really like controlling the buying process, right

702
00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:25,400
Speaker 1: because like we like if you come into our shop

703
00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:29,319
Speaker 1: at Kirkwood. Have you heard of Warby Parker Glasses company?

704
00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:33,000
Speaker 1: Super cool? I love them. But like if you walk

705
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:35,799
Speaker 1: into a Warby Parker, um there's two things. One like

706
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:38,600
Speaker 1: you're you're greeted and it's just a cool place where

707
00:37:38,680 --> 00:37:41,200
Speaker 1: like you can put your hands on their product. It's

708
00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:45,839
Speaker 1: the opposite of sales e right, and to they're they're affordable, right.

709
00:37:45,920 --> 00:37:49,840
Speaker 1: So like I wanted to create like an environment like that, um,

710
00:37:49,880 --> 00:37:54,080
Speaker 1: which is again not to throw any shade, but like, um,

711
00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:56,400
Speaker 1: like have you ever been into a bike shop and

712
00:37:56,640 --> 00:37:59,120
Speaker 1: like you just kind of get this feeling like, uh,

713
00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:00,880
Speaker 1: you know, a technician be like what you don't know

714
00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:03,439
Speaker 1: what a drail your cable is or something like that.

715
00:38:03,840 --> 00:38:07,200
Speaker 1: I wanted to be the opposite of that, so approachable

716
00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:12,520
Speaker 1: and not and no pressures as opposed to you are

717
00:38:12,520 --> 00:38:15,279
Speaker 1: stupid because you don't know as much and you need

718
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:18,560
Speaker 1: to buy this exactly. So like you know, like if

719
00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:21,160
Speaker 1: you're going into our shop, you're gonna find comfortable couches,

720
00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:24,640
Speaker 1: you're probably gonna smell some good coffee brewing, and it's

721
00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:26,840
Speaker 1: just like a place where like we can just geek

722
00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:29,719
Speaker 1: out on the bikes and and have fun with them,

723
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:32,399
Speaker 1: like we're right on a bike path, and like we'll

724
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:36,120
Speaker 1: never we'll never push anyone like to to purchase a

725
00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:40,000
Speaker 1: bike because like we want this to be like a comfortable,

726
00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:42,640
Speaker 1: fun place to be, right, Like we don't have price

727
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:45,160
Speaker 1: tags hanging from the bikes or anything like that, right,

728
00:38:45,239 --> 00:38:48,279
Speaker 1: So um, like that's our model, right, and like I

729
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:51,719
Speaker 1: wanna really try my best to control that, and I

730
00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:54,200
Speaker 1: just don't know how I feel about, you know, just

731
00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:56,319
Speaker 1: seeing Edison's you know, like in a in a bike

732
00:38:56,320 --> 00:38:59,560
Speaker 1: shop next to a bunch of other bikes. Um, So

733
00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:02,600
Speaker 1: of course we want to grow, right, I mean, like

734
00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:06,560
Speaker 1: there's plenty of other cities that have identical logistics issues

735
00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:11,279
Speaker 1: to ours, right, Um so what that will look like,

736
00:39:11,360 --> 00:39:13,919
Speaker 1: we're not quite sure yet. Sure, We just we really

737
00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:16,120
Speaker 1: want to focus on ground zero right now, and that's

738
00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:20,120
Speaker 1: gonna obviously present all new challenges. Right. There's always there's

739
00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:23,920
Speaker 1: always issues with scaling, like what works on one scale?

740
00:39:24,200 --> 00:39:26,959
Speaker 1: You know? It's again one of those things that I think.

741
00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:30,000
Speaker 1: I mean honestly, I as a consumer never really considered

742
00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:33,840
Speaker 1: it until I started really doing research into tech manufacturing.

743
00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:37,520
Speaker 1: But it's never as simple as you know that thing

744
00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:41,279
Speaker 1: you're doing, do more of it, right, Like you know, like,

745
00:39:41,320 --> 00:39:43,760
Speaker 1: oh you've got that, You've got this way to build

746
00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:46,880
Speaker 1: those just add more people. And that's not how that

747
00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:50,239
Speaker 1: works typically, you don't. You don't scale up just by

748
00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:53,480
Speaker 1: throwing more resources at it. There's a lot more that

749
00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:56,399
Speaker 1: goes in and h the reason why I even bring

750
00:39:56,440 --> 00:39:59,360
Speaker 1: that up is just again looking at that ripple effect,

751
00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:02,080
Speaker 1: you have to think of the bigger pictures. So we

752
00:40:02,239 --> 00:40:06,480
Speaker 1: hear about technology all the time that big companies even

753
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:12,840
Speaker 1: will have shortages of products because manufacturing is hard. It

754
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:16,080
Speaker 1: is not a simple thing. And whether you're talking about

755
00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:18,640
Speaker 1: a bike or you're talking about I don't know an

756
00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:21,360
Speaker 1: S and E S Classic that you can't buy anywhere

757
00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:27,319
Speaker 1: because they're all gone. Even Nintendo has these issues. So uh,

758
00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:29,320
Speaker 1: but I'm glad you were able to answer that honestly,

759
00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:32,320
Speaker 1: because you know, the desire to grow, obviously is something

760
00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:35,319
Speaker 1: every business owner has at at some level. I mean,

761
00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:39,440
Speaker 1: you know you clearly have ambition to even get into

762
00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:43,319
Speaker 1: something like this in the first place. But it's also

763
00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:46,839
Speaker 1: good to know that it's gonna be uh, it's gonna

764
00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:48,960
Speaker 1: be a challenge, and that you have to gather as

765
00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:51,600
Speaker 1: much information and weigh all your options as best you

766
00:40:51,600 --> 00:40:53,719
Speaker 1: can before you jump into it, because otherwise you're just

767
00:40:53,719 --> 00:40:57,960
Speaker 1: gonna end up making promises that will be really difficult

768
00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:01,759
Speaker 1: to deliver upon. This has been fascinating. I thank you

769
00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:04,600
Speaker 1: so much for coming in here and chatting about this,

770
00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:07,880
Speaker 1: and um uh, I do recommend if you get a

771
00:41:07,960 --> 00:41:11,360
Speaker 1: chance to try the experience of writing a pedal assist

772
00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:14,520
Speaker 1: bike in general or in Edison in particular. If you're

773
00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:16,919
Speaker 1: in the Atlanta area, definitely come by and check it out.

774
00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:19,760
Speaker 1: Because it was my first time. I had been talking

775
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:22,000
Speaker 1: about these for a while. I actually did a podcast

776
00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:24,840
Speaker 1: with Scott Benjamin who is the co host of Car Stuff,

777
00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:27,560
Speaker 1: and we talked about pedal assist bikes in the technology

778
00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:32,400
Speaker 1: behind it, and various implementations and approaches to it, including

779
00:41:32,440 --> 00:41:34,839
Speaker 1: things like conversion kits or there are some that are

780
00:41:34,880 --> 00:41:37,239
Speaker 1: like the self contained wheels that you can attach to

781
00:41:37,239 --> 00:41:40,880
Speaker 1: an existing bike frame. Um. Clearly you can't control the

782
00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:43,279
Speaker 1: whole experience that way because you're really just selling one

783
00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:45,680
Speaker 1: element to it, which is a little different from your

784
00:41:45,719 --> 00:41:50,160
Speaker 1: approach where you've got the whole package. Um. But this

785
00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:51,480
Speaker 1: was the first time I actually got a chance to

786
00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:55,520
Speaker 1: experience it, and uh, it was kind of ideal situation.

787
00:41:55,719 --> 00:41:58,400
Speaker 1: Beautiful weather, not too many people on the belt line,

788
00:41:58,560 --> 00:42:01,960
Speaker 1: for which I was very thankful I was there. Was

789
00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:04,319
Speaker 1: there was a moment early on not gonna lie, where

790
00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:06,040
Speaker 1: I was getting real close to the edge of the

791
00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:09,600
Speaker 1: belt line onto the what would have been like maybe

792
00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:13,640
Speaker 1: an inch drop, not enough to maybe make me worry

793
00:42:13,719 --> 00:42:16,200
Speaker 1: except of the fact that I was my confidence issues

794
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:19,279
Speaker 1: were not kicking in yet, or rather they were kicking in.

795
00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:22,520
Speaker 1: My confidence had not kicked in. But after after a

796
00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:25,120
Speaker 1: little WOBBLI start due to the fact that I am

797
00:42:25,200 --> 00:42:28,640
Speaker 1: so out of practice. Uh, it was. It really was

798
00:42:28,719 --> 00:42:31,200
Speaker 1: an interesting experience, that feeling of being able to do

799
00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:34,919
Speaker 1: more than what you typically would be capable of doing. Um,

800
00:42:34,920 --> 00:42:38,640
Speaker 1: it's very compelling and uh. And also just as a

801
00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:41,319
Speaker 1: way of getting from point A to point B, the

802
00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:45,320
Speaker 1: idea of cutting down my commute. I like walking to work,

803
00:42:45,480 --> 00:42:49,200
Speaker 1: but it's an hour and getting forty five minutes of

804
00:42:49,239 --> 00:42:52,120
Speaker 1: that back a day, it was an hour and a half.

805
00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:55,840
Speaker 1: When you look a look at both ways. Um, that's

806
00:42:56,200 --> 00:42:58,320
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a that's kind of a hard argument

807
00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:01,080
Speaker 1: to shoot down significantly. Yeah. No, I mean an hour

808
00:43:01,080 --> 00:43:03,279
Speaker 1: and a half. I mean, that's that's so much more

809
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:06,360
Speaker 1: Halo time. Man, I can, I can. I can be

810
00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:09,000
Speaker 1: a bullet sponge for an extra hour and a half. Awesome.

811
00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:12,239
Speaker 1: But Ryan Hirsh, thank you so much for joining us

812
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:15,319
Speaker 1: on text stuff. I really appreciate it. Pleasure to be here.

813
00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:18,840
Speaker 1: Excellent guys. If you have any suggestions for future episodes

814
00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:22,160
Speaker 1: of tech Stuff, whether it is a specific technology, a company,

815
00:43:22,239 --> 00:43:24,719
Speaker 1: a person. Maybe there's someone you would like me to

816
00:43:24,760 --> 00:43:27,520
Speaker 1: interview or get on as a guest host. Let me know.

817
00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:30,239
Speaker 1: Send me an email. The address is tech stuff at

818
00:43:30,239 --> 00:43:32,719
Speaker 1: house stuff works dot com, or you can drop me

819
00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:35,600
Speaker 1: a line on Facebook or Twitter. The handle for both

820
00:43:35,640 --> 00:43:39,640
Speaker 1: of those is tech stuff h s W. Remember, typically

821
00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:43,000
Speaker 1: I stream these shows live on Twitch dot tv slash

822
00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:45,000
Speaker 1: tech Stuff. Don't do it for interviews, but on my

823
00:43:45,280 --> 00:43:47,960
Speaker 1: normal solo shows you can check it out there. Um

824
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:51,040
Speaker 1: record on Wednesdays and Friday, so join me. You can

825
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:53,440
Speaker 1: jump in the chat room and talk about all the

826
00:43:53,520 --> 00:43:56,080
Speaker 1: times I made mistakes and had to have Ramsey pause

827
00:43:56,160 --> 00:43:59,359
Speaker 1: the recording and then started up again, and you get

828
00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:03,040
Speaker 1: to see that how up it? Otherwise hopefully we edit

829
00:44:03,120 --> 00:44:06,040
Speaker 1: those out. I'm trusting Ramsey's nodding. He's telling me that

830
00:44:06,120 --> 00:44:10,759
Speaker 1: yes he does do that, um so sometimes. So check

831
00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:13,080
Speaker 1: that out Twitch dot tv, slash tech Stuff, and I

832
00:44:13,120 --> 00:44:21,319
Speaker 1: will talk to you again really soon. For more on

833
00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:24,160
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, is how stuff Works

834
00:44:24,160 --> 00:44:34,320
Speaker 1: dot com.