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I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

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Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#61

Post by jjice »

utopiah wrote: post #17

I don't have that model but I can very confidently say : - do NOT buy an e-bike with custom parts, no matter how "cool" it is! I bought a CowBoy years ago and honestly, it was great. Until it wasn't. Inexorably, it does not matter how good the parts are, how well designed it is, wear and tear WILL create problems. You WILL need to replace parts. If nobody but the company making the bike sell them you will get in trou…

I think it's a generally good place to start when buying anything, especially anything of high value. You want to be able to truly own it, which includes maintaining and repairing it.

Now of course there are areas you can make trade offs. A lot of people like MacBooks despite them not supporting other operating systems very well and Apple still mostly being hardasses about outside repair, but they come with good performance and battery life.

Making sure to keep maintainability in mind when making a product decision is critical to making an informed purchase.

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#62

Post by tripdout »

freetime2 wrote: post #12
jasonkester wrote: post #11

If you're not familiar with this channel, do yourself a favor and watch your way through his backyard trail build videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAsuk8OndHs&list=PL5S7V5NhM8... They're so well done. Sadly, he doesn't do them anymore because Youtube's algorithm doesn't make it worth his while. Evidently, he gets the same traffic & revenue from a 10 minute video reviewing "stupid bike gadgets" into the camera…

Is it the YouTube algorithm's fault? Or viewer preferences? I think YouTube would be happy to recommend the videos to more people if more people watched them. I watch photography videos on YouTube, and camera review channels consistently have far more subscribers than channels who make content about taking photos. (Or at least they did in the past - in recent years camera tech has really matured and interesting relea…

I remember seeing a video where someone was talking about how from someone on the YouTube team said that their goal is for you to to replace the word “algorithm” with “audience”.

Whether they achieve that goal or not is a different story.

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#63

Post by RankingMember »

freetime2 wrote: post #12
jasonkester wrote: post #11

If you're not familiar with this channel, do yourself a favor and watch your way through his backyard trail build videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAsuk8OndHs&list=PL5S7V5NhM8... They're so well done. Sadly, he doesn't do them anymore because Youtube's algorithm doesn't make it worth his while. Evidently, he gets the same traffic & revenue from a 10 minute video reviewing "stupid bike gadgets" into the camera…

Is it the YouTube algorithm's fault? Or viewer preferences? I think YouTube would be happy to recommend the videos to more people if more people watched them. I watch photography videos on YouTube, and camera review channels consistently have far more subscribers than channels who make content about taking photos. (Or at least they did in the past - in recent years camera tech has really matured and interesting relea…

Coincidentally he just made a video elaborating on this as well as a general overview of the history and state of mountain biking channels on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/_oQ4XY4P1n8

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#64

Post by WarmWash »

nrabulinski wrote: post #16

I hate how he’s doing the kind of project a ton of people would like to help with, for free and on their own time, yet he’s making an LLM do all the interesting work. He can’t code so he vibecodes the whole frontend. He can’t reverse engineer so he leaves Claude with the uart connection. He doesn’t understand something so he makes an LLM explain it. With his platform he could easily find a person (or a couple) who co…

Imagine using a high level language with a mountain of libraries to stitch code blocks together with stack overflow glue, rather than write the project in assembly, fully understand what is going on, and get a much lighter and robust application like a True Programmer™.

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#65

Post by asimovDev »

utopiah wrote: post #17

I don't have that model but I can very confidently say : - do NOT buy an e-bike with custom parts, no matter how "cool" it is! I bought a CowBoy years ago and honestly, it was great. Until it wasn't. Inexorably, it does not matter how good the parts are, how well designed it is, wear and tear WILL create problems. You WILL need to replace parts. If nobody but the company making the bike sell them you will get in trou…

app is a big point. i was apalled by the fact that the app for the bike (in the video) could no longer connect / authenticate with the bike

i have a e-scooter and judging by the decompiled code it's some sort of chinese e-scooter reskinned by a european company. I know the app is not going to be around for long, so I slowly been trying to make my own.

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#66

Post by asimovDev »

WesSouza wrote: post #44

Can anyone explain why in the world they would use an electroluminescent light instead of a simple LED?

someone in the comments theorized it was at first supposed to be a full-fledged front light but the design changed and they just used whatever hardware was already there to power the logo

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#67

Post by lokar »

4ndr3vv wrote: post #49
jasonkester wrote: post #11

If you're not familiar with this channel, do yourself a favor and watch your way through his backyard trail build videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAsuk8OndHs&list=PL5S7V5NhM8... They're so well done. Sadly, he doesn't do them anymore because Youtube's algorithm doesn't make it worth his while. Evidently, he gets the same traffic & revenue from a 10 minute video reviewing "stupid bike gadgets" into the camera…

He put a video up about this a couple of weeks ago, and rather than YouTube's algorithm being to blame, it was more him struggling to keep up with his audiences constant demand for more progress with more super sketchy features that he was basicly building constantly. "the Algoirithm" often gets sited, but it's often a youtuber's interaction with thier audience, the pressure to keep up with demand, rising success and…

Do they give you the data to know? I assumed he meant that impressions had gone way down so people are not even seeing it (and why everyone begs you to subscribe and hit the bell). Of course impressions could be restricted because people stop watching after 20 seconds.

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#68

Post by uproarchat »

utopiah wrote: post #17

I don't have that model but I can very confidently say : - do NOT buy an e-bike with custom parts, no matter how "cool" it is! I bought a CowBoy years ago and honestly, it was great. Until it wasn't. Inexorably, it does not matter how good the parts are, how well designed it is, wear and tear WILL create problems. You WILL need to replace parts. If nobody but the company making the bike sell them you will get in trou…

>PS: I now ride a Fixie

Fixies are the way to go. Less parts, less things to break. Very Unix-y.

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#69

Post by molybd3num »

nrabulinski wrote: post #43
antran22 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine after mowing your own lawn with a petrol-powered lawnmower, you got some shades from the neighbors for "Robbing the kids in the community a chance for some honest labor. If you don't know how to use the gardening shear, ask the kids to do it instead of using the automatic lawnmower. Would be a win-win for everybody".

Except with an automatic lawnmower you’re still doing the work yourself. In the video he literally said he left Claude overnight. He did no reverse engineering and no coding

this is berm peak though, coding was never going to be the focus of the video

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#70

Post by rconti »

marysol5 wrote: post #23
jonplackett wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m gonna say it’s YouTube. They are obsessed with pushing short form shit videos to me despite me never wanting to watch them. I hate YouTube shorts so much

In what context do you get Short Form videos? I've never once been pushed to them.

In any context I can think of, even looking at channels I subscribe to on the AppleTV app, shorts are the second row.
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