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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]

#51

Post by freetime2 »

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 have been riding a Panasonic "Gyutto" [1] for about 10 years. I bought it when I had young kids, as it's designed to hold two child seats (one on the back, and one on the handle bars). Now that they've grown up I've replaced the child seats with baskets and use it for commuting every day and grocery shopping.

The thing is an absolute tank - the only parts I've had replace are the tires and brake pads. And the design is really simple with all of the consumable parts being easy to replace. At about $1,400 USD, it's not cheap, but I'm shocked at how long it's lasted and how little maintanence it's needed.

Definitely not "cool" - but one of the best purchases I've ever made.

1. https://cycle.panasonic.com/products/gyutto_croomr_ex/

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

#52

Post by freetime2 »

smallerize wrote: post #42
freetime2 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

He actually just did a video about that. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E_PdRRfoBXo&pp=ygUJQmVybSBwZWF... It includes a recap of the last several years of content and how he was trying to keep his audience, sometimes by doing really risky things.

Yup and he talks about how it was unsustainable, and how his priorities have shifted now that he has kids. He does mention the algorithm and the introduction of shorts as something he had to compete with - but mostly he just frames the bike park as an idea that has run its course and he has grown out of.

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

#53

Post by ryandrake »

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…

A huge percentage of people who say they are into a particular hobby are really just collectors of that hobby’s gear. Photography is an easy example, but this applies to a LOT of hobbies.

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

#54

Post by kvdveer »

WesSouza wrote: post #44

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

In the video you can see that the LED lights the logo less evenly than the EL lighting. While that's not important at all, this might be the reason behind this odd choice

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

#55

Post by alistairSH »

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…

Throwing shade at somebody for doing a project with the tools they had at hand is so weird.

This sort of thing exactly aligned with the promise of AI (and every "automation advancement" since the dawn of time)! It's another layer of abstraction that allows less technical people to do the thing.

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

#56

Post by bluGill »

ryandrake wrote: post #53
freetime2 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

A huge percentage of people who say they are into a particular hobby are really just collectors of that hobby’s gear. Photography is an easy example, but this applies to a LOT of hobbies.

I have long ago realized that I cannot buy more gear for my hobbies unless I commit to using it. I want a lot of cool gadgets, but using what I have needs more time than I put into the hobby. (I need to play mandolin several hours a day to get better, in reality I often skip days or only put in 15 minutes). It is one thing to say "I need X tool for the next step and buy the tool, but I only buy that tool if I really do use it, not because it is a gadget that looks cool (and then I have the tool). I've also found great fun in asking "how did they do this before modern tools" - often I can find an alternate path without the gear.

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

#57

Post by atsuzaki »

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…

He used to be a web developer before doing youtube fulltime, so "he can’t code" is a false premise.

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

#58

Post by smallerize »

freetime2 wrote: post #52
smallerize wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He actually just did a video about that. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E_PdRRfoBXo&pp=ygUJQmVybSBwZWF... It includes a recap of the last several years of content and how he was trying to keep his audience, sometimes by doing really risky things.

Yup and he talks about how it was unsustainable, and how his priorities have shifted now that he has kids. He does mention the algorithm and the introduction of shorts as something he had to compete with - but mostly he just frames the bike park as an idea that has run its course and he has grown out of.

YouTube mainly rewards people who are doing unsustainable things. It chews them up and spits them out, and when creators either go back to doing something sustainable or crash and burn, the algorithm just stops sending them traffic.

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

#59

Post by Groxx »

jonplackett wrote: post #30
marysol5 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

In the Home Screen it is always completely full of shorts. In my recommendations, full of shorts. There’s no way to just never be shown shorts. It’s very clear from the layout that they REALLY want you to watch shorts. I assume it’s because they are more addictive = more views = more ads. But I pay for YY premium! So why do they still insist on putting shorts everywhere? If I want shitty short videos I’ll use TikTok

Subscriptions and even viewing history(?!) pull shorts out of order and place them at the top.

Hell, many times I launch YouTube and it immediately starts playing a short, no interaction required. And I have "show touches" on, so I know it's not a phantom tap or something, it's doing it all on its own.

YouTube pushes shorts insanely hard.

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

#60

Post by freetime2 »

close04 wrote: post #24
freetime2 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 think it's the algorithm. Occasionally I get recommended videos that are 5-8+ years old (so old in terms of Youtube years) with no new comments so presumably not getting a lot of recent views. But soon comes a wave of fresh comments wondering why they never discovered this video before. So the algorithm starts the cycle, not the organic user preferences. For this particular channel, I watched a bunch of his videos…

Old videos suddenly being heavily promoted again on YouTube is interesting. Sometimes there are obvious reasons, like this 6 year old video about the Straight of Hormuz that is recently making the rounds again [1]. Other times I think it's just the chaotic effects and constructive interference of 2.5 billion users interacting with 15 billion videos - like a rogue wave forming in the ocean.

There are two ways that I've noticed though that YouTube tends to consistently suggest older videos. One is when you first discover a new channel that you like and watch a few videos from that channel, YouTube will start recommending older videos from that channel until you've exhausted the back catalog (or lost interest).

The other way I've noticed is that when I hit the like button a video, YouTube will recommend it to me again after some time has passed. This also seems to depend on the type of video. Music videos are almost always recommended again after some time, while news videos almost never are.

I think these mechanisms are effective at driving traffic to older videos. If I look at my home page right now, most of it does tend to be newer content, but I'd estimate about 25% of it is more than a year old.

In response to your complaint about Berm Peak videos disappearing from your feed - obviously I don't know for certain, but is it possible that YouTube did suggest other Berm Peak videos after you watched a bunch of Reevo videos - but you didn't watch them? And that YouTube might have interpreted that as a lack of interest in the channel?

I've got a couple of channels that I consistently watch whenever they put out a new video. And I find that YouTube is really good about putting their videos at the top of my home page whenever a new video comes out.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udtVdDmSSoo

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