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I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]
- himata4113 4mo agoA bit of a tangent, but I hate the way this channel uses AI. There's moments where the creator doesn't really know what they're talking about so they ask AI which is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, I don't mind it! However, the way it's repeated verbatim mimicing the speech style of the creator is so offputting I don't really know how to describe it, sounds like someone trying to speak a language they don't know is the best way I can describe it. Might just be me though. edit: Actually the comment the creator left on the video is almost purely AI and is just as yuicky to read: "There are lots of questions about runaway Reevo mode, and it's a fun topic. Let's go deeper. First of all, I did add a "PAS Timeout" that turns off PAS after a few minutes, and is selectable in the menu. If you set this up from my Github repo, that feature is active. A lot of you also suggested a weight sensor on the seat, but that would disable pedal assist if you stood up out of the saddle, which is when you would need it most. Another suggestion was the dead man switch. That one would work! This is all fun to think about, so keep the ideas coming. I just MIGHT get another Reevo for myself."
- _def 4mo agoMaybe the trick is to own it - are AI vtubers already a thing?
- Forgeties79 4mo agoI can’t imagine having such a functional view of “consuming content” in my life that I’d ever want to watch that.
- jowsie 4mo agoNeuro-sama has been a thing for quite a while, and is much more interesting than ChatGPT in a waifu suit. https://youtube.com/channel/UCLHmLrj4pHHg3-iBJn_CqxA https://youtube.com/channel/UCLHmLrj4pHHg3-iBJn_CqxA
- wolttam 4mo agoIf you know Seth you know he kind of talks like that comment reads, and has for quite a while
- himata4113 4mo agoAs a very very very long time viewer I've only noticed this in last 10 videos where there's verbatim reads like this from time to time. Ironically where you can notice this the most is the same kind of video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPe3cY3oeu4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPe3cY3oeu4
- ehnto 4mo agoI've been watching Seth for years, that comment is pretty in line with his writing style. I expect he's using AI, but I don't think he would be lazy with it. I would expect him to prefer not replying at all over using AI to reply.
- ak217 4mo agoYou don't know much about Seth do you? That's not "AI", it's called a script.
- himata4113 4mo agoI've seen a pretty big percentage of his videos, dropped off past few years or so, but the writing style is heavily influenced by AI in some parts of the script. It might sound like Seth, but AI cannot replicate it perfectly and it just sounds very off.
- caconym_ 4mo agoThis comment doesn't seem obviously AI-written to me.
- red75prime 4mo agoIt seems to be Claude that was doing the majority of the work on the software, so I find it appropriate that Claude responses (as in Claude-in-a-harness-with-the-task-context-available responses) were passed through. Attribution should be clear though.
- jasonkester 4mo agoIf 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=PL5S7V5NhM8JSmKkteLJqCSj2jHaDAt1tx 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 as he does for spending a month building a cool bike jump and editing together one of those amazing videos on the playlist. If youtube rewarded evergreen stuff like that instead of cheap "reaction" videos, it'd be a much cooler place.
- freetime2 4mo agoIs 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 releases are much less frequent, and reviewers seem to have taken a hit). I think people just like gear. Should YouTube not show people what they like to see? I've watched some Berm Peak videos in the past and I mostly know the channel for its videos about builds/repairs, or his video about the history of valves. The mountain biking videos are good too, but only hold my interest for so long. If I want to see mountain biking I'm more likely to look at some of the stuff Red Bull is putting out.
- mulmen 4mo ago> Is it the YouTube algorithm's fault? Or viewer preferences? I didn’t read the rest of your comment but it’s the fault of the algorithm because that tail wags the dog. It’s physically impossible to watch all videos so we are all at the mercy of the (a) algorithm.
- jonplackett 4mo agoI’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
- Nevermark 4mo agoI have a red one and a blue one. In storage at the moment. I guess I won't be riding them anytime soon. But I am glad to know there is a way to resurrect/improve them!
- bdamm 4mo agoIf anything this video is kicking off a storm of amateur hacking enthusiasm for these wild bikes. Do us all a favor and sell yours!
- nrabulinski 4mo agoI 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 could do this work themselves, not only saving him money, but nerdsniping someone into hacking a bike. A win-win for everybody.
- globular-toast 4mo agoYep, we're becoming further and further apart by the day.
- fnands 4mo agoI'm pretty sure if he did that someone would complain that he is using people as free labour to increase his youtube revenues. It's impossible to do anything on the internet without someone in the peanut gallery telling you you are doing something wrong.
- antran22 4mo agoImagine 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".
- nrabulinski 4mo agoExcept 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
- molybd3num 4mo agothis is berm peak though, coding was never going to be the focus of the video
- utopiah 4mo agoI 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 trouble. It's the same with the App, if it's not open source relying on standard AND with existing, not upcoming, GadgetBrige support they will stop supporting your bike and brick it. Please, pretty please, as consumers who expect to keep on maintaining your bike over years, ASK your repair shop what THEY think is a good bike to fix. Not what is a good bike to ride. PS: I now ride a Fixie because screw CowBoy and all those e-bike startups who believe they are the new Apple. They aren't and I was the one paying for their delusion.
- DANmode 4mo ago> I now ride a Fixie With a conversion kit? ^_^
- thenthenthen 4mo agoWhen building my bikes I quickly found out that are no standard parts.
- kjkjadksj 4mo agoThere was a sweet spot where there was. My road bike frame is from the 80s or 90s. It was built for downtube shifting, but now it has brifters. It has mixed shimano group parts from a maybe 2 decade span of time. Quill adapter to use modern handlebars made over the last 2 decades. Pretty standardized 8 speed stuff.
- DANmode 4mo agoelectro magnet hubs that go on a particular “ size wheel are pretty standard in the US now!
- utopiah 4mo ago
- antran22 4mo agoAbsolutely insane how people could have bought a bicycle that will become (partially) useless if they don't connect it with a mobile app. Even if this bike have the build quality of a spaceship I wouldn't even touch it with a stick. Kudos to Seth for cracking the control on the bike, just so we can reclaim control of an appliance that we paid for with our own money, one that won't work because the maker can't be arsed enough to make it work without a mobile app. Related: Cory Doctorow's [Unauthorized Bread](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-...)
- WesSouza 4mo agoCan anyone explain why in the world they would use an electroluminescent light instead of a simple LED?
- kvdveer 4mo agoIn 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
- asimovDev 4mo agosomeone 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
- malfist 4mo agoYou don't use EL as a "full fledged front light", they don't have the lumen output and need a lot of support (high voltage) to produce what they do.
- shymasen 4mo agook AND
- shrx 4mo agoI was disappointed that he did not actually fix the two biggest safety issues with the bike: the runaway triggering positive feedback loop when walking the bike, and the backward-extending kick stand.
- BizarroLand 4mo agoI would leave stuff like that to an engineer and not some dude that fiddles with bikes on youtube.