Business Insider's Lloyd Lee met with ALSO's team to try the startups $4,500 e-bike.
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ALSO is an e-bike company that began as a skunkworks division inside Rivian in 2022.
The startup has doubled in size, from 70 to over 150 workers, and is expanding to a second office.
Business Insider met the team behind ALSO's $4,500 modular e-bike.
I'm addicted to my car.
Even in a densely-packed city like San Francisco, I couldn't imagine getting around without it.
But I also hate my car.
It's a little silly to think that I need to start and stop a couple-ton vehicle just to drive a few minutes to my friend's house or to grab groceries. I also think about the painful amount of money I've spent due to a cracked wheel from a pothole, flattened tires from a perfectly placed nail, or the driver who sideswiped me after they blew a red light. That was all within the past year.
If I could get rid of my car, I would.
ALSO, a startup that began as a skunkworks inside Rivian is trying really hard to replace our large vehicles — at least for some trips.
"The name ALSO is very intentional. It's not an either-or proposition," Ben Steele, ALSO's chief commercial officer, told me. "I think what we're really seeking to do with our products is to say to people: 'The unexamined choice of just defaulting to a car? We want to reframe that for you.'"
I met the executives of ALSO on a Saturday afternoon at their office in Palo Alto, just across the street from Rivian's office, where they gave me a chance to try the product: a $4,500 e-bike. ALSO is calling it the T-MB for "Transcendent Mobility Bike."
Chris Yu, the president of the startup, told me that the "genesis" behind ALSO was simple: "Why doesn't that magical experience you get out of a Rivian exist in anything smaller than a car?"
Having seen the bike up close and hearing the executives talk about the TM-B, I can clearly see where Rivian's vertically integrated approach and even the design language are ingrained into the bike.
Yu said the startup is growing, from about 75 employees in March to over 150 employees today. ALSO is building a second office, located less than a mile away.
Here's a closer look at the TM-B and the executives behind ALSO.
Yu not only worked at another e-bike company, but is also a dad who takes his son to school on a bike
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Yu has an extensive background in biking.
He told me he raced competitively in college and continued to do so throughout his years at Specialized Bicycle Components, a bike manufacturer, where he spent more than 10 years and led the company as the chief product and technology officer.
Yu's not doing much racing these days, but he still bikes often with his son.
Yu said he'd take his sonto school on the back of his bike, one of the use cases ALSO kept in mind for the development of the TM-B. Both the father and son are intimately aware of the pain points for e-bikes.
"Every other bike that we've used when we hit potholes and the speed bump in his school parking lot, he'd always get bounced around, and he always just thought that was the norm," Yu said.
"The payload capacity to carry a 75-pound kid on the back does not exist," he added.
The TM-B is a modular e-bike ALSO aimed to build for everyone
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Yu said that the TM-B was designed with a one-bike-fits-all approach. He said that one of the first pain points for consumers is deciding which type of e-bike to buy in the first place.
"We wanted to build in as much breadth of personality, utility, and capability into one platform as much as possible to remove that kind of initial friction and pain point," Yu said.
I had the opportunity to try the launch edition, which has a starting price of $4,500. The base edition will start under $4,000. ALSO plans to launch in 2026.
The pedals are not attached to a chain, and the TM-B does not have gear shifting
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The TM-B stands apart from most e-bikes on the market due to its pedal-by-wire system. That means the pedals aren't mechanically linked to a chain that moves the tires. Instead, the pedals are attached to a generator, which provides the power to move you forward.
That also means there's no gear shifting in the traditional sense. There is a manual mode where you can "shift" gears, and you'll feel a haptic feedback on the pedals that indicates when you're changing gears.
I found that this propulsion system made going up a hill seamless. The bike didn't require much more pedaling effort when I went up a hill.
The TM-B is a class 3 bike, giving a pedal-assist speed of up to 28 mph and a throttle that assists the rider for up to 20 mph.
The bike can achieve a range of up to 100 miles, depending on the battery pack size
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A standard battery pack delivers up to 60 miles of range. The large battery pack provides up to 100 miles of range.
The regenerative braking system can extend the range by around 25%, according to the company.
Riders can also use the battery as a portable charger for their electronic devices.
Walk up to the bike, and the TM-B turns on
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Much like a Rivian, a rider can walk up to the TM-B to turn on the bike since it's connected to the user's phone.
It's a "software-defined" bike, Yu said, which allows for over-the-air updates and an easy user experience straight out of the box.
ALSO added security features to help riders treat their bike like a car
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At around 70 pounds, the TM-B is not a traditional bike that a rider would lug up several floors of their apartment building.
Yu said the company envisions riders treating the bike more like a car that you could feel comfortable leaving inside a parking structure.
Kelly Veit, VP of software, said the bike is equipped with Wi-Fi, LTE, and GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) connectivity for location tracking purposes and anti-theft protection.
If the bike senses motion, the owner is alerted on their phone. If the bike is stolen, the owner can track its location and "brick" it, making it essentially unrideable.
ALSO will have different seat attachments that you can swap at the click of a button
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ALSO executives showed me three attachments: one for the solo rider, one that allows for up to 75 pounds of payload, including a small child or groceries, and a "bench" for more comfortable riding.
This e-bike has turn signals
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All the modular seat attachments are equipped with lights on the back that also serve as turn signals.
For bikers, that means no longer having to stick their arm out to indicate when they're about to make a turn.
The headlight resembles Rivian's design and function
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The headlight serves as a daytime running light and a turn signal.
Yu said that the light can also indicate the battery charge status and show the progress of over-the-air updates.
The orange throttle button helps users 'ride with traffic'
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The throttle on the TM-B is set to a maximum speed of 20 mph, as per federal regulations for e-bikes, allowing the bike to reach that speed without pedaling.
Saul Leiken, director of product line, said the bike was designed to accelerate "basically as fast as a car can coming off of a stop sign."
"I'm not talking a zero to 60 type of thing," he said, "but if you're running a little late to work, that allows you to ride with traffic instead of being in traffic's way."
Yu said the throttle is helpful to quickly move out of intersections.
Yu said the service expectation should be more like an EV than a traditional e-bike
Lloyd Lee/BI
Due to its fewer moving parts, Yu said the frequency of servicing the T-MB should be much lower than that of traditional bikes.
The president said ALSO is working on several ways for riders to bring in their bikes: a "small brick-and-mortar footprint across the country," a mobile service fleet, and a network of authorized service providers.
Additionally, ALSO can notify users via telemetry if there is an issue with the bike, he said.
