r/ALSOmicromobility

Took delivery of my Launch Edition Friday, got it assembled and have ridden it around 25 miles since. It’s beautiful.

Assembly wasn’t too difficult, but did take a while. I did end up re-seating the front wheel after noticing I had misaligned it a touch the first time. It’s definitely a precise assembly, but the included torque wrench made it straightforward. I think ALSO could stand to strengthen a few parts of the shipping box design, because FedEx beat the living hell out of it and there was quite a bit of damage to the box. Thankfully, everything inside was OK.

I have never owned an e-bike before, so I’m coming from riding a cruiser around the neighborhood for the last 10 years. I was absolutely blown away by the ride of this bike. The shocks made some of our abysmal road surfaces feel quite smooth. I was able to maintain a near-20mph hour speed up a very steep hill that, in the past, has been extremely painful to ride up or I’ve mostly avoided. It was thrilling. I’ve suddenly shifted my bike-riding thinking from “cruising around the neighborhood” to “I could go anywhere” which is really amazing. I can’t wait to get the front storage accessory so I can actually carry more stuff conveniently.

My only complaints about this bike are that it is quite loud, and that the handlebar design is not as comfortable as I think it could be. I find the placement of the turn signal buttons a little awkward, and the foam grips are not doing much for hand comfort. Noise-wise… my god this thing is louder than my Rivian. You couldn’t sneak up on anyone on this bike—they can hear you coming from a block away.

As other folks have probably mentioned, ALSO did not ship my ordered fenders with my bike. I assume that’s because of whatever redesign they’re doing there. Here in the PNW it is not an issue yet, but will be soon since rainy season starts in a few weeks and riding without fenders then would be a real mess.

Happy to answer any other questions, and excited for others to get their bikes soon! The wait was worth it, in my opinion.

We had a blast as usual. Rode from EVO in Fremont up and up and up towards Queen Anne until we got to this great viewpoint where we could see Gasworks Park and so much more...

The ride back was fun too, except for the draw bridge. 😁

I'm putting this up here both to hopefully crowd source some answers but also for others to place questions they have on the Alpha Wave helmet so that ALSO can see what's unknown in the community in one spot.

I've tried to go back and review material on Alpha Wave but specifics are scarce. I did email one of the folks at the Virginia Tech helmet lab and he was complimentary of the RLS technology overall from previous testing on other helmets, calling it "effective" at reducing rotational head kinematics. That being said, I still have some questions on the Alpha Wave helmet.

1. Has/will the helmet undergo third party testing? Ideally the Virginia Tech helmet lab.

2. What are the full crash ratings? I see claims of 4x reduction in concussion risk, presumably anchored by the RLS. Beyond concerns with the ambiquity of '4x,' what about impact protection performance? Do all the high-tech features hamper that aspect of safety?

3. Do the rear LEDs link up with braking or turn signals? Marketing seems to indicate its just a static set of red lights, which seems like a huge wasted opportunity. Some articles talk of syncing with the bike though, so unclear.

4. What is the battery life? I know the answer is "it depends," however I just need to know the scale. Are we talking 30 mins? 4 hours?

5. How are the lights controlled? I presume bluetooth via the phone, but hopefully there are physical buttons. I know there is a physical power button on the back.

6. Once the helmet is crashed is any of it salvagable? I believe helmets are discarded after a crash, but can the smart components be salvaged and fixed to a new helmet? Big e-waste concerns.

7. What is the replacement period? Goes back to if I can reuse any of the electronic pieces.

If anyone knows some info related to these I'd love to hear more insights. If you have other questions please add them in the comments.

Edit: Found this image showing the RLS zones on the helmet. Interesting that there is no RLS zone on the very back of the helmet. I think I can rationalize it by the fact that a sliding surface won't really help reduce rotational forces from an impact in that area. It's also mostly lights anyway, so tradeoff of crash prevention vs protection. It does bring up another question.

8. What happens to the battery if there is a hard impact on the back of the helmet? Is there enough padding there for a direct impact protection? Is there a fire risk?