Review: I rode the ALSO TM-B E-Bike: Rivian Micromobility Startup’s First EV

[mkhuffman]

As someone who rides a cargo bike to the grocery store and to take the kids to/from school every single day, let me say: the ALSO bike is very compelling.

The price is great. Two of the best reviewed and best selling bikes in the cargo bike category are the Tern GSD and the HSD. The GSD is $7000 properly spec'd. The HSD is $5000.

The smart features are great. There isn't a bike out there that would allow me to walk up to it, see where I'm going on the map, and then walk away and not have to fumble with my massive lock. With two little kids in tow, that is super appealing.

The drivetrain is innovative. Every electric cargo bike out there is a hybrid of old school bike tech with new battery drivetrains bolted on after the fact. This seems like the first from-the-ground-up electric cargo bike. Compare a Rivian or a Tesla with any of the battery-in-engine-bay cars.

Seating is lmited. My biggest complaint is that it's small. This thing is great with one kid, but I don't see how I could have both kids on the bike. It's not going to replace the bigger cargo bikes like mine (a Bullitt). My only hope is that one day they will expand the offerings.

Could you bolt a second kid seat onto the cargo rack?

Sponsored

 

[SwampNut]

Could you bolt a second kid seat onto the cargo rack?

Duct tape the kid to the cross tube.

 

[R1S88]

here you go...TM-Q for multiple kid seats - not sure when it will be released

 

[DD4ST]

If anyone else is wondering, I asked via email a question about being able to switch out the seat for a wider one since this can’t be assumed from the radical redesign they did. The answer I got was it is switchable for a seat of the rider’s choice for the solo and cargo stems. The bench stem is not changeable.

 

[RMK1]

I just spent the day in San Francisco riding a bike unlike any other I’ve ever ridden. This is it. It’s not your average looking or functioning bike—and that may not come as a surprise once you hear it’s the result of that secret skunkworks project that spun out of automaker Rivian earlier this year. ALSO, that’s the company’s name. ALSO. Also, the ALSO TM-B (as it's called) costs $4,500. Yeah. But before you click away thinking this is just another absurdly priced Silicon Valley fever dream, you need to understand that this thing isn’t really a bike. It’s a vehicle—and that’s not some marketing mumbo-jumbo I’m being paid to say. ALSO didn't sponsor this, they have no editorial control, and no first preview rights. I’ll show you why I consider it a vehicle, but first, you need to understand that the $100B+ cycling industry is hurting with multiple large manufacturers filing for bankruptcy just this year.

Post-COVID retractions and new tariffs mean now is an awful time to launch a premium e-bike. Furthermore, the market is fractured: at the low end, you've got cheap Chinese bikes with primitive tech and zero margins. At the high end, the tech is great but prices are bonkers. DJI—the drone maker famous for undercutting everyone—just launched a bike reviewers are calling an incredible value… at eight thousand dollars.

And look, there's a sliver of the market buying recreational e-bikes who might stomach those prices. But most people adopting e-bikes want transportation—to replace car trips. And when your "affordable vehicle alternative" costs as much as a decent used Honda Civic, something's broken. The problem is mostly structural. Almost every e-bike maker is essentially an assembler buying white-labeled motors from Bosch or Bafang, batteries from Panasonic or Samsung, displays, controllers, and mechanical hardware from yet more vendors, and bolting it all together. Rad Power Bikes' entire value proposition is literally that: import everything, assemble cheap, undercut on price. Which works! But there's only so much innovation you can do with other people's parts. Everyone's bikes end up with similar capabilities, limitations, and pricing because everyone's paying the same suppliers for the same components. ALSO's solution is to stop treating e-bikes like bikes. Build a vertically integrated vehicle platform from the ground up—own the motors, batteries, electronics, software—exactly like Tesla did for electric cars. Or, ya know, like Rivian…

I’ll be honest: when I first saw the ALSO TM-B, I thought it looked ugly. There’s a step-through frame with this chunky centered abscess attached to a big downtube and seat post with wimpy looking brakes. But over two hours with it, it started to click… this isn’t styled like a bike. And I don't mean that in the pejorative "designed by committee" way—I mean it's clearly designed with manufacturing and functionality as the primary constraints, with aesthetics as a distant third.

There’s a chunky, structural, magnesium heart that houses almost everything: the motor mounts to it. The battery latches into it. The rear suspension pivots on it. The seat mates with it. And it utilizes "zonal architecture"—a term borrowed from automotive where instead of having electronics scattered all over the vehicle, you consolidate compute and power distribution into zones. For a bike, it means no cassette nor derailleur, no seat stay, no motor bolted to a frame that was designed before anyone knew a motor was going in. Everything crucial lives in this central hub. It's utilitarian in a way that saves cost and simplifies assembly, and honestly? I came around on it. There's something refreshingly honest about a design that says, "Here's where all the important stuff is, and we're not going to hide it." Form following function in a way that feels considered, not lazy.

That utilitarian, function-first philosophy extends way beyond the physical design—it's baked into the software stack too, and the first place you notice that is the display. They call it the "Portal," which is a bit dramatic, but whatever. It's a bright, high-contrast LCD mounted in the center of the handlebars that's easily visible even in direct sunlight. But the screen itself isn't the interesting part—it's what's running underneath: a real-time OS built from scratch, close to the metal, which means it's responsive and powerful in a way that e-bike displays just aren't. During the demo, I pulled the battery out to examine it—turn the handle, pull straight out, and you've got a 500 or 800 watt-hour pack depending on trim level. It's got 240-watt USB-C PD 3.1 bidirectional ports that can charge the battery itself or power anything else you plug into it, plus a little e-ink display shows state of charge. Anyways, when I slammed it back in, the display fired up instantly. No boot logo. No loading screen. Just on. Chris, the CEO, lit up when I pointed this out—apparently I was the first person in their demo cycle to notice. But it's a small example of what can be done when you have full control of everything: from pedal cadence, to assist curves, to brake feel. It also means they can push over-the-air updates to continuously improve the bike rather than leave it frozen in time. More importantly, the connectivity enables smartphone integration at a level that simply doesn't exist in the e-bike world—the kind of seamless experience you'd only find in the best electric cars.

It utilizes your phone as a key. Walk up to the bike, it wakes up, knows its you, and loads your settings. You hop on and go. Walk away, it locks. The motor physically immobilizes the rear wheel, the pedals decouple, the battery latches electronically. Motion sensors send you a push notification if someone tampers with it and a very loud alarm sounds to deter theft. If someone does actually manage to steal it, you can track it via GPS and remotely disable the entire bike. And while there’s also the potential for ALSO to use this for evil, every component is also serialized and bound to your bike unless you unbind it, eliminating the resale value for stolen parts.

This set of features addresses the worst part of bike ownership in the US: where do I park this thing and will it still be there when I get back? This eliminates the need for bike racks. No carrying a u-lock. Just park it and walk away. Like a vehicle. It’s frictionless.

Beyond security, there’s turn-by-turn navigation designed for cycling that actually accounts for your assist level, average speed, state of charge, and elevation. So you get accurate ETAs and arrival state of charge—critical if you’re using this as…. a vehicle. There’s media integration too. Whatever’s playing on your phone shows up on the display, you can control volume and seeking with the handlebar buttons. Incoming calls also pop up on the display asking if you want to accept or decline. These aren’t bike features. They’re vehicle features. And that distinction is what ALSO is betting on—that people (especially here in the US) will stop thinking: “I’m going to go for a bike ride” and start thinking: “I’m going to take my ALSO to get groceries at the farmers market.” Which we did, by the way, without having to park a car 5 blocks away—we just rode our vehicles straight through. It’s a paradigm shift, and I started to “get it.”

ALSO claims this multi-use functionality is enabled by their modular frame system. The pitch is simple: instead of buying multiple bikes for different purposes, you buy one TM-B and swap the top frame depending on what you're doing. There's a "Solo" frame for recreation, a "Utility" frame with a rear rack for hauling cargo or kids, and a "Comfort" frame with an upright seating position for people who don't identify as cyclists. You go into the settings menu, hit "swap frame," wait a couple seconds for the electric latch to release, lift off the old frame, pop on the new one, and it auto-detects everything—powering the integrated lights and adjusting the vehicle's ride settings based on expected load.

It's cool! Genuinely cool! And I can kinda see one legitimate use case: having two utility racks—one set up with a toddler seat for taking my kid to school, another configured with bins for grocery runs. But beyond that? I'm skeptical. How often is someone actually going to swap these? Does the rear rack suddenly become a burden when I want to ride up the canyon? I doubt it. I mean, it's an 80-pound e-bike. Really, the modularity aspect is most useful when multiple people in the home want to ride the same bike. You each have your own seat with your preferences paired to it and it's an easy swap. But that's also only necessary because there's no quick seat-post adjustment like most bikes have. You need to use an allen key. Now, ALSO wisely decided that most third-party bike accessories were already great and they didn't need to make many proprietary ones—though they will be selling a phone holster and bins that are the exact same size as a paper grocery bag, which is clever. Being compatible with stuff that already exists is great! But it also means accepting different mounting systems that are typically rather permanent once installed. Even ALSO's own custom front rack isn't that easily removable—you pressure clamp it onto the fork upper and it stays there. It feels like they started with this ambitious modular concept and then kind of gave up after the seat. Which, fine. Maybe modularity for modularity's sake isn't the point. But it does make me wonder if the complexity and cost of the electric latch system and serialized frames is justified when, in practice, most people will probably install one configuration and leave it there forever.

That said, despite being and looking the way that it does, the bike handles shockingly well. It's agile at low speeds and easy to maneuver in tight spaces (not typical of 80 pound e-bikes), but it's also stable at high speeds. I hit 31 miles per hour multiple times and it never felt twitchy or nervous. Part of that is geometry. They tuned head tube angle and trail to balance maneuverability with stability. Part of that is weight distribution. That magnesium heart puts the battery and motor low and central. More so than any e-bike on the market. But it's mostly suspension. Both the front and rear have a shocking amount of travel and the inverted front fork has enough adjustability that you can dial in a comfortable setup to absorb road bumps without it feeling sloppy or tighten it up when you need more feedback. Chris actually told me to intentionally hit a pothole to test it. So I did. And then a manhole cover. The bike soaked up both impacts without complaint—no harsh jarring, no loss of control—but it never felt slow or unresponsive either. Given that the retail price of this almost certainly white-labeled FOX fork is $2 grand alone, perhaps I should be unsurprised it was so good.

But the real party trick is the propulsion system they call Dream Ride. This bike is completely pedal-by-wire—the first of its kind. There's no mechanical connection between the pedals and the rear wheel. You pedal into a generator that converts your input to electrical energy, which the bike either sends to the motor or, if you’re generating more than it needs to output, into the battery. And that motor? It’s massive. ALSO built it in-house using a bar-wound stator—and extremely high-end technique you’d mostly only see in the best electric cars. Which, given where this comes from, makes sense. But it’s overkill for a bike in the best possible way. It’s also the first e-bike with real regenerative braking. While you can coast like a normal bike, as soon as you start to pull the brakes, energy is captured by your deceleration, run through inverters, and put back into the battery. And just like in a Rivian, the regen is really good. The bike can regen all the way down to a complete stop, and unless you’re biting into the handbrakes with a really aggressive braking event, you don’t use the friction brakes at all—which explains why the disk brakes appear to be a little undersized—because you basically never use them.

Upfront, you’ll also see something quite unusual: while most e-bikes have a wheel speed sensor that measures how often the front wheel finishes a complete rotation, the ALSO has a grid-type speed sensor that measures more than 60 times per revolution—more than any other bike on the market. The rear doesn’t even have one of these sensors—also unheard of—but that’s because it uses the much more accurate real-time input/output at the drive motor—which is possible because the belt is always spinning, which is possible because the pedals aren’t connected to the drivetrain at all. Not only does this allow them to implement a pseudo regen-controlled ABS system, but it also makes for the smoothest accelerating, gentlest braking, and most responsive e-bike I’ve ever used. It’s like the first time I drove an EV. Incredibly smooth, but also weird.

And this bike feels weird.

Because in the default automatic mode, there is no gearing because the bike literally doesn’t have gears. It's like an electric car. Now, there are “assist levels”—standard e-bike vernacular—but they're not really "assisting" you. Because you cannot move this bike without the bike moving itself. Remember, there is no physical connection to the rear wheel! At assist level one, the lowest setting, you top out at about 10 to 11 miles per hour. At assist level ten, you max out at the Class 3 speed limit of 28 mph. Maybe 30 if you're going downhill before the limiter kicks in. But here's the bizarre part: no matter what assist level you're in, the pedaling resistance feels the same. It's one long, predictable, consistent "gear." You go up a hill and there's zero resistance increase on the pedals. You go downhill and you pedal at the same speed with the same resistance. It's truly bizarre. Not in a bad way, but absolutely an adjustment. It feels like a vehicle, not like a bicycle.

Now, if you don't want that, there's a manual mode on all but the base-trim with 10 fixed ratios that you can shift through with the same handlebar buttons. Start peddling from a stop in 8th gear and there’s a ton of resistance—just like there would be in a high gear on a real bike—but it’s an artificial sensation created by resistance from the pedal stator. The best way to explain it is to just show you:



So yeah, the torque is absurd. It’s rated at 180 Newton-meters at the wheel—more than double what most e-bikes push. In max assist mode, if you stomp the pedals from a stop, the front wheel actually lifts. It’s like: “Oh, you want to go?” Chris told me one of their core safety goals was for the bike to out-accelerate a car at an intersection—specifically hitting 0.3 Gs, which is right at the line between normal and aggressive driving. And yeah, they nailed it. I took this thing up a legitimately steep Palo Alto hill—the kind where you’d normally downshift on a regular bike and resign yourself to a slow grind. While the motor was audibly working, hard, the bike held its maximum speed the entire way up. No slowdown. Just relentless forward motion. And the thing genuinely keeps up with traffic, which is kind of the point if you’re trying to use it for real transportation. The idea is that by accelerating like a vehicle—rather than like a bike—you’re less likely to get cut off or misjudged by drivers who expect cyclists to be slow and in the way. But there’s a trade-off: the more the bike behaves like a motorcycle, the more rider skill matters, and the more serious things get if something goes wrong. Speed can help you escape danger—but it can also amplify it.

Now, about regulations: the TM-B cleverly meets multiple e-bike classifications depending on mode. In off-road mode, it's limited to 20 mph and the throttle is disabled, making it a Class 1 bike—though there's a clever workaround where you can press the throttle while pedaling to get a slight boost because it creates artificial “half-gears.” In road mode, the throttle works up to 20 mph (Class 2) but pedal assist takes you to 28 mph (Class 3). It’s truly a class e-bike of all time.

Obviously, the more aggressively you ride, the more power you consume. And if you misjudge range, you're walking home or calling an Uber because remember, you cannot pedal unassisted—the pedals are just a video game controller. While the bike's 500 or 800 watt-hour battery seems to be on the small side, much of that energy is recaptured through regeneration. ALSO claims you'll get anywhere from 60 to 100 miles based on battery size and how you ride, which should cover most use cases.

Riding this bike was an absolute blast—the most fun I've had on any e-bike ever. But at the end of my two-hour ride, I was left with an uncomfortable question: who is this for?

You see, there will be three trims. A limited Launch Edition and a Performance trim—with the same capabilities, both at $4,500. Then, a base model will follow with the smaller battery, cheaper fork, automatic-only modes, and a price in the $3,000s. But even at those prices, the TM-B sits in no-man's-land. It's way more expensive than cheap Chinese e-bikes that still get you from A to B. But it's also not specialized enough to win over serious mountain bikers dropping $8,000+ on their rigs. Those buyers want proven trail capability, and the TM-B—despite its all-terrain package—isn't that bike. This is a high-performance urban vehicle that can handle gravel.

ALSO is betting there's a market in between. People who want quality transportation and will pay for features that genuinely make it better than a car for short trips. People who care about integrated software and phone-as-a-key. People in cities where parking is impossible and traffic is miserable. Maybe that market exists in San Francisco, Portland, Amsterdam, or Paris. In most of America? I'm less convinced.

But ALSO's real play seems to be commercial. They showed a number of four-wheeled cargo quad prototypes to replace golf carts and smaller vans for last-mile delivery, which are becoming increasingly desired in cities like New York, where they're permitted in bike lanes. And that's where all this vertical integration pays off. When you've already built all the hardware and own the software, adapting it to new form factors is trivial. Especially in a largely unregulated market such as this one—no crash or safety tests and years long certifications required. That's where they might actually have something.

The TM-B is unlike anything else out there. It made me rethink what a bicycle is and should be used for. So who's it for? Definitely not everybody. But it's for me. I've wanted to ride it again every single day since that demo, so I put down a deposit—not for the Launch Edition because I'm not into that colorway, but I'm getting one. Whether ALSO succeeds or fades into obscurity doesn't really matter. Someone needed to take this swing, and I'm glad it's them.

Thanks so much for watching, and as always, stay snazzy.

Great video review! Your video was one of the factors that prompted me to order the TM-B day one of the launch. I agree that I'd prefer the Performance models lack of pastels but I'm "also " impatient enough to not worry about it. I may decide to give that bike to my wife and get a Performance Model for myself rendering the point moot.

The one thing I think you may have missed was a long form interview with Chris where he said they have a limp home mode where the BMS maintains a small reserve at theoretical zero percent battery which allows pedaling regen at assist level 1 speed as far as needed. Of course common sense should prevail and with the overall range predictions of the TM-B is should be easy to avoid that slow mode possibility.

 

[RMK1]

If anyone else is wondering, I asked via email a question about being able to switch out the seat for a wider one since this can’t be assumed from the radical redesign they did. The answer I got was it is switchable for a seat of the rider’s choice for the solo and cargo stems. The bench stem is not changeable.

Good point ... the saddle, brake pads, rotors and tires are all standard bike parts. Even the Gates Belt drives should be user replaceable.

Personally, I'll stay with the OEM build parts as there was a lot of thought and discussion that went into the final products few outsourced components.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

Carbon saves very little weight. The other parts are the majority of the weight, such as motors and batteries. I have a high end CF bike but the savings compared to alloy is minimal according to the manufacturer.

When it comes to e-bikes the only really way to shave weight is to reduce the motor size and battery size.

Which really means giving up power and range in exchange for weight savings.

 

[KootenayEV]

As someone who rides a cargo bike to the grocery store and to take the kids to/from school every single day, let me say: the ALSO bike is very compelling.

The price is great. Two of the best reviewed and best selling bikes in the cargo bike category are the Tern GSD and the HSD. The GSD is $7000 properly spec'd. The HSD is $5000.

The smart features are great. There isn't a bike out there that would allow me to walk up to it, see where I'm going on the map, and then walk away and not have to fumble with my massive lock. With two little kids in tow, that is super appealing.

The drivetrain is innovative. Every electric cargo bike out there is a hybrid of old school bike tech with new battery drivetrains bolted on after the fact. This seems like the first from-the-ground-up electric cargo bike. Compare a Rivian or a Tesla with any of the battery-in-engine-bay cars.

Seating is lmited. My biggest complaint is that it's small. This thing is great with one kid, but I don't see how I could have both kids on the bike. It's not going to replace the bigger cargo bikes like mine (a Bullitt). My only hope is that one day they will expand the offerings.

I feel similarly, although my cargo bike no longer carries small humans (mine are now 14 and 16), so the shorter length of the cargo set-up is less of a potential hinderance for me.

The ALSO solves a few pain points I have with my current bike, and others I didn't know I had:
- I have a beefy lock that I find annoying to put on/off the bike multiple times on my stops in town
- Said lock doesn't fit easily into many of the racks that are common around my town
- I originally had my 2014 Edgerunner set-up with an after-market mid-drive motor that used the chain; consequently I wore through drivetrains fast. I moved to a custom hub motor & controller from Grin Technologies that is very powerful and alleviates the drivetrain issue to some degree, but even after playing with the parameters on the "back-end" of the controller, there is a limit to how integrated it all feels...
- My original mid-drive didn't have regen braking, which in my town of many hills actually felt a bit scary sometimes with cable disc brakes a full load. My newer hub motor DOES have regen, and it is pretty strong, which I've greatly appreciated, but again, there is a limit to how integrated it feels and it is nowhere near as smooth as my EVs
- Neither of my drivetrains have been able to accept a belt-drive; my wife has had a Faraday Cortland (an absolutely stunning bike from several years ago with a few annoying maintenance caveats) with belt drive and I've wanted a belt drive ever since!
- I ride listening to music and having an easy way to skip songs etc would be fantastic
- Easy charging options also would be appreciated! I do have a ~1 kWh battery pack so I rarely need charging out and about, but when I think I might, I have a giant charger I need to pack along.
- My bike lights are the attachable variety, so 2 more things I need to remember to charge
- Portions of my commute have pretty bumpy spots, enough so that I break eggs on occasion, and/or have to move further into traffic to avoid shoulder hazards - suspension should help with both of those.
- Lastly, I've often thought I would like to check out some of the local forest roads on an e-bike, but my current cargo bike isn't suitable for gravel roads, nor is it easy to get anywhere in a vehicle due to its length and weight. Should be possible with this bike.

Personally I wouldn't intend to ride this on actual mountain bike trails, as I'm more into the enduro and DH scene and have dedicated analogue bike(s) for that (Pivot Firebird, etc), so whether it can perform at that task is moot. One day I might get an e-MTB, but would likely stick with something more traditional where I know the geometry etc.

 

[Engi_Nerd]

I have a $3K Turbo Vado that has integrated software locking and alarm (though no tracking) and I use it in combination with an expensive grinder-resistant U-lock from Hiplok. I am still not comfortable leaving that bike unsupervised for really any length of time, particularly with the battery left in the frame.

Also has done mostly everything they can here, and the motion alerts are nice, but I do think there's room for innovation in the bike security space. An integral battery that can run the security features for a few hours with the main battery removed would be nice, allowing you to bring half the bike's value with you and charge at your destination without losing security. Further still, I feel like the bike's cell connection could enable something like Tesla's sentry mode. Pop on a 360 camera to a dedicated terminal and if your bike is stolen, you get cloud-based footage of who stole it.

 

[Dman250]

I hear you on that. I also suspect that it would be fairly trivial to add GPS based restrictions for trails given the bike has on-board GPS and cellular connectivity should they decide to do so voluntarily or following new regulation.

GPS maybe. The good riding spots often don’t have any cellular connectivity. Which is a good thing

 

[DD4ST]

Personally, I'll stay with the OEM build parts as there was a lot of thought and discussion that went into the final products few outsourced components.

There is no way they can design a saddle (seat) that fits all varieties of rear ends and riding styles. In fact, I suspect marketing had just as much to do with which saddle chosen. Put on a sleek, athletic seat to attract the hard core riders that are more likely to pay the higher price.

 

[Dman250]

I still think people will pick it up and take it away and then part it out in bad areas. Im in the sticks so not a problem for me.

I’m not sure GPS or alarm will do much after thieves get familiar with them. Probably a single wire cut or just a smack on the stem mounted display unit could put that out of commission.

 

[thrill]

I’m not sure GPS or alarm will do much after thieves get familiar with them. Probably a single wire cut or just a smack on the stem mounted display unit could put that out of commission.

It’d be trivial to jam. But security doesn’t need to stop everything - or it’d cost more than the product. It’s just needs to stop enough to keep the insurance palatable.

 

[RMK1]

This review by missgoelectric is the best, most detailed I've seen. Many misconceptions about the Also TM-B are addressed. It's a long form video and not good for short attention spans or folks that would never consider paying $4500 for an ebike. BTW, msiigoelectric owns a Rivian and has done high quality detailed reviews on over 100 ebikes and she knows a lot more than most on the topic.

 

[RMK1]

There is no way they can design a saddle (seat) that fits all varieties of rear ends and riding styles. In fact, I suspect marketing had just as much to do with which saddle chosen. Put on a sleek, athletic seat to attract the hard core riders that are more likely to pay the higher price.

By saying the marketing department (by the way, his name is Steve) put a "sleek athletic saddle" on the bike to attract the "hard core riders" you're implying people with certain body habitus were not considered. The seat has a standard mount that would allow just about any seat to be scabbed on.
It might destroy the bikes aesthetic butt then, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Doesn't sound like you are going to be a customer due to the seat and price so I hope you find a bike that is a better fit.

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