More here - "FlyKly’s Smart Wheel snaps onto your bike for 20MPH pedal assist "
I haven’t looked at this particular one, but in general gee-whiz electric/pedal bicycles are like the Segway – neat engineering, but there are very very few people that it actually makes sense for.
The problem is that electric drives are heavy enough to seriously affect pedaling the bike – much more effort to pedal and less fun to steer. So nobody who rides a bicycle (without a motor) much will use one long term. But at the same time, they don’t have enough power or range to let someone just ride all the way like a motorcycle; they’re going to have to pedal a fair amount. So nobody who doesn’t ride a bicycle much will use one either.
There’s are certainly people who want to pedal seriously, but because of some health issue can’t pedal too much. But nearly all of those people can ride an exercise bike or just take a ride that’s the length they can do. There are possibly some of those people who have a particular ride they must do, but not very many. And they’re about the only real valid users of this. (Other than people who buy it and use it for a little while because it’s cool).
Correct me if I’m wrong but I’ve always heard that most of these peddle assists devices are underpowered when going up steep hills. Any “next big thing” has to solve that problem.
PA bikes are more than a gimmick and are very practical for some specific uses. Newer models are quite capable of negotiating hills. For an example, consider this OutsideOnline review.
This presupposes that one is willing to buy a purpose-built bike. Slapping an electric motor on any old bicycle you happen to have around is not likely to yield optimal results.