I was seriously excited about this bike. Oh well. I know there are a lot of other options for cool electric commuter bikes... but I liked this one.
Okay, I'll bite. Why? I've put about 350 miles on a Specialized Cirrus, about 1000 miles on a Raleigh somethingorother and about 3000 miles on a Marin San Rafael and I cannot, for the life of me, see any advantage to "rethinking" the bicycle. The fact that there are so many different ways to do "electric" that you can hide the motors in Tour De France bikes leads me to believe that insisting you're some sort of special flower because you won a contest only indicates that you'll never bust out of the Kickstarter ecosystem.
Oh - I wasn't excited about their hype - I just happen to like the idea of a decent looking, belt drivetrain, disc braked, e-option commuter bike. I don't think you can "re-invent" the bicycle. So if you have a suggestion for a cool looking commuter with an e-option - send it over.
I swore up and down I'd learn to ride a motorcycle if this thing shipped and the price dropped somewhere below wtf, but it wasn't to be.
As a matter of fact, electrical bikes are increasingly popular here in the Netherlands already. If I google 'e-bike' there's loads of choice. It became popular with older people first, but now it's trickling down to regular city bikes. My parents got two of 'em for their 5 mile commute and for weekend bike rides. I quite like them too, it is really easy to speed to your destination without breaking a sweat. Downside: the system is from Bosch so I'll keep the fire extinguisher nearby.