Interesting and informative thread. Even before the comments that followed mine, I'd fine-tune my comment from, "Sounds like my kind of company" to, "If I had to choose, I'd take engineering chops over social skills." I'm not sure how much deviation one can reasonably expect/accept from initial Kickstarter specification claims to a final product. I'm mostly referring to the weight discrepancy. Should they have offered refunds to initial backers when they realized it would be heavier than claimed? Probably. As for the price, didn't the initial backers get the bikes at the early-investor price? After that, the company can charge anything they want. Maybe (probably) I'm missing something on this point. As for Jipe's review, it's not comprehensive but it says a lot from someone who is actually riding one of these bikes every day. Maybe the consensus, once there are some reviews, will not deem the bike a masterpiece. But I'm glad someone who bought one, and who seems to know his stuff, is so pleased with his investment.

The one thing that really annoyed me, to the extent that I wasn't so disappointed to be outbid in the last 5 seconds of an eBay auction, was a comment on YouTube that mentions "no instructions in the box, but the company is working that..." Screw that. How long does it take to make a one-page cheat sheet?

Thanks for a enjoyable introduction to Bike Forums.