Unclear if they are charged by battery swapping or being taken to a third location -- but either way in a world where they'd sell them would they not include a charger?
The motors likely use a relatively standard voltage/current & would very likely be amenable to a consumer e-bike battery— an expensive component, for sure, but much cheaper than a whole bike.
But it may be very expensive to design and manufacture a new charger, and they certainly don't want to sell the bikes to a bunch of techies who will stick random wires on them until 990 of them are happy and 10 generate news articles because they set their houses on fire with their hack.
I would suggest this forum is also supposed to be cordial and welcoming. I appreciate your "can-do" spirit, and would suggest a different way of portraying the sentiment --
"Wrenching on bikes is super fun and accessible to anyone with the systems inclination that would bring them to HN. Way easier to understand and fix bikes than, say, cars, and it is fun to have mastery of the machine -- or you can take it to your LBS for a fixup and support your local biking community in the process."
Jesus Christ that is madness. What kind of a world is it when an individual can try and sell some old stuff for cheap and end up in a law suit for 30K.
Yes, lawsuits can easily be abused as a form of asymmetric warfare, where they cost exceptionally little to initiate and exceptionally more to defend against even the most baseless and outrageous claim.
