Mid-motor with derailleur gears: this is the recipe for success for e-bikes, and this recipe comes from Bosch. The assistance is powerful, the shifting performance is good, the uphill flow is just right. But the recipe is old, devised at the end of the noughties, the bikes are heavy, and the wear and tear on the drive and the associated costs are high. And it's not as if there are no alternatives: Pinion will be demonstrating at Eurobike 2023 how to marry the e-bike motor with a gearbox. Such an innovation from Reutlingen (Gerlingen-Schillerhöhe to be precise) would actually have been expected.

However, the Bosch makers are losing themselves in connectivity and numerous display variations. It's nice that the systems are now so-called smart and that people are spending even more time on their smartphones. But these are not substantial innovations, they are just added value.

Bosch also simply overslept the light assist party. In an interview with Ride in 2015, Bosch e-bike boss Claus Fleischer was already talking about e-bikes with smaller batteries, moderate power and lower weight. The Swabians have taken until 2023 to launch such a system: This raises doubts as to whether the innovation engine in the Ländle is running smoothly.