Engineering feasibility study extending the studio's Ryobi battery ecosystem from fixed-base infrastructure to electric mobility. Ryobi 40V batteries are 36V nominal under load — a near-perfect voltage match for standard 36V ebike motor systems. The conversion is already a solved problem in the DIY community; the studio's contribution is editorial integration, design judgment, and the cargo trike + ebike cart variants.
The studio has already proven the Ryobi-as-universal-power thesis at fixed-base scale: GROW01-OG-spec-v0.2 demonstrates the Ryobi ecosystem running the entire microsystem (iDOO + BDRC + auxiliary loads) indefinitely with solar supplementation. B1KE extends the thesis to mobility. The same Ryobi batteries that power the GROW01-OG microsystem now power the studio's transportation.
The conversion is feasibility-proven: University of Pittsburgh engineering students open-sourced their build documentation (github.com/pittxprojects/ebike). The studio's role is build-and-refine, not invent-from-scratch.
Critical configuration: 2× Ryobi 40V batteries in parallel via Y-harness is the validated setup. Single battery trips BMS under load; dual battery shares current draw and runs reliably at 250–500W. All Ryobi batteries are hot-swappable — empty pack off, fresh pack on, no downtime.
Phase 0a · single-battery proof — one weekend. Donor bike + kit + 1× Ryobi battery + adapter. Wire per Pittsburgh documentation. Ride 10–15 km test routes. Validate basic thesis. Budget ~$650.
Phase 0b · dual-battery parallel — one weekend. Add second battery, fabricate Y-harness, validate BMS-trip elimination. Confirms recommended BOM.
Phase 0c · studio rebuild — 2–3 weeks part-time. Take validated config; rebuild with studio design judgment applied (custom mount, internalized routing, studio typography on display, catalogue photography). Ship as B1KE-001 reference build.
Phase 1 · cargo trike prototype — the studio's operational vehicle. Source used cargo trike, apply B1KE-001 learnings + mid-drive + 3-battery parallel.
The studio's broader argument — "one battery investment serves multiple deployments" — is much more credible with B1KE in the catalogue than without it. A customer evaluating the Hako or the GROW01-OG microsystem sees that the same Ryobi batteries also power transportation; overall ecosystem value-per-battery goes up significantly.
Same architectural move as the BDRC + GROW + SPORE catalogue working off shared infrastructure. B1KE makes the studio's universal-power thesis fully visible.