Imagine cruising along on your e-bike when the motor cuts out or you find that your tyre is flat. You’re standing there, sixty pounds of bike beside you, a kid wailing because they’ll be late for daycare, and the nearest bike shop is seven miles away. The bike’s too heavy to push, too awkward to fix yourself and neither Lyft, Uber, nor AAA is coming to your rescue. What do you do?
If you’re in Seattle, there’s now a solution for that, one that many cities across the U.S. could benefit from.
The Problem
Some 15% of Americans now own an e-bike, a number that’s climbed steadily since the pandemic as more households go car-light. E-bikes make light work of hauling cargo and conquering hills, but when one breaks down, convenience quickly turns to complication.
Traditional roadside services were designed for cars, not e-cargo bikes. Even companies that advertise bicycle coverage may require additional motorcycle plans for e-bikes and often outsource to general tow-truck operators, resulting in long wait times and improper handling of the bikes.
Uber and Lyft aren’t much help either. Most e-bikes are too big or too heavy to fit in a car, and few rideshare vehicles have racks strong enough to hold a 40- to 80-pound bike. So a simple flat tyre or broken chain can derail your entire day.
Seattleite Tyler Swartz saw that problem firsthand and came up with a simple but much-needed solution: a AAA-style rescue service for e-bikes.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The Solution
Swartz had always dreamed of running his own business. He’d spent his career in tech but kept tinkering with side projects that never quite stuck. “I’d always had a full-time job, but nothing I worked on was something I was truly passionate about,” he tells Cycling Weekly.
In 2023, the day after learning his wife was pregnant with their third child, Swartz was laid off from Reddit. Instead of panicking, he saw it as a turning point. “I did some soul searching,” he recalls. “I realised I really enjoyed bike stuff.”
A former amateur bike racer turned e-bike enthusiast, Swartz began writing e-bike reviews and affiliate content, but content creation wasn’t his path. Then his brother called from Florida, describing how he’d been stranded with his e-bike and suggesting someone should start a “AAA for bikes.”
At first, Swartz dismissed the idea. “It just sounds really hard,” he remembers thinking. But as he ferried his kids around Seattle on his e-cargo bike and struggled to get his wife’s broken e-bike to a shop, the pain point became impossible to ignore.
The more he thought about it, the more the business model made sense: a prepaid membership, similar to insurance, where members pay up front for guaranteed help when things go wrong. “This business model exists in many other places,” he says. “Why can’t it exist for cyclists, too?”
And so, Speedy’s E-Bike Rescue was born, built to make “caring for an e-bike as pleasant and painless as riding it.”
The model is straightforward: $79 a year covers an entire household and all its bikes, with up to six rescues annually. If stranded, Speedy’s offers a 90-minute rescue guarantee within the greater Seattle area. Its electric van, purpose-built for transporting e-bikes, arrives with trained drivers who know how to handle heavy frames and sensitive components.
Swartz, utilising his tech background, also built a custom app that lets members schedule pickups, track their rescue in real time and manage their accounts.
Beyond rescues, members can also use their plan for scheduled transport to and from bike shops for maintenance or new-bike delivery. Since its launch in February 2024, Speedy’s has completed more than 245 service trips and grown to 275 active members, up from 100 in January 2025.
Swartz says that flat tyres are by far the most common issue, followed by drivetrain problems like snapped chains or bent derailleurs.
Due to liability concerns, Speedy’s does not offer mobile repairs. Instead, it partners with more than 15 local bike shops to deliver customers directly to expert mechanics.
“They’re the experts,” Swartz says, noting that customers can choose their preferred shop. Some stores, such as Dandelion e-Bikes, even include a one-year Speedy’s membership with every new e-bike purchase, while others promote the service in-store.
“A premium service for a premium product,” Swartz said.
The quick response and dedicated service have struck a chord with riders who previously relied on patchwork solutions. About 30 to 40% of Speedy’s new members, Swartz notes, sign up on the spot while stranded, joining and requesting a rescue all within the same call.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The Future
Currently, Speedy’s averages three to five scheduled transports per week and one to three emergencies. It operates with one purpose-built van and six drivers, including Swartz himself.
The company plans to expand its fleet in 2026, and Swartz is eyeing other bike-friendly cities such as Portland and San Francisco once the Seattle model reaches 500 to 1,000 members.
“The goal is 5,000 to 10,000 members per city and 30 cities overall,” Swartz says, adding that the long-term vision is for Speedy’s to become “like AAA for cars, but better aligned with the cycling community values.”
As e-bike adoption increases, the need for reliable support is only growing. Speedy’s may have started as a one-man-and-a-van operation, but the idea has the potential to scale nationally.
“I’m kind of surprised it didn’t exist already,” Swartz says. “But I think it’s just about figuring out the business model and making sure it works because the need is certainly there.”
