

New wheel for your bicycle: The Copenhagen wheel - boskom
http://senseable.mit.edu/copenhagenwheel/index.html
Elegant design, controlled via phone, on which your performance data and environmental conditions (pollution) are stored, and more...
======
ax0n
It's not that this isn't cool, because the gadget factor is pretty high... but
normal (read: average fat American) people don't need this.

I'm a 230 pound dude. I'm probably 20-30% body fat. Heck, maybe more. I've put
5,000 miles on a normal bicycle in one year, including a 130+ mile ride in one
single day on a mountain bike. I bicycle commute year round in Kansas City.
This time of year I ride to the bus stop (5-7 miles round trip depending on my
schedule and which buses I take) but quite often, I do the whole round trip by
bike alone, which is 29 miles per day. I've driven to work once in the last 2
years. Almost all of my riding is for basic transportation, so I'm not one of
those spandex-clad weekend-mile superheroes. I'm not fast, either. It's just
efficient, and it makes sense most of the time. If I can do it without
electric assist, pretty much anyone can.

That said, there's this whole "I'm Going Green™!" thing going on. And it's not
that that's a bad thing either. Efficiency, sustainability and stewardship are
great things.

This new wheel, however, actually makes the bike+human machine less efficient.
It may have enough gee-whiz factor to get people to ride, but the chances of
those people throwing their new hybrid-wheeled-bike onto the roof rack of
their Hummer H2 and driving 3 miles to the nearest multi-use-path trailhead
are probably rather high. I have my doubts it'll get many people to drive less
and ride more.

~~~
10ren
If it stored energy when braking, it would be more efficient.

But on my bike, I only really brake in rare situations, for safety reasons
(cars); unfortunately, friction automatically supplies adequate braking for
me.

I also choose paths that minimize braking. I guess it's possible that that
might change if I had a bike that efficiently stored/applied energy, so that
it was as if the braking hadn't occurred. But I don't think so; for one thing,
it would be no where near 100% efficient.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
It's only more efficient if it regenerates enough energy from braking to
compensate for the extra weight you're carrying which is highly unlikely,
particularly extra weight on a wheel since that requires 1.5-2 times the
energy to shift compared with the same mass added to the frame
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_performance#Kinetic_ene...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_performance#Kinetic_energy)).

You might still benefit if you need an electrical boost provided by energy
from the grid but normal bikes hit a pretty sweet spot, so I'm thinking this
is mostly _gimmick_.

~~~
10ren
Oh gimmick it is. It's just that the spring-sprung-brake concept has
fascinated me since I was 5 yo. It would be cool to make this work; if
sufficiently light, it would be a net win.

------
10ren
Switching from a petrol-powered car to hybrid power makes sense.

Switching from a human-powered bicycle to a hybrid is not as compelling.

~~~
natrius
It makes sense for hills, though it's not much of a win over a normal
electric-assist bike. The energy involved seems like it would be a rounding
error.

------
tjic
"You can use your phone to shift gears".

I'm looking at the calendar, and it doesn't appear to be April 1st...

Who wants this?

I've got $100 that says that this is just more grad student wankery that will
never amount to anything, because it solves "problems" that don't actually
exist (in the sense that no one would pay for the product).

------
chancho
"You can use your phone to unlock and lock your bike, change gears and select
how much the motor assists you."

I'm guessing that "changing gears" is something that people in Copenhagen do
rarely, perhaps using a wrench, like when you first get the bike or hook up a
trailer. I miss flat cities.

On the other hand, a voice control gear changing app might be fun. I picture a
dude on an all-white bike (tires too) wearing a clear-vinyl trench coat,
telling his bike to "gear UP!" "gear Down...". The future is now.

------
jluxenberg
Looks like, in addition to regenerative braking, the wheel gives you all sorts
of statistics about your ride. Seems like this could be more easily
accomplished with a bike computer (even one permanently attached to your back
wheel would be lighter and less machinery than a regenerative braking system +
motor).

------
walkon
The motor assistance feature looks interesting. Aren't bikes supposed to be
light? I would guess that the benefit of having a motor and batteries that can
provide worthwhile assistance would be counteracted by the fact that there's
that much more weight to move around all the time.

~~~
jrockway
Bikes don't need to be light, the bike + rider combo needs to be light. If you
are 200 pounds, the difference between a 20 pound and 30 pound bike is a
rounding error.

Anecdote: I don't notice much change in bike handling even when I have 40
pounds of groceries on the back. I do notice the difference between my
22-pound utility bike and 18-pound racing bike, though. Not because of the
weight, but because of the very different geometry. (I think this is why
people think light bikes are fast - racing bikes do feel faster. But it's not
their weight, it's the very tight geometry that would be unsuitable for a
touring bike.)

------
brc
Just why would anyone really want to measure pollution on their ride. It's
like measuring the temperature : interesting to know but precious little is
added by the accuracy. You don't need to know the exact temperature to know
when to put on a coat, you don't need to know the Nox readings to tell if one
path has more pollution than another. Pointless gold plating.

------
spicyj
So when will it be on the market?

------
pmorici
I'm curious how much that thing weighs. If it adds a lot of heft to the bike
that is going to make it require more human effort to drive it to begin with.

------
john_oshea
I wonder what the break-even mileage savings (to "cover" the cost of building
one in the first place) for one of these would be?

------
cmars232
This is real, not a joke, right?

------
joe_the_user
As a cyclist, I just find this creepy.

I like technology but my bike has nothing on that I can't understand at a
glance. Keeping it that way is good.

~~~
chancho
So if a part on your bike breaks then you're gonna cast a new one out of raw
metal? Machine it yourself? How is this different than any other part you have
to replace?

It's an electric motor, a battery and a cellphone in a red plastic shell.
Nothing to get religious about.

~~~
xuhu
If an analogy helps, think of a traditional hard-disk in your workout mp3
player.

------
albertcardona
That it retrofits without cables onto any bike is just it. Plenty of business
for this wheel in Copenhagen itself, Amsterdam, and other cycle-able cities.
The Facebook part they could have left out IMO.

