Copenhagen Wheel??

[Pavel]

Any thoughts on technology like this?  I'm normally not at all a fan of electric assist anything, but this one seems kind of intriguing, and it is reasonably prices.

http://newatlas.com/superpedestrian-mit-copenhagen-wheel/29994/

https://content.superpedestrian.com

[Tiberius]

The good bit....It's clever and simple to fit.

The bad bit.....It would APPEAR that it has to integrate with a smart phone.

Not for me.

[John Saxby]

it has to integrate with a smart phone

As described, for sure. Bummer, and surely not necessary (not to mention the fact that some of us like to switch the damn phones off.) During a visit to Nelson, BC, last summer (a contender for World's Hilliest Town), I rode my friends' Pedego e-bikes.  These bikes have a rheostat to control the amount of electrical assist. The rider can pre-set the assist, or can operate it like a motorcycle throttle.  I found the latter esp useful, for example, starting uphill on 24% grade.

[Pavel]

when I first read the article, the price of 699 was mentioned.  It turns out that the actual sale price is 1500 bucks.  No thanks, at that amount.  I too would rather some manual way to control a thing like this and yes, I too turn off the phone except for maybe twice a day for a few minutes.

Oh well, back to sweating and panting up hills. 

[energyman]

I think the price will drop when they move manufacturing to China !

[Andre Jute]

I think the price will drop when they move manufacturing to China !

I think the price will drop to zero when they go off the market. This thing isn't even a lifestyle option, which would be tiresome enough, it is a gimmick to put money in the pockets of pushers of dreams.

***

I have a bike with a motor that I use all the time; it's my fave bike. My phone also goes on this bike, to measure my heart rate, because I operate the motor to keep my heart rate within bounds. First off, I can't therefore assign the phone to another function. Forget swiping. How will you swipe when you wear gloves in winter? What happens to the phone when it rains? This Copenhagen Wheel is an ill-thought-out, unergonomic disaster.

Here's another one. My fave bike is heavy, and I make no effort to lighten it. I thought nothing recently, when I had slow air leaks, of carrying my garage pump, a tall, heavy  SKS Rennkompressor (you see plenty of them on the TdF) in the pannier basket on long country rides, simply to save the frustration and back pain of trying to inflate Big Apples with a minipump. Okay, so I don't wheel this big, heavy bike around blithely, because I have the motor, which has a stair climbing facility. Basically, you press one of the multifunction buttons on the bike's computer control and hold it, and the bike walks itself at 6kph, which is pretty fast. Now imagine trying to steer a big, heavy, fully loaded touring bike at a stiff walking speed with one hand while operating the virtual parking button on your phone with the other. Alternatively try to imagine a clip which will hold your phone steady while you mash down on the button with a hand also steering the bike.

I don't even want to imagine the disasters this sort of carelessly trendiness brings in its wake.

I have a name for the Copenhagen Wheel type of invention: Instant Garage Clutter.

The advertising for the Copenhagen Wheel is extremely professional. But what it says to another professional in the same trade is, "Who has the list of unanswered questions in a locked drawer?" I know, it is so boring to demand dull answers to even duller technical questions, but also essential.