The Ultimate Bike

Lenbok writes: "The guys at Dallas Semiconductors have been busy. They've wired a bicycle (pix here) with a local microLAN of web-addressable sensors including temperature sensors, addressable switches, A/D converters, iButtons, and chips to manage battery functions. Quiet electric power, exercised on demand, a full instrument panel (via palmpilot), data login, a Web page for your eBike, and even e-mail while traveling. What more could you ask for? GPS integration? That's on its way." [timothy butts in ...] And don't forget that this is only if you want a semi-normal lookin' electric bike. Don't forget that Steve Roberts has been crankin' the pedals of a series of very wired bikes (and now boats) for a long time. Check out his Nomadic Research Labs for some of the coolest because-we-can technology (home-brewed, and re-purposed COTS stuff) you're likely to find on this planet.

Comments

FNHAABCOTP

[dash2]

First "now how about a Beowulf cluster of those" Post!

Thoughts from a cyclist

[Mr T]

As a competitive racer (read: bike geek, and there are hardcore geeks in the bike world) and a full-on computer geek I have mixed emotions on this stuff. You would not believe the kinds of money I and people like me have spent trying to make our bikes stronger, stiffer, and above all else lighter. A good racing bike doesn't have comforts, in fact they are usually aluminum or carbon and they are insanely stiff and you feel every little pebble in the road, minimum padding in the seat, cork on the bars is probably the biggest luxury on the ride.. Even mountain biking is moving away from soft long-travel full suspension style "luxury" bikes, only down hill experts ride those anymore, soft tails (very cool, pivotless rear suspension usually made out of space age carbon or Ti.. no pivot means no extra metal for the joints which means less weight) are where it's at because they are stiffer which means that less energy goes in to bounce and more energy goes in to make you go forward faster, there is just enough rear suspension to take the edge off. That's not to say it's not fun or enjoying to ride such a bike, the idea is to go fast and that's what they are designed to do, I probably wouldn't tour 500 miles on one though.

Then these guys come along, I read about Winnebiko in Dr. Dobbs a while back.. And they are bucking the nature of it all for me. Putting computers and crap on there is sweet. Shit, putting computers on just about everything is sweet, but this just doesn't seem right some how. Maybe I don't get the whole "touring" thing. All the computers and stuff make it more heavy which means you can't climb as fast and they make it less aerodynamic which means you're not going to hawl as much ass on the downhill side. Basically, it slows you down and that seems contradictory to the purpose.