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A Smart Electric Bike: Taking the Copenhagen Wheel Out For a Spin
New submitter mlamonica writes Bikes are a great way to get around the city. But what if it's just too hilly or far to commute by bike? That's where Superpedestrian wants to come in. With a license from MIT's Senseable City Lab, they're commercializing the Copenhagen Wheel, a bike wheel replacement that gives riders electric assist, and through 12 embedded sensors, lots of information on a smart phone app. I took the bike for a ride at the Cambridge office and offer this review.
I don't see the point of all this electronics or intelligence in a bicycle. If anything, the location tracking means that bicycles now also are starting to invade my privacy.
For regular distances, a purely mechanical bike is simple, robust, and inexpensive. For longer distances, vehicles designed from the ground up for motor assist seem a better choice than this, and the additional design freedom from designing bike and assist together likely results in a better and cheaper bike.
here in Boston, where I live
Narrow twisty roads, and when the snowbank gets high, narrower roads
non highway routes are often circuitous
Dark at 5PM much of the year (and add in the snowy, narrow twisty roads...)
Potholes
Did I mention potholes ?
Rain snow sleet
weather down to teens to single digits many days of the year
lack of decent bike racks (some day, some smart person will write a n y times op ed about how bad bike racks are)
no showers, or cruddy showers
not so good when you have to go pick up your kid at school, or dance recital, or...
maybe inside Cambridge or Boston itself, a bike might work
For much of MA, no so good
the problem is NOT that we need easier to use bikes
the problem is that we have a car suburban orientation; change tax laws and zoning so people are packed into citys, and bikes will take care of themselves
First, don't think of the copenhagen wheel as an electric bike. Think of it as a wheel - that can be used to retrofit nearly any compatible bike. It's wireless capabilities means that you don't even need a controller on the bike wired to it.
As for the weight, it's at least around the axle, not the rim, so that reduces the effects. One can certainly argue about the max speed, but keep in mind that the non-linear power increases would also rapidly increase the cost and weight of the batteries and motor.
I don't read AC A human right
they are not multi-taskers. one person/one way/ ok. any more than that is a fail. electric-assist will not get my dog to the vet, or other multi-passenger duties. bike lanes or other gov-assisted options spend $/time on the 1% who bike.
There is a limit on how many CC a gasoline powered bicycle's engine can be just because of random laws in the USA. If you look to China, a great deal of people get around cheaply on a bicycle with gasoline powered engines. But we can't, because we have laws. Now if you turn your bicycle electric, it will be heavier, more inefficient, but there are no ways of measuring how many CC an electric motor has ^^. Voila, sneak around the laws, and maybe you have a market for this.
God spoke to me
I've been there and indeed you do see bikes everywhere. I did not see a single electric bike though. When I asked around, I've heard that bikes get stolen all the time so it is not worth putting too much money into them.
"I'd rather have a hub motor but have a small battery pack affixed elsewhere, maybe in a bottle cage, where it doesn't have to rotate."
It's not as big a penalty as you think. The weight is nearer the center of the wheel. This design has real packaging advantages over what you describe. It's also not new.
"20 MPH can be sustained by a fit rider who isn't elderly."
20 MPH can be sustained by a fit rider who is elderly.
Electric assist isn't needed for fit riders and bumping the speed to 25 MPH wouldn't make it better for its purpose. Bike commuters are not well served by devices designed to increase their riding speeds, they are well served by devices that expand the range for which cycling is practical. When commuting the goal isn't to ride as fast as you can, it is to arrive safely while interacting appropriately with traffic and hopefully not flat constantly while doing so.
I am also 52 years old and I have no problem sustaining 20 MPH in the flats. On my 9 mile one way commute, it is simply not possible for me to complete the ride in less than 30 minutes without a big tailwind. I do not need electric assist at my distances but others might. I could consider longer distances with assist, though, and my average speeds would improve even with the 20 MPH limitation. I have no desire to ride at high speeds on the shoulders with cars coming at me oblivious to my existence. I am forced to take emergency measures once every couple hundred miles typically. Safety is a far bigger issue than top speed.