Classic & Vintage - Food for Thought! No Hands Shifting!

Who needs down tube shifting when there's thought shifting!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/12/bike-shift-gears-mind-control-brain-wave_n_1339273.html?ref=topbar

241165

Neat, but overly complicated.

I would think the best way to do automatic shifting would be centrifugal switch somewhere in the back wheel, which would select a gear based on the bike's speed, or perhaps a cadence sensor that would do the same thing based on how fast you're pedaling.

Neat, but overly complicated.

I would think the best way to do automatic shifting would be centrifugal switch somewhere in the back wheel, which would select a gear based on the bike's speed, or perhaps a cadence sensor that would do the same thing based on how fast you're pedaling.


Centrifugal's been done multiple times in the past only to add weight and not work well. Cadence sensor would be better but the speed sensor would have to also be used to figure out if your coasting down a hill or coming up to a stop light.

Current electronic derailleur systems, plus cadence and speed sensors, plus a control microprocessor, could make an automatic shifting system. Maybe a power sensor in the BB too.

If you were designing this, what would you want for algorithm, i.e. the logic rules in the system?

A thread for this popped up in one of the other subforums, and my response there was that it was a matter of time -- they've had video game interfaces that read brain patterns for a couple of years now.

I just want to say I called it:
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h407/atroiano81/di5.png

Centrifugal's been done multiple times in the past only to add weight and not work well. Cadence sensor would be better but the speed sensor would have to also be used to figure out if your coasting down a hill or coming up to a stop light.
Yup, I think I've seen such bikes sold through one of those late night commercials........

Chombi

Sometimes I think about shifting and then realize that I don't actually want to shift, or think, hypothetically, "what if I shifted right now"?

Hopefully they can get issues relating to those resolved

I have actually ridden an automatic shift bike. It was a Bianchi Milano with the Shimano Nexus 4 hub and I believe a cadence sensor. I liked it! It shifted cleanly and at a pretty good moment, I'd say around 110 rpm, and all I noticed was that suddenly my feet were not spinning as fast any more. Acceleration was very smooth.

Internally geared hubs tend to require a pretty strong pull on the cable to shift, at least in one direction (downshift requires more effort than upshift on Sturmey Archer hubs), so such a mechanism requires a pretty strong electric motor or servo or whatever, so this makes such a system pretty heavy. Still... an automatic shifter, plus a NuVinci hub, would be so much fun you wouldn't even notice you were having any fun at all.

I think an automatic-shift bike is not too far away from being practical... it would definitely need to be electronic, and not rely on mechanical devices robbing drive power to work. At a minimum, it would need to know your cadence and speed, so that it could start downshifting if you slow down while coasting. An inclinometer would be nice, as it could shift pre-emptively when the gradient changes. Then, all you'd need to do is program your ideal cadence into it -- perhaps there could be a "learn" mode where it measures how far up or down you'll allow your cadence to go before shifting. :thumb:

- Scott

That would stink if the batteries went out on the system and you were stuck on a hilly road with no ability to mechanically shift.:innocent:

A kick-back hub is hands free shifting. I've also heard of people using their knees on DT shifters, though I've not seen or tried it.
Using your mind, though... makes me think of the time machine helmet in Napoleon Dynamite, where he's yelling "IT KILLS! IT KILLS!"

Ah, marketing.

I once tried to do too many things at once and got away with it, amazingly enough. I was riding my bike and bringing another bike home. I used the technique called ghost riding. This is where you ride with one hand on your own handlebar and the other hand on the stem of the bike you're transporting. As you can imagine, it's tricky enough with hills, braking, mounting, and especially dismounting. So on the way home I came to a moderately steep uphill. I was in a gear too high to climb the hill. Rather than walking the bikes up the hill or getting off and shifting my bike, I shifted my bike, using my downtube shifter. I had one hand on the guest bike, one hand on the shift lever, and no hand on the handlebar. It took a few wobbly tries, but I made it.

How about wireless brakes with thoughtless(thought) shifting!

Here's a link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2052510/Wireless-bicycle-brake-fails-times-trillion-uses-paves-way-revolution-control-systems.html:rolleyes:

Didn't the Schwinn Coffee have an automatic 3 speed?