EdZilla

Someone pointed me to this. I did a search on these forums and found no references. (update: I did a search after posting this, and still found no references so the search seems flakey and apologies if this has been covered and I simply couldn't find it.)

https://www.flykly.com/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...ly-smart-wheel

Have any electric bike experts on this forum checked this out?
What do you think?

EdZilla

Hmmmm...

Looks a lot like one of these:
https://senseable.mit.edu/copenhagenwheel/

usnavystgc

I think it sounds too good to be true.

dilkes

See review from Pete at ElectricBikeReport.com

https://electricbikereport.com/flykly...lectric-video/

chas58

Here is the link you were looking for in this forum:
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...this-realistic

EdZilla

No, I posted mine on 10-21 and the one you reference was posted a day after on 10-22 so it wouldn't have shown up in my searches.

The review from electricbikereport isn't much more than a re-iteration of the marketing claims you can find from flykly directly.

I'd like to see some genuine testimonials. Since the copenhagen wheel has been out a while, it seems like there should be some real experience to draw from.

chas58

I don't think it is out yet:

https://www.superpedestrian.com/

so, no testimonials.

But, yeah, without testimonials, it is all marketing hot air. A “250w” isn’t really 250watts, but I can go 20mph on a small “250 watt” hub motor. If it is regen, it is direct drive and not geared. A 12AH battery might be able to get you 30miles if you pedal a lot and don’t have hills. Performance wise, it is not a lot different than the two bikes I built, its just that everything is in the wheel (where my battery/controller are not in the wheel). The cost and the weight are impressive (mine cost about $400 and weighs about 10-11 lbs with similar batteries).

alienbogey

Assuming I understood the Kickstarter page correctly, the concepts I like are putting the battery into the hub itself, which of course means that you're not searching for place somewhere on the frame to hang it, and controlling it via your smartphone. No cables.

I was getting excited about it and was beginning to think I'd done my electric conversion too soon when I realized that it costs you your rear hub gears and it's not disc brake compatible.

I'd be interested in a front hub, disc brake version.

15rms

I thought having your battery in the wheel was a bad thing? Having to keep that weight spinning is very energy intensive.

turbo1889

Actually, more weight in the wheel just turns the wheel into a bigger flywheel (energy storage in the form of rotational momentum). So it takes more effort to accelerate and get the wheel spinning but once its spinning its got stored energy that can keep you moving further if you stop pedaling and turn off the motor.

Not a good thing in stop and go traffic (any added weight to the bike is not good in stop and go where your constantly using lots of energy to accelerate that extra weight and then wasting that energy and wearing out your brakes faster when it comes time to brake) since the extra weight has not only linear momentum but rotational momentum as well that ********-s acceleration and then gets wasted in braking over and over again (even with regenerative braking capabilities you never get it all back and usually only a small percentage).

On the open road long streatches it don't matter, just a little more time and distance to get up to speed and then more stored energy if you need to take a breather and just roll along on the built up momentum.


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Okay, now that I answered the technical question. I'll comment on the actual design idea itself.

I think this would be mainly a good thing for a person who has only an occasional use for it. For example lets say a commuter who works a Tuesday-Saturday five day work week with Sunday & Monday off work. Actually a quite common shift and their local commuter bus route (with bike racks on the bus) runs Monday-Friday so for the first four weekdays the commuter in question takes the bus from the town or subdivision where s/he lives into town with their bike to get to the bus stop and then goes on the bus rack and then bike around town for work and errands and then bus back home again same drill. But for their Saturday shift they currently drive an automobile because they consider the distance too far to ride the whole way there and back on the bike.

Such a commuter could just buy one of these as a second rear wheel with its own tire and just use it to make that long ride on Saturday with no bus running manageable instead of driving a car.

Because its all one unit fully contained in the wheel its just a simple matter of swapping out the rear wheel for that one day.

I could see this or something like it working excellently for those kind of situations. But short of those I think there are a lot better options.

Aushiker

Andrew

Aushiker

Another "first impressions" review. This time from Turbo Bob.

Andrew

jasonplett

While it may not be the ideal solution for everyone I am excited about the simplicity of this approach. I almost bought one during the kickstarter campaign but decided against it because I didn't like the single rear speed approach for my varied terrain.

alienbogey

I, too, would be interested in a front wheel, disc brake version.