Humble bicycle powers its way into the high-tech world
 

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...382074146.html

The bicycle is one of the few means of travel which has almost entirely escaped the influence of electronic technology.

In spite of the improvements over the years, gear changes are still generally made per hand and, at night, the lights are still powered by the traditional dynamo.

Yet now it does seem that the bicycle is on the verge of the greatest revolution in its history. If new developments are acted on, the bicycle of the future will have computer-controlled gears, lights and suspension.

The state of the art was demonstrated by the Stuttgart-based firm of Paul Lange, which imports parts and accessories made by the Shimano firm, which has its headquarters in Japan.

The heart of the new concept is the electronic system which controls the automatic gear change. The computer decides the appropriate gear change. The rider has the additional choice of three ratios depending on terrain and the speed required.


The suspension is also electronically adjusted. Florian Nebel, of the Lange firm, says that at the start of the trip, the suspension should be harder so that the maximum use is made of expended energy.

The faster the bike is ridden, the softer becomes the suspension, he said. The rider always has the option of switching off the system.

Nebel expects that the first series-production bicycles with these electronic aids will come off the line in 2004. The technology has been put through practical tests and some prototype systems have been delivered to manufacturers since 2001.

One German maker, Rabeneick, has sold 60 hybrid bikes fitted with this new technology.

Stephan Behrendt, a technical specialist at the ADFC bicycle organisation in Bremen, says that the automatic gear change does have advantages because, otherwise, working with two gear ratios is often complicated.

Accessories are also coming into the electronic picture. Already established are bicycle computers which measure and show speed plus pedalling rate and the rider's heartbeat.

There have also been advances in lighting which riders could only dream of a short time ago. Lighting firm Busch & Mueller has installed sensors which ensure that the light adjusts to the level of natural light - regardless of whether the bike is in a tunnel or moving as night falls.

But specialists emphasise that price is the factor which will determine how far electronic technology will be used in bicycles.

Siegfried Neuberger, of the ZIV manufacturers organisation, says that a bicycle equipped with the new gear and suspension technology now costs €3000 ($A5370).

He added that electronics are a means of boosting the image of the bicycle and turning it from what is perceived as a collection of rattling wire and tin into a piece of electronically guided leisure equipment.

It is interesting that manufacturers assume we want a computer to make decisions for us. If humans wanted a computer to make all the decisions for us why do they still make cars with manual gears? Why not make automatics only?
I imagine when cars were introduced with automatic gears, the companies would have said "it makes all the decisions for you, no more changing gears" . That is OK for some people but not everyone. There are millions of drivers that will ONLY by a manual car as it gives them the choice of which gear they want. The same applies for bikes.

As you can probably tell, I hate automatics.:crash:

CHEERS.

Mark

Why must they take one of mans most efficiant & simplest inventions & turn it into complicatied "rocket science" ???:confused:

We're supposed to change gears?:lol:

How does the computer know when you need to change gear?
I guess you will be able to set the automatic mode, much as you do with auto-exposure on cameras.
What modes would you need?
-Just Riding Along
-Hauling shopping
-Sprint mode
-Training mode
-Hill-climbing mode
-Tracks and trails
-Urban stop-start
-Help, i dont know what mode, just set me to automatic

You could even have a little computer display with pictograms for the hard of reading, and little tacky push buttons which you can't use with winter gloves.

Personally I'm most offended with the statement '.... boosting the image of the bicycle and turning it from what is perceived as a collection of rattling wire and tin into a piece of electronically guided leisure equipment'.

Rattling wire and tin, what the f**k!

Exactly. What will all this stuff weigh. Oh I know, we'll add a small motor. :)

I don't ever want to have to say "wait a minute, I have to reboot my bike"!

Seriously, it sounds like technology for the sake of technology. However, I'm sure that someone made this same statement regarding the telephone. :D

aw hell, I'm just gettin adjusted to Ergo :D


Lighting system sounds ok, but what if you
get an unrecoverable error out in the middle of the
boondocks, will you be able to pedal home?

I'll pass thank you very much.

Marty

This is begining to sound like another Landrider. Futhermore, this bike will probably weigh 35 - 40 pounds with all that electronics onboad. A cyclist biggest problem is not shifting but weight. If they can cram all that junk on a bike no heavier than 19 pounds, then we're talking a MINOR breakthrough.

Most of what they mentioned already exists to some degree. The shocks they mentioned as the "next best thing" is already on the market. There are plenty of good lighting systems already on the market so there is NO need for improvement. Give me a good steal road bike with V-Brakes any day over all this electronic gizmo.

As for the autoshifting, if the product doesn't use the Nexus Auto-7 we are talking junk.

One more thing. I hope all this electronic stuff stays on my bike once it gets parked on the bike rack. It would certainly upset but not surprise me if all this electronic junk were stolen on the first day!!

Here's an innovation for you:


Simple is good.


Unfortunately this is not very marketable.

Then again what do I know, I think deraillers are bad idea.

Dan

Following on what Dan said above,
this is one of my basic tenents of programming:
KISS
or (Keep It Simple Stupid).

amazing how well it works.

Marty

I just thought of a couple more things. Who's going to repair these electroics when they fail? I don't know a single LBS that can do electronics. I guess we'll just have to send the part of the whole bike by UPS at incredible costs because my frame won't work anymore.

OH... One more thing. Has anyone tested this bike in heat, rain, snow and freezing temperatures to see if the electronics still work? Is this simply a fair weather cycle to be used only when the sun shines and the temperature hovers around 70 degrees?

This sounds like the son of "Land Rider".

"The greatest revolution in its history".

Hmm, autoshift or pneumatic tyres, which would you choose.

hmm I don't think it's a good idea... maybe for some people :rolleyes:

Electro Campy

Don't worry guys, as long as common sense customers demand, quality, robust bicycles, we will be able to get them. There may be some hard times if manufacturers jump the gun, but even if Trek and Specialized and the others get too far ahead of trends, custom manufacturers will find themselves going big and the major manufacturers will be bought out by Pacific (that thought made me smile ironically, how about you?).
As far as the question of auto or manual transmission, I just bought a car two weeks ago. One lot told me they sold 50:1 autos over manuals. How could so many people willingly pay more to miss out on the extra control, reliability, and performance? Plus the feel of real driving. I don't plan on getting an auto until I start to feel the effects of age and don't know what I would do with in-dash GPS, computer-controlled seat position, or gazillions of LED's flashing all over the place.

Hmmm, so they mean to train a generation of people to have no idea how to shift gears on their own bicycle. Sounds like progress....

Seriously, though, I heard of bikes with automatic shifting years ago, and they never caught on. They won't now. The appeal of the bicycle is its simplicity, people who want gadgets ride motorcycles and cars.

Has the author never heard of cyclo-computers? Oh wait... the author mentions cyclo-computers later in the article... nice contradiction there. Also, it doesn't take having electronics ON the bike to have electronics influence the bicycle. Let's see... where do I start? CAE for design and analysis... computer controlled welding machines...

Hmmm... digitally controlled lighting has been around for a few years now. And obviously the author has never seen battery powered lights.... not that there's anything wrong with a dynamo.

This sounds like the Shimano Nexus Auto-D.


Hmmm... this system sounds less sophisticated and reliable than the electronically controlled SmartShock suspension on my MTB which BTW came out in 1998, works quite well and is proven technology that's used in the most demanding environments such as fighter aircraft landing gears. Also, I'm not so sure about the principles employed behind a suspension logic of making it softer as you go faster. I can envision situations where that may be a bad thing. Why exactly would one want suspension damping or firmness to be dependent on speed rather than say shock-impact which is how my SmartShocks and Specialized's new rear shocks work.

There's nothing wrong with electronics on a bike but electronics or any other sophisticated mechanism employed without forethought and only for the purpose of making the product look flashy undermines the principles of good engineering.

I have a theory that over time, companies like cannondale and klein felt random impulses to do things different for no reason, which led to what could be called "mutations." Most of these mutations were harmful and the species that resulted died out. Others had potential benefits and allowed these new species to fill an economical or geographical niche. Over many millions of years, these random mutations led to the diverse variety of bicycles observed in the pristine habitats of the world today. A prime example is a scientific goldmine known as North America, a veritable Galapagos Island in the science of bicycle studies. By the principles of survival of the fittest, several species have evolved that exist and multipy in complex social patterns and occupy varying geographies. Some seem to have developed traits that give them great speed, others durability. Some have managed to survive in ecosystems composed entirely of rocks, cliffs, and tree roots. Others survive in densely populated environments where other creations of this "wheeled evolution" threaten to wipe them out with their size, speed, and toxic exhalations.
Some species seem destined to go the way of the Dodo bird (*cough* Landrider). Others, like the finch and this diverse family of species known as bicycles, have an incredible ability to adapt to new environments and filter out bad genes.

I could write a thesis about this, although it would have more bearing on economics than biology, and I bet finance people would generally not like lessons on economics from engineers. :roflmao:

All this is as necessary as integrating latest electronics in the TOILET design...

electronic spoon, hammer, toothbrush, hairbrush... shooes of the future with ventilation... electronic alarm, and voice, reminding the birthday of you grand mother....

all this is done when there is nothing more serious to work on... attempts to make money out of nothing...
afro-engineering... ;)

I like manually.

I like your idea of bike mutations, but there is one big problem. Survival of the fittest is not the same as survival of the best. Marketing suits will sell, and ignorant customers will buy any old crap if it looks good. The fitness of a bike only lasts as far as the bike showroom door. Once it is sold, the bike has performed its primary purpose (like a salmon spawning at the end of its journey).