slvoid

I fully expect my bike to be able to shift in the event of a close proximity nuclear detonation.

gcasillo

Yeah, that's every cyclist's Kobayashi Muru.

catatonic

Then they would have to add all kinds of extra electronics to assure that the batteries are not overcharged. I could be way off, but I don't see it comsuming all that much power....after all they would just need a pulley/cable mechanism in there to do the positioning...a simple motor a little bigger than the buzzer motor in a pager could pull that off. Bonus to using cables to do the actuating internally, is if done right, the only spring needed would be the one for the tensioner arm.


For what it's worth...I used to race Bit Char-G cars, and I have a motor that is incredibly tiny, yet i could do a bit-tractor pull of 1.6lbs with it....and that was running off a single 1.4v NiCD battery.


edit: i did notice that would still require a mechanism to hold the RD in place...that could be tough. I wish it used tiny linear actuators...but I doubt any that small exist within a reasonable pricerange.

khuon

I don't think it'd be that much extra electronics really. At anyrate an EcoDrive pretty much guarantees a trickle-charge. The only issue might be if someone stores the bike for too long and lets the battery go into a huge deficit that would take a lot of motion or a long time to recharge. I think this might only be a concerned for the OCP folks.

nitropowered

They would probaby be rechargable NIMH or Li-On (Lithium) batteries. Both have pros and cons.

Rechargable batteries would be better than disposables since you can A: recharge them, B: probably weigh less and C: will last longer. My 1600mAh AA NIMH batteries last way longer and put out more current than any Alkaline AA battery you can buy.

Besides, 9V batteries arent that great. Sure they put out 9 volts but they don't last that long.

The system would probably run on 12V for the acuators on the derailleurs and then have a voltage regulator to pull that 12V down to 5V for the electronics hardware to work. It might even work at 9.6v but then you sacrifice faster shifting.

People that would get this would have two or three battery packs to cycle around. If you are too cheap to buy the battery packs, you could always find the connector Campy is going to use and then get a bunch of batteries from an electronics supply company like Digikey and solder up your own pack (Then shrink wrap it of course).

JavaMan

Yeah, and if they really, really knew what they were doing, they would incorporate the Infinite Improbability Drive.

steveknight

people sad the sma thing about hourses and buggies too. I get a ckick out of people always upgrading their bieks but hwen something new comes along forget it the old is fine. if the old is fine why are you not riding something from the 70's???

HigherGround

I see no need for electronic shifting. Then again, I'm still riding 10 year old 8-speed gear.

DocRay

Hardly a myth. Read the link, Fisher spent $1million developing the pressurized pen, but NASA did not pay for it. NASA used pencils. The only myth part is that NASA did not pay for it.

There have been hundreds of ideas hystorically tried out on bicycles, but ~140 years later, it still comes down to simple, light and strong.
The exception is mountain bikes, which seem to be getting more complicated and heavier all the time.

pedex

A friend of mine and I built one of these a few years ago, it worked just fine.We used futaba servos from R/C planes, wired up a circuit with a momentary switch lever for shifter control and ran it off 4AA batteries.We used pushrods to actuate the deraillers and the servos were water proof.Other than running the wires it was a pretty clean setup, plus you save the weight of having brifters so the weight issue is essentially moot.It wasnt prone to interference as it used direct control via the control circuit, shifts were instant and crisp.The hardest part was dealing with the non linear response curve of the servos, but we fixed that easy enough but shortening the throw and using a linear kit for the servos themselves.Total cost of the project was about $125.The servos,control circuit, and batteries were pretty darn light.


Ya ya ya, I know, nobody likes change, and everyone says "ya but I can shift it myself", whatever, your ridng a geared freakin bike for crying out loud, think about that for a second.Many folks ride around on race bikes part time a few thousand miles a year if that with more gears than you can use and a few of them are useless due to overlap and cross chaining to begin with, so other than fear of change whats the problem?Cold weather becomes a non issue, no cables to freeze up, everything is waterproof, battery life is several days of non stop usage.No more derailler adjustments once its set up, plus you can do all sorts of neat tricks with the control circuit if you wanted too.

Not something Id want myself, I dont own any mult-igeared bikes, but most of the drawbacks cited above in other posts arent very valid IMHO.Besides, just think of the neato bling factor and potential weight savings because brifters are quite heavy.

nitropowered

What model servos did you use? I have a bunch of "Standard" servos that come included with radios (40oz in torque) but it dont think those could move around a derailleur that fast. Well, maybe the rear, but probably not the front.

pedex

The 1/4 scale waterproof servos.........S-134 or S-34 I think, not sure, its been awhile, I think the standards are S-48's?The 1/4 scale servos have around 100-135inch ounces of torque I think, it was enough.We only had a double chainring up front, not sure if it would have enough throw for a triple.Thats where we spent most of the time was getting the linkage and throw to work right.When we first set it up it was hold the shift switch lever till it shifted where you wanted it, then later Scott made a new circuit with set spacing and all was needed was a quick tap on a momentary switch and it would shift one cog at a time.It was something to play with, I know he rode it like that for more than a year, he used it for his commute to work everyday.

nitropowered

hmm... maybe something to play with. Not really sophisticated enough to become a senior design project but something to tinker with during the boring summer.

Phantoj

Hydraulic shifting device:

https://weightweenies.starbike.com/articles.php?ID=28

Might be a cool thing for the MTB... I bet Shimano's already on it.

TexasGuy

Goes wardriving taking over peoples bike transmission and shiffting them into 1st and 1st gear :-D
Omg taking hacking to a whole new level.

classic1

I like the thought of electric shifting. My only concern is the weight of the 50 mile long extension cord.

TexasGuy

I would only see it useful if the technology actually worked. An example of technolgoy that does not work. No-Touch cell phone technology. 7 vehicles and I've never seen a proper place to mount this that does not seem like a hack.

How this technology would not work.
If it went dead often, responded too slow, responded too fast.

Only way i really see any usefulness would be if you could somehow easily preprogram it so that you could press a preset button and it would shift you into 2nd and 5th because this is your climbing gear - hit the top of the hill and press preset 3 to get into maximum gear.

Honestly though, I don't see it doing anything except introducing more potentials for problems.

Chef23

Ultimately everybody will have them. I remember when indexed shifting came out and everybody said why would I want it and now you can't buy a geared bike without it.

I give it 5-7 years before it is widespread.

STEVO820

i like the automatic shifters you find on comfort bikes. but for a road bike its all about the shifting. like a sports car is manual and not automatic. my sarthe has zero electronics on it not even a computer and i like it that way.

fujiacerider

To an extent, I agree. My Porsche 914 is the most fun I've ever had (clothes or not!), and it's as simple and mechanical as can be.
OTOH, no way in hell I'd turn down a Ferrari with the F1A tranny.

Cole

53-11_alltheway

Cable shifting works great for 10s, but I just wonder if this electronic shifting will be better when and if they start making cogs closer together?

Campy only has it rumored that 12 speed may come out for 2006.

lotek 

If you're close enough to an EMP (from nuclear blast) I think losing your shifting capability
will be the least of your problems.

too true. (although I left off the idol/advertizing schtick).

Marty

jaldridge

What an intriguing thought...