Copenhagen wheel

jeez guys.

this seems like a pretty neat solution for the e-curious. certainly more well designed than a complete ebike of similar cost. you just remove/reinstall your wheel, and turn on your phone.

although the bike being modeled in the video is a track bike, this wheel is also offered with as a geared version as well.

the app/techie part is a bit much, but most of the world spends more time staring at their smart devices already anyway.


this wheel was targeted at urban areas for inner city travel. We are setting up a surly right now for a guy that plans on switching the rear wheel out as needed. he is not particularly hip.
 
The idea is good the execution is bad. All it needs is a single interface with the most powerful processor on earth,
Your brain. The interface only needs 2 settings "on" and "off" the processor can work out which is appropriate and when.
The rest is frosting.
 
It's not too damn bad; I'd rather throw this in the rear wheel of a nice Specialized Big Hit or Kona Stinky than shell out for an Optibike any day. I just don't see it flying with the pure performance crowd (of which I am a member) and it seems too expensive to catch the eye of people who'd be looking to install DIY hubs.
 
Here's a fairly comprehensive review and hands-on ride of a Copenhagen Wheel bike.

[youtube]6GaB-dhGKok[/youtube]
 
They are taking "pre-orders" here: https://www.superpedestrian.com/ for fulfillment at the end of the year.

Wow that's like 6 years since the first post on this thread!

Anybody in line for one?

-R

Here's a newer article about it: http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/07/if-an-electric-bike-is-ever-going-to-hit-it-big-in-the-us-its-this-one/375167/
 
...Sure, place a pre-order, and let them hold onto your money for an indeterminate amount of time...They make no commitment with delivery dates.

I know this project was started at MIT, and there are some sharp minds behind it. But clearly they should have included a few partners from the business school. It's rare to see such a poorly executed plan, with such poor communication.
 
Looking forward to this, seems like it would suit 90% of anybody's cycling needs without needing special equipment.
 
When nobody is willing to stand behind a release date, it's a pretty good indication that they don't believe their plan, or there really is no plan...They have a huge credibility problem.
 
Looks alright, I have a fixie I might put one on and see how it goes : :D

The appeal I guess would be that you just unhook your existing wheel and attach the Copenhagen Wheel onto your bike and it's all in one, controlled by the App, you choose the bike and just change the wheel basically.
It was neat until the FlyKly, which is essentially a copy, and others, have come out but still cool.

Latest is a late November release.
 
Last I saw, they were going to use an external battery after all. Apparently they figured out that 100wh or so won't go very far.

Once you break down and have a wire coming out of the motor, what's the point of the phone running the bike?

My favorite advantage of it, is you have that $500+ smart phone on your handlebars when you stop at a light. How long before a guy snatches it and runs.

Then you get to chase the guy, but oh!!! the bike don't run now. :lol:

Might be cheaper to just ride around with a few $100 bills taped to the handlebars.
 
dogman said:
Last I saw, they were going to use an external battery after all. Apparently they figured out that 100wh or so won't go very far.

Once you break down and have a wire coming out of the motor, what's the point of the phone running the bike?

My favorite advantage of it, is you have that $500+ smart phone on your handlebars when you stop at a light. How long before a guy snatches it and runs.

Then you get to chase the guy, but oh!!! the bike don't run now. :lol:

Might be cheaper to just ride around with a few $100 bills taped to the handlebars.
Click to expand...

Haha. The phone doesn't run the bike, these technologies work without a smart phone. The phone is optional but allows finer grained control.
 
Just read through the comments on their Facebook page...Lots of unhappy people, who have handed over their money for preorders up to a year ago.

These guys are really marketing hacks...Now their message is that they will begin shipping before the end of the year, leading people to believe that they will receive them by then.

In reality, what they probably mean is that they'll ship a token few in calendar year 2014. They'll then take the next several months to ship the 12,000 that are on backorder. Along the way, they'll get feedback from their first customers in the form of bug reports and enhancement requests...So they'll have to work on "Version 2.0"...

I guess it'll probably be sometime around next summer before they get their lead times down to something reasonable.

Just speculation...But we'll see what happens.
 
I do get confused sometimes. I thought the whole idea of the Copenhagen wheel was the wheel bolted on with absolutely no additional wiring, and was controlled by a smartphone app. The torque sensor located in the hub, vs the crank.

So NO wiring, and seconds to swap to another bike, like take it off your bike and put it on mine. :lol:

Well, as I understand it, that's what the early investors were promised.
 
I haven't seen any reference to an external battery, do you have a source for this?

I think one of the points with this wheel is it does push the technology further and any new development in the field in which the engineers are required to fine-tune things to the nth degree is a good thing for e-biking in general.
And as we've seen, other people have brought out similar wheels within the timeframe of the release of the Copenhagen Wheel.
It's like the Intel NUC, led to the Gigabyte BRIX but more of those similar technologies will come and is the NUC a gaming machine? No way.
Is the BRIX a gaming machine, yes way, and so the technology develops.

Developing something like the Copenhagen Wheel from the ground up is sure to improve other areas of this technology and push the envelope of at least convenience of an e-bike which has to be good for everyone.

I would really like to know about the external battery though, I haven't heard anything even close to this rumor and they still have Friday test outs for the wheel every week as far as I know and no one has mentioned it.
 
I can't remember where I saw that about an external battery, but I think it was their website or blog. Not place like this where a confused guy like me can post bogus spew.

If you do the math though, you do see they can't pack much usable range into the wheel itself, since it's already full of copper and controller. Fine for those wanting 50w assist maybe, but useless to a sick guy like me that can't get by on any less than 500w of assist if there is a hill or any wind. I'd run out just making a quick run to the dollar store 2 miles away.

I never saw fitting everything into one hub as being very useful for anybody with a long hill to climb, or a 10 mile round trip. Hell, if you are fit, and the ride is less than 4 miles, why an ebike?
 
Looks to be US patent No.20110133542 A1 I noticed a built in coaster brake to help with regen braking. Patent describes batteries; 18 Superior Lithium Polymer Batteries (SLPB 486495) by Kokan Engineering Co,LTD Gyeonggi-do ,Republic Of Korea rated nominal 3.7V ,3Ah , configured 22.2 V , capacity 9 Ah , 3p 6s https://www.google.com/patents/US20110133542?dq=ininventor:%22Assaf+Biderman%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bHfTUrenEtDyoAT1wIGQAQ&ved=0CGoQ6AEwBw
 
200 wh might still fit in that wheel. But like I said, if you really need assist like I do, you won't go very far on 200wh, unless you ride at 10 wh/mi.

Silly me, thinking 25 wh/mi is slow. But it would go 8 miles on 200wh @ 25 wh/mi. So perhaps not as poor as I thought. I had thought at most they were cramming 100wh in there. But pick the right cells, and 18650 limn can be pretty amazing.
 
The wheel in the US is listed as 350W and in the EU (and Australia since Australian eBike on-road regulations are the same as the EU essentially) it is 250W, however in regards to the 'you need a phone to use the wheel' comment, I've just read their facebook page for official confirmation.

"It is not necessary that you have a smartphone, the Wheel will leave the factory with a "Standard mode" that will give you a great experience. Pairing the Wheel with a smartphone (or your Android tablet provided it has Bluetooth) will allow you to customize your ride even further."

Other Specs:

Battery Life: 1000 Cycles
Charge Time: 4 Hours
Battery: 48Volt Lithium
Top Speed: 20Mp/h US, 25KM/h EU/AU
Range Up to 50 km /31 mi

There will also be an SDK for developers to tap into the wheel, it also has regenerative braking (however I think I heard one of the co-founders Assaf mention that it might improve the range 10% if you're lucky).

Another tit bit, in January the wheel was supposed to be shipping by end of June however that changed apparently because of the amount of people ordering, they decided to get some investors and go all out with the production of it, pushing the dates back to, what I've heard is now 'late November' they will be shipping by, however, officially it is 'by Christmas'. Better to under-promise and over-deliver I guess..

There is a heap of other info on the website:
https://www.superpedestrian.com/ which answers quite a few questions.
 
Sure, you can get 31 miles from 200wh, at 6.5 wh/mi. That er, 10 mph? Unless you took your EPO.

No doubt, if it ever does poop out, it will be very nice for some people. If you need 8 mile range or less, real nice.

Nearest grocery to my house is 11.5 miles round trip, so.... I usually use about 400-500 wh to do a grocery run, but I'm riding an inefficient cargo bike able to carry an entire cart full of food.

But if you don't live out in the burbs, where everything is at least a 10 mile drive away, then this wheel, or any other with 2-300 wh of battery will work fine.
 
untg said:
There will also be an SDK for developers to tap into the wheel, it also has regenerative braking (however I think I heard one of the co-founders Assaf mention that it might improve the range 10% if you're lucky).
Click to expand...
That would be pretty exceptional regen.

I would guesstimate, based on various bikes I've setup with various motors, that on mostly flat terrain, with the fairly spread-out city traffic patterns here in Phoenix, AZ, that even 2-5% would be high for typical cyclist riding patterns.

If, other factors the same, riding more like motorized cycle patterns , regen of around 5% is probably still "pretty good".


Perhaps if riding in hilly terrain, or REALLY stop-and-go traffic, regen could end up higher. But 10% would seem to still be exceptional, from my experiences so far.
 
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