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Cycling Enters the Electronic Age With a New Gear-Shifting System

3 points by ojbyrne 18y ago

tel 18y ago
The action of the electronic system is so effortless that, compared with mechanical levers, it leaves users feeling almost disconnected from the bike. That seems like it'll be the death of the product for many.
- wallflower 18y ago
  Yikes. As someone who bemoaned indexed shifters (in favor of older friction shifters), I think this is a disturbing development.
silentbicycle 18y ago
New bike equipment can have a hard time displacing conventional gear. On one hand, a large part of the market seems to be driven by people buying gear for racing* , who can be fanatical about things like shaving a few grams of weight off their bike. Very tough standards. On the other extreme, there are the (admittedly much smaller) touring / commuter cyclists, who tend to prefer stuff that, in a pinch, could be fixed with nothing but zip ties and a multi-tool. Air-less tires and chain-less drivetrains seems to have been reinvented several times, but haven't ever really caught on. * and people who buy gear marketed to people who race, but that's neither here nor there.
- wallflower 18y ago
  > New bike equipment can have a hard time displacing conventional gear. Remember the one-year Japanese BioPace fad that infected Shimano (non-round/oval chainrings that were hard to maintain a steady pedaling cadence with because they weren't round but supposedly were more efficient)? Most Every bike that year (even high-end XT) came with these odd-shaped chainrings. The next year, BioPace was gone. I still own a BioPace mountain bike - that I keep for sentimental reasons and to look cool (though the bike shop says I'm not the only BioPace'd owner).
  - silentbicycle 18y ago
    Yes! I see those now and then. They look really cool, haven't ever used one though. :)
jacquesm 18y ago
The article mentions automatic transmission too, and that the bike would have to 'read the mind of the rider' to know when he's going to sprint, wouldn't it be possible to measure the downforce on the pedal to indicate the difference between the riders 'desired speed' and the current speed ?

3 points by ojbyrne 18y ago

tel 18y ago

The action of the electronic system is so effortless that, compared with mechanical levers, it leaves users feeling almost disconnected from the bike. That seems like it'll be the death of the product for many.

wallflower 18y ago
Yikes. As someone who bemoaned indexed shifters (in favor of older friction shifters), I think this is a disturbing development.

silentbicycle 18y ago

New bike equipment can have a hard time displacing conventional gear. On one hand, a large part of the market seems to be driven by people buying gear for racing* , who can be fanatical about things like shaving a few grams of weight off their bike. Very tough standards. On the other extreme, there are the (admittedly much smaller) touring / commuter cyclists, who tend to prefer stuff that, in a pinch, could be fixed with nothing but zip ties and a multi-tool. Air-less tires and chain-less drivetrains seems to have been reinvented several times, but haven't ever really caught on. * and people who buy gear marketed to people who race, but that's neither here nor there.

wallflower 18y ago
> New bike equipment can have a hard time displacing conventional gear. Remember the one-year Japanese BioPace fad that infected Shimano (non-round/oval chainrings that were hard to maintain a steady pedaling cadence with because they weren't round but supposedly were more efficient)? Most Every bike that year (even high-end XT) came with these odd-shaped chainrings. The next year, BioPace was gone. I still own a BioPace mountain bike - that I keep for sentimental reasons and to look cool (though the bike shop says I'm not the only BioPace'd owner).
- silentbicycle 18y ago
  Yes! I see those now and then. They look really cool, haven't ever used one though. :)

jacquesm 18y ago

The article mentions automatic transmission too, and that the bike would have to 'read the mind of the rider' to know when he's going to sprint, wouldn't it be possible to measure the downforce on the pedal to indicate the difference between the riders 'desired speed' and the current speed ?