Automatic gear change

[gaz]

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/11/smartphone-automatic-bike/

Using a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone, an electronic gearbox and a few sensors, engineers have built a bike that shifts gears itself without the need for a flywheel.​

The setup, designed by Cambridge Consultants, places sensors on the main crank and wheel to send both pedaling speed and road speed to a smartphone app. The app calculates the appropriate gear, and sends it via Bluetooth to a Shimano electric shifter, such as the Di2.​

Should a rider wish to select his or her own gears, shifter buttons on the handlebars will still communicate with the electronic gearbox, also using Bluetooth. Because the entire connection is wireless, there are no cables or flywheels to wear out or add weight to a bike.​

“We’ve cut the cables between the switches and the gears and replaced them with a smart, low energy version of Bluetooth designed for very long battery life,” Cambridge Consultants’ Tim Fowler told​

​

New Scientist​

. The system can run for about a year on a single watch battery.​

 

[Rob3rt]

So they have used a sensor the same as any Garmin or other cadence/rear wheel speed sensor (not so novel huh?), then created an app to interpret the data and change gears for you via a bluetooth connection, based on cadence and speed! Wonderfully ignorant! The only useful feature is the ability to overwrite the app's choice of gear (although how does it determine when to take over again? Will you constantly have to fight the algorithm? Or will it give up when you say "bollocks to this" and shift manually?

New scientist will publish any old bollocks, it is just a DI2 hack, nothing of note!

 

[gaz]

So they have used a sensor the same as any Garmin or other cadence/rear wheel speed sensor (not so novel huh?), then created an app to interpret the data and change gears for you via a bluetooth connection, based on cadence and speed! Wonderfully ignorant! The only useful feature is the ability to overwrite the app's choice of gear (although how does it determine when to take over again? Will you constantly have to fight the algorithm? Or will it give up when you say "bollocks to this" and shift manually?

New scientist will publish any old bollocks, it is just a DI2 hack, nothing of note!

Indeed. I'm thinking it would annoy me within the first mile. Just imagine you are out of the saddle accelerating and all of a sudden it changes gears :/

 

[Rob3rt]

The part of that article where it says the price of the system would be prohibitive to all but the most competitive cyclist's is brilliantly ironic since it is these very people who are least likely to want this kind of shoot, i.e. it is a non-starter! Only the people who are least likely to want it can afford it! Excellent work dickheads!

 

[Boris Bajic]

I have a similar set-up on my fixie. I can vouch for it as a concept and would advise all CC members to design and fit something similar.

How it works I do not know, but the gear selection is governed by a process that constantly analyses gradient, wattage, wind speed, surface grip and accelaaration. On the basis of these data and other figures, it then ensures that the drivetrain automatically selects the best possible of all available gears.

It is as remarkable as it is effective.

In the hills, valleys, rolling plains and glacial tundra of Herefordshire, a 69" gear would appear to be the optimum ratio at all times.

Settle for nothing less! Demand automatic gear selection now!

 

[ohnovino]

Cheaper option

 

[Davehateshills]

The idea of banishing wires and making everything work by Bluetooth is probably the only development that will come from this. There are too many variables to make automatic gearing work.

Wireless or cableless brakes next - test pilots required on some Alpine downhill testing please! Ekk!

 

[Davidc]

There probably is a market for automatic bike gears, but not here. It would be among sections of the weekend towpath, railway path etc. riders.

This would be cheap to implement, easier with CVT. Might happen once electric shifting is commonplace for those who'd want it but they'd be a small minority.

 

[Drago]

So what's the benefit?