We’ve spent years following interesting high-tech developments in the e-bike industry, often while the more traditional non-electric cycling industry has...
Slightly tongue in cheek but it’s actually fascinating.
This is e-waste. This could just be a decent bike computer and a light that you could slap on to any bike, but they had to go and make a thing that forces me to replace the handlebars that I picked to match my body and riding style? An expensive electronic thing that i can’t remove from my bike? No thanks.
I mean it’s all e-waste at this point. My bikes are all carbon, which ain’t recyclable, plus the shifting is all electronic, and yeah my eMTB is a ticking timebomb that will be otherwise useless if either the battery or motor quits.
On your other points: Carbon bike frames can be repaired, so even though they aren’t recyclable, they can still last a long time, so they’re not the worst. Electronic shifting feels a bit gimmicky to me, but all the mount points for the shifter and derailleur are standard and they can probably be swapped out for a standard cable shifter in the future without changing other parts on the bike.
Electronic shifting felt gimmicky to me until I tried it. It’s actually pretty awesome, although if you don’t want to spend the money for it, there is also great mechanical shifting still available.
My road bike is electronic shifting and absolutely awesome. Every shift is absolutely perfect, and I set it up to handle compensating the large gear jump between front chain rings automatically so I don’t have to shift the rear to compensate myself. Also, since I’m still getting used to the new gear ratios compared to my gravel bike, it’s nice that my headunit can warn me when I’m doing something stupid with the gear selection.
I sometimes wish my gravel bike was also electronic, but it’s not like I enjoy it any less because it isn’t. It’s a “man, if I had a shitload of cash laying around” not a “I neeeeeeeed this” thing. I still put 3,500 miles on the bike, it’s still an awesome bike, I still have reasons to ride it.
It’s pretty gimmicky for sure. The electronic setup on my road bike is pretty finicky too, id rather cables to be honest, but it’s just the way everything is going. It especially sucks when you are at the door all geared up and ready to go, and realize that one of your batteries is dead.
Oh, I’m definitely upset about ebikes with motors and batteries integrated in the frames, with no replacement parts available. Often you can’t even install used parts because the firmware needs to be flashed by a dealer for your specific bike.
I own an ebike now and I’ve built one in the past. The one I built had a powerful mid-drive motor and could easily have been reverted to a normal bike (I got hit by a car before I ever got to think about that) and the ebike I have now has a basic bafang hub motor with a bolt-on battery, all of which I could easily replace if they failed.
The motor controllers on both bikes are/were also able to be reflashed or replaced without going to a specific dealer.
There is no reason that companies could not design ebikes and their components to be repairable, replaceable, and reprogrammed by users except for profit, and it’s gross as hell.
Technically not really e-waste, as it’s just the same cycling computer you were buying anyway, and presumably would have a similar lifespan.
The waste part is the non-electronic bits, i.e. when the computer needs replacing you need to bin off the attached bits of aluminium and rubber that make up the rest of the handlebars.
Yes the moment the “article” framed modularity and replaceability as a problem it was clear for me that this is nothing else than product placement… Those things are features I would wish my car would have.
Hell it takes me the rightful owner a fair bit of careful maneuvering to get that thing off the bars (my mount needs to be both twisted while having the release latch pressed). Someone would surely be getting a few smacks upside the head as they were trying to do that. A MIPS powered headbutt or two, as well.
London. It’s a bit wild here at the moment. As poverty goes up, people get more and more desperate.
But at the same time I would rather an integrated handlebar than clipping on my phone anyway. In my time I’ve see so many broken grips for phones and PDAs, I’m really not a fan. Maybe MagSafe can negate that, but who knows.
MagSafe wouldn’t help, it’s just a bunch of magnets, yank and it’s gone. It could keep the phone charged, but that’s about it.
When I used to ride a bicycle, I had a front torch, back light, and a phone in a waterproof “cage-case”, attached to some solid mounts with a “unlock lever, rotate, slide” release mechanism. Quick enough to take them off when parking, not easy enough to randomly grab and run. Still, using an old phone was an extra precaution, also against random accidents (almost got clipped by a bus or van, more times than I’d like to admit 😬).
A trick I learned about mounts, is that they can break from vibration over time, so it’s a good idea to add some rubber under the mount as a shock absorber. As a bonus, it protects the paint. Also, never buy the cheapest one… if you can’t throw it against the floor and keep using it, then it’s not good enough.
This is e-waste. This could just be a decent bike computer and a light that you could slap on to any bike, but they had to go and make a thing that forces me to replace the handlebars that I picked to match my body and riding style? An expensive electronic thing that i can’t remove from my bike? No thanks.
Wait’ll you find out about ebikes!
I mean it’s all e-waste at this point. My bikes are all carbon, which ain’t recyclable, plus the shifting is all electronic, and yeah my eMTB is a ticking timebomb that will be otherwise useless if either the battery or motor quits.
On your other points: Carbon bike frames can be repaired, so even though they aren’t recyclable, they can still last a long time, so they’re not the worst. Electronic shifting feels a bit gimmicky to me, but all the mount points for the shifter and derailleur are standard and they can probably be swapped out for a standard cable shifter in the future without changing other parts on the bike.
Electronic shifting felt gimmicky to me until I tried it. It’s actually pretty awesome, although if you don’t want to spend the money for it, there is also great mechanical shifting still available.
My road bike is electronic shifting and absolutely awesome. Every shift is absolutely perfect, and I set it up to handle compensating the large gear jump between front chain rings automatically so I don’t have to shift the rear to compensate myself. Also, since I’m still getting used to the new gear ratios compared to my gravel bike, it’s nice that my headunit can warn me when I’m doing something stupid with the gear selection.
I sometimes wish my gravel bike was also electronic, but it’s not like I enjoy it any less because it isn’t. It’s a “man, if I had a shitload of cash laying around” not a “I neeeeeeeed this” thing. I still put 3,500 miles on the bike, it’s still an awesome bike, I still have reasons to ride it.
It’s pretty gimmicky for sure. The electronic setup on my road bike is pretty finicky too, id rather cables to be honest, but it’s just the way everything is going. It especially sucks when you are at the door all geared up and ready to go, and realize that one of your batteries is dead.
Oh, I’m definitely upset about ebikes with motors and batteries integrated in the frames, with no replacement parts available. Often you can’t even install used parts because the firmware needs to be flashed by a dealer for your specific bike.
I own an ebike now and I’ve built one in the past. The one I built had a powerful mid-drive motor and could easily have been reverted to a normal bike (I got hit by a car before I ever got to think about that) and the ebike I have now has a basic bafang hub motor with a bolt-on battery, all of which I could easily replace if they failed.
The motor controllers on both bikes are/were also able to be reflashed or replaced without going to a specific dealer.
There is no reason that companies could not design ebikes and their components to be repairable, replaceable, and reprogrammed by users except for profit, and it’s gross as hell.
Technically not really e-waste, as it’s just the same cycling computer you were buying anyway, and presumably would have a similar lifespan.
The waste part is the non-electronic bits, i.e. when the computer needs replacing you need to bin off the attached bits of aluminium and rubber that make up the rest of the handlebars.
Yes the moment the “article” framed modularity and replaceability as a problem it was clear for me that this is nothing else than product placement… Those things are features I would wish my car would have.
I dunno where you live, but round these parts people are having their phones and PDAs snatched off their bikes.
While riding?.. what parts are those? 😲
I’d be more concerned about leaving an integrated device where it can be vandalized, instead of taking it off the bike when it’s parked.
Yeah, the attack surface of a locked-up bike is much larger than that of a bike being ridden?
If you don’t want your phone stolen off the bike, a removable bike computer still makes more sense, I think.
Hell it takes me the rightful owner a fair bit of careful maneuvering to get that thing off the bars (my mount needs to be both twisted while having the release latch pressed). Someone would surely be getting a few smacks upside the head as they were trying to do that. A MIPS powered headbutt or two, as well.
London. It’s a bit wild here at the moment. As poverty goes up, people get more and more desperate.
But at the same time I would rather an integrated handlebar than clipping on my phone anyway. In my time I’ve see so many broken grips for phones and PDAs, I’m really not a fan. Maybe MagSafe can negate that, but who knows.
https://youtube.com/shorts/MMjdV-LrC7U
Wow… that’s sick. 😲
MagSafe wouldn’t help, it’s just a bunch of magnets, yank and it’s gone. It could keep the phone charged, but that’s about it.
When I used to ride a bicycle, I had a front torch, back light, and a phone in a waterproof “cage-case”, attached to some solid mounts with a “unlock lever, rotate, slide” release mechanism. Quick enough to take them off when parking, not easy enough to randomly grab and run. Still, using an old phone was an extra precaution, also against random accidents (almost got clipped by a bus or van, more times than I’d like to admit 😬).
A trick I learned about mounts, is that they can break from vibration over time, so it’s a good idea to add some rubber under the mount as a shock absorber. As a bonus, it protects the paint. Also, never buy the cheapest one… if you can’t throw it against the floor and keep using it, then it’s not good enough.
You don’t need a crazy product like this, you just need a bolt-on bike computer mount, then.
I mean, one of my bikes has expensive electronic parts that can’t be removed.
It’s also the bike that absofuckinglutely does not get left anywhere, like to the point that I don’t even have a lock for it.
These handlebars are still dumb though.