New product launch: the iPad eBike

[AndyOfTheSouth]

Start up ebike company Radstock Holly has announced a range of new products based around a CANNY bus user interface. 'We believe this will take the ebike user experience to a new level. We want to get away from the idea of an electric bicycle as a form of transport and into the realm of experiential transformation.'

Radley Holly will be turning the industry upside down by doing away with dealers. Rather their eTrans machines will be sold by eTrans Counsellors who can program the integrated iPad (sold separately) to reflect the personality of the owner.

'By doing this we can ensure that our customers don't simply ride their bikes, or eTransitioners as we call them, but enjoy the totality of the moment.'

Company CEO Hieronymous Buzzard hinted that future products may even venture into the medicolifestyle area.

'CANNY programming could allow a customer to set a target heart rate. Patented sensors would detect a suitable downhill gradient and prevent the brakes operating until the required heart rate has been reached.'

'Of course, we have to run that idea past the health and safety people', he joked.

 

[brucehawsker]

I resent the lampoon but it is probably well deserved

I was asked in another thread why an iPhone on an electric bike.....

Well, many a true word spoken in jest. Andyofthe South should be employed as a consultant!

Our bikes have a IP address and WiFi board on the conroller. Thus it is a simple matter to interface an iPad or an iPhone using an App to the bike. Equally, using a USB to CANbus connector, we can interface a laptop to the bike.

Through either mechanism, we can change the power profile of the bike - attack, max amps, max speed, role of throttle etc etc.

Using the iPhone, in the pocket or mounted on the handlebars, the user can control these parameters if they wish to change the power profile mid journey.

But that is only 10% of the story. The GPS / Altitude capability of the iPhone, and the accelerometer, give us the ability to build up a data log history of a bike ride. Through the network, the iPhone can interrogate the bike and store data from any of the bike sensors - spped, brake usage, Amps, cadence, torque (differential pedal to pedal), ambient light, temperature. Being CANbus it is trivial to add sensors to monitor such as heartbeat, skin conductivuty, respiration rate. All can be recorded in real time via the wireless by the iPhone.

When you get home, the journey log can be mashed with Google Earth or sent by email to other users.

So, considering just two applications as this is becoming a long post:

A. I want to see how my fitness as a commuter is improving as I use my bike on the same route day after day. I can build up a 3D stack of journeys, with date being the third axis, and see how I am using less and less battrery as I get fitter. I can also look at the points I use most amps, and refine my power profile to avoid such usage and encourage myself to ride harder at those hot points.

B. I am an orthopedic surgeon at a hospital which has leased a fleet of bikes. I lend them to my recovering patients with instuctions to do a set of carefully prescribed different journeys, one each day, they will hopefully follow the navigation I have sent them as GPS routes by email, and at the end of each week, they send me their journey logs. I can see if they have actually being doing the trips I wanted. I can see how much work their two kness have differentially done.


Prizes for the best use of an iPhone bike

 

[10mph]

GPS Altitudes are not accurate

The GPS / Altitude capability of the iPhone, and the accelerometer, give us the ability to build up a data log history of a bike ride. )

I advise you not to rely on the altitudes from your GPS an ordinary roads with short hills. Errors can be very large, this will cause very large errors in power estimation other than long hills.

The horizontal track may be reasonable perhaps not more than 10m off for a good unit operated in the best way. So yes you can follow the track well on GOOGLE Earth, but I often find altitudes from GE especially in towns to be rubbish.

The only sure way to get altitudes is to examine the contours on a 1:25,000 OS Map (which you can in fact get on line at the OS getamap web site).

I have just today calibrated my power output on my push bike by riding to a nearby hill which I can see from the OS map rises by 25m in a horizontal of distance 245m. This part of the hill is of quite uniform gradient - just about 10%. The mass of bike plus rider was 105Kg. Gravity acting on this produces a force of 1030 Newtons, of which 10% acts as drag back down the hill ie 103 Newtons.

This was my first ride for many months. I was tempted out by the sunny day, and the need to start to get fit ready for when I get an ebike for some serious long distance riding.

On my way to the steep hill was a gradient varying around 1%. My eTrex GPS showed I rode this 1% slope at 20 km/h. My cadence of 50 rpm was comfortable for me. 10.3 newtons along the slope gives 54 watts at this speed.

I am not sure exactly what my air drag factor is, but taking a typical value for my riding position of 0.2 Kg/m that gives me 29 watts needed to overcome air resistance.

So on the run out to the steep hill I was probably working at something like 29+54 watts= 83 watts. But I was tiring especially as the hill started to kick up.

As I hit the steep slope my speed dropped to 3 to 4 km/h on the GPS. Let us say on average 3.5km/h. the required power was now 100 watts from the hill, and 0.2 watts from air resistance. I only got about 40m along the steep hill before I had to stop through overexertion. I gave my self a 1 minute recovery and I was then able to ride another 30m or so before having to stop.

So what do I conclude? Without expenditure on fancy systems I can see that at my present stage of fitness 100 watts is my limit. I guess to be comfortable on a long ride at 10mph I would not like to expend more than 50 or 60 watts. So the ebike will have to make up the rest. But I had also better get a bit fitter. So out again tomorrow if the weather is good.

P.S. Andy Well done, your post completely took me in. I must be getting paranoid at the number of posters here pitching sales mumbo jumbo rather that hard numerical numbers based on sound measurement. I just assumed you must be another of that ilk.