4 years after lighting up the switches at all the design blogs, the Copenhagen Wheel is coming to market and another wheel that looks just like it
In the span of a week, an electric motor for a bike that resembles the Copenhagen Wheel AND the Copenhagen Wheel funded. FlyKly got their money from the crowd and the CW from investors. A few years ago, I posted on the CW for the industrial design, the concept, and talked about it in presentations. Didn’t think it’d ever make it to market or if so, as a complete bike. Cause if you bolt 9 – 12 lbs of anything on your bike, it’s gonna effect handling; especially, if it’s a “fixie” with a short wheelbase and made to corner on a track without an extra 9 lbs of horsepower hanging off it.
Then you’re a slave to the recharge cycle, just like your lights. Better make sure you charge it in before your big meeting at work and the ride home.
Felt bad for the eBike cyclists who was pedaling without power on the path. Sure seemed upset his battery died and tired.
— byron@bikehugger (@bikehugger) October 18, 2013
These moves in the market remind me of Microsoft’s decade of attempts at a tablet, before that, MIDS, and then Apple made a breakthrough product and then the Surface. There’s plenty of existing ebikes on the market that aren’t moving the needle (and tablets getting written off). Last week, when an eBike made the point of buzzing me across the Swing Bridge to West Seattle, I thought…
…When you have a motor on your bike, what’s that make you? A motorist.
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