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Comment by sharpercoder | Hacker News Reader

I've cycling since 2 years old, and when I was 10 I built my own bicycle from scratch with my older brother. He's stil running his bikeshop.

The world needs a bicycle for the current age. I see many new ideas on kickstarter and news outlets presenting new bikes with all sorts of features. Most take one idea and built a bike around it. Some take more ideas but none actually solve my day-today problems with bikes:

- They get stolen

- They need regular maintenance on the drive train

- Lighting breaks easily

- Not robust enough

- Traffic lights cost a lot of energy

- Charging is a hassle

On top of that, I'd like some tech bolted on top of my bike:

- Camera's

- Safe & usable mapping system

- Citylight & countrylight

- Electronic lock

- Electronic tracker (when stolen)

Lastly, it should use mostly standard parts.

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I think the technology must be decoupled from the bike. The worst thing to happen to biking would be the planned obsolescence that pervades all sorts of newly "smart" devices.

What's more, I think things likes mapping and camera should be integrated via the user's phone. Why spend money on a camera assembly when you can drop in a 240GB SSD, a small power supply, and use the phone to log video and display a map?

To me, the ideal bike would be a fixed-frame hybrid or cx bike with an internal drive shaft (not a belt) and disc breaks to minimize maintenance, fenders. Basically like a bikeshare bike but without the bikeshare weight and the upright angle.

Chains and belts, caliper brakes, shocks, are all maintenance pain. Cam shafts are cheap to maintain but require a bike that is built around a shaft drive - they're not compatible with a standard frame setup.

Put all the electronics in a detachable pod on the handlebars. Light, horn, camera - all there. You can easily pop it off and take it with you.

Edit: if I were crazy enough for a hardware Kickstarter, an all-singing electronics pod would be it. A long-necked bike light with yellow leds down the side for side visibility and a pair of buttons for horns - a quiet pedestrian chime and an earsplitting horn guaranteed to cause hearing damage if used carelessly.

Low-maintenance and maintenance-free drive shafts are a solved problem, but expensive currently. Locks are a necessity where I live, I don't want to put a €500+ bike without 3 ore more locks. I want a lock to fasten the bike to a fixed item (e.g. pole) and both wheels locked to the frame. Then I want an electronic lock.

The electronics are dispersed over the whole bike. frontlight, backlight, camera's (I'm thinking 3 or 4), integrated mapping,, electronic lock, possible electric steering make it impossible to put all tech into a detachable unit. It's simply out of the question for a well-designed bicycle. I can see it adding some value for current bicycles though.

For the frame I probably want aluminium, because it's cheap and light enough. Shocks are not needed as my country has excellent biking paths. For most other countries shocks don't add too much value, especially not when using the bike in an urban environment. Then they are just maintenance-prone weight-gainers.

Low-maintenance and maintenance-free drive shafts are a solved problem

Shaft-driven bicycles have been a solved problem since the late 1800s. [0] But I’m too lazy to do the conversion needed to determine if 125 1898 dollars is expensive. Bikes in the 1800s were priced more akin to modern cars than modern bikes stamped out in an Asian factory. But it’s been done, and by what was a major brand at the time. I’ve ridden them, they’re heavy (like every other bike back then), but nice to ride. I don’t see why it couldn’t be coupled to a modern set of enclosed planetary gears.

[0] http://oldbike.wordpress.com/1898-pope-mfg-columbia-chainles...

Electric steering? But why?

Lights: I bought a $15 set of lights off eBay ~3 years ago. The alkaline AAA batteries need replacing a few times a year, nobody can be bothered stealing them because they don't look expensive.

Why all the cameras?

Why an electronic lock?

As for locking both wheels, in my experience changing from QR dropouts to something that requires a simple tool for taking wheels off solves that problem. The tools on my bikes are small enough that I Gorilla tape them to the underside of the seat on each bike.

As for shocks being maintenance-prone: my daily commute is on a bike with Suntour shocks from 2002. They've never had maintenance. Basically everything else on the bike has been replaced except for shocks and frame.

To be honest, a cheap light is a cheap light.. but I have had my rear light stolen before now and had to cycle home in the dark without one (in truth, it was like 1 am and I went via the back roads but I still felt very exposed and pulled off when a car approached). I currently have a rear pannier frame which has a built in reflector and have thought it would be useful for that to be a light, though I can't charge batteries on the bike so they need to be removeable easily. I'm nervous about leaving anything on the bike that is easily removable though.. so a small light is enough. The LED ones these days easily fit in my pocket and are way bright enough for city riding where all you need is visibility.

I'm intrigued about that chain drive though..

> "my day-today problems with bikes..."

> "They need regular maintenance on the drive train"

Regular maintenance is not needed daily; lights don't break daily. Charging a light is not a "problem". Buy a few lights and then charge them all at once in one weekly charging session or something.

"Not robust enough"... for what activity are they not robust enough?

"Safe & usable mapping system"... Cyclists shouldn't be looking at maps while riding. Stop and use your phone if you get lost. Also.. most cyclists don't need maps unless they're tourists, who will happily stop and use phone because tourists ride slowly and stop frequently.

Sounds like you're over cycling. Get yourself a motorbike or car or electric bike!

I have had quite some bicycles, and I have replaced everything on them. Including frame, front fork, wheels, steer, axles... I'd like them to be more durable.

Regular maintenance on the chain and gears should be done twice a week in fall conditions. In winter, this is true too but since we salt the roads, you must also clean chains at least weekly. Less maintenance simply wears of the chains much quicker. I think I replace them around 3-4K KM, but I have no exact numbers here.

Lights break about every month when commuting daily. Batteries go empty, cheap lights break because bumps, charging them is a hassle.

I'd like to throw my bike from 2 meters down and know it's not broken anywhere. In the city, people fight for parking spots and play rough with others peoples bikes.

I want a mapping system which is safe and usable. I know it can be done, but is has not yet been done. I'm thinking integrated sounds & lights in the steering wheel. I have seen some interesting kickstarter projects trying to solve this problem.

I have a Cateye RapidX3 light which is good quality and lasted a long time. ( cateye.com/en/products/ ) ... USB charge, good battery, very bright.

The problem is 1) bicycles are made in Asia (for decades) for their market (we just import it), 2) so a lot of different manufacturers, 3) stealing bikes isn't such a big problem in e.g. China, 4) expensive gear catches of thiefs, a bicycle is easy to take (most sold locks are a joke, the good ones are very heavy/unpractical)

Better make the hi-tech stuff invisible, hide it in the bicycle frame - putting motors, akku packs, cameras inside the frame is doable. Some spend 5k to 10k for a new bike, so there is a market.

I doubt asian produced bikes dominate the market in the west. See eg http://www.conebi.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/European-Bic... - 7M imported and 13M produced in 2015. The asian industry is also much younger so the "decades" is not really an advantage.

Most bikes in US and Western Europe are made in China. Then they get shipped in parts to US and Western Europe and the bikes are assembled there. Often enough such small tasks count to label it made in xy.

Only smaller volumn hand made premium bikes are made locally.

Also bikes get imported from low cost countries with cheap labor like East Europe and China since at least 1990.

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