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Comment by Pxtl | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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..

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