gadget show Cytronex Power assistance

ednwireland

now i want one of them, i might keep up with people on hills

"Fitted with Cytronex Power assistance - when you want that extra help going uphill, just press the right hand boost button. You can either select full power on the left or low speed for steep hills, cycle paths or sightseeing. Whenever you press the rear brake "

clip
http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/videos/challenge/gadget-show-versus-part-three

russell downing still stuffs him though

b*tch of a hill remeber hitting 55mph down that on my cr*ppy raleigh should have gone up the switchbacks from the other side its steeper

and its 12.9kg for a 'dale super six:eek:
edit and it costs £4450 for an ultegra bike
http://www.no-hills.com/electric_bike_shop/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=19&P_ID=235

Lumen

That's deepy cool. Unfortunately it sounds like a milk float...

Isn't the human body amazing?

blorg

Difficult to see what the point of this on a road bike would be although lighter systems certainly of benefit to electric commuters etc.

The system adds 180W but the bike is heavier so a climb probably not the best test... He quoted 12.5kg which is weighty for a road bike, Downing's bike would be presumably around the 7kg mark and he is almost certainly lighter himself. Downing would be putting out, what, 400W? The climb is only 2 miles. So even if the weight was the same the other guy would have to be averaging 220W... Add in the weight differential and it would be a tough challenge.

The fact that he could talk also indicates he's not trying hard enough (I note Downing isn't talking back!)

Lumen can I am sure do better estimates with the power numbers.

Lumen

blorg wrote: »

Difficult to see what the point of this on a road bike would be although lighter systems certainly of benefit to electric commuters etc.

A bike doesn't need to propel you at pro tour speeds to be a worthwhile proposition. Apart from commuting it could be handy for hilly cycling with less able companions.

Blorg wrote:

Normally I would have dropped my girlfriend like a rock on the climbs but here she was keeping up with me, even overtaking and saying "you know, you could go faster!" Something was wrong, very wrong.

This sort of thing could become a more regular occurrence...

blorg

Lumen wrote: »

A bike doesn't need to propel you at pro tour speeds to be a worthwhile proposition. Apart from commuting it could be handy for hilly cycling with less able companions.

I was looking at it more from the point of view of why you go out for a cycle on a road bike in the first place, presumably it is to get the exercise and actually cycle your bike for the sake of it so difficult to see why you would want electric assist. Going at an arbitrary speed is generally not the point, you can just go slower on your non-electric bike.

I don't think I would want to go out for training spins with pro cyclists and only keep up due to my electrics

To be honest I don't see a market for it in a high-end road bike (and that one was _very_ expensive.)

Commuting/utility cycling you want to get somewhere so the whole actual "riding a bike" thing may be secondary and electric assist makes more sense.

ednwireland

I think your thinking the gadget show actually thinks about the usefulness of anything on its show !

ROK ON

I was flicking when I caught this prog last night. IIRC the weight of Downing and bike was 67kilos.
He was awesome. Beautiful looking climb.

ednwireland

ROK ON wrote: »

Beautiful looking climb.

you want to see the traffic on that normally it is actually an A road god knows what time of day that was (early sunday morning is my guess)

yep i saw they closed the road, blorg but you wouldnt be able to close that road on a weekday just too busy

blorg

ednwireland wrote: »

you want to see the traffic on that normally it is actually an A road god knows what time of day that was (early sunday morning is my guess)

They said in the video they closed the road.

fenris

I thought about one of those bikes very seriously about this time last year as I reckoned that my commute from Bray to city centre was not going to be doable for my level of fitness at the time and I was worried that some old injuries would prevent me making the distance so I wanted a safety net.
So to me the idea of an electrically assisted bike was to give a bit of extra ooomh to actually get up the hills and be able to cover the full distance until I go fit enough to go solo while cycling a proper bike that could function without the motor the alternative in my mind would have been to not cycle at all. I think that I would have been very representative of the "people who want to get back to cycling but the commute is a bit far" mindset.

Naturally my salvation came in the form of boards.ie (possibly Morgan in particular) and the decision to HTFU and just give it a go, bought a Giant Deft 2.5 and have been happy ever after and try to commute at least a couple of times a week.

BostonB

fenris wrote: »

I thought about one of those bikes very seriously about this time last year as I reckoned that my commute from Bray to city centre was not going to be doable for my level of fitness at the time and I was worried that some old injuries would prevent me making the distance so I wanted a safety net.
So to me the idea of an electrically assisted bike was to give a bit of extra ooomh to actually get up the hills and be able to cover the full distance until I go fit enough to go solo while cycling a proper bike that could function without the motor the alternative in my mind would have been to not cycle at all. I think that I would have been very representative of the "people who want to get back to cycling but the commute is a bit far" mindset.

Naturally my salvation came in the form of boards.ie (possibly Morgan in particular) and the decision to HTFU and just give it a go, bought a Giant Deft 2.5 and have been happy ever after and try to commute at least a couple of times a week.

I was thinking the same two years ago. But likewise just got on the bike and did it. Hasn't been as frequent as I'd have liked. But still doing it irregularly.

blorg

Here's another more powerful one. Downside is you need tax and insurance due to the motor power.