Hi fellow Flying Dutchman, good news for us here. A new wheel makes it possible to lock your bike with your iPhone. The Copenhagen Wheel is considered to be one of the most interesting cycling innovations since the invention of the wheel itself.
“The Copenhagen wheel transforms ordinary bicycles quickly into hybrid e-bikes that also function as mobile sensing units. The Copenhagen Wheel allows you to capture the energy dissipated while cycling and braking and save it for when you need a bit of a boost. It also maps pollution levels, traffic congestion, and road conditions in real-time.”
The whole bike is controlled by the smartphone. You can use your phone to unlock and lock your bike, change gears and select to what extent the motor assists you. Considering the situation in Amsterdam this is an incredible invention. Imagine locking your bike with an easy finger tip on the touch screen of your iPhone. This sounds like heaven in a city, where we all need three heavy steel locks to secure our bikes… which are extremely unpleasant to touch in this freezing weather.
But there’s more. The Copenhagen Wheel says to provide a complete new metropolitan lifestyle experience even matching with a social networks on the Internet.
“As you cycle, the wheel’s sensing unit is also capturing your effort level and information about your surroundings, including road conditions, carbon monoxide, NOx, noise, ambient temperature and relative humidity. Access this data through your phone or the web and use it to plan healthier bike routes, to achieve your exercise goals or to meet up with friends on the go. You can also share your data with friends, or with your city – anonymously if you wish – thereby contributing to a fine-grained database of environmental information from which we can all benefit.”
My bike and my iPhone are the two objects I currently use most in my life. The bike to meet friends, relatives and clients, and the telephone to stay in touch with the same people online. Its great to see both getting compatible now, although I’m doubting the necessity to avoid traffic jams (I’ve never met one for bikes here), or test the humidity level (it always rains). Nevertheless, I think this is a great tool. The Copenhagen Wheel was unveiled yesterday at the United Nations Climate Conference. The project was conceived and developed by MIT’s Senseable City Lab for ‘Kobenhavns Kommune’.
7 Comments
Sounds great! Really curious as to what it might cost. Maybe vanmoof can incorporate it into their already amazing bikes.
Hi Daan,
You’re right would be great to have them here. The wheel is expected to go into production next year at a price comparable to that of standard electric bikes. Idon’t now when they will be available in other cities.
How are the Vanmoof bikes. Have you tried them? Are they realy as good as people tell? I remember the Kronan bikes a couple of years ago. Stylisch, but not very high quality.
Great innovative idea. However, I would never use the lock option, as a bike not physically locked with a chain to a non-moving object equals a non-locked bike in terms of theft rate… At least in Dutch cities :S
I agree about the lock matter. They will take your entire magnificant new bike, innovative lock included. Other than that it sounds cool.
Understand your worries I had my experiences aswell in Amsterdam. Inhabitat says: “Worried about using such a high-tech wheel in theft-prone cities? The Copenhagen Wheel’s smart lock sends a text message to users if someone tries to steal the bike, greatly decreasing the likelihood of a successful theft.”
I would be honoured to volunteer in this matter
I guarantee I need only 3 seconds to load the bike into a little van. Replacing the back wheel will take a bit more effort, but is absolutely no problem.
Btw, a few years ago I lost my keys. No one gave a damn when I loaded my locked bike in a van, right in the city centre of Groningen.
Great article, well written.
I am the MD of text-lock and we are soon launching our new product text-padlock, which is a padlock which can be operated remotely by mobile phone, leaving an electronic signature of anyone using or requesting access. Please see http://www.text-lock.com/text-lock_GSM_SMS_padlock.html for more details on the product.
I welcome your opinions on this and would be fascinated to see your views in this blog.
Oliver
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