Vanhawks (YC W15) Raises $1.6M to Help Put the Valour Smartbike on the Road
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Re: Vanhawks (YC W15) Raises $1.6M to Help Put the Valour Smartbike on the Road
#2In computerland, technologies trickle up. The PC, the iPhone started out at home, found a niche in business, and then took over.
With cycling, innovations trickle down from the top. Starting out with a flat-bar hybrid is not starting at the top, and seems like a really weird choice. Hybrids are marketed to beginners, or mountain bike people who want to train on the road with the same hand position they ride off-road.
Sofware may be "eating the world," but Asian manufacturing has been eating the cycling market for 40 years. Shimano, specifically, is a far more profitable business than any of the branding companies or manufacturers. If you aren't going after Shimano, you're fighting for scraps.
Re: Vanhawks (YC W15) Raises $1.6M to Help Put the Valour Smartbike on the Road
#3Why flat handle bars?
Re: Vanhawks (YC W15) Raises $1.6M to Help Put the Valour Smartbike on the Road
#4Why flat handle bars?
My guess is that they're targeting middle-aged-monied-nerds-who-don't-ride-bikes, which is a reliable but tiny market. The kind of people who buy recumbents and put them on Craigslist a few years later, unridden:
Re: Vanhawks (YC W15) Raises $1.6M to Help Put the Valour Smartbike on the Road
#5As a crazy street biker and very opinionated person, this just makes me say "ICK."
It reminds me of one of those swiss army knives with the 16mb USB stick built in. Seems cool at the time until you realize something that should last a decade or more is now irrevocably tied to something that's going to be obsolete next year.
Plus the market for $1,200+ commuter bikes simply cannot be that large.
They should have just made nice-looking attachments and left it at that.
Re: Vanhawks (YC W15) Raises $1.6M to Help Put the Valour Smartbike on the Road
#6Why flat handle bars?
Hey Soperj!
Ali here, one of the co-founders at Vanhawks! Thanks for commenting! The reason we used flat handle bar is because we aimed our bikes at commuters! Flat handle bars are really ergonomic. In relation to also our frame design, they go perfectly with our aesthetics :). Hope that answers your question!
Re: Vanhawks (YC W15) Raises $1.6M to Help Put the Valour Smartbike on the Road
#7So many WTF, so little time.
They designed a carbon frame and fork for a commuter bike, going through the huge time and money sink that is creating their own moulds (plus need at least one per frame size and they are expensive) and it doesn't have fender or rack mounts (for aesthetics). Nice practical choice there.
Maybe it is just prototype photos, but custom designed bars/stem/fork and they couldn't route the cables for the electronics internally? Plenty of examples of that working already (look at Di2 builds using PRO parts from Shimano). And on that: integrated stem/bars might be fine, but only if they are exactly the right size for you.
And routing/directions? (Ooh, haptics, that'll work on a bumpy street.) For a short-ride/commute bike? That you'll need once to learn the way and then not again? Maybe on a touring bike to get you through a complicated all-day route, but this is not that bike.
Yes, I'm a bike snob, but I'll stick to my cheap commuter and my fleet of pricer rides, thanks.
Re: Vanhawks (YC W15) Raises $1.6M to Help Put the Valour Smartbike on the Road
#8As a crazy street biker and very opinionated person, this just makes me say "ICK." It reminds me of one of those swiss army knives with the 16mb USB stick built in. Seems cool at the time until you realize something that should last a decade or more is now irrevocably tied to something that's going to be obsolete next year. Plus the market for $1,200+ commuter bikes simply cannot be that large. They should have just…
Hey !
Thanks for the comment and feedback! Really appreciate it.
We have something in the work for an attachment in the future. The Valour is our way of offering an experience versus just a new spot of technology. :)
Re: Vanhawks (YC W15) Raises $1.6M to Help Put the Valour Smartbike on the Road
#9As a biker, for this style of bike, if I was to buy a bike today I would prefer BMC's AC01 IGH, which albeit more expensive, has parts which are more standard and for which BMC has made a kit of custom fenders and lights (City Kit lighting): http://www.bmc-switzerland.com/int-en/bikes/lifestyle/mounta...
However I think attempting to mass produce a high-quality smart bike is a very commendable endeavor as it is dearly needed on the market. A great city bike with a good setup for lights, theft security (screws, tracker, lock), low maintenance (belt, hub) easily cost more than a cheap used car and you have to curate all the accessories yourself whereas most of these things com built-in on a car/motorcycle.
Re: Vanhawks (YC W15) Raises $1.6M to Help Put the Valour Smartbike on the Road
#10Why flat handle bars?
Hey Soperj! Ali here, one of the co-founders at Vanhawks! Thanks for commenting! The reason we used flat handle bar is because we aimed our bikes at commuters! Flat handle bars are really ergonomic. In relation to also our frame design, they go perfectly with our aesthetics :). Hope that answers your question!
Flat bars also allow for more nimble maneuvering in traffic.
Although I am not a big fan of the hand shaped rubber tips. I would opt to use gloves instead and SPD clips (w/ Vittoria 1976 shoes which are absolutely amazing for wearing all day), but then I am a bike nerd.