Am I missing something or that thing can be trivially stolen?
Bicycles in general can be trivially stolen.
Asus Bike Booster
81–90 of 476 posts
Re: Asus Bike Booster
#82Friction drive e-bike conversions were popular years ago. They generally: * Wear tires surprisingly quickly * Absolutely suck in any form of weather or terrain condition (dirt, rain, etc.) * Have ~20% less efficiency than any other drive form. But, they are easy, and they do work.
Personally I also don't see the niche they serve. If I'm going far away I take a train or a car. I pretty much exclusively use my bike to ride to a nearby grocery store or do other close-by errands. If I'm doing short errands like this, I really prize being able to get on and off quickly and lock my bike up quickly. A device like this needs to be taken with you when you leave your bike to prevent theft. It's a whole…
When I read your comment before the article I thought it was some sort of complicated contraption in multiple parts. Instead it seems pretty compact and easy to disengage. I’m not sure what you’re missing in terms of a niche either. Anyone who just wants to ride with less effort but use their existing bike?
Re: Asus Bike Booster
#83It is decoupled from drivetrain. So, without torque sensor, how does it know when the rider wants to speed up vs. slow down?
Re: Asus Bike Booster
#84Friction drive e-bike conversions were popular years ago. They generally: * Wear tires surprisingly quickly * Absolutely suck in any form of weather or terrain condition (dirt, rain, etc.) * Have ~20% less efficiency than any other drive form. But, they are easy, and they do work.
Looks like you can't have a passenger anymore either. I like to have my kid on the backseat of my e-bike.
I'm not in the market for this, but I am in the market for making my cargo bike electric. Having to slow down at a traffic light and then start from zero absolutely sucks. It goes very slow, it is rough, and you won't have time. I'd use it just for that specific use-case.
Re: Asus Bike Booster
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
In addition to the theft concerns, it's also not a great product.
for the non bikers, to help us understand, whats wrong with it?
Destroys tires, very limited range/power due to poor power delivery from motor to tire. Parasitic drag when coasting or battery is dead.
Re: Asus Bike Booster
#86Haha, I like all these adapter designs though my favourite was the Copenhagen Wheel[0]. I saw someone ride one near Mission and S Van Ness and loved it. Sleek device. This particular one in the OP is definitely built for safe societies, right? Definitely not for the North American market, haha! 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Wheel
It went on sale in the US before the EU. Did you even skim the wiki page you linked?
I see. The way I spoke made it seem like I was talking about the Copenhagen wheel with the phrase “this particular one”. I was talking about the OP device. Obviously since Mission and SVN is in the US I would have assumed it was not the CW but I can see that I was unclear so I have clarified. The Copenhagen wheel is pretty integrated. This one is a thumb screw and off you run with a valuable battery. I wouldn’t buy it here and I bike every day in the city.
People who don’t bicycle in North America won’t quite get it. It’s not exactly Taiwan. Theft is rampant and it’s societally sanctioned in most major cities.
Re: Asus Bike Booster
#87It is decoupled from drivetrain. So, without torque sensor, how does it know when the rider wants to speed up vs. slow down?
It says it has a wireless cadence sensor. With that said, torque sensors were an improvement over cadence sensors.
To elaborate a bit, friends of mine have had bikes with both cadence and torque sensors. And I've tried their bikes out. Agreeing with one friend, the bike with the cadence sensor seems to decide how fast it wants to go.
The bike with the torque sensor behaves a lot more like what you're used to from riding a conventional bike. After all, the control input to a conventional bike is torque.
Re: Asus Bike Booster
#88Haha, I like all these adapter designs though my favourite was the Copenhagen Wheel[0]. I saw someone ride one near Mission and S Van Ness and loved it. Sleek device. This particular one in the OP is definitely built for safe societies, right? Definitely not for the North American market, haha! 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Wheel
Basically, the Copenhagen Wheel moved all the complexity of setting up a hub motor drive system - motor, battery, controller, sensors, computer - into the hub shell itself.
Which made it seem neat and clean, but meant it had serious reliability issues, couldn't handle wet conditions[], wasn't really repairable, and was expensive compared to more reliable alternatives with better battery life, etc.
[] The manufacturer apparently stated that "[...bad bearings] can occur when the Wheel is repeatedly exposed to wet conditions. Due to the nature of the problem, this cannot be repaired": https://forums.electricbikereview.com/threads/known-issues-p...
Re: Asus Bike Booster
#89Friction drive e-bike conversions were popular years ago. They generally: * Wear tires surprisingly quickly * Absolutely suck in any form of weather or terrain condition (dirt, rain, etc.) * Have ~20% less efficiency than any other drive form. But, they are easy, and they do work.
Yeah. I don’t see weather or theft addressed in this design. I recall a wheel-mounted rotor system from a few years back that did address theft, tire-wear, and weather, but it suffered from far too little torque and very limited battery life.
Can't use with mud guards
Re: Asus Bike Booster
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Almost everything was invented in the 1890s, and every couple of decades someone tries another old idea. What about wireless shifting systems like Di2?
> wireless shifting systems like Di2 Is it really wireless? The SRAM one is.
SRAM Automatix. ;-)