How OnlyFans modeling led to this high-tech set of handlebars
We’ve spent years following interesting high-tech developments in the e-bike industry, often while the more traditional non-electric cycling industry has...
Slightly tongue in cheek but it's actually fascinating.
This is e-waste. This could just be a decent bike computer and a light that you could slap on to any bike, but they had to go and make a thing that forces me to replace the handlebars that I picked to match my body and riding style? An expensive electronic thing that i can't remove from my bike? No thanks.
Wait'll you find out about ebikes!
I mean it's all e-waste at this point. My bikes are all carbon, which ain't recyclable, plus the shifting is all electronic, and yeah my eMTB is a ticking timebomb that will be otherwise useless if either the battery or motor quits.
On your other points: Carbon bike frames can be repaired, so even though they aren't recyclable, they can still last a long time, so they're not the worst. Electronic shifting feels a bit gimmicky to me, but all the mount points for the shifter and derailleur are standard and they can probably be swapped out for a standard cable shifter in the future without changing other parts on the bike.
Oh, I'm definitely upset about ebikes with motors and batteries integrated in the frames, with no replacement parts available. Often you can't even install used parts because the firmware needs to be flashed by a dealer for your specific bike.
I own an ebike now and I've built one in the past. The one I built had a powerful mid-drive motor and could easily have been reverted to a normal bike (I got hit by a car before I ever got to think about that) and the ebike I have now has a basic bafang hub motor with a bolt-on battery, all of which I could easily replace if they failed.
The motor controllers on both bikes are/were also able to be reflashed or replaced without going to a specific dealer.
There is no reason that companies could not design ebikes and their components to be repairable, replaceable, and reprogrammed by users except for profit, and it's gross as hell.
Yes the moment the "article" framed modularity and replaceability as a problem it was clear for me that this is nothing else than product placement... Those things are features I would wish my car would have.
I mean, one of my bikes has expensive electronic parts that can't be removed.
It's also the bike that absofuckinglutely does not get left anywhere, like to the point that I don't even have a lock for it.
These handlebars are still dumb though.
Technically not really e-waste, as it's just the same cycling computer you were buying anyway, and presumably would have a similar lifespan.
The waste part is the non-electronic bits, i.e. when the computer needs replacing you need to bin off the attached bits of aluminium and rubber that make up the rest of the handlebars.
Yeah, the clickbait hed suggested something far less actually interesting. This is a decent tale of using modern society to bootstrap a product. Wasn't expecting the Porsche/BMW connection.
The novel funding method could be described as a mixture of business and pleasure
Uhm... that sounds like an old method, some would call it the oldest one in history!
A rearview mirror camera had originally been planned, though any rear-focused plans are currently on hold.
Sorta lame they didn't elaborate. On hold because of some technological hurdle they can't overcome? A myriad of regulations that are tough to navigate?
No idea.
The camera likely provides a rear view on OnlyFans.
We asked ourselves, why couldn’t handlebars function like a car’s cockpit?
Isn't this just a cycle computer? I have a cycle computer that clicks into place on my bars. It navigates and connects to sensors like pedal cadence sensors, power meters, heart rate monitors, it displays speed. All while being removable so I can easily charge it or just not bring it when I don't need those functions.
It's literally a cycle computer that also puts a finite lifespan on your fucking handlebars.
You can get the same effect cheaper by JB Welding an Elemnt Roam to your handlebars.
Features include GPS connectivity for mapping as well as 5G and Bluetooth support, integration with common cycling sensors, long battery life, built-in lighting, and more. A rearview mirror camera had originally been planned, though any rear-focused plans are currently on hold.
That seems a little silly to me. It could be lower cost if it relied on the user’s smartphone for some of this hardware. But I’m not a cyclist, so perhaps there are reasons that aren’t obvious to me.
I believe this is what those handle bars are trying to replace I couldn't be bothered to go wake the rest the sensors up or load a route so half the data fields are blank. It also can show a route map (and reroute while offline), alert for cycling specific hazards, show Strava segments (assuming you have that set up), and a bunch of other stuff that I honestly don't know because Garmin crams so much stuff into their stuff that I'm not sure anyone actually uses it all at the same time. There's really no reason that a phone can't do what this thing does since most sensors have the option of connecting through Bluetooth instead of ANT+ now. But a phone won't do it as well, or nearly as long. The 840 I pictured has something absurd like 25 hours of battery while running navigation on multiband GPS if I remember right.
Yeah, but I was only commenting on things like GPS and 5G. I know that my phone doesn't track my heartrate (by default) and so on. I see no reason not to have those functions in the handlebar computer. I just don't see why actual phone features would be duplicated, making the whole thing more complex and more expensive.
The obvious is that it doesn't require your phone, given the size (having a phablet can be awkward...), many exercisers prefer forgoing their phone when exercising - it's why smartwatches will also have GPS and 5G
