Tech startup reinvents the bicycle wheel

Smartphone app and hub device create hybrid ride

In this Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013 photo, Assaf Biderman, co-inventor of the Copenhagen Wheel and Associate Director of the SENSEable City Laboratory at MIT, poses with his invention at Superpedestrian, his venture-backed company in Cambridge, Mass. The Copenhagen Wheel is a human/electric hybrid bicycle engine built into a bicycle's back wheel. Pre-orders for the Copenhagen Wheel are being taken with delivery expected by May 2014. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
In this Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013 photo, Assaf Biderman, co-inventor of the Copenhagen Wheel and Associate Director of the SENSEable City Laboratory at MIT, poses with his invention at Superpedestrian, his venture-backed company in Cambridge, Mass. The Copenhagen Wheel is a human/electric hybrid bicycle engine built into a bicycle's back wheel. Pre-orders for the Copenhagen Wheel are being taken with delivery expected by May 2014. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - A Massachusetts startup is launching a new device that transforms almost any bicycle into an electric-hybrid vehicle using an app on a smartphone.

The device, called the Copenhagen Wheel, is installed as part of the rear hub of a bike wheel and is packed with a proprietary computer, batteries and sensors that monitor how hard a rider is pedaling and activate an on-board motor whenever support is needed.

The device uses wireless connectivity to communicate with the rider’s smartphone to track distance traveled and elevation gained, as well as locking the wheel remotely as soon as the owner walks away from the bike. It can also use the connection to potentially share with friends the number of calories the biker burned during the ride.

“The motor integrates itself with the rider’s motion very, very seamlessly,” said Assaf Biderman, who co-invented the device at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s SENSEable City Lab, where he is associate director. “It’s almost like having a riding companion riding together with you, making the ride easier, simpler.”

The combination of power from the Copenhagen Wheel and the cyclist’s energy can make an average biker move “almost like a Tour-de-France-level athlete in your daily commute,” said Biderman, who founded Cambridge, Mass.-based Superpedestrian Inc., which secured an exclusive license for the technology from MIT.

The Copenhagen Wheel packs sufficient power to propel a rider as fast as 37 mph, but developers have put limits in software to meet local speed limits, effectively turning off the motor when the speed reaches 20 mph.

The concept was inspired by a simple question: “How can we get more people to cycle?” Biderman said.

The project received funding from the Italian Ministry of the Environment and officeof the mayor of Copenhagen, a Danish city known as one of the most bicycle-friendly locations in the world and whose tourism website says 55 percent of its residents ride a total of 750,000 miles every day.

The initial 1,000 units of the Copenhagen Wheel became available for preorder through the Superpedestrian website earlier this month. Two weeks later, at least 810 had been sold for $699 each, the majority of them to customers in the United States.Other orders went to Europe, Australia, Kenya, Madagascar and elsewhere. Shipping is scheduled for next spring.

The Copenhagen Wheel does not replace a cyclist’s bicycle. Consumers get the stylish hubcap-sized device already installed on a new rear wheel that fits their bicycles. After they install the souped-up unit on their bicycles, they are ready to go. The batteries are rechargeable.

The Copenhagen Wheel seeks to tap into a lucrative and highly competitive market for electric bikes, also known as e-bikes.

In a recent report, clean technology consulting company Navigant Research estimated that worldwide revenue from electric bicycles will grow from $8.4 billion this year to $10.8 billion in 2020, fueled in part by demand fora viable alternative to increasingly congested city roads.

In the United States, the trend is reflected in Census Bureau data showing the number of bicycle commuters rose by 60 percent in the decade ending in 2010.

“Over the past few years, we’ve seen a cycling renaissance throughout the world,” Biderman said. “People are looking for alternatives.”

Business, Pages 21 on 12/23/2013

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