This looks interesting.

Looks interesting.

 

Any thoughts anybody? I was wondering what the battery spec is - etc - not found that info yet - its got to be there somewhere......

 

I like the idea that its all controlled from your phone - no more wires - and so easy to fit - literally just change the back wheel. That sounds neat. Not found prices yet either.

This thread is about it.

 

It's been done before, including the extravagant claims, but these one wheel "solutions" will never succeed for a variety of reasons.

Here are the specs:

 

The Copenhagen wheel Technical specifications:

MOTOR US: 350W / EU: 250W

WEELE SIZE 26″ or 700c rim

BATTERY Removable 48Volt Lithium

CONNECTIVITY Bluetooth 4.0

BATTERY LIFE 1000 cycles

SMARTPHONE OS iOS, Android

CHARGE TIME 4 hours

COMPATIBILITY Single Speed or 9/10 Speed Free Hub (email us your bike specs if you have doubts: info@superpedestrian.com )

TOP SPEED US: 20 mph

EU: 25 km/h

BRAKE TYPE Rim brake and regenerative braking (downhill and back-pedal)

RANGE Up to 50 km / 31 mi

WEIGHT 5.9 kg / 13 lbs

DROPOUT 135 mm

Sounds a good idea to use a smartphone to control it.

If you've got one!

Why build in complexity? Why build in redundancy?

I suspect that the manufacturers are doing a cheapy here, they could just as easily provide a remote control, even use a TV one.

If support for the smartphone vanishes, what do you do?

 

(Written by someone currently struggling with the idiotic Windows 8)

This thread is about it.

 

It's been done before, including the extravagant claims, but these one wheel "solutions" will never succeed for a variety of reasons.

 

Right. Thanks Flecc. I am obviously way behind the times - looks like that thing was 'invented' back in 2006 - so obviously its not caught on.

Right. Thanks Flecc. I am obviously way behind the times - looks like that thing was 'invented' back in 2006 - so obviously its not caught on.

 

Oops I meant 2009.

Oops I meant 2009.

 

Claimed one wheel solutions go back a long way. A decade or so ago the Birkestrand Corporation of the USA marketed the regenerating "Motorised Wheel" but it wasn't a success there. The hub motor part which was basically sound was bought from them by Sanyo who used it as a non-regen hub motor, and this was later bought from Sanyo by Giant for their Twist 1 and 2 regenerating e-bikes from 2007. Later they too dropped the regen.

all in one solutions are going against the grain. While wheels have to be light, heavy batteries added to motor wheels impair handling. The motor has also to be placed at the centre of the wheels, forcing the heavy batteries to the periphery, this increases the momentum of inertia and waste a fair amount of energy when braking unless you have excellent built-in regen circuit, that in itself causes drag when pedalling without power. Again, difficulty with bringing cables out of the rotating wheel, reducing the choice of motor to inrunners and communications to cordless. Attractive on paper, difficult to get right.

(Written by someone currently struggling with the idiotic Windows 8)

 

You and me both, it's certainly different from 7. I'm currently running 8·1 (beta). Stick with it Mike, It's actually quite good once the idea of charms and widgets is understood. Lots of bugs at the mo, but they are working on fixes...almost daily updates now.

At the root of it is the realisation that Windows 8 appears to have been changed for no reason and to the worse as well.

Apparently, they thought that they would have one OS for computers, tablets, phones etc.

Problem is that most people do not like touch screens for large computers. Back in the 1990's we had these in work and soon people began complaining and going off sick because of the physical effort of waving your arms about for an 8 hour shift compared to using a mouse.

Just like this wheel, it looked good in theory but was hopeless in practice.

Putting it all in the wheel is not a new idea at all.

113 years ago, Singer brought out a tricycle with a petrol engine in the front wheel.[ATTACH]7553.vB[/ATTACH]

Problem is that most people do not like touch screens for large computers. Back in the 1990's we had these in work and soon people began complaining and going off sick because of the physical effort of waving your arms about for an 8 hour shift compared to using a mouse.

 

No such problems with my new all-in-one. 23·5" touch-screen, but also came with wireless keyboard and mouse.

 

Why did you purchase a PC if you dislike Windows so much?

 

As for the Copenhagen Wheel, it's just another "why-we-deserve-your-adulation" effort from MIT.

No such problems with my new all-in-one. 23·5" touch-screen, but also came with wireless keyboard and mouse.

 

Why did you purchase a PC if you dislike Windows so much?

 

As for the Copenhagen Wheel, it's just another "why-we-deserve-your-adulation" effort from MIT.

 

I assumed that Windows 8 would be very much like Windows 7.

I don't need anything 'more' or innovative etc.

If I buy a new car, I expect that the steering wheel will not be on the roof, the clutch in the boot and the dials hidden out of sight.

I must admit to not liking windows 8.1

 

My 17" i5 laptop came with it as standard, but I prefer windows7

I must admit to not liking windows 8.1

 

My 17" i5 laptop came with it as standard, but I prefer windows7

 

I recently decided to finally move away from XP seeing as support will be going in April - and I've gone for Windows 7 - which I really like - heard too many bad stories about 8 - and as much as I love this Apple Mac laptop I have not been convinced to switch to Apple for work purposes. So Windows 7 it has been - and like I say so far great really nice.

Switch windows 8.1 to desktop mode, it is very similar to win 7 except the start screen, you can do the same with win 8 but you have to hit the desktop button at startup.

Win 8 is faster, users less resources and often requires no external drivers loaded at setup, people don't like change

Spot on, when I first clapped eyes on that boot-up screen full of "charms" ? I very quickly switched to the familiar desktop. It's exactly the same as 7 with everything in the same place. Still a few bugs with Youtube playback though.

 

I'm a little surprised that members of a forum which strongly recommends "try before you buy" an E-bike, go out and purchase a PC without trying it first.

Windows 8·1 Desktop mode

 

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2865/11431813726_5e1f185298_c.jpg

What's wrong with Windows 8? It's what's been wrong with all the NT OSes, it's in the way all the time, constantly interfering.

 

A good operating system should be almost completely invisible to all senses, just enabling programs to operate perfectly.

 

I'm still waiting for someone to create one, but on present indications it won't be in my lifetime.

Spot on, when I first clapped eyes on that boot-up screen full of "charms" ? I very quickly switched to the familiar desktop. It's exactly the same as 7 with everything in the same place. Still a few bugs with Youtube playback though.

 

I'm a little surprised that members of a forum which strongly recommends "try before you buy" an E-bike, go out and purchase a PC without trying it first.

I am still getting a lot of problems with youtube. Playback constantly stops and I get the 'Windows is searching for an answer etc.'

So, what is supposedly good about W8 for the home user?

I have not noticed it going any faster, and what is more, do not need it to go faster.

Also, you cannot 'try before you buy'

Other than Apple, all the PC's are W8

All the games on W7 are gone on W8 and the damn thing keeps trying to get me to join x box. I don't want this sort of thing

Personally, I hope that sooner or later they bring out an empty computer and you just buy the programs (Oh, sorry, they have now changed that to Apps) that you want.

W8 just tries to be too helpful and gets in the way.

...

 

Personally, I hope that sooner or later they bring out an empty computer and you just buy the programs (Oh, sorry, they have now changed that to Apps) that you want.

W8 just tries to be too helpful and gets in the way.

 

You can buy many pcs and laptops without an operating system, and install the one you want. You can pick up Win 7 and XP still, or even better, try opensource. Ubuntu (a linux 'flavour' is pretty well self installing now), you can put one of the versions of openoffice on it and be able to do nearly everything you can in Microsh!te Office.

I had a laptop (an old Acer travelmate), running Win XP, whose battery had apparently ceased to hold a charge. Couldn't get a new battery for it (plenty of replacement batteries, but all apparently manufactured about the same time the model was current*), so I got a new laptop with win 7 installed (even though win 8 was the current MS offering), and then put Ubuntu on the old laptop with the intention of 'messing around' with it. Surprise surprise, the battery is now capable of running the laptop for over an hour and a half. That suggests a problem with MS power management routines. Probably the biggest, but by no means the best:(

 

*Edit: This was prior to finding this forum. Now I am tempted to have a go at re-celling the battery myself!

Edited December 18, 201312 yr by peerjay56

Off topic for the Ebike theme I know.

But I bought a new laptop for my daughter with Windows 8 for Christmas - my first exposure with it - out of the box I found pretty much unusable and incredibly frustrating.

There were annoying corner pop-ups continually covering up what I was trying to access.

After a couple of hours messing about and Googling I had it updated to 8.1 and setup more like the traditional windows style and it is fine.

Why don't Microsoft give a simple setup process were you choose the type of device you have, ie, no touch screen, and make it easy to choose the usual desktop format?

I agree about Linux and would suggest Linux Mint would suit a lot of Windows refugees!

 

Best wishes to all members for Christmas.

Barry.

What's wrong with Windows 8? It's what's been wrong with all the NT OSes, it's in the way all the time, constantly interfering.

 

A good operating system should be almost completely invisible to all senses, just enabling programs to operate perfectly.

 

I'm still waiting for someone to create one, but on present indications it won't be in my lifetime.

Have you tried Ubuntu yet?

Now I am tempted to have a go at re-celling the battery myself!

 

Better still, use those cells to make a battery booster like Kirstin did.

Have you tried Ubuntu yet?

 

I've tried various Linux forms but they don't support some software that's essential to me and I don't want to run high demand applications in virtual systems, far too slow.

 

I run my own OS variant, a reduced form of NT using the XP core built upon with content reduced files. End result is smaller and faster and has served me well for years now.

 

But I just wish Microsoft would grow up and stop producing Windows versions for the nursery when the majority users are adults.

Ubuntu sets up a dual-boot system, so you can use Linux for most of the time whilst enjoying the speed and security, and when you want to use your Windows stuff, you can boot to real Windows. While your using Ubuntu, you can still access all the files on your Windows partition.