Bicycle Austin forum

MichaelBluejay

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From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

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"Copenhagen Wheel" makes electric bike conversion easy

It's not especially hard to upgrade a bicycle with an electric motor.  You swap out a wheel that has a motor in it, mount a battery, install the handlebar control, and run some wires.  But one company is making it easier:  With their product, you just swap out the wheel and that's it.  The battery is built into the wheel (interesting) so you don't have to mount it somewhere on the frame, and there's no controller, because the motor senses when you need help and automatically kicks in to assist.  And because there's no external battery or controller, there are no cables to run.

[UPDATE 4/21:  The Copenhagen Wheel is no longer available, so I removed the link.]

Darron

Member

Registered: 2014-05-22

Posts: 131

Re: "Copenhagen Wheel" makes electric bike conversion easy

I can't believe this is still in the "pre-order" stage.  I've been watching this since it was announce in 2009 and honestly I lost interest because they never launched a product (2009 article here http://www.gizmag.com/mit-copenhagen-el … ub/13626/).  Great idea but the rollout leaves something to be desired.  The rumor is the price will increase to $1200 after the pre-orders are filled.

Flykly has a similar product first introduce as a Kickstater and refined since then that you can purchase now (http://flykly.com/smart-wheel/) as does evelo (http://omni.evelo.com/order-now/).  One could argue that these products don't have all the fancy algorithms of the Copenhagen Wheel but they do have one big advantage, they exist now.

A good reviews of ebikes is http://electricbikereview.com/.  Here is their review of the Copenhagen Wheel and the Flykly:
http://electricbikereview.com/superpede … gen-wheel/
http://electricbikereview.com/flykly/smart-wheel/

Darron

MichaelBluejay

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From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

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Re: "Copenhagen Wheel" makes electric bike conversion easy

Well, they're available for purchase now, but at a whopping $1500!

RedFalcon

Member

Registered: 2013-10-10

Posts: 233

Re: "Copenhagen Wheel" makes electric bike conversion easy

I looked at the Austin Energy site because I know they have rebates for electric bikes.  I may be wrong, but it looks like to get a rebate you have to purchase a new e-bike - not a conversion kit.   If this is the case, it needs to get changed.  The more people riding ebikes instead of driving the better. 

But, can please we get that conversion wheel in camo instead of bright red?

MichaelBluejay

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From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

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Re: "Copenhagen Wheel" makes electric bike conversion easy

Somehow I didn't even know about the City's rebate.  Here's their page.

Yeah, it looks like complete electric bikes only.  They also have to be brand-new, so there's no loophole of selling your bike to the bike shop, having them upgrade it to electric, and then selling the whole thing back to you.

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: "Copenhagen Wheel" makes electric bike conversion easy

Looks like they finally released the product in 2017, it was recalled for safety issues later that year, and they stopped selling it in 2020.  Many customers complained about poor quality and lack of support, e.g. this one.

One thing I didn't mention in my original post:  Lithium batteries are good for maybe 1000 charge cycles.  So after a few years, you'd be looking at service to remove the battery from the wheel and replace it, or else buy a whole new wheel.  With a normal ebike kit, it's trivial to swap out the battery, though the kit itself is harder to install.

A competing product is the GeoOrbital, but I didn't see any way to actually buy it.  I couldn't find any others.

Jack

Member

Registered: 2013-03-27

Posts: 344

Re: "Copenhagen Wheel" makes electric bike conversion easy

The GeoOrbital is an interesting design and the best I was able to find was a sign-up for an e-mail list.  One mechanical thing about that design is the bearings way out on the rim are going to have to spin really fast, compared to bearings at a wheel's hub, reducing life, but maybe they've beefed them up tremendously, or made them really easy to service, to make up for that.  I guess we'd be stuck with their foam-filled tires.  #reinventing the wheel.

Last edited by Jack (2021-04-11 17:23:58)

ggw

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From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-27

Posts: 35

Website

Re: "Copenhagen Wheel" makes electric bike conversion easy

Heh. An hour or so ago that guy and his family rode by Shipe Park. He didn't even bother to pedal. (The whole family never slowed down for the way stop the turned right at!) He did wave.