the bike adapts itself to the current cycling conditions

bike bagdhad?


Mercedes-Benz presents the Automatic Bike 2006
March 1, 2006 The name Mercedes Benz is synonymous with automobiles ...
www.gizmag.com

freeetlass

datakoll who? writes:

bike bagdhad?

Mercedes-Benz presents the Automatic Bike 2006 March 1, 2006 The
name Mercedes Benz is synonymous with automobiles ...

www.gizmag.com

Interesting:

http://www.gizmag.com/go/5292/

is an ordinary current bicycle while:

http://www.gizmag.com/go/3834/

is a completely different Shimano equipped bicycle. Beside that, it
has 36-spoke wheels. How old fashioned can you get, judging from the
banter on this NG.

Jobst Brandt

On 1 Mar 2006 13:45:23 -0800, wrote:


bike bagdhad?


Mercedes-Benz presents the Automatic Bike 2006
March 1, 2006 The name Mercedes Benz is synonymous with automobiles ...
www.gizmag.com

Electric shifting. An onboard CPU whose designer (or project concept
manager) thinks it's smarter than the rider and knows better what gear
should be used. Oh, I am *so* thrilled by this concept. Not.

Any bets on how many months it will be before these show up on eBay?
(Any side bets on whether Sharper Image flogs it?)

--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
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bet walmart!

In article .com,
wrote:

bike bagdhad?


Mercedes-Benz presents the Automatic Bike 2006
March 1, 2006 The name Mercedes Benz is synonymous with automobiles ...
www.gizmag.com

freeetlass


The article deems the bicycle a 'sporty design'. It looks decidedly
utilitarian. Hmm, the latest incarnation of this bike went on a diet,
dropping 4 KG. Dispensing with that (parallelogram suspension?)
seatpost would also liberate some lard.

Seems the most compelling aspect of this ho-hum offering is the cachet
of its brand; for the status conscious that should provide enough to
buy.

Luke

On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 19:35:02 -0500, Luke
wrote:

In article .com,
wrote:

bike bagdhad?


Mercedes-Benz presents the Automatic Bike 2006
March 1, 2006 The name Mercedes Benz is synonymous with automobiles ...
www.gizmag.com

freeetlass


The article deems the bicycle a 'sporty design'. It looks decidedly
utilitarian. Hmm, the latest incarnation of this bike went on a diet,
dropping 4 KG. Dispensing with that (parallelogram suspension?)
seatpost would also liberate some lard.

Seems the most compelling aspect of this ho-hum offering is the cachet
of its brand; for the status conscious that should provide enough to
buy.

In the US, if you can afford a Mercedes, you're probably not going to
ride a bike...or at least, not one as pedestrian as the one featured.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

the modern looking most likely CF beast isn't the worst thing in the
world. Remember that people in some cities like Copenhagen, Amsterdam,
and Gothenburg treat city bikes with utmost respect, gladly shelling
out big bucks for a Hultsfred or similar ride.

Yeah, it's a bit over the top and tony, but looks like it quite capable
of doing some serious shopping. Beats the Walmart "Denali" road bike
any day of the week.

Nothing wrong with the automatic either. When you're on a cell phone
with a child in the carrier in back, it's one less thing to think of. :P

On 1 Mar 2006 19:17:28 -0800, "landotter" wrote:

the modern looking most likely CF beast isn't the worst thing in the
world. Remember that people in some cities like Copenhagen, Amsterdam,
and Gothenburg treat city bikes with utmost respect, gladly shelling
out big bucks for a Hultsfred or similar ride.

Yeah, it's a bit over the top and tony, but looks like it quite capable
of doing some serious shopping. Beats the Walmart "Denali" road bike
any day of the week.

For that matter, so does most of the rest of Wal-Mart's line for
*shopping*. (OTOH, the one thing that is conspicuously absent from
most of the US bike market is a utilitarian run-down-to-market bike,
and Wal-Mart is not alone in this omission.)

Nothing wrong with the automatic either. When you're on a cell phone
with a child in the carrier in back, it's one less thing to think of. :P

Pfui. Given the cadence it will doubtless try to enforce (because
That's What's Good For You), for the average rider it's more likely to
become a hangar queen. That's the fate which befell the majority of
the autoshift bikes I've seen.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
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On 1 Mar 2006 20:10:59 -0800, "landotter" wrote:



For that matter, so does most of the rest of Wal-Mart's line for
*shopping*. (OTOH, the one thing that is conspicuously absent from
most of the US bike market is a utilitarian run-down-to-market bike,
and Wal-Mart is not alone in this omission.)

I was in a Wally World a while back buying one of the six things I ever
buy there, two of which are B12 tabs and gold bike chains, and saw that
they had a "Next" bike set up as a 26" hybrid/city model complete with
chainguard. Looked to be specced with reasonable Shimano Tourney or
Altus. Add one of their $20 racks and for under $150, somebody that's
financially dire can get to work. I don't advocate shopping at Walmart
for the most part, but the average guy isn't going to have time to find
a used Trek and fix it up. That Next should last a good couple years if
you don't hit any major potholes.


Beats the "Pacific" bikes at Target, which are so incredibly
horrible--with Target trying to go for the Euro/Ikea vibe these days,
it would be nice if they could sell a reasonable hybrid bike for $200
or so. I'd never expect them to sell a fully equipped city bike, but
you can always fit a hybrid with the bits needed.

FYI, the Next brand may be made by any of four actual manufacturers;
Pacific, Kent, Dumar or Dynacraft.

Nothing wrong with the automatic either. When you're on a cell phone
with a child in the carrier in back, it's one less thing to think of. :P

Pfui. Given the cadence it will doubtless try to enforce (because
That's What's Good For You), for the average rider it's more likely to
become a hangar queen. That's the fate which befell the majority of
the autoshift bikes I've seen.


It's the Shimano Nexus automatic, best of a pretty suspect breed, it's
going to drive you mad if you're a pretty serious rider like most of us
on these groups, but for the mom who doesn't have a paradigm of
reference, it would likely work out better than explaining 3 rings
front, 9 in back and how to use them. For utility purposes of course.

Based on direct experience with trying to explain just such things to
just such an audience here in Houston more than once, my expectation
is that the high cadence enforced by automatics will drive such a
rider as you posit right up the wall. I've most often found that this
market is tolerant of 3 speeds with manual shifting with some
reluctance (and invariably, the first question is "which gear can I
just put it in and leave it there?"), and 5 speeds only if assured
that it's not actually mandatory that they ever shift at all. If
presented with a bike whose start-off gearing is too low, they'll
swiftly (as in, after 100 feet or so) conclude that this bike is "too
hard to pedal" not because the pedalling effort is high, but because
the pedal cadence is higher than they want to use. Yes, the Nexus
*allows* manual shifting, but does it provide a way to lock the damn
thing in a specific default gear from one usage to the next? With an
electric shift, I am not sanguine about the chances that this one
would be anything more than an expensive and seldom-used one-speed,
abandoned at the first instance of the shift system dropping into low
gear when not expected.

Interestingly, once the initial one-speed operational hurdle has been
overcome, I've noticed that such riders tend to discover the reasons
for the existence of the other gears, and employ them...sparingly. In
more terrain-rich environments, I doubt that the resistance to gear
change would be so intense, but here it's like trying to get a Windows
95 user to embrace OS-X. They just don't want to have anythign to do
with stuff that they regard as "too complicated", and if the
manufacturer tries to dumb down the interface in a manner that doesn't
conform to the user's precise expectation, it's summarily dismissed as
either wrong, junk, or too complicated; progress ends at that point.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

Werehatrack wrote:

Based on direct experience with trying to explain just such things to
just such an audience here in Houston more than once, my expectation
is that the high cadence enforced by automatics will drive such a
rider as you posit right up the wall. I've most often found that this
market is tolerant of 3 speeds with manual shifting with some
reluctance (and invariably, the first question is "which gear can I
just put it in and leave it there?"), and 5 speeds only if assured
that it's not actually mandatory that they ever shift at all.


If I had my way with things, 80% of bikes sold for folks that didn't
use them for sporting purposes would have a high quality
Shimano/SRAM/SA three speed labled: 1:uphill, 2:flat, 3:downhill. I'd
be happy to ride to the local coffeeshop on something like that myself.
Of course my shifter wouldn't have the labels as I'm so totally elite
an' stuff. :P

Interestingly, once the initial one-speed operational hurdle has been
overcome, I've noticed that such riders tend to discover the reasons
for the existence of the other gears, and employ them...sparingly. In
more terrain-rich environments, I doubt that the resistance to gear
change would be so intense, but here it's like trying to get a Windows
95 user to embrace OS-X. They just don't want to have anythign to do
with stuff that they regard as "too complicated"

My mother uses a Ubuntu Linux box with a rather large desktop icon that
starts the Firefox browser, labeled "INTERNET". She loves it as it
makes "cool sounds" when logging in. :P

For what it's worth, I'm not an OS snob. Whatever's the best solution,
use it.