Automatic bike transmission concept is wild and spiky—and could be a big shift
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/11/automatic-bike-transmission-concept-is-wild-and-spiky-and-could-be-a-big-shift/

Looks fun to me... Maybe for the eldery?
Or in SF hills?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Fri, 01 Dec 2023 05:57:16 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid>
wrote:

Automatic bike transmission concept is wild and spiky—and could be a big shift
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/11/automatic-bike-transmission-concept-is-wild-and-spiky-and-could-be-a-big-shift/

Looks fun to me... Maybe for the eldery?
Or in SF hills?

Gearing dosn't overcome conservation of energy. Non-gorilla-athletes
here zigzag uphill to reduce the slope and effectively create a
super-low gear. Or, lately, use an e-bike. It's cool to see a mom with
two kids in a trailer climbing a 10% grade.

We have one street near here that tops 36%, but I've never seen a bike
on that one.

I suppose a generator-converter-motor transmission would be too heavy
and inefficient.

The holy grail in mechanical design is a really good
continuous-variable transmission. We EEs are lucky to have switching
regs.

My Audi has a 6-speed dual-clutch transmission that switches between
two parallel gear trains, odd and even. Something like that could work
on a bike.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On a sunny day (Fri, 01 Dec 2023 07:32:21 -0800) it happened John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com> wrote in <58ujmi1e9tv77716ksgva8a8g5iphc4oa6@4ax.com>:

On Fri, 01 Dec 2023 05:57:16 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid>
wrote:

Automatic bike transmission concept is wild and spiky—and could be a big shift
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/11/automatic-bike-transmission-concept-is-wild-and-spiky-and-could-be-a-big-shift/

Looks fun to me... Maybe for the eldery?
Or in SF hills?

Gearing dosn't overcome conservation of energy. Non-gorilla-athletes
here zigzag uphill to reduce the slope and effectively create a
super-low gear. Or, lately, use an e-bike. It's cool to see a mom with
two kids in a trailer climbing a 10% grade.

We have one street near here that tops 36%, but I've never seen a bike
on that one.

I suppose a generator-converter-motor transmission would be too heavy
and inefficient.

The holy grail in mechanical design is a really good
continuous-variable transmission. We EEs are lucky to have switching
regs.

My Audi has a 6-speed dual-clutch transmission that switches between
two parallel gear trains, odd and even. Something like that could work
on a bike.

It all made me think of the DAF:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variomatic

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Fri, 01 Dec 2023 16:49:35 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid>
wrote:

On a sunny day (Fri, 01 Dec 2023 07:32:21 -0800) it happened John Larkin ><jl@997PotHill.com> wrote in <58ujmi1e9tv77716ksgva8a8g5iphc4oa6@4ax.com>:

On Fri, 01 Dec 2023 05:57:16 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid> >>wrote:

Automatic bike transmission concept is wild and spiky—and could be a big shift
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/11/automatic-bike-transmission-concept-is-wild-and-spiky-and-could-be-a-big-shift/

Looks fun to me... Maybe for the eldery?
Or in SF hills?

Gearing dosn't overcome conservation of energy. Non-gorilla-athletes
here zigzag uphill to reduce the slope and effectively create a
super-low gear. Or, lately, use an e-bike. It's cool to see a mom with
two kids in a trailer climbing a 10% grade.

We have one street near here that tops 36%, but I've never seen a bike
on that one.

I suppose a generator-converter-motor transmission would be too heavy
and inefficient.

The holy grail in mechanical design is a really good
continuous-variable transmission. We EEs are lucky to have switching
regs.

My Audi has a 6-speed dual-clutch transmission that switches between
two parallel gear trains, odd and even. Something like that could work
on a bike.

It all made me think of the DAF:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variomatic

Some cars have them, but they tend to be unreliable.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On a sunny day (Fri, 01 Dec 2023 09:19:40 -0800) it happened John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com> wrote in <fc5kmilgjdqm3tkhpdhg083eml2t9ngqvo@4ax.com>:

On Fri, 01 Dec 2023 16:49:35 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid>
wrote:

On a sunny day (Fri, 01 Dec 2023 07:32:21 -0800) it happened John Larkin >><jl@997PotHill.com> wrote in <58ujmi1e9tv77716ksgva8a8g5iphc4oa6@4ax.com>:

On Fri, 01 Dec 2023 05:57:16 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid> >>>wrote:

Automatic bike transmission concept is wild and spiky—and could be a big shift
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/11/automatic-bike-transmission-concept-is-wild-and-spiky-and-could-be-a-big-shift/

Looks fun to me... Maybe for the eldery?
Or in SF hills?

Gearing dosn't overcome conservation of energy. Non-gorilla-athletes
here zigzag uphill to reduce the slope and effectively create a
super-low gear. Or, lately, use an e-bike. It's cool to see a mom with >>>two kids in a trailer climbing a 10% grade.

We have one street near here that tops 36%, but I've never seen a bike
on that one.

I suppose a generator-converter-motor transmission would be too heavy
and inefficient.

The holy grail in mechanical design is a really good
continuous-variable transmission. We EEs are lucky to have switching >>>regs.

My Audi has a 6-speed dual-clutch transmission that switches between
two parallel gear trains, odd and even. Something like that could work
on a bike.

It all made me think of the DAF:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variomatic

Some cars have them, but they tend to be unreliable.

This is also interesting, Uni Wheel drive:
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/12/hyundai-and-kia-completely-rethink-the-ev-drive-unit-with-uni-wheel-idea/
bit too much gears if you ask me, losses, but then elecronics is also ever more transistors and parts :-)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 12/1/2023 9:57 AM, Fred Bloggs wrote:

On Friday, December 1, 2023 at 12:57:23 AM UTC-5, Jan Panteltje wrote:

Automatic bike transmission concept is wild and spiky—and could be a big shift
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/11/automatic-bike-transmission-concept-is-wild-and-spiky-and-could-be-a-big-shift/

Looks fun to me... Maybe for the eldery?
Or in SF hills?

Changing gears doesn't help anyone get up hills. The whole point of bicycle gearing is to allow the cyclist to maintain optimum pedal cadence, about 90 RPM, despite varying conditions of road surface, incline, decline, wind resistance ( a big one).

Existing gearing used couldn't be simpler with very simple operation, low parts count and high reliability. Bicycles don't have clutches, the new gear is selected by flicking a lever on the handlebar. Cyclists change gears on the basis of how much
resistance they're encountering on the pedaling stroke, it's personal judgment call, and they don't need any help with it. .

I'm not sure how e-bikes have it set up, but you would think they take range into consideration foremost. They're really heavy for a bike, and although the rider can pedal them, it won't be easy going compared to a conventional road bike.

Elderly need battery powered tricycles, definitely not bicycles, fitted with a big wide, cushy seat you see on tractors, and with ample cushioning in the suspension. It's real easy for even a young person to suffer a broken bone falling off the bike at

even really slow speeds, so for elderly it would be a major disaster.


Yeah, I fractured my right large metatarsal that way when I was about
10, somehow fell off my BMX at slow speed.

Had no idea at the time how it broke exactly nothing felt wrong until I
tried to stand and I couldn't, I remember it being a extremely painful
fracture compared to e.g. a broken toe which wasn't that bad. I don't
know if treatments have changed for that much in 30-something years, at
the time it meant a full cast up to the knee for about 10 weeks.

Glad I was with a friend at the time because it was the middle of the
day in a dirt lot in a somewhat deserted suburban neighborhood still
under construction, before cell phones obviously, there was no way I
would've been able to walk for help myself.

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