Carbon fiber, with its light weight and high strength, is the material upon which the modern motorsports world is built. Traction control, which decreases difficulty, threatens to destroy it. However, in the world of the urban commute, traction control is a great thing and carbon is generally unheard of. Not for Sanyo, which will soon introduce the CY-SPK227 eneloop bike with a frame made of the stuff, featuring two wheel drive and traction control. The rear wheel is powered by the chain, the front by an electric motor, and should the rider pedal more enthusiastically than slippery conditions allow the bike will compensate by adding more juice to the front. Total weight is about 43lbs, many times that of the composite wonders Lance straddled in France, but about 7lbs lighter than the company's
last entrant. It has regenerative braking, an LED headlight, magnesium suspension, a ¥627,900 price tag (about $6,600), and it releases in Japan in October -- you know, right about when the skies start to threaten snow. A good test for that traction control, then.
[Via
Fareastgizmos.com]
posted Jul 27th 2009 9:49AM
The heaviest part of a bike is not it's frame. Most light bikes (around 8kg) have a frame that weighs about 1kg. The real problems are all the bits made out of metal and can't really be made out of anything else. Carbon frame are mostly for the ride quality.
In F1 they build suspension, brakes and gearboxes with carbon fiber.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLSY7ouxebI
The battery, gears, chain and the engine probably account for most of the weight on this bike.
about $6,600
What? O_o
or you could say, the same price of some citycar.
non-crappy racing bicycles start at about $6000, so this is not unreasonable.
@Once Love Cars
I don't know what world you live in, but a non-crappy bike starts around $1,000. Not everyone needs a titanium/carbon frame, low spoke composite tires (which usually pop spokes way too easy), carbon seat, carbon fork, aircraft aluminum handlebars, etc.
Some of us actually do quite nicely with an alunimum frame and carbon fork, basic wheel set, etc.
Get your head out of the clouds.
its way expensive to be a bigot.
that was "racing" bicycles. learn to read more carefully before you get your panties in a bunch.
i dont see how comparing this to a racing bicycle is relevant. its not going to be used for racing. its going to be used for commuting. you can get a good commuter bike for $300. plus you got $6300 in your pocket still
Most cost and effort done in bicycle racing is in all the drugs and drug combos and keeping it undetected, the bike is of less importance.
It is a electric bicycle so it is not a racing one but a consumer bike.
What's the point in having traction control if you've got hardly any power?
Exactly what I was thinking...unless when you are on your city commute giong through ice/diesel I can't imagine that you are going to break traction with such puny force that humans can exert given that tyres these days are so tractable. If in fact you did break traction on ice/diesel I'm not sure that more power to the front wheel would stabilise the situation or make it more dangerous. I'd prefer ABS.
lol, that's a completely ridiculous price :D
Walk into a good bike shop and find some of the high-end stuff. You can surpass that price pretty easily without any of that crappy power-assist nonsense.
Mind you, for about $2000, you can still get an excellent road bike with mid-level components and as long as you're not ass-out-of-shape, you'll be able to comfortably pass any electric-assist bike on the road.
but why if you can get a completely regular bike for $300?
@G --- ok, you get out your $300 bike nad I'll get out my $2000 one, lets meet up and do a 50 mile ride and see who's happier ;)
I'll speak as a cyclist first:
1) Geometry: your $300 bike is built to be comfy for short rides around the suburban block. Real bikes are designed to be comfortable for long distances while putting your body in a position that maximizes efficiency and power transfer.
2) Weight: your $300 bike weighs at least twice as much as my $2000 bike. Again, think efficiency.
3) Strength/stability: not only is the $2000 bike lighter, but it's stronger. If I rode your $300 bike the way I ride my mountain bike, I'd ruin it in a couple of hours. I can't emphasize how much of a durability difference there is between department store crap and real bicycles. Also, these qualities can be used to reduce flex where you want more stiffness on the bike, while increasing flex where you do want it (i.e. for small-bump damping). If you ever look at a store full of road bikes and see that they nearly all have carbon fiber forks, it's because the carbon fiber takes the edge of vibrations before they reach your wrists.
4) engineered suspension: the "springs" on a $300 mountain bike are there for show. They weigh a tonne and bounce around, eating all of your pedaling energy. The carefully engineered, custom-tuneable suspension on a $2000+ mountain bike is designed to add minimal weight, while making your ride so much more efficient that it more than makes up for the weight.
Now I'll speak as a former bike mechanic (wrenched my way through university).
1) fixing and maintaining department store bikes is about as pleasant an experience as an orgy with Rosanne Barr, Rosie O'Donnell, and Ron Jeremy. The bolts are made of metal so soft, they strip almost instantly, and none of them use the same head as the others. They also rust up if you look at them the wrong way. A $2000 bike is build from high-end, light-weight, strong materials and you can do 90% of the work you ever need to do with about three different tools.
2) That $300 bike wears out faster, breaks down more often, and generally requires a lot more maintenance to keep running in any form. Combine that with the first point, and you might as well just ride it for a couple of weeks and throw it away. Maybe you can milk a long life out of a $300 bike, but that just means you aren't riding it as often or as hard as I ride my real bikes.
Yeah plus real bikes not only cost 3 grand but they are exclusively made by "monster cables", the pro company.
This kid needs traction control.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GNB7xT3rNE
For $6,600 I can get a good used car.
And a car is completely useless in a dense city like tokyo.
And how much to you plan on spending on insurance and petrol/gas for this 'good' used car you speak of?
Mind you, under certain circumstances (long distances, many passengers, lots of cargo etc) motor vehicles make sense... but for single person work commute? not so much
For under $3000 I got a nice used motorcycle. No traction control, but it does get 45MPG.
Why can't a motorcycle get better mileage than diesel Volkswagon? 45 mpg is pretty good for a car, but for something with 2 wheels that weights a few hundred pounds, it still sounds kind of piggy to me.
For 6.6 grand you get an awful lot of cab rides too.
@lens42
Could have something to do with a carburetor, gearing, and acceleration. You can get a 250cc bike that will get 70+ MPG, but you wouldn't want to take it out much on the highway or try to out run anything other than a diesel jetta.
My bike is a 750 Honda Shadow, wet weight is just over 500lbs plus rider.
It's incredibly difficult to accept that price tag. I can pick up an electric drive kit and retrofit any old bike (with better components to boot and a gear system for when I don't want to go powered) for so much less than $6K it's not even funny. Or like 4 new scooters. Or 2 very nice old VWs. Or an old VW converted to an all-electric system. Anyone who spends that much on this bike truly is insane.
Yeah the price is high, but the weight is friggin ridiculous for a bike.
I bike a lot. But this would be good if you had a 30 mile commute, and there was a bike trail that went right from your house to work. And you would have to live in the south/southwest where it doesn't get too cold.
Or if you lived in London/Paris and worked downtown. But you are taking your life into your own hands riding a bike there.
I would think it should have disk brakes as well for that price. Maybe even the electric shifters.
Yeah, i was wondering about the brakes but i don't think they'd work with the propulsion system also on/in the hub... My guess would be that they're already pretty 'kin wide without the disc and the forks would have to be wider than (insert smutty joke about the town bike's legs here)...
And I commute in London on a bike and it's nowhere near as bad as it used to be, you just have to ride assertively and know when cars / trucks can't see you. The biggest problem now are hipster twats on fixies that blow red lights constantly... wankers. I wouldn't mind so much but they keep running into the back of me when I stop for pedestrian crossings.
The traction control seems kind of useless, but as a technology demonstrator, it has some interesting technologies. In particular, the regenerative braking coupled with a storage battery might be of use for commuters that want to run powerful head and taillights. Right now there are generator hubs that can power the lights when the bike is moving but I don't know if anyone makes a system that has a reserve battery that keeps them running during traffic stops.
REAL MEN DRIVE FIXED GEARS
If by "REAL MEN" you mean guys trying to be trendy because all the "cool" kids ride fixies, then yes. However, many people recognize that having some gears to select from is much more efficient and better for actually riding in city streets.
Uhm, gears are for long stretches and open (windy/hilly) areas more than in cities, I thought that was obvious.
Uplifting to see so much bicycle love and knowledge here. The last two weeks my local news sites have had a couple of reports of cyclists riding legally being killed by autos. The public comments on those sites replying to the news were just plain ignorant and pathetic.
Not much into motorized bicycles myself (ride the human-powered versions), and it seems to me that for the price tag those serious enough to consider the cost would probably spend the cash on a beautiful pedal-powered road bike.
this bike is a fail
How much do you have to spend on a bike lock for a $6000 bike?
Hope you're not commuting anywhere near Newark...
Yeah that's the problem with commuting on a $6000 bike. You've spent $4000 to shave that last few pounds, then you've got to carry a 5 pound Kryptonite lock or some such to protect it.
The solution is to leave a lock on the rack at your workplace, if possible.
Well if it's light you carry it inside, but yeah in general you'd need a big lock, on the other hand if one is stolen it sticks out a lot when there's only a dozen sold in the country, a quick look at ebay should tell you the culprit.
Maybe sanyo put in some fancy encrypted keycard though to operate it, I mean it IS 6.6 grand, seems to be something you can expect since the moderately expensive models cars have such security too.
In all my years of riding bikes I've never been in a crash situation where traction control would have helped one bit. Plus $6,600 is a bit ridiculous for a commuter bicycle. I could buy a very expensive racing bike or even a motorcycle for that much.
If you are so often in crash situations I'm wondering about your balance and erm skills.
Does seem a bit pricey. I'd much rather have a Hase Pino (And a great chunk of change).
Whoa.....for that price you could get a carbon bike fairly equivalent to what Lance Armstrong is riding.
I ride my Trek OCLV carbon framed bike to work regularly. Almost did today but elected not to last night. I will get to work (12.2 miles away) faster than anyone on this bike. Carbon is not such a rare commute frame component as you imagine.
True electric bikes are WAY WAY up in china where traffic is a joke and people are poor. The chinese are gettin' em for around $300 which seems reasonable. Why the japs need a 6k version is beyond me. Frankly for that much I'd simply but a motorbike. Granted a motor needs licenses and tags but at least you worry less about getting 'run over' and fillups are much easier. May as well go the whole nine and for 10k get a zero motorcycle. I for one will NEVER spend 6K to go what, 15? 20? mph, with the added option of having all the normal vehicles running up your ass.
Look, it's a statement product, top of the line. It's the Rolls Royce of electric bicycles. A regular electric bicycle goes for about $1000-1500 in Japan, they are mainly for young mothers and older people, especially those who live on a hill like we do. They are great when you have a kid and do a twice daily commute to the preschool for example. Going up the hill on the trip home with the younger kid on the back and the groceries is no fun without that power assist.
I spent a hefty chunk of change on my mountain bike but nowhere near $6600, and it isn't anywhere near that hefty 43 pounds either.
Unless you've got a solid bike locker at work I can't imagine riding around town and locking up such a pricey bike to the cheap aluminum bike rack out front. The best motorcycle chain & lock you can buy is still 15 minutes from stolen for a thief with the right tools, and you don't want to be lugging it around wrapped to your seatpost. You park it in the same place all the time and there's gonna be a bike thief who see it and brings the right tool one day.
So if you pedal faster than the slippery surface will allow, the bike attempts to solve this by making the front wheel go faster?
Along with a daft price & high weight that also crossed my mind.
I find that my human built in traction control works fine when cycling.
How about comparing this pricewise to Segway. I think it's more reasonable as we are talking about high tech vechile with motors and electronics.
Well you buy the best possible portable electronic adjustable high power drill for what? $200? so then add the price of a high quality bike, say $700 (yes that is the max in actual materials, anything over that is exploiting the naive) and increase the battery size and such, so another $600, so then we are at $1400, add some extra profit and development cost and handbuilding and what not, let's be generous and say $500 so that's $2000.
Now explain 6+ grand.
I picked up a cheapie electric bike (Ezip Trailz) from Currie Tech. The electronics and frame are fine but the seat, brake pads and tires it comes with are cheap garbage, nothing you'd want to keep on there. I installed a set of 'no-mor-flats' solid foam tubes since the motor and batteries put a lot of weight on the rear wheel, and if you use inflatables they tend to pop unless you baby them. I put a nice gel seat on there plus nicer brake pads as well, and I gotta say, for what I paid (in total, around $425) it's a pretty great short-range commuter bike. I considered building a lithium ion battery stack but I worked out that with the added cost of buying/soldering the 13 Li-ion cells and sealing them up for outdoor use, I'd be better off buying a prebuilt e-bike with such batteries (around $1500) instead of attempting the upgrade. Shame too, would have made an entertaining side project.