auto gear change

hegyestomi

http://www.cambridgeconsultants.com/new ... ase/114/en

Can't imagine that changing gears by my mobile could come even close to my own judgement.
What do you think?

meanredspider

Well, I'm always on the side of innovation and could see this coming. Certainly throw in a power meter and some learning capability and whether you go "full auto" or whether you just get gear change "recommendations" could be a choice. But yes, I'd give this a try, provided, like my car, there was a simple manual override

First.Aspect

Its an excellent idea, in the right context.

hegyestomi

But how can it work? I'm imaging going straight on the flat and you see a hill ahead. As you are the engine and you can see the gradient ahead, your current physical form and condition and the way how you actually want to tackle it. Also everybody's style is slightly different, so I'm for example stronger in low cadence and I might want to use that our indeed I might want to focus on high cadence.

EKE_38BPM

I used to have automatic gear changing on a bike I had when I was a kid. It didn't change into the gear I wanted or when I wanted it to, but it did change automatically.


I should have patented it.

meanredspider

hegyestomi wrote:

But how can it work? I'm imaging going straight on the flat and you see a hill ahead. As you are the engine and you can see the gradient ahead, your current physical form and condition and the way how you actually want to tackle it. Also everybody's style is slightly different, so I'm for example stronger in low cadence and I might want to use that our indeed I might want to focus on high cadence.

The system would need to "learn" about you and where you deliver peak power. It could be as simple as "when I hit 80rpm, change down and when I hit 100rpm, change up" or (with a power meter, HRM, cadence meter, gradient info etc) be far more sophisticated and have a "map" of your optimum capability in various circumstances "learned" over a period of time. Maps could be "Sport" - aiming for peak power or "Economy" (keep my HR below 140rpm). As I say, there's likely a need for manual override (I want to stand now on the climb some I'm switching up a couple of cogs - could even have a switch in the seat for when you can back down - or recognise the sudden surge in torque/load)

I recognise that this is waaaaay beyond what some people want from a bike but using my Di2, I've given this some thought (like "you might want a "beep" just to warn you of an impending gear change")

UndercoverElephant

I' a bit of a Luddite with this kind of stuff. Let's face it, automatic transmission on a car generally comes to the detriment of fuel economy - in cycling that would become far more apparent.

They may well manage to do it, but how hard is it to change gear when you want to?

meanredspider

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Let's face it, automatic transmission on a car generally comes to the detriment of fuel economy - in cycling that would become far more apparent.

I'm not sure that's true any more. With 7 & 8 speed auto systems on cars, it's easier to be near peak torque (the point at which engines tend to deliver best economy). Economy was poor when autos were 3 & 4 speed.

On a bike, you'll have exactly the same number of gears as the manual version and a computer focusing every moment on getting you into the right gear.

That said, even though I'm in the vanguard of progressiveness on bikes I think, I wouldn't be jumping at a system like this until it was very very well developed.

notsoblue

The choice of gear I change to is a function of things like current speed, gradient, windspeed, recent exertion, planned extertion, current level of fatigue and confidence in my ability. I think thats part of what makes things like sportives and group rides interesting, fun, and activities that you can improve on with experience as well as fitness. Having automatic gears would make sport cycling pretty dull.