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Gruber Assist electric bike: Only your cycle mechanic will know for sure
Do you see any sign of an electric bicycle when you look at those pedals pictured above? That's the remarkable stealth of Gruber Assist, a $2,473 kit for any bicycle that gives you electric motor-assisted cycling on the sly. You can either retrofit an existing bike or get an entirely new bicycle from Gruber with the motor installed.
The pedal is just the tip of the iceberg — the motor and electronics are hidden inside the seat tube with the battery tucked away in a saddlebag, and it's controlled with a handlebar-mounted switch. Gruber Assist's 200-watt motor will deliver 100 watts of power to the rear wheels, and runs for between 45 minutes and 1.5 hours on a charge, depending on how much you pedal.
Electric bikes are so much fun, but they can look a little clunky. This is the most discreet electric bike configuration we've seen yet, because hey, it's almost invisible. It's so stealthy, an unscrupulous cyclist could almost slip one of these into a racing bike, unnoticed. Almost.
Take a look at a video of the Gruber Assist, and a pic of the entire retrofit kit:
Gruber, via Red Ferret
By velochef at 3:05 PM ON 05/08/09
Great idea. Somehow I have the feeling most Americans will have a difficult time finding the value in spending $2,500 for such a small amount of boost. The whole bike & motor maybe, but not just the kit.
By BikeArea at 3:17 PM ON 05/08/09
This comment's homepage leads to some vids with some Gruber bikes. :)
By BikeArea at 3:19 PM ON 05/08/09
Hmm - the homepage link doesn't get displayed, so try it manually, if you're interested:
http://www.youtube.com/user/bikearea
:)
By MBM at 10:23 PM ON 05/08/09
This is a very clever piece of kit that needs to be about 75% cheaper to have a prayer of selling in any kind of volume at all. As it is it's just stupid expensive.
By SP Riley at 9:21 AM ON 05/09/09
So even with the motor on the pedals will turn, so there is no such thing as costing.
By muss34 at 2:47 PM ON 05/09/09
A great idea but it needs some more refinement .
By Nick at 12:11 PM ON 05/10/09
"So even with the motor on the pedals will turn, so there is no such thing as costing."
I think the idea here is that it is an assist mechanism, to reduce the amount of work required; enabling the cyclist to go longer distances between rest breaks.
Many states probably have something like this, but I'm only familier with the Bike Across Kansas (www.bak.org). Hundreds of people gather to ride their bicycles all the way across kansas.
If you do something like that as an annual event (LOTS of people do), I could see where this would be very attractive, you could recharge it each night at the rest stop, and it makes your next days right just a little easier - and thus more enjoyable. Most people who participate do this as their summer vacation after all, it should be as enjoyable as possible.
Sure, it would be better if it was cheaper, but for a true enthusiast that price isn't too bad.
By Sardis1117 at 9:30 AM ON 05/14/09
Hmmm... a very interesting design, but prohibitively expensive. Now if it used the riders' pedal revolutions to recharge the battery....?
By DaveK at 11:24 AM ON 05/14/09
Only 100 Watts?
I get that it's a boost and not an electric motor cycle, but does not seem like a very useful boost, especially for the price.
The hub motor on my electric bike is marketed at 750W (probably optimistic, 500W is more realistic, judging by the battery consumption), and it does provide a useful boost. I can't see 1/5th that amount of boost being very helpful.
Perhaps for very light riders it would be useful.
By raymondjram at 12:18 PM ON 05/14/09
Lower the price and it will sell. Even better, offer new bikes with the assist built in.
Coasting (the correct spelling) should be as easy as turning the assist off. Better yet, have the sytem do regenerative braking, so the bike's energy would return to charge the battery and reduce brake wear.
If the Chinese (the world's largest bike users) get this idea into production, then they can take over this market. I will wait until the bike assist prices go low enough to buy a new bike with the system built in.
Raymond
By sam81452667 at 10:22 PM ON 05/14/09
the idea is good, but you can get cheaper and more powerful kits in australia, where the motor is connected directly to the chain... this model is only good, if you don't wanna admit that you need electrical assistance
ad Sardis1117
"Now if it used the riders' pedal revolutions to recharge the battery....?" - ever heared of the law of conservation of energy? if you take the losses of energy, heat, cable sodering points... etc into account you'd have to actually pedal more, as you'd do without the motor installed
sam
By afterburner909 at 9:09 AM ON 05/16/09
@sam81452667--Pedaling to recharge the battery could still be useful. A person could charge the motor while using the bike to excercise (when more effort is welcome), and later use the charged up battery to go to the store, etc. when they're not in the mood for a workout.
By BikeShot at 10:23 AM ON 05/16/09
great idea, but cost is so high..
By Bike Electric at 6:03 PM ON 05/27/09
Great idea , hope it works
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