By Mary Whitfill, News Staff
Superpedestrian, a Boston startup attempting to revolutionize urban biking, received $2.1 million in funding last week to launch the Copenhagen Wheel, a modern adaptation of the bicycle wheel that promises to minimize hills and shorten distances.
The company, started by Assaf Biderman and Carlo Ratti of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) SENSEable City Lab, received the funds from Spark Capital and David Karp, founder and CEO of Tumblr. Superpedestrian focuses on the urban dweller, aiming to revolutionize how bikers get around big cities and urban centers, according to their website.
“With the backing of Spark and David, and a founding team comprised of creative people in the areas of networked computing, electro-mechanics, city planning and design, we’re now less than 60 days away from introducing the first-ever commercial model of the Copenhagen Wheel,” Biderman said in a press release. “It is estimated that two to four billion people worldwide are cyclists, yet most urban areas have grown too large to cycle through. By throwing a Copenhagen Wheel on your bike, you can ride almost anywhere – hills feel flattened, distances shrunk, and it’s connected through a range of apps that let you control and personalize your bike.”
The rear wheel serves as a replacement for a regular road bike wheel – it is screwed into the frame of a normal bike but boasts a number of abnormal capabilities, such as power assist.
Power assist, according to Superpedestrian’s website, serves as a boost of energy distributed to riders when the wheel senses they need it most, measuring need by effort exerted through pedaling patterns. These boosts are powered by a lithium battery, which is, in turn, powered by capturing excess energy created through breaking or going downhill. This aims to make uphill treks easier and long distances quicker to cover.
While a boost is welcome at times, not everyone feels Boston is the best place to roll out this new invention.
“I love the idea of getting help when I need it, but there aren’t really that many hills in Boston and everything is pretty close together,” Tania Muiño-Loureiro, a Northeastern professor who bikes to campus almost daily, said. “The [Boston University] bridge can be hard to get across, but usually I’m fine, and nothing in Boston is really that far from anything else.”
Power assist is automatically provided proportionally through pedaling algorithms – when the rider pedals harder a larger boost is provided. However, the levels of power assist can be controlled using the riders smartphone with the Superpedestrian app.
The app also updates riders on road conditions and can help with directions.
Additionally, a component called Superpedestrian SDK will enable riders to develop their own applications to control the wheel. For example, if a rider takes the same route to work each day, they will be able to program the bike to give them the same level of power assist in the same place each ride.
“The Superpedestrian team has come up with one of the most innovative means of urban travel to be introduced in recent decades,” Spark Capital Co-Founder and General Partner Santo Politi said in a press release. “Assaf and his team have taken the world’s most common mode of transport – the bicycle – and completely transformed it. The Copenhagen Wheel promises to not only change the way we’re able to move around in urban areas, but provides a new connecting network between cyclists, their bikes and the city through personalized apps and real time connectivity.”
While Politi sees merit in this electronic link, fourth-year environmental science major Mariah Livernois thinks it is more dangerous than useful.
“I never use my phone when I’m riding a bike,” Livernois said. “I know some people use those clips on their handlebars but if i’m going to bike somewhere I look it up first and then go. It seems unnecessary and unsafe.”
Design for the Copenhagen Wheel has claimed the Green Dot Award for encouraging an environmentally friendly transportation method; the Edison Award, a program within the Edison Universe organization that honors inventions and innovators; and the U.S. James Dyson Award which “encourages and inspires the next generation of design,” according to their website.
While interested Bostonians can register for pre-sale on Superpedestrian’s webite, the company has not officially released a retail price. However, an entry on the Green Dot Award’s website estimates a cost of $600 per wheel.
“My interest depends on how much it costs when it is released. For $600, I’ll pedal harder,” Muiño-Loureiro, professor in the World Languages Center, said.
Recently, a group of Slovenians have released a competing design called the FlyKly Smart Wheel, which has raised over $200,000 on Kickstarter. FlyKly sold their “FlyKly Smart Wheel Early Bird” for $550, which is currently sold out, and offers two other versions of the wheel at $590 and $700, respectively.
The FlyKly app allows riders to monitor their speed, distance traveled and the battery power remaining on their smart wheel. The app also allows the wheel to lock and, if stolen, be tracked by GPS.
