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OPINION

An electric bike with hidden power

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by Tony Farrelly
Tue, May 12, 2009 15:13
3

Okay, not a vast amount of hidden power, 200 watts is the claimed amount, but it should be enough to help you up those hills.

The Gruber Assist. An electric power assist motor for your bike that lives in the seat tube and only weighs 900g (the battery goes in a wedepack under your saddle and adds a further 1Kg. It produces a claimed 200 watts and the battery gives an hour and a half of continuous use. The idea is that you only turn it on when you have to go up hill.

To fit one you'll need a bike that's fitted with a Shimano Hollowtech II chainset and with a 31.6mm seat tube (or greater), so we're talking mountain bikes, trekking bikes, hybrids and some tourers. Oh, and you'll need a big pile of cash too as these things cost over $2,000 dollars.

And of course the whole thing is cheating!

 

Gruber Assist
Electric bike
Tony Farrelly

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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3 comments

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Tony Farrelly | 15 years ago
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This vid gives more of an idea of what the 'hidden hand' is like in action… guess which rider has the Gruber Assist

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purplecup | 15 years ago
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if you read the stuff on their website they say that it's a 200w motor but the actual push is only 100w - at least that's how i understood it. even so, any push is a welcome push, especially if no-one can see the hand... 1

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DaSy | 15 years ago
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I have a lactate threshold of just over 200W, and that took a lot of hard work, so to me 200W is a lot of power!

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