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TECH NEWS
2024 CES - 1 (2)7 weird and wonderful cycling/fitness gadgets from CES 2024, including the indoor bike that charges your laptop, earphones that give you a training programme, and an e-bike you control with a smart ring
The CES tech expo – which used to be called the Consumer Electronics Show until it got too broad for the name – is taking place in Las Vegas right now, and here are seven of the most interesting bike and fitness products that we’ve spotted so far….
Vanpowers’ two new e-bikes offer “a new benchmark in anti-theft protection”
Vanpowers has announced two new e-bikes at CES 2024, both of which come with integrated safety features, including hub motor lock, emergency SOS, vibration detector, real-time GPS tracking, and geofencing.
“This smart system sets a new benchmark in anti-theft protection, significantly mitigating the risk of bike theft while enhancing the likelihood of successful recovery in the event of theft,” says Vanpowers.
The UrbanCross is a lightweight road/gravel e-bike that’s targeted at urban commuters and short-distance travellers. It comes with a Shimano GRX groupset and flared gravel handlebar, and has a claimed range of up to 62 miles.
The GrandTeton is a mountain e-bike that comes with a 130Nm motor and torque sensor, and a removable 692 watt-hour lithium-ion battery, with a claimed range of up to 110 miles when combined with an optional power bank. You get 4-piston Tektro hydraulic disc brakes and a 120mm travel air suspension fork.
We don’t yet have prices for these models.
Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds monitor your heart rate and body temperature as you exercise
Germany’s Sennheiser is introducing wireless Momentum Sport earbuds that take your heart rate and measure your body temperature as you exercise.
The heart rate measurement comes courtesy of a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor. Great word! Essentially, it’s an optical measurement method, so similar to how an Apple Watch (and various other devices) takes your heart rate on your wrist, but this time via the left earbud. Other brands already offer in-ear sports earphones with heart rate measurement.
Sennheiser says, “Momentum Sport’s heart rate data connects and integrates seamlessly with many popular sport devices and apps, such as Apple Watch/Health, Garmin Watch/Connect, Strava, Peloton and more.
“For the first time ever in a non-Polar product, users will be able to enjoy full access to Polar’s elite biosensing capabilities and data analytics—including Body Temperature—offering real-time insights during training and deeper offline analysis via the Polar Flow app ecosystem.”
The Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds come with an IP55 rating, meaning that they’re dust protected and water/sweat-resistant. We do review earbuds that have a higher level of waterproofing than that.
“To minimise footstep noise, breathing, and other body-borne distractions, the earbuds feature an acoustic relief channel and semi-open design for natural environmental awareness,” says Sennheiser.
Body-borne distractions? Seems a bit harsh to describe breathing that way, considering how handy it is.
“An adjustable Transparency mode, Anti-wind mode, and Adaptive Noise Cancelling mode let the wearer easily adapt as their surroundings change,” says Sennheiser.
The earbuds have a claimed playback time of up to six hours, while the carrying case can recharge them up to three times.
Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds will be available in three colourways (Polar Black, Burned Olive, and Metallic Graphite) from 9th April 2024, at a price of £259.99.
LifeSpan Ampera Under Desk Bike lets you exercise as you work
It seems like every few months we hear about a new device to keep you fit by allowing you to pedal as you work, but does anyone actually use one long-term, or do they just end up gathering dust in a corner?
The LifeSpan Ampera Under Desk Bike is designed to power laptops and phones by generating up to 60 watt-hr of electricity when you’re pedalling at 60rpm. You get a 15W wireless charger underneath the saddle that allows you to charge up to two devices simultaneously.
The Ampera desk bike is said to be virtually silent in operation thanks to a belt-driven drivetrain.
The price? You’re looking at £899.
Shhh! Check out this Topsecret hubless e-bike
South Korean brand Topsecret is offering a hubless urban e-bike that has a claimed average range of 80 miles. We’ve seen hubless e-bikes before, including the Reevo back in 2020.
Topsecret says, “Our self-developed mid-drive motor (750W/48V) provides higher torque and performance compared to conventional hub motors, doubling its power, gaining more benefits from the gear system, and being easier to maintain. [You get] power of over 140Nm from the mid-drive 750W motor.”
The Topsecret comes with hydraulic brakes that operate on a disc that sits just inside the inner edge of the wheel rim, and you lights that turn on/off automatically according to ambient light conditions and a black box camera.
We don’t yet have a price for this one.
Mojawa’s HaptiFit Terra bone-conducting earphones also keep your fitness on track
Like the Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds (above), Mojava’s HaptiFit Terra are designed to provide the audio you'd expect along with a bunch of fitness stuff that you probably wouldn't. As well as being bone-conducting earphones, these track your heart rate and monitor your pace, steps, calories, and other metrics. Most unexpected of the lot, you get AI training programmes designed to help you get fitter and faster.
The HaptiFit Terras come with 32GB of file storage and an IP68 rating, meaning that they’re dust-tight and can be immersed in a metre of water without damage. More to the point, they’ll keep out sweat.
These earphones are available to pre-order at a price of £240.
Urtopia: the e-bike you control with a ring
We showed you the Urtopia e-bike with ChatGPT artificial intelligence last summer, and the company has now taken things further with the introduction of a smart ring that can be used to connect to the bike and turn it on and off.
Urtopia says it is expanding its ecosystem to include a range of devices to improve the riding biking experience. The smart ring can also monitor your activity and sleep.
Urtopia says, “[The smart ring] will synchronise the heart rate with our e-bikes, allowing the bike to understand your heart rate and better assist you, providing you with health guidance for the next day based on riding data and sleep data.”
What do you reckon – interesting innovation or tech for tech’s sake?
Valeo updates Cyclee motor-gearbox system
A bit of sensible news for e-bike aficionados... France’s Valeo has announced the latest update of its Cyclee mid-drive unit for e-bikes, with a new HMI (human-machine interface) and claimed reductions in noise and vibration.
Valeo says, “With a 7-speed gear automatic transmission and responding with a 130Nm torque - the highest level available on the market - Valeo Cyclee boosts all the rides, even the hardest ones.”
The new HMI comprises a smart dock, a 2in touch display, and a remote with a rotative throttle. Using your phone as a key, the e-bike automatically locks when you step two metres away from it. Valeo says that the Cyclee is now quieter than ever too.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
Latest Comments
- E6toSE3 11 hours 38 min ago
I've posted before about being 69, lifelong cyclist as my main transport, much of it in, through, under, over London and how it's bicycles that...
- David9694 12 hours 40 min ago
I hope you're all checking your insurance policies, helmets, test certificates and road tax, it's the 2024 round-up...
- check12 14 hours 21 min ago
200 people out of a close by population of how many? Just build it and stop being a wuss
- Spangly Shiny 15 hours 53 min ago
To paraphrase Field of Dreams, "Build it right and they will come: and use it!"
- Rendel Harris 18 hours 15 min ago
And a Happy Christmas to you, road.cc staff!
- Rendel Harris 19 hours 2 min ago
The odds of not being able to find a single pedestrian - just one, note, "any pedestrian" - in an area containing more than about ten of them who...
- bikeman01 20 hours 42 min ago
I love how wannabe racer reviewers talk about fork flex under braking like their tyres are made of glue. I find traction gives long before fork flex.
- hawkinspeter 21 hours 49 min ago
They don't make them like they used to
- LongitudeLatitude 22 hours 39 min ago
Thanks for using my picture of chocolate in your opening picture. The original can be found here, chocolate! | LongitudeLatitude | Flickr.
- lesterama 23 hours 6 min ago
Fair comments. I'll put my hands up and say I got the wrong end of the stick with this one. ¡Feliz navidad! Here's a pic for the season of goodwill.
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44 comments
To address some of the facts, yes I've changed my name and plan to do so again - it's perfectly acceptable and allowed on the site, so that, for one, is a non issue.
I have not been suspended or banned, and it's over to you to prove otherwise.
Mods - please take note of the above unreasonable, untrue and frankly disgusting, disparaging frothing nonsense.
Any comments I make about the site are irrelevant to you in any case, so that's not any of your business.
So all it boils down to is that you think I'm someone else, which is a lie and a complete falsehood, just the sort of low-brow tactics the lefties use.
What is highly amusing though, is that you have well and truly proved WTJS point about not being able to let go...
The proof is in the pudding as they say
So you are categorically denying that you were previously on this site using the tag thisismyusername? No equivocation or pompous nonsense, just a yes or no will do.
Yes not that it matters to you seeing as you're full of incoherent condescending nonsense and frothing falsehoods though.
As suspected, you have no proof, no evidence, absolutely nothing to back up your complete and utter rubbish you spout.
Now you can go back to your creche and stay there. Escaping is bad.
Well, that is a flat out lie as is well known to any regular user of this site. You were banned as thisismyusername and came back a short while later as Rendel Harriz (at least you cannot deny that because it was on the account you are using now) using exactly the same abuse, including, unforgivably, remarks about my wife. I'm perfectly happy for you to carry on lying, everyone knows who and what you are.
I' ve got thisismyusername, lednersirrah, jeremy-corbyn-pm in my ad blocker filters.
Not sure now which are name changes and which are PBUs.
Username is the one that was blocked, the other two are ones that Loser has used in his current identity.
Now now, Rendel - that is not a "flat out lie" and you know it.
You keep claiming that I am apparently all these people, yet you have absolutely no proof or evidence to prove it other than apparent remarks about your wife ( I didn't know you had a wife, poor soul in that case)
I've categorically denied it, yet as I said, it makes no difference to you Rendel, because you will continue lying, spouting nonsense and making disparaging comments regardless.
Now give up, nannys waiting for you.
When you change your username your previous comments show up under your new username so it's quite easy to workout your troll history.
I know
I know that Lancs police are bad and possibly bent now and need no further convincing. However I am quite happy that someone is taking the time to document it and publicise same here.
I'm also happy to read past repeated notification that riding an e-bike (EAPC pedants!) is neither "cheating" (when not motor-doping) not "not real cycling". Even though I'm a bit of a luddite who's in the fortunate position of being able to enjoy unpowered cycling.
OTOH repeated "you're a liar" / "you're a troll" / "loony leftie!" / "right-whinger!" spats seems more like the definition of low value content. Particularly railing against certain verifiable information. BUT ... this is a public comments forum on the internet so... 🤷
Some of these products are ridiculous!
"The LifeSpan Ampera Under Desk Bike is designed to power laptops and phones by generating up to 60 watt-hr of electricity when you’re pedalling at 60rpm. You get a 15W wireless charger underneath the saddle that allows you to charge up to two devices simultaneously."
What is it going to charge? Each of my arse cheeks?!
Those Senn earphones? £260 for a pair of TWS earphones and a HRM?!
What gets me more (as 60W is useful for charging) is that neither they nor TopSecret have any idea of units - unless the 60 Wh means that you have to stop after an hour. TopSecret say "power of over 140Nm" which is torque, not power.
I've got to admit, I'm intrigued by that heart-rate/bone conduction headset.
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