Gruber Assist Adds A Stealthy Electric Motor To Your Bike
Posted on 06/18/2010 7:27:26 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PARIS (AFP) – Bikes used at the Tour de France will be scanned to make sure they do not contain illegal motors, the International Cycling Union (UCI) announced on Friday.
The move comes following rumours that Fabian Cancellara used 'mechanical doping' during his victories in the Tour of Flanders and the Paris-Roubaix, which the Swiss Olympic time-trial champion strongly denied.
"The members of the management committee discussed issues concerning equipment used in road competitions and decided that it was necessary to bolster measures that have already been put in place (in particular the visual inspection of bicycles, a procedure that was recently reinforced)," read a UCI statement.
"As a result, a scanner will be used from the time of the Tour de France.
"This instrument, recently tested with a successful outcome, will allow an official to detect any illegal devices that may be concealed, for example, in the bicycle frame."
Suspicions that Cancellara had put a motor inside the frame of his bike were sparked by a much-watched video on the YouTube video-sharing website.
His Saxo Bank team released a statement earlier in June refuting the claims.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Bike doping.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nd13ARuvVE
Gruber Assist Adds A Stealthy Electric Motor To Your Bike
I need something a little bigger - like a V-twin gasoline-powered engine! :-)
Good starting point. Now lose the pedals and add a second cylinder.
AMEN to that!
Nice Post.
Any idea on battery life?
Think anyone will notice?
Hell, they won't even see him, probably think "The Flash" just ran by ;^)
I would love to see someone win the Tour de France on a moped.
Any idea on battery life?
My guess is that this motor is for use as a short assist or acceleration thing rather than a long duration. Assuming their was one installed to begin with and we all know there isn’t any cheating in the pro racing circuit.
Looks to me that it uses a couple of A123 Systems Li-Ion cells of just over 2 AH each in series. The motor could be drawing 80-100 amps so not long!
This of course will be all the bicycles except the French bikes which are known to be free of cheating since the French are always honorable. s/off
Fabian Cancellara should show up at the next race with clothes-pinned playing cards in the spokes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmPUze3WBTw&feature=player_embedded
I bet those "mechanical doping" rumors are doing wonders for Gruber sales.
bflr
Note the very poor mechanical advantage of the driving pinion. To exert a torque comparable to the rider would require a force on the drive ring of 10X or so what the rider exerts on the pedal.
In the video, a description is given of button settings which will set a certain speed of the bicycle, like a cruise control. This seems very naive. The best you could hope for is a slight boost, so the motor would have to provide a little extra torque at a speed determined by the pedaling of the rider.
The idea of kicking in some kind of “turbo boost” at high speed, as is alleged of Cancellara, seems absurd to me.
So you're saying this is for real? I thought the article was humor.......
bflr?
bump for later reading
Thanks.
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