French start-up brand Connected Cycle is this week unveiling a smart pedal that instantly tells you if your bike is moved and allows you to locate it at any time via satellite tracking. Assuming it works as promised, the pedal could help reunite cyclists with stolen bikes and even prevent theft in the first place.
Ah, but what if the thief removes the pedals to avoid detection?
Well, first they’d need to know that the pedals could potentially get them into trouble. Actually, it’s just the one pedal that’s the brains of the outfit; the other is just a standard, non-smart design.
And second, Connected Cycle say that although installation takes less than two minutes, the pedal can only be removed using a coded key that only the bike owner posesses. We’re not yet sure how that bit of the design works but we’re assuming that rather than having a hexagonal hole at the end of the pedal axle for an Allen key like you’ll find on many pedals, there’s some configuration that only an individual tool can turn – although that’s guesswork.
As well as the thief detecting measures, Connected Cycle say that the pedal automatically records the speed, route and incline of all of your rides along with the calories you’ve burned (although, in our experience, calorie measurements are generally approximate at best).
This information is sent to the cloud and you can check it out via the Connected Cycle smartphone app.
“The pedal is totally self governing and is able to run all over the world generating its own energy, and using its own Internet connection,” according to Connected Cycle.
There is no need to charge a battery because your pedalling provides the power.
The aluminium-bodied pedals will be available in various different colours.
How much? We’ve no idea. Connected Cycle haven’t yet released a price.
The pedals will be on display for the first time this week at the 2015 International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas.
For more info go to the Connected Cycle website.
9 thoughts on “New Connected Cycle smart pedal tracks thieves”
It’s a nice idea, but I am
It’s a nice idea, but I am afraid that it won’t work for the majority of cyclists. Most people will choose to put gps tracker in the saddle or head tube and cycle with pedals they like. Overpriced pedals with a gps in it…
multifrag wrote:It’s a nice
Er…anyone cycling in normal shoes – and that’s a lot of people – won’t have a problem with this. and why would you want to have something stuck inside your saddle (easily removed) or head tube (metal, blocks RF, won’t work)? You’d also have to charge them up frequently. I like the idea the pedal is self-powering.
I’m assuming it will take a nanosim to connect to a 3G network?
1.I’m not saying it’s a
1.I’m not saying it’s a problem.
2.Saddle maybe is easily removed but same are the pedals
3. Head tube has no obstruction of the signal…
4. Probably a regular sim card as the pedal is huge for a gps unit.
Ugly.
Better to put a
Ugly.
Better to put a tracker in the seat tube. For the rest there is your cycle computer, mobile phone, gps unit, etc which you can remove from your bike.
You know what this would be
You know what this would be brilliant for?
Hire bikes – citywide schemes like the Barclays Cycle Hire. At the moment, they can track individual bikes between docking stations – they know it was taken at Euston and dropped at Waterloo for example – but they don’t know the route taken to get there – did the rider use a Cycle Superhighway, did they get lost, did they take the direct A-road route, did they go via some tourist spots…?
Strava is no good since very few people use it on hire bikes but having an automatic system that does it without the rider thinking about it – get a year’s worth of data out of that, you’ve got a mapping tool to work out cycle hotspots, favoured routes etc and then work out where/how to concentrate your resources in terms of developing cycle infrastructure. Or you can cross reference it to accident statistics.
crazy-legs wrote:You know
Also should a tourist get hopelessly lost then help is just a phone call away. I can see this one being a winner for all sorts of reasons.
As to the price, bear in mind that technology gets cheaper over time not more expensive.
I like this one!
Make some clippy versions of
Make some clippy versions of them and I’m in.
Great for hire bikes.
For
Great for hire bikes.
For personal use, can you configure where it sends the live tracking or does it only track to Big Brother and their app? What happens when they close their server?
At first glance this is a
At first glance this is a good idea but comes up short on a number of fronts.
1. There is no indication that your bike is protected with a tracking system. To a prospective thief it looks like any unlocked bike ripe for stealing. These ‘stealth’ systems may mean your bike get stolen more often because a thief is not discouraged in any way.
2. But you can track the bike…yes but gps systems are easy to block and have low accuracy of location in built up areas. How do you block these? Using tin foil as a Faraday cage is one option. Another is to buy a gps jammer on ebay. Then you just ride the bike away for the easiest steal ever.
3. Price – other gps based systems are over £100 so this is likely to be close to that.
4. Only basic flat pedal offered – no clipless or toe clip version offered and these are likely to be the buyers who want to use the data gathering function.
5. in order to make the pedal secure a unique key would have to be offered to EVERY owner. This is not possible. Specialist companies that specialise in these key/bolt combinations such as Bryce Fastners in the US require a minimum 2500 units (bolts) per unique key. If they manage to sell 25000 units there will only be 10 unique keys out there. Sure that will offer some protection but is not 1 key per bolt strong.