Why you should buy a new bike now
And why you should ask us to work for you right now :)
This plot shows exactly what went wrong in the bike business. As in many other businesses. Overstocking. Leading to bankruptcies and crazy deals on bikes to clear out all those warehouses for next year’s models. All around. Best time in a long while to buy a new bike? Right now.
All that extra sales during COVID led to a bit too much optimism (read: greed). Even coming back to the red line still does not really account for the extra sales during COVID. Those bikes are still on the streets and a bit too new to replace just yet.
What does that mean for you?
Other than going shopping for a new bike :)
Well - honestly 2023 has been a wild year here. Started out with a lot of nice projects over in Sensitivus completely over-exhausting our resources.
Things got even more “fun” over the summer at Eurobike in Frankfurt where signals were mixed - both “worst year ever, but we will get over it next year” and “wow, things are (still) rolling and we are flying”. E-bikes are not just bikes, and that added to the confusing messages we picked up.
With the fall coming and into winter, things dried up and we went from 200% load to zero very quickly. Not a good spot to be in when you are investor-backed and everything collides: money running out, projects drying up, and new money suddenly way harder to get to. And there was even more (I have to leave the juicy stuff for another day).
As described above - right now is not only a good time to buy a new bike - but it is also an amazingly good time to start a new development project with electronics, software, mechanical, wireless, sensors, test setups, etc. etc. :)
We are ready to get busy on your project - right now.
Development
My life has been all about development. The last 10 years have been mostly technology for sensors and bikes. Good fun stuff that can make a difference in many ways.
Sensitivus also needed development - on a different level - so I spent a lot of time distilling what was happening business-wise down to something simple that could work better going forward. The result?
Sensitivus is (now):
A development partner (meaning we do engineering for and with you)
A technology supplier (meaning we have some cool technology bits - like the best e-bike torque/cadence sensor in the world - and we pull that into projects on a license basis)
Also, Sensitivus is not:
A manufacturer (but we will manufacture prototypes and smaller quantities for you - and we will help set up volume manufacturing and keep it running to support our technology)
And looking even further ahead I want to make the nice torque sensor technology we have into an ASIC - our very own chip that can help the world of e-bikes go from zero to great. This is a personal goal, but also something that makes sense at so many levels.
For e-bike manufacturers to improve reliability. For Sensitivus as a business strategy. For the world in getting more e-bikes out to replace those heavy 4-wheeled things.
Please let me know what you think of that as a way forward for Sensitivus?
TECH STUFF
How about a standard sensor?
This will never fit onto a bike (prove me wrong :)). But it is the fastest way to get started with the cool technology we have cooked up in Sensitivus. A sensor that beats everything out there for measuring torque and cadence on a bike (and a bunch of other places too).
We call it SG210 and it is a reference design for getting started with this technology. It is also a ready-to-use sensor that drops right into most test setups we have seen around for testing torque. You apply a torque and out comes the data: torque, angle, RPM, temperature. As easy as that. And you get all the CAD files so you can start a custom design from there.
This is meant as a response to the 100s of times someone asked if we had a standard sensor. How can you have a meaningful standard sensor if every customer asks for a custom sensor in a different shape - and with a different interface? We struggled with that question forever. This is what we came up with. Not perfect. But it is there. Now.
NERD STUFF
On a more personal level, this TOPEAK trailer has carried our stuff on many bike tours. A few years back I added a hub motor in the small wheel making this an e-trailer. What a difference that makes on the inclines when the trailer is loaded up with 20-25kg “stuff” for a longer trip (like the one we did down to Barcelona from Copenhagen).
So how is the motor controlled, you may ask - assuming I obviously got a strain sensor in the yoke making the trailer “weightless”. Actually, it is not that fancy - it’s a throttle with a long cable. And that is about to change. It is going wireless.
Here is the first mock-up of a wireless e-bike throttle in the lab. Working great. A bit too big and clumsy, but plenty good enough for testing. The first milestone being able to run a month on a coin cell has already passed. I added a switch to turn it off when not in use, but it has been running non-stop in the lab for more than a month now and still works fine with more than 10m wireless range.
The part on the right is the throttle and the part on the left connects to the motor through the motor controller throttle input. Over the winter this will have to become smaller and more integrated to fit nicely - both on the handlebars and in the trailer.
We are already planning the next longer tour to also be the test run for this :)
FUN STUFF
This e-scooter is clearly a “for fun” project and a great way to show off his skills for this YouTuber. Give it a quick view:
It is definitely worth it :)
FRIENDS
Twotone
The number one marketing agency in the bike business :) Turned nine this year and if you don’t already get the newsletter from Jon - join in here. Highly recommended:
https://www.twotoneams.nl/?ref=twotone-amsterdam-newsletter
Great newsletter and great people. And the network is what this is all about. Jon is a master of that craft.
ABOUT
I have been spending the last 10 years on sensors and technology for bikes. Both are things that I really enjoy. Technology for bikes can be many things - these are the types of products and technologies I can talk about from experience:
Power meters (to measure how hard you pedal for training purposes - but actually valuable for much more than just that). A product with a high retail price and a low BOM cost. Mostly sold as after-market.
Case: Technology still on the market by THM in The Clavicula PM crankset.Brake sensors (for optimizing MTB race performance). Very niche product for elite riders, which may eventually slowly become more widely accepted. Pure after-market.
Case: Technology on the market from BrakeAce.
e-bike torque/cadence sensors (to make e-bikes feel more like “analog” bikes on a really “good leg day”). Super high volume product with a fairly low sales price - a pure B2B product for integration into a motor design or similar.
Case: Technology on the market from Sensitivus, but not quite out in stores yet.
Each of these examples has occupied a good chunk of my life over the last 10 years, but there is more. A lot more. This is a story for another day.
P.S.
Over on EE-Training I have some really nerdy courses coming up - check this out if you are into designing the very fastest and most efficient digital bords today with serious memory interfaces:
Open the Black Box of Memory, Copenhagen, Live, Feb 19-21, 2024
Open the Black Box of Memory, Munich, Live, Feb 26-28, 2024
Signal Integrity w/Hands-On Simulation, Online, Mar 4-8, 2024
Find it all on ee-training.dk
[[ … AND LET’S KEEP UNF*KING THE PLANET - ONE EBIKE AT A TIME ]]