(Edit: what happened here?) Superpedestrian, Copenhagen Wheel?

[J.R.]

Edit: I wrote the following in 2016, after years of hearing about 'the Wheel'. There was a time, way back when, I was interested. In hindsight, that was a foolish idea. People eventually got their wheels after waiting some 6 plus years after ordering.

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Scam, wishful thinking or ahead of it's time and just need more of it?

Superpedestrian debuted their Copenhagen Wheel in 2009 and made sure everyone knew this invention was straight from a MIT lab. Almost immediately they started taking money from investors, backers and through "pre-orders", to the tune of tens of millions of dollars! Fast forward to 2016 and what has Superpedestrian been able to produce other than income? We know they produced at least one unit for the press to test ride, but we really don't know what's inside the prototype's two red discs. They did raise their pre-order price, from $799.00 in 2013, to $1200.00 in 2015. I guess it was a bargain back in 2013!

I think it was late 2015 Superpedestrian did deliver a unit to a customer in the U.S. and another to a customer in Australia. I think, I don't want to watch the videos of the happy customers again to check. And that seems to have been the point, YouTube! It must be true, there's a picture and video.

Another thing they produced earlier this year, two lawsuits for patent infringement. One against FlyKly and the other against Zehus. I don't know what the state of those lawsuits are.

I wanted this wheel to be true. I especially wanted it to be true for converting an existing bike for $799, not so much at $1200. I really want this to be true for the hundreds of customers that put their hard earned money down for this wheel. I was reminded today just how hard earned that money was, when I read we Americans still aren't making as much as we did in 2007. That's probably true the world over.

Here's the most recent, complete article that I could find:
http://www.betaboston.com/news/2016/03/04/next-gen-bike-technology-still-peddling-uphill/

 

[trebor]

I went to their office and test-rode one. They had maybe 6-7 demo bikes set up. It felt good riding it, but I have no real sense for the range.

 

[Captain Slow]

It took them a really long time to bring this wheel to market. So long that it's basically on the verge of becoming obsolete. You have to have a bike with rim brakes and either 120 mm or 135 mm drop outs. Not many new bikes are being sold with rim brakes and 135 mm drop outs. Sure there are some, but most bikes these days are disc. Yes, some high end road bikes are rim brake still, but they generally tend to be 130 mm drop outs.

Unless they adapt to the market they'll end up disappearing soon. Grin Technologies is adapting and selling wheel kits for thru axles, and 142 mm and 148 mm spacing. If Superpedestrian takes another 9 years to sell a wheel that works with most new bikes well, actually I doubt they'll last that long.

 

[J.R.]

Superpedestrian appears to be out of the wheel making/selling business. See OP above. I was thinking today about some of the big ideas that were around when I discovered ebikes in early 2014. Believe it or not, the Copenhagen Wheel was one of the biggest stories around. What can I say, it was a simpler time in ebiking.

Superpedestrian made a lot of money without actually making much product. Today it appears they are no longer in the ebike business. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Looks like they are now a scooter company, involved in scooter sharing schemes. It does look nice, with a lot of range.

LINK E-SCOOTER – Superpedestrian

new-home.superpedestrian.com

Apparently they've taken in more than 60 million dollars from investors. They really know how to make money