This Toyota sponsored project was mentioned here on PC some six months ago. Its too cool to be to let go without additional exposure. Using a special helmet, the Prius X Parlee (PXP) can shift gears when you think about, well, shifting gears. And this futuristic tech may be between your legs and one the open road in production form in 2013, according to new reports. As Parlee puts it, "the PXP concept bike ... blends the simple with the complex to become a better and more efficient version of itself." Aside from reading brainwaves, the PXP can use a smartphone to show the driver how efficiently the engine (i.e., the body) is operating, just like the Prius' info screen does. The bike can also remember past behavior and, for example, downshift the next time you ride past a place where you downshifted before. The Prius X Parlee bike concept can read your mind, literally Building blog: Toyota Prius Projects Archives Cost? Complete bike $7200.
I don't know if that bike would work well during a crit or roadrace. Your brainwaves might be completely forked up when your legs are screaming in pain and your lungs are burning from the effort and the only thing your brain is concentrating on is not to give up because seeing the pack rolling away from you is so demoralizing.
Parlee makes really nice bikes. But the brainwave shifting isn't practical, of course. It needs one of these downtube electric motors, then it would really a Prius bike! (Too bad it can't regen on the downhills.)
I agree that the "mind control" would be risky business in full out competition. Although I trained on the Marymoor Park velo in Bellevue, WA many years ago, all this intrigues me only from a "thought experiment" perspective nowadays. I too thought that the Parlee bike was not really Prius-like in its not having a Power Split Device and a way to save otherwise lost energy. Even though there was some concern at last years Tour de France that there might be some possibility of secret electrical motors, I didn't realize that there were such systems currently on the open market. It looks to me that the way to incorporate regen would be with the generator in a wheel hub with circuitry to activate regen only when the pedals/crank were not rotating. Maybe a regen on command switch in the rear brake lever assembly.
They do make front wheel electric powered bikes. The system is sort of big and heavy, with large batteries. I don't think they do regen, but it could be possible. Off topic, one of the big selling points for my Prius is that I can fit my road bike in the back, without taking off the front wheel. That's really convenient.
I call B.S. First off, there's nothing "Prius" in this bike. The guy says it's like the Prius because the Prius was the first car to bring advanced technology to cars. B.S.!!! The Prius was the first with HSD, which is one specific technology, and there's nothing on the bike that has anything to do with that. Second, while it might be possible to shift gears based on an EEG, I do not believe it would be possible to do so with any sort of reliability. I.e., shifting when the rider actually wants to shift. The common method now is that when the rider wants to shift s/he moves a lever with a finger. How is an unreliable brain-wave shifter an improvement? Total B.S.
Daniel, What the hey! Would you just cool your jets. I guess Parlee gets to call it a Prius because Toyota is sponsoring the project and they have no problem with it, whatever its limitations. Despite it being said in the 10th week entry in the building blog -- you took the time to read them didn't you? -- that, "We all watched in amazement as the bike began to shift. With each pedal stroke, the rider became more comfortable controlling his cadence and moving through the cassette," in general the replies here are skeptical of the mind control shifting mechanism. Which doesn't actually address reliability. OK, but in fact, we have no real data on which to say that the mechanism is unreliable. My point? I don't understand why in the face of the general attitude of mild skepticism you consider it necessary to inject invective into what is otherwise a pleasant discussion of a topic that has little likelihood of having real impact on the cycling community as a whole, never mind on any of us in particular. What's your hang-up here?
When you are missing hands and fingers. I've been in a lot of triathlons with (formerly) disabled athletes allowing them to use technology, extremely reliably, that is needed to participate. You also need to understand that the 100% mechanical shifter is not without an occasional failure as well.
Video: The Shimano Di2 electric bike shifter for the paradoxically lazy -- Engadget Already on the market, somebody's (Toyota) using neurocontrol to activate an electronic device to shift the gears, last years news on the electronic shifter, today's news on the neurocontrol doing the shifting.
