This Concept E-Bike That is Now Reality Includes Health Monitoring Systems

Unlike other concept bikes floating around in people’s minds, this one has made it through all stages of production. From idea, to design, back to idea, then again to design, and after a few hundred of those flips, it finally made it to production. And so, voila.

Designer Bowen Li and a team of students were able to push out this wonderfully pleasing bicycle called SuE-Bike from the School of Design Jiangnan University in China. Now before you start jumping to conclusions, please try and remember that not everything in China is copied.

The initial feel I get from the bike is of a Brompton design, but the lines and geometry quickly delete that idea. Even the two-tone black and white adds that of the era look to it. It's the same two-tone that the V-dub Streetmate and the Bosch e-bike show off.

We can see the lower half of the bike's frame is all carbon fiber. The upper half is of an unspecified polymer composite. Right at the bottom of the seat tube you’ll notice a little black square highlighted by a blue line, that’s where the lithium ion battery is stored. I see no other place for it, really. It would also make sense to have it as close to the motor, which is right there below that battery in the crank system. It too is highlighted by a blue accent.

There is, however, another battery within the frame. Unlike the initial lithium battery, this one is more like an accumulator and captures mechanical energy from pedaling and storing it for later use.

OK, I get that it’s an e-bike, but how does it all work? It looks much too small to be ready for my 200 lbs (90 kg) or so frame.  Before we get to the motor, let’s take into consideration that we want some sort of bounds as to how much power we solicit from it. With that in mind, the team designed three different riding styles that offer the performance needed when it’s needed.

The first ride style, or gear as Bowen calls it, is the ground gear. Here the bike will offer the least amount of assistance when pedaling. You really don't need to pedal on straight ground? Apparently, yes. The SuE actually offers more assistance as you try to catch speed. As your speed reaches 20 mph (32 kph), the amount of help you’ll receive from the motor is less and less.

The idea behind this is to hold true to the health benefits that a bicycle usually offers. Low impact, cardio, and fun are still in the SuE’s repertoire. To assist you in tracking your health, a system is built into the left handlebar to track heart rate, temperature, calories burned, but even your body's dopamine, epinephrine, and even cortisol levels. All of this information and other riding conditions can be shown on your phone using the bike's phone app.

The other two gears are climbing mode, where you would be receiving the most assistance on, and accelerating gear, which offers that decrease in power I mentioned earlier.

But how does it all work? Pretty similarly to the Unlimited e-bike kit you can see by clicking here. A sensor from the pedal transmits information to an onboard computer, which then powers the motor with only the right amount of juice you need for the ride mode you’re in.

With perks like these it’s no wonder this device will make it into production and is bringing some smiles to people's faces worldwide.