$1,200 PowerWheel’s Sole Function Is to Slow Down Your Bike
Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, Today's Chili
PowerWheel makes your bike slower without adding weight. It must be magic
This might be one of the worst ideas, like, ever. It’s called the PowerWheel, and its purpose is to slow your bike down. The wheel is a straight swap-in for the perfectly good front wheel already on your bike and, once fitted, will make it much harder to ride.
The idea of the PowerWheel to slow you down. It’s meant for masochistic triathletes and road cyclists who want to make their training harder. Similar to dialing up the resistance on a stationary bike, PowerWheel users can adjust the mystery-meat resistance mechanism inside the hub to one of seven difficulty levels.
Thus you can pretend you’re climbing hills on flat ground, or that you’re battling a headwind on a calm day. You can even dial in a handicap to make cycling with slower friends a little less frustrating.
The resistance depends upon your speed, not cutting in until you have gotten started, and switching off again once you hit 30mph (the assumption is that at these speeds you are descending a hill and won’t appreciate being slowed down).
In short, this is a typical gadget aimed at the moneyed Freds of this world. Instead of just climbing hills, or training on a windy day, you can buy a gadget to simulate these conditions instead. And being a roadies’ accessory, it costs a fortune: $1,200, or the price of a pretty nice bike.
PowerWheel [Trisport Devices via Oh Gizmo!]
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