Gadgetory

what's up guys is antoine good or cnet.com at the Frankfurt Motor Show taking a break from cars to take a look at a bike now this is no standard regular bike this is the smart electric bike it's a pedal assist electric bicycle and what that means is that we've got a lithium-ion battery pack that's gonna send electricity to a 250 watt electric motor in the back that's a brushless hub motor in the rear wheel and when I turn these pedals they're sensors that are gonna detect how much effort I want to put in and basically add a little bit of electric assist to that making me feel like I'm a stronger rider and allowing me to go a little bit further with less effort now there's no twist throttle I can't just you know turn a throttle and let the bike go for it I have to be turning the pedals or this bike is it going to move but I do have some controls here I've got my brakes like I would with any other bike I've got the three gear selector for the internal three gear hub and I've also got a little rocker switch here that lets me determine the amount of electricity that I want I can go to the first level of electric assist that just gives me a little bit of an extra push I could bump all the way up to the fourth level it's gonna give me the full beans and really make this bike fly you've also got a couple of regenerative braking modes like any good electric vehicle so when I step on the brakes or rather pull the brake lever it'll actually turn that motor into a small generator adding a little bit of drag slowing the bike down and slightly recharging this electric bike now of course that's not going to charge the battery all the way up you're gonna want to plug it in every now and then and this battery is removable with a key so that you can take it inside or actually just plug the bike up itself it's gonna take you about anywhere between three to five hours to get an 80 to 100% charge that's gonna get you about 62 miles of assisted range after that you're on your own with pedal power the top speed on this bike is gonna be about 15 and a half miles per hour on assist but if you've got strong legs and you get up in that top gear you can actually push it further with muscle power so I guess that kind of tech makes this smarts only hybrid vehicle where instead of a gasoline vehicle you've got me still got the electric powertrain they're adding assist now this is available now in Europe and it's going to be available in North America coming soon pricing in the North American markets gonna be about three thousand dollars and some change I'm Anna Swan Goodwin with cnet.com onboard the smart electric bike at the 2013 Frankfurt Auto Show