We like a concept bike here at ebiketips, and this one's got lots going on. It's been designed by German university student Daniel Frinz in association with Canyon, and it's an 'urban gravity' bike.
Urban gravity? That's the increasingly popular pursuit of piloting big-hitting mountain bikes through the back alleys of vertiginous towns, like this madness from Valparaiso in Chile. It even goes through someone's house at one point. Insane.
You might be wondering why you'd need an e-bike for that since it mostly consists of falling, with style. We did wonder that too. Anyway, the concept bike could also be seen as a more general purpose gravity machine. That you'd take to your local bike park and ride back to the top each time.
Lots of thought has gone into the design, obviously, but also into some of the tech that the bike would use. The Orbiter does away with the usual motor transmission standards, opting for a motor in both hubs and a fully electronic link from cranks to wheels.
Far-fetched? maybe not as much as you think. Back in 2016 we were very impressed with our first go on the Bike2 system which was basically what we're seeing here, albeit with a single motor. The twin motors and the lack of physical link between cranks and wheel open up possibilities for technologies such as traction control and the ability to send different amounts of power to either wheel.
The bike also features an electromagnetic suspension system. It's not something that's really happened in bikes yet, nor even in cars, although there are some very interesting proofs of concept knocking about, like this system from Bose:
Why don't all cars have suspension like this? Well, because it's complicated and very expensive. It needs a power source, too, so it makes more sense on an e-bike than a non-powered bike. We're not sure how much of the juice you'd need to power the suspension and what would be left for getting you back to the top of the hill. In case you're wondering where the battery is on the Orbiter, it's integrated into the frame.
If all you're thinking right now is, "shut up and take my money" then you're in for a disappointment: we're not likely to see this as a production bike in the next... well, ever. But it's good to see designers pushing the boundaries of what's possible in e-bikes and though the designed components here may not be real, the concepts are, and worth exploring.
