If you’re a cyclist, there are a plethora of different ways you can track your bike and your ride, from using your cell phone, a dedicated GPS unit designed for cycling, a sport GPS watch, a smartwatch and now, your bike pedals themselves.
At the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show, a French start-up company called Connected Cycle debuted the first ever connected bike pedal for consumers. This snazzy and totally-not-obvious pedal (which they claim can only be removed using a special coded key to prevent theft) is designed to record speed, route, incline and calories burnt for every single bike ride. These statistics are stored in the cloud and can be accessed (and shared) through a smartphone app.
In addition to tracking your rides, the pedal is also meant to be a theft deterrent and will notify the owner if the bike is moved as well as provide GPS location upon request (in case you forget where you parked it). The pedal is designed to be self-governing and will generate its own energy and its own internet connection, meaning it won’t require a charge or a smartphone to tether. There aren’t a whole lot of details about how that works exactly, but it certainly sounds good. I assume it simply connects via Wifi to upload the information, but I haven’t found anything official to confirm.
When you purchase the pedal, you’ll get one connected pedal and a matching one simply to make the bike look less lop-sided. However, don’t get too excited yet as there aren’t any solid dates on US release and actual price has not been announced. Still, I’ll definitely keep an eye on it, as the pedal looks like a pretty cool idea, provided the price is appropriate.
What do you think? Would you bother with such a device? Let me know in the comments!
