Bicycle Gears Can Be Shifted Automatically – with a Smartphone

CAMBRIDGE, UK – Scientists at Cambridge Consultants Limited (CCL) have developed a wireless automatic gearbox system for bicyclers, controlled by smartphones.

This system uses the competence of a smartphone, such as the iPhone, to measure the best gear for a cyclist’s current pedalling speed, and then shift up or down accordingly.

The wireless gearbox is based on electric gear shifts made by Japanese company Shimano. In manual mode, the Bluetooth sensor on the gear-switch transmits a signal of the rider’s commands to an app on the phone which then shifts the gear up or down. While in automatic mode, the setup reads the pedalling speed and road speed, and then calculates the appropriate gear.

CCL aims to merge the iPhone’s location sensing capabilities with the app, so that the gears can be shifted upwards or downwards ahead of uphill and downhill sections.

The consulting firm believes that this wireless system of shifting gearbox will especially help triathletes greatly during cycling competitions.