Electron is the latest electric, pedal assist bike wheel to hit the market. While the company is taking pre-orders now for shipment in February, they just announced a new beta integration with Google Assistant in time to show it off for CES. Now you can control the wheel through simple voice commands.
The Electron Wheel house the battery, motor, and sensors all in one unit. Mounted on your bike’s front fork, the electric bike wheel should take less than a minute to install and requires no tools or knowledge of gearing. The Electron Wheel fits most bikes with rim brakes, and doesn’t need any wires or throttles to operate.
The wheel connects to a smartphone app via Bluetooth to track your distance and speed, get battery life readouts, choose between three assist levels, and map your ride. If you don’t want to use the app, you just need to calibrate your Electron Wheel once and then the incline sensors on board will detect when you need some pedal assist.
The Electron Wheel’s 400W motor and three assist levels let’s you customize your ride from just a little boost to full assist. You can go up to 20 mph (32km/h) at top speed in the US and 16 mph (25km/h) in Europe; the maximum allowed under current regulation. The internal 36V lithium-ion battery, delivers a range of up to 50 miles.
With Google Assistant, you can now simply say “OK Google, start bike ride” to power up the wheel and start tracking stats through the Electron app. Through Assistant, you will also be able to change the level of assistance, find out the wheel’s battery level, and have it read out your ride stats.
The Electron Wheel is going for $799 at the moment and when it ships in February, will have Google Assistant as a beta feature. Right now, Google has sponsored cyclist Max Lippe to ride from New York to CES in Vegas using the electric bike wheel with Google Assistant.