Eurobike 2012: Bionicon

Whether you ‘get’ Bionicon or not, it always has some good stuff to see at Eurobike. This year it showed a couple of ‘nearly ready to sell’ concepts that had people talking.

The first is a truly integrated dropper post. Instead of the dropper seatpost going in the seat tube, the seat tube is actually used as the outer of the dropper post. Obviously you’ll need a special frame, but it’s the kind of thing that might appear in some Bionicons in the future and that they might license out to other companies.

The post is cable operated and uses a mechanical three position system that offers fully up, 30mm down and fully down. This is 150mm or 6in. As the seat tube is already there, the post weight can be kept light and the target weight is 300g

And now we’ll move on to the E-Ram system. This is something Bionicon has developed and that looks pretty ready to go. The idea of it is a 250W electric pedal-assist system mounted around a standard BB shell. It’s not designed to zip you around everywhere, but more as a ‘climbing aid’ to help with those long climbs and deliver you to the top with enough energy to enjoy the descent.

The E-Ram motor weights a kilo and the batteries weigh 2kg. The system is designed to be retrofittable to any bike with ISCG tabs.